Straight Talk Adds Prepaid Samsung Galaxy S4
But a contract for a cell phone? Why? So I can save $100 on a brand new phone? Or so I can get a one year old phone for free? Why should it be a tax on the cell phone owner to pay the telecommunications company for the high costs of customer acquisition and the subsidy of a marked-down cell phone? These days, it’s commonplace — or I should say it is becoming commonplace — to see really nice phones on affordable prepaid phone plans. Some may see the downside of the no contract phone arrangement as being high costs on new phones. In truth, it can be seen as a pretty basic trade-off. You pay less up front for a contract smartphone generally, but you pay more monthly and you’re locked in for a long period of time, usually two years. A prepaid phone gives you the flexibility to leave your plan at any time, at which point you can sell your phone.
We’ve seen the trend of better phones on prepaid plans. Straight Talk is following suit with the release of the iPhone 5 a few months ago and now the release of the Samsung Galaxy S4. I like this phone, but it’s not one that I’m necessarily interested in owning at the pricetag of $600. That’s just a lot of money for a cell phone. Still, if you’re looking for a phone of the obvious quality this phone has (whether or not you like the new style and body composition of this Galaxy model–some are on the fence), then it may be an option. Everyone has different tastes. It’s a good phone and is complemented by the unlimited Straight Talk plan ($45/month). You’re not going to want anything but an unlimited plan with this phone (and there are always limits on any plan from any company).
Samsung Galaxy S4 on Straight Talk Wireless is a 4G LTE phone running Android 4.2, and containing a 1.9 mhz quadcore processor. It’s pleasing to the eyes too, with a 5 inch super AMOLED screen. All your media needs will be taken care of by the 13 mp camera which shoots 1080p HD video at 30 fps. One of the nicest features of the camera function is that there is a camera and a video button that you can access at the same time right on the screen. You don’t need to toggle between the two like you do on the iPhone, which is an minor annoyance. It has some really nice features that are really fun to play with. For example, the Best Face feature takes five really quick pictures of a group of people and will choose the best face of each person and composite them into one image!
Ok, so it’s clear that I like the camera on this phone. It’s fun and has some cool features that would be nice to use, but would the novelty run off? Probably a little bit. The real thing you want to look at in a phone–especially one that costs $600. Sure, the camera is an important thing to look at, but you should also take a look at the meat and potatoes–the features you are going to use pretty much every time you pick up your phone. Things like screen clarity, brightness, and usability are hard to judge because they are such a personal thing. The best thing you can do is try to see the phone in person. I also love to watch phone review videos and unboxings at sites like PhoneDog and PhoneScoop. You can find a lot of very good information and reviews on pretty much every phone in existence by doing a little bit of research. This is what I recommend doing as you search for your new phone.
