[huckleberrypie]

Here's mine, though I'm sure you've seen these before:

[RAMChYLD]

I don't buy phones on contract, because of the aforementioned sim lock issues, and because most contracts sold over here are crap - you pay for the phone in the contract's price anyway. And you usually get a better deal without a contract. Plus, I bought this phone for hacking, I managed to get the Play Store installed within 10 minutes of buying the phone (it helps that the apks are all already on my microSD card).

Honestly, I like the N97' keyboard the best. But well, RIM owns the patent to their own keyboard layout. So they won't use other layouts.

[cpd2009]

I would like to get a non-contract phone, and the best way to do that here is prepaid wireless. CDMA phones can now use SIM cards but I don't know if you could really get a SIM card alone. You might have a phone forced on to you.

Hopefully if I finally land some sort of job and get an income, maybe I can get off my parents cellular plan and switch to Tracfone prepaid.

[RAMChYLD]

Well, my parents started me off with prepaid- since it's dirt cheap and a great way to teach you to manage your funds. Plus you need to bring your own phone- cue me receiving my uncle's old hand-me-down.

PS: If you're going to go non-contract, you might as well go GSM+UMTS+LTE. CDMA has very limited use outside of the USA.

Also, that's another thing I like about my Blackberry Passport. It's name is meaningful, it's the first phone in the world with deca-band LTE support. It works in LTE in both Asia, Europe and The Americas. And currently, it's the only phone in the world with such a transceiver. Other companies tries to hide the fact that there are multiple models of the same phone for different regions by calling them all the same name (bet you didn't know there are at least three different iPhone 6es- two for the US alone. The first one only supports US LTE bands, the second one supports US LTE bands AND CDMA, and the third one supports RoW LTE bands and is sold in Europe and Asia).

Although, I should note that the Passport does have a inferior version sold only to AT&T customers- the version is clearly labeled Passport for AT&T and has it's LTE band support chopped down to only US LTE bands, but adds CDMA support (although why they call it the passport when it doesn't live up to it's namesake is beyond me. They might as well call it the RoundRect- since unlike the real deal which is perfectly rectangular, the AT&T version has rounded edges).

[cpd2009]

Well, my parents started me off with prepaid- since it's dirt cheap and a great way to teach you to manage your funds. Plus you need to bring your own phone- cue me receiving my uncle's old hand-me-down.

PS: If you're going to go non-contract, you might as well go GSM+UMTS+LTE. CDMA has very limited use outside of the USA.

I don't really plan on going outside the USA though since I probably won't ever have enough money to vacation anywhere. I'll be lucky if I can get to Disneyland in California in my lifetime. And if I ever do get a chance to go overseas in my lifetime, I'll just use the Internet for communication purposes and stick to landline phones.... if they still exist by the time I get to Europe.

[huckleberrypie]

Well, my parents started me off with prepaid- since it's dirt cheap and a great way to teach you to manage your funds. Plus you need to bring your own phone- cue me receiving my uncle's old hand-me-down.

PS: If you're going to go non-contract, you might as well go GSM+UMTS+LTE. CDMA has very limited use outside of the USA.

Also, that's another thing I like about my Blackberry Passport. It's name is meaningful, it's the first phone in the world with deca-band LTE support. It works in LTE in both Asia, Europe and The Americas. And currently, it's the only phone in the world with such a transceiver. Other companies tries to hide the fact that there are multiple models of the same phone for different regions by calling them all the same name (bet you didn't know there are at least three different iPhone 6es- two for the US alone. The first one only supports US LTE bands, the second one supports US LTE bands AND CDMA, and the third one supports RoW LTE bands and is sold in Europe and Asia).

Although, I should note that the Passport does have a inferior version sold only to AT&T customers- the version is clearly labeled Passport for AT&T and has it's LTE band support chopped down to only US LTE bands, but adds CDMA support (although why they call it the passport when it doesn't live up to it's namesake is beyond me. They might as well call it the RoundRect- since unlike the real deal which is perfectly rectangular, the AT&T version has rounded edges).

Yup, most especially here in the Philippines where you can get a SIM for just under a dollar. Dual-SIM phones also come in handy especially when roaming overseas - more so if it has support for multiple GSM/3G/LTE bands.

And yes, that's the reason why mobile manufacturers find it a pain in the rear to sell phones in the US, as they'd be forced to develop bespoke variants for T-Mobile, Verizon and the like, not to mention that software for the latter phones aren't mutually compatible without modification.

[RAMChYLD]

Great. Just found out that someone has backported USB 3.1's video-over-USB function to USB 2 and called it slimport. And to make things worse, my Blackberry Passport is one of the devices that uses it instead of Micro HDMI. Joy, I need to buy an active converter to hook it up to a TV.

Upshot is, normal USB cables still work. Downside is, well, need for extra devices to demux VGA. Also, need to be extra careful with the port.

[RAMChYLD]

Star is not to come.

Dream faded to nothing.

[cpd2009]

I forgot how hard Super Mario Bros 2. USA can be, even for a seasoned Mario player like myself. It also takes a few hours to complete as well.

Worth it in the end.

[RAMChYLD]

The moment you realize that the Snapdragon 801 is very capable of fluid OpenGL ES 3.1 at 1440x1440 that you spend too much time playing Berry Rush -.-



If it can take this, it should be able to take GTAIII with no issues. Problem is, I'm reluctant to fork out RM20 for GTAIII...