It’s been two weeks now that I’ve given up the ‘ol Blackberry 7130g that I picked up almost four years ago and turned on a brand spankin’ new LG GR501 Xenon that runs on Bell’s brand spankin’ new HSPA network!
If you recall it was not too long ago that I was agonizing over which phone I would be buying; well I let pure logic guide me and went with the Xenon. Admittedly it helped that the rep at Sans Fil etc. in the Trois-Rivieres Costco didn’t stop throwing in things before I even asked for them so once the ball got rolling it was hard to stop. My heart told me to go with the Nokia N97 but every review said not to and so did my own calculations.
First of: the initial setup cost. Costco and Bell had some great promotions going on during the holiday season – some I knew of, others I stumbled upon and that was what finally cemented my purchase.
| Package | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Mine | LG Xenon | $28.95 |
| Extended warranty (deposit) | $49.95 | |
| 2 GB Kingston Micro SD card | $19.95 | |
| Car charger | $0.00 | |
| Roots belt clip | $0.00 | |
| Activation Fee | $0.00 | |
| Costco Gift Card | – $100.00 | |
| Bell Credit | – $50.00 | |
| Sub-total | – $51.15 | |
| Wife’s | Nokia 6350 | $49.95 |
| Extended warranty (deposit) | $49.95 | |
| 2 GB Kingston Micro SD card | $19.95 | |
| Car charger | $0.00 | |
| Activation Fee | $0.00 | |
| Costco Gift Card | – $100.00 | |
| Bell Credit | – $50.00 | |
| Sub-total | – $30.15 | |
| Total | Initial cost | – $81.30 |
YES, it’s true! Costco & Bell paid me $81.30 to buy and activate these two mobile phones along with all those accessories and a refundable extended warranty deposit! Of course these prices necessitate a 3-year contract, but none of the big-three are going to give you a break on the monthly services if you pay full price for the phone so you’d be stupid to pay the full amount for the phone and then pay them the full amount of the monthly service for as long as you use the phone (if you don’t buy the service your phone is useless, you can’t wander from carrier to carrier since the phone is still carrier-locked even if you pay full price, and three years is not that long to go with the same phone).
As you may guessed by seeing my wife’s Nokia 6350 the plan was a Family Share plan, and it worked out quite well.
One of the promotions that Bell was offering was Extended nights & weekends starting at 6pm (instead of 9pm). Essentially this meant I was getting two options on the Share plan instead of just one (options include Double minutes; 1,000 SMS messages; Fab 5; or Extended hours). Now my only beef was I still had to pay for Call Display, but with a Fun Bundle that I was going to get anyways the point was moot.
| Package | Feature | Description | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mine | Share 35 | 150 + 50 bonus minutes | $35.00 |
| Double Minutes | Additional 150 minutes | $0.00 | |
| Extended Evenings | Unlimited local calling from 6pm | $0.00 | |
| Member-to-member | Unlimited LD between members | $0.00 | |
| Calling Features | Call waiting Call Conferencing Call Forwarding |
$0.00 | |
| Fun 20 bundle | Call Display Voice mail Unlimited messaging Unlimited mobile internet Media pack |
$20.00 | |
| Municipal e911 tax | $0.40 | ||
| Sub-total | $55.40 | ||
| Wife’s | Share 35 | 150 + 50 bonus minutes | $35.00 |
| Text messaging | 1,000 outgoing and unlimited incoming text messages | $0.00 | |
| Extended Evenings | Unlimited local calling from 6pm | $0.00 | |
| Member-to-member | Unlimited LD between members | $0.00 | |
| Calling Features | Call waiting Call Conferencing Call Forwarding |
$0.00 | |
| Fun 12 bundle | Call Display Voice mail |
$12.00 | |
| Municipal e911 tax | $0.40 | ||
| Sub-total | $47.40 | ||
| Total | Monthly cost | $102.80 |
And remember, since this is a Share plan the minutes are combined. So we actually have 550 weekday day-time minutes per month. And our case day-time is from 7am to 6pm Monday to Friday.
In part two I’ll actually review the LG Xenon and it’s performance on Bell’s network. In part three I’ll try to review the Nokia my wife got, but if I can’t then I’ll just rant about you Wind Mobile suckers!
Cross-posted on Cameron-Schultz at Two weeks with an LG Xenon – Part ONE
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