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T-Mobile USA Launches Never Settle Trial For Verizon Customers
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T-Mobile USA Launches Never Settle Trial For Verizon Customers

T-Mobile has become a very different company under CEO John Legere. Since his appointment in 2012, T-Mobile has gone through several phases of their Uncarrier campaigns which aim to differentiate them from Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon. Both he and their advertising campaigns are not afraid to directly attack other carriers in the United States for policies that have long been dreaded by consumers.

Today they launched a new campaign targeted at Verizon users in the United States. The campaign pokes fun at the “Never Settle” tagline and #NeverSettle hashtag that Verizon has been using in their recent ad campaign to promote their LTE network. T-Mobile’s new Twitter hashtag for their campaign is #NeverSettleforVerizon, and the Never Settle Trial is a free trial of T-Mobile’s service that current Verizon customers can sign up for.

The Never Settle trial will begin on May 13, and it will work as follows. Verizon users will port their number to T-Mobile for the trial period, but hold on to their current Verizon phone. If the user was happy with their service on T-Mobile then T-Mobile will cover their Verizon Early Termination Fee (ETF) and remaining device subsidy up to a maximum of $650 when they trade in their existing Verizon phone and sign up for one of T-Mobile’s plans. If they were unhappy with the service, they can port back to Verizon and T-Mobile will cover their activation fees by sending them a prepaid Visa card for that amount, and they will also waive cost of their service while on T-Mobile.

I would assume the system is such that you keep your Verizon line during the duration of the trial, and when you port your number to T-Mobile a new number gets assigned to your Verizon account until you either leave or port back. I know on my carrier in Canada a number port request usually goes along with an account closure, so hopefully T-Mobile has planned all this out.

T-Mobile has made eight videos to promote this new campaign, and you can check those out in the source below.

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MediaTek and Alcatel OneTouch Launch the POP Astro for T-Mobile USA

Recently a new budget oriented device was launched on T-Mobile USA. It’s the Alcatel OneTouch POP Astro. At $149.76 outright, the POP Astro is aimed squarely at buyers who need an inexpensive smartphone with only the most basic set of feature and hardware specifications. With that in mind, you can see the details of the POP Astro’s specs below.

Alcatel OneTouch POP Astro
SoC MediaTek MTK6732 4 x Cortex-A53 at 1.5GHz
ARM Mali-T760 GPU
Memory and Storage 4GB NAND + MicroSD, 1GB RAM
Display 4.5″ 960×540 LCD
Cellular Connectivity 2G / 3G / 4G LTE (MediaTek Category 4 LTE)
Dimensions 133.6 x 65.3 x 7.62 mm, 145g
Camera

5MP Fixed Focus Rear Facing
VGA (0.3MP) Front Facing
Battery 2000 mAh
Other Connectivity 802.11 b/g/n + BT 4.1, microUSB 2.0, GPS/GNSS
Operating System Android 4.4 KitKat

While we haven’t been able to test MediaTek’s MTK6732 in depth, it should be competitive with the other devices at this price point which use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 410. It may actually prove to be faster than the 1.2GHz Snapdragon 410 in the Moto E, although we would need to test the device to properly characterize this.

The most notable point about the POP Astro is that it’s the first device in the United States to be powered by one of MediaTek’s processors with their integrated LTE baseband, marking MediaTek’s formal entry into the US LTE market. After being dominated by Qualcomm over the first few years, in the last year we’ve seen competitors such as Samsung, Intel, and now MediaTek pick up momentum in getting their solutions into the US LTE market. Being a device aimed at the US market, the POP Astro has support for LTE bands 2, 4, and 12, and can fall back on 42Mbps DC-HSPA on any carrier that uses 850/1700/2100MHz frequencies for UMTS.

As for the rest of the device, the specs are decidedly low end. The amount of storage, fixed focus camera, and KitKat 4.4 all remind me of the original Moto E, and it may be a hard sell with the new 2015 Moto E selling for roughly the same price. Buyers who are interested can order the Alcatel OneTouch POP Astro from T-Mobile now for $149.76 up front, or $6.24 every month over a 24 month term.

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MediaTek and Alcatel OneTouch Launch the POP Astro for T-Mobile USA

Recently a new budget oriented device was launched on T-Mobile USA. It’s the Alcatel OneTouch POP Astro. At $149.76 outright, the POP Astro is aimed squarely at buyers who need an inexpensive smartphone with only the most basic set of feature and hardware specifications. With that in mind, you can see the details of the POP Astro’s specs below.

Alcatel OneTouch POP Astro
SoC MediaTek MTK6732 4 x Cortex-A53 at 1.5GHz
ARM Mali-T760 GPU
Memory and Storage 4GB NAND + MicroSD, 1GB RAM
Display 4.5″ 960×540 LCD
Cellular Connectivity 2G / 3G / 4G LTE (MediaTek Category 4 LTE)
Dimensions 133.6 x 65.3 x 7.62 mm, 145g
Camera

5MP Fixed Focus Rear Facing
VGA (0.3MP) Front Facing
Battery 2000 mAh
Other Connectivity 802.11 b/g/n + BT 4.1, microUSB 2.0, GPS/GNSS
Operating System Android 4.4 KitKat

While we haven’t been able to test MediaTek’s MTK6732 in depth, it should be competitive with the other devices at this price point which use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 410. It may actually prove to be faster than the 1.2GHz Snapdragon 410 in the Moto E, although we would need to test the device to properly characterize this.

The most notable point about the POP Astro is that it’s the first device in the United States to be powered by one of MediaTek’s processors with their integrated LTE baseband, marking MediaTek’s formal entry into the US LTE market. After being dominated by Qualcomm over the first few years, in the last year we’ve seen competitors such as Samsung, Intel, and now MediaTek pick up momentum in getting their solutions into the US LTE market. Being a device aimed at the US market, the POP Astro has support for LTE bands 2, 4, and 12, and can fall back on 42Mbps DC-HSPA on any carrier that uses 850/1700/2100MHz frequencies for UMTS.

As for the rest of the device, the specs are decidedly low end. The amount of storage, fixed focus camera, and KitKat 4.4 all remind me of the original Moto E, and it may be a hard sell with the new 2015 Moto E selling for roughly the same price. Buyers who are interested can order the Alcatel OneTouch POP Astro from T-Mobile now for $149.76 up front, or $6.24 every month over a 24 month term.