Speakout and Smart Phones | Phone/Device Issues and Features | Consumer forum

The Huawei Ascend Y215 still works as a phone, and you do get the full Android experience with this phone for the most part. The Huawei Ascend Y215 gets panned because there are better Android phones out there at a better price.

With any Android phone, you really do not have to rely on the carrier to get apps and other media. You do not even need cell service, wifi is just as good if not better.

Coincidentally, I also own a Telus LG-A341. I unlocked it, and use it with the Rogers $85 a year evenings and weekend plan. I have run apps on it, but Android apps are so much better. It serves much better as a voice only phone.

As for whether Speakout is worth it anymore, it is certainly worth less. Instead of $125, I am paying $25, and that is to keep it as an emergency glove compartment phone. As for using it on a smart phone, that is another question. If you use wifi most of the time, but occasionally need voice and data, Speakout could work for you, but there are other carriers out that that offer the same or better. The only standout Speakout now has is that $25 lasts a year if you do not use the phone much.

I do not talk much in the day time. To be honest, I am probably going to phase out both Rogers and Speakout. They were extra services that were cheap, but I do not use them. I was a loyal Speakout customer because of it's UMB, but now that is gone and there is nothing close to a suitable replacement offered by Speakout, I think after my $25 is done with, I will discontinue service.

Rogers is nice, but it is also redundant. I got it's airtime using airmiles, so it was "free" I already have a Canada wide Fido plan with evenings and weekends with 200 minutes for $15 a month, and that seems good enough for me.

UMB is unlimited mobile browsing. It was a data plan limited to browsing, I could use it without worrying about excess data charges. The current Speakout data plan is a disgrace.

On the Fido plan, I have 200 daytime minutes a month, which is plenty for me. You cannot get that Fido $15 plan anymore, sadly.

I should have been more clear. I bought my Rogers air time at Sobey's. and used my air miles to purchase it. At Sobeys, 95 points gives you $10, and I had accumulated 15 years of points that I had to use or lose. Air miles was revamping it's program or something. so I decided to take the money and run,

I have lower expectations from my LG-A341 than you do. I just use it as voice phone. However, I did play with it. You can add music MP3 files onto the memory card from your computer and then play them with the LG-A341 built in player. I used a memory card reader, but you could probably connect the phone directly to the computer via USB to transfer files.

I tried to run 3rd party java apps on this phone, but Telus locked it down pretty good. I would have to debrand this phone to run other apps. No great loss, because java apps are not that good and old, at least compared to what Apple and Google offers.

I wish you knew me before you unlocked the phone. It cost me $2 to unlock it. I got the phone for free, because Telus offered $50 if you turned in an old CDMA phone, and coincidentally, The LG-A341 was on sale for $49 at the time. There is no better feeling than getting under the skin of a smug Telus agent that has to give me a free phone because there is nothing in the terms and conditions saying otherwise. They tried to make me feel like I was personally stealing the phone from them. Nice when the loopholes work against them for a change.