Saturday, May 23, 2020

2020 iPhone SE on Sprint is here for zero monthly

As I'm in the USA and T-Mobile and Sprint have merged, I got their earliest combined offer--an iPhone SE for zero each month.





This comes as a result of monthly credits, and some accounting magic.  I paid the additional $150 one time for the 256 GB model, so I can have the same capacity as my iPhone 8.  They also waived the activation/upgrade fee, which is okay but I'm not taking it to a store, unless there is some problem.  Since I didn't pay the $27.01 for the iPhone 8 for two months, I'm okay with the extra $150.

Thankfully, my iPhone 7 case will fit just fine, although it has been through four years and two phones.

This was a surprising deal, but the phone is a few hundred less than the next phone and I don't want something huge or something that uses Face ID.  Surprisingly, I'm getting exactly what I want for a price that I really like.  Something must be very wrong.

It's here!  UPS actually left it without a signature--probably something Covid-19 related.  I waited as long as possible before walking to the bus stop and when I was there, I saw the UPS truck leave my street.  I didn't expect the phone to be there.  It's slightly scary that it was.  Someone could have taken it.

Sprint had good instructions on how to activate the phone.  That's just odd that any U.S. carrier has good instructions.  They usually mis-type technical terms.  In any case, I went to their website, signed into their system.  It brought up the old and new phones and I clicked to transfer the activation.  It complained that I hadn't turned off "Find My...", so I went into the phone and took care of that.  Once that was finished, the new phone was activated.

Apparently, the iPhone SE was not on iOS 13.5, so my current backup did not work with a previous operating system.  I updated the operating system slowly.  I figured a fast, new phone wouldn't take quite so long with 13.5.  I was mistaken.

Once that was handled, it allowed me to restore my latest backup onto the phone and began to download every app and install them--in order of most used.  Since I have way too many--222--and 256 GB, it took too long, even with a fast internet connection through Comcast/xFinity.

Restoring movies didn't take too long.  With 256 GB, I can fit my 11 or so digital downloads from when I had the iPhone 5c and could only load one at a time.

The phone doesn't seem all that fast, probably because the iPhone 8 was very fast already.  The display looks better--sharper, with deeper blacks.  There may also be a psychological effect from this "white" version having a black fascia, unlike the iPhone 8.

The logo has slipped further down, so my iPhone 7 case, no longer shows the logo.  There is no "iPhone" on the back, to go along with the logo change.

Since this phone supports many more LTE bands, I'm hoping to see if performance is enhanced because of T-Mobile LTE.  I'm sure T-Mobile users' LTE is enhanced, as Sprint has the best LTE in town.

Considering that this isn't costing me any monthly money, I'm extra pleased to have it--just for the new battery.  I just need to make sure I get the phone back to Sprint as soon as possible, so that there won't be any charges.

Sprint kept bugging me to take their newest protection plan and it does more than just protect, but the price was a bit much.  I went to the Apple Support app and bought AppleCare + for $3.99/month, which is cheaper than what I was paying for the iPhone 8 support at $7.99/month.