Category: Phones

Phone Fun (Pixel 9 xl pro) .. Part live action reboot!

Posted on by Forge77

So here we are 8 years later and sadly I have not updated this blog in ages. I think it’s time to go back to the roots.

With age we tend to lose some abilities. I like having a smaller screen or used to. The realm of the battleship sized screen always used to Irk me because I would be thinking where the fuck am i going to put this thing.

Honestly…. though I think i need to change my benchmark points here. When i used to post my old phone funs, my benchmarks were
1: To make Phone calls – I do think this singularly is still one of the most important things.
2: Configurability – I am not sure if this point is really valid in some ways the way i used to review phones. but, add/make ringtones and Applications should be bound into one thing now. These are almost a universal given these days.
3: Durability: This is still really important. with phones with back glass which is really fucking stupid, I should not expect to have a phone that you need to hold in a bubble.
4: Good battery life – this is hugely important.

So anyways… Here we go!

The Pixel 9 xl Pro … this phone is huge, you could land a small helicopter on it. The phone has a lot going for it. The early reviews were calling the phone out for not being powered by a stark Arc reactor and Ai …. While it has AI its really a point of Who the fuck cares that is on the phone. It has enough power to run any app on the store. google will never risk bifurcating the app store and have an app that will not run on all current phones.

1: To make Phone calls

For phone calls the pixel 9 xl pro gives a decent experience. the volume is decent the Bluetooth options are always nice. In reality in the past phone calls had more weirdness in the call quality area. Now it seems that call quality is more governed by signal…. which is annoying. With the collapse of options in the USA for companies phone call quality has more to do where you are standing than the phone itself. it is like the old days with walkie talkies. So given that location is an issue it would be nice for the phone companies to start working for more coverage in the urban environment , Do not show the bullshit maps of WE COVER EVERYWHERE…

2: Configurability

Pixel phones are generally one of the most configurable devices on the market. if you want to change your phone in to Dora the explorers backpack I’m sure you can do that. Ringtones, got that too. The app store however….. Now there is an issue. There needs to be more checks and balances in the app stores for google and others. App dilution is really at a maximum where you can search for an app you want and know what it is and accidently install some other bullshit app. Google should phase out older apps unless you specifically need them, give the users the ability to fence the types of apps you want. the updates for apps has become a bit more of a chore and while simple , its stupid.

3: Durability

Also with configurability , Phone case fall into this! I’ve bought phones that did not have options for a phone case or you have to wait for the next coming of jesus for a case to ship out (motorola) . Pixel phones always tend to have a good amount of cases with a slow rollout for choice. Getting a day one phone has one real risk. you get your new shiny phone and twenty minutes into owning the device you drop it and you see shards of glass. Generally pixels have some decent survival on drops.

4: Good battery life

This has always been a thorn in my side since phones have gotten “smart”. With the new phones added with bullshit technology such as AI and clouds, AI is a joke. its just a replacement of linear learning AI . It’s just standard problem solving we have had for 20+ years dressed up in a new coat of paint so our corporate overlords can brand it as SAS . But back to the battery … It is nice …. nicer than i’ve seen in years. Getting almost 3 days is amazing. That is more time than i’ve seen in 10 years.

5: overall impressions and opinions.

I think the idea of a phone is lost on companies. they are looking to turn the phones into the same devices we had in the 1980s …. The television. where all the phones functions are tied into advertisements and bullshit. almost every app is tied to the advertising , our information is being sold off for every tap , Every picture every move we make. this is horse shit. AI is a joke, it is not going to take jobs. moreover it is going to kill people in a non-terminator way, Almost every part of our phones has some insane subscription . the “assistant” on the pixel is helpful but it is no more helpful than the old assistant. Google seems to be dumbing down their old assistant to make the Gemini look smarter than it is . these new assistants are trained off of our words and our posts and more over it is making a linear answering psychopath. You want to learn to fuck ducks. you can now ask google and somehow if you word your phrases just right somehow the “new and improved” ai will find someone reddit post and tell you exactly how. but if you ask the weather… holy fuck . or ask it for something in your IOT .. shit.. i’ve seen the AI loose its mind and tell you some things that you did not want to know like the weather 4000miles away .

Lastly… is the pixel 9xl pro a good phone… time will tell. from the start i am going to say maybe yes. but i will favor the idea that it should be a phone i can have for a few years and not fall off the technology peak. So yes. Buy the phone. Don’t Smell the AI generated Roses and use your phone like any phone without AI .

Phone Fun part 12 Return of the king.

Posted on by Forge77

Well now … Back to this ..
If you think about this , If you have followed this little sites quest for the one phone… Its been a long quest. Many have fallen. Much tech support bullshit was had, but to which end  each and every phone was used through and through, so In our eighth year of phone fun I figure why not.. lets visit the classic  style I had originally set as my standard for phones.
The Standard I set in the Samsung M520 post is kind of solid and holds up even to this years phones .

Even If we drop in the most recent acquisition the Nexus 6p  is reviewable with the old standards.

  • to make calls –
    Well this may be the weaker point of the review process but this is more over a fine point , If the provider selling the phone has a shitty network , most will point at the phone before the network.
  • The Phone is configurable
    This is paramount more than ever with phones, as companies try to release  phones with smaller space to save money this is where phones stand up for themselves.
  • good battery life
    Oh holy shit yes. on the most recent generation of phones battery life is in the toilet.
  • add/make ringtones
    Still a valid assumption due to some phones complicating the process needlessly. It may seem redundant but its not.
  • Applications that don’t cost a years pay for a small 3rd world country
    While technically not part of the phone review, you will find that on phones that sometimes phone applications make the phone.
  • Durable
    Yes indeed. durability … still an issue … from you farted and bent your phone in your pocket to a drop accident while taking a dump

I’ve had a few phones since the original phone fun . at a rate of one a year about.

Nexus 6p , Nexus 6 , Galaxy Note 3 , Galaxy Nexus , Nexus 4 s ,HTC Touch , M520 ,katana LX

With the Nexus line being the phones I’ve favored and when I have strayed I have been reminded why the stock experience is the way to go. My last non-stock devices were less than appealing in the long run.

 

So onwards with this review.

Again the old review process in play here lets start from the beginning..

 

To make Phone calls: The nexus 6p is very good at making phone calls , On the other hand places I’ve lived have been questionable at best for phone calls. Now the nexus 6p has the ability to hand off phone calls from WIFI to NETWORK to NETWORK flawlessly … When it works its fucking fabulous , When it does not work you wonder if the call was transferred  to a demons asshole for the weird noises it can make.. if this hand off can be straightened out it will turn a great feature into a brilliant feature.

Configurable: Being a Nexus phone give this phone advantage over most of the android phones out there.  Google give you a frame with a Warp engine and allows you to build off of It.  Rather than be stuck with provider baked in bullshit that reminds you to wipe your ass twice before swiping google trusts you enough to know how to download something.

good battery life: Unfortunately smart phones have one of a  few drawbacks… The battery life sucks and while building better and faster hardware seems to be the case of things , I can say the Nexus is not half bad. I get roughly 24 to 48 hours depending on use.

add/make ringtones:  Over the years this has become a redundant with configurable , Though it would be a subsection because who knows what the fuck developers are thinking .

Applications that don’t cost a years pay for a small 3rd world country: While this still has importance , the shift away from a per phone store is now a marketplace.  Out of the box this phone is more or less ready to go… I think one complaint that other manufacturers should pay attention to is.. STOP FUCKING INSTALLING APPS YOU THINK I WILL USE! IF there is something I have hated with the non-nexus phones was spending an hour getting rid of app after app of completely monkey shit.  Nexus phones do not do this.. its wonderful. But, When you have a phone with a notification going off in the middle of the night to remind you to put in your store loyalty card , you bet your ass that app is going to get deleted. in the past there were many purchases i made to fix the faults of phones that is not a litter of dead apps that i don’t use .

Durable: Durability , as it stands is kind of a moot point these days.  Unfortunately when you have a phone where one side is a large piece of glass , its hard to judge durability .. Most manufactures tend to sacrifice durability for aesthetics , The problem of aesthetics is …. the only way you see how “nice” your phone is , is if you go naked. These days its saner to just put a case on your phone to make it durable.  if you look at your phone the wrong way sometimes even with gorilla glass 473487234 your phone will end up fucked by a single micron of dust.

 

Over all the Nexus 6p is a comfortable sight. Its what you expect out of a google phone rather than the aborted attempts that manufactures try to collaborate with wireless providers for.  the nexus line is about choice and its something that people do not realize they have when they are stuck in the world of samsungs that want to sniff your asshole for caloric content to sell to who knows what.

 

 

Phone Fun part 3.141592653589793238462643383, So long and thanks for all the fish.

Posted on by Forge77

Well its been fun sprint.  We’ve had a fun ride and through troubled times and the fun times you’ve been with me but , There is a time where is it possible that Sprint and I, have grown so old and so inflexible that we have outlived our usefulness? As I have moved on and my life has gotten a bit more complete that the room for sprint has taken the squeeze of outliving its usefulness.  Mind you sprint at the time of having more bells and whistles than you can count is an excellent thing.  But when my bills were going north of 150$ I was starting to choke.   Sprint at times could be a love hate relationship..

I have gone to the nexus 6p from the nexus 6 … while the nexus 6p is a bit smaller it retains the size of an aircraft carrier and is easier for me to use , I have realized that i am getting worse in the way of doing thing and that a bigger phone is needed for me to retain coordination.  The sound on the 6p from the speaker is astounding.

As I’ve had this phone only a week I am going to have to revisit this in a month.

 

thanks all for now .

Phone Fun DCCXXIXCCXLIX: Return of the Jedi

Posted on by Forge77

Time for another edition of Phone fun!

 

Last I had the Galaxy Note 3 , while it was an OK phone with many options the end game of the note 3 had many letdowns.  The phone size is on the scale of a large moon.  So after a year of dealing with this phone I decided to talk to sprint about an upgrade to which they kindly offered after a screw up.

Since I’ve always liked the nexus line of phones I went with the option of the Nexus 6.  The nexus 6 goes from large moon to Dwarf planet sized. Since I’ve owned a lot of android devices I have found that the stock android OS is among the best with CyanogenMod as second best as far as Android goes.  Stock android avoids all the bullshit of having bloatware from both the Device maker and Phone companies.  Most times with a none Nexus device I end up spending time disabling half of the shit on the phone just to stop the damn endless nagging from apps on the phone.  I understand to a point that providers and device makers want to pre-load apps but, Not everyone wants facespace and half of the other shit on the phone out of the box.  I have seen complaints that have made me twitch like “this phone sucks it does not come with facespace installed”.  Device wise if I was given the option to have an a la carte version of any phone by paying 50$ more for the base version of android with no preloaded apps/no fucking annoying UI’s / install all yourself I’d buy any phone with that option in an instant.

Yes you can have the a la cart version if you can unlock your phone. but, in some cases its not worth it to loose the warranty (see knox)

 

Onwards to the new phone! The nexus 6 retains all of the ideas of the nexus 5 but on a fucking ginormous screen.  While not the biggest phone the nexus is near the top in size.  Its a nice phone and seems to keep up with making phonecalls , I used to abhore large devices, but in time I have made my peace with them and actually welcome them now.  The nexus 6 is on the aircraft carrier size of phones.  5.5 to 6 inches is a sweet spot as far as large phones are concerned. once you go above that you might as well buy a small tablet and make calls from that.

The one complaint i have is – NO FUCKING NOTIFICATION LIGHT*! yes there is a fucking asterisk in that…. Why you say … Because the nexus 6 has a damn notification light that is disabled! What the flying monkey fuck !  If you look around you can access the notification light by rooting and installing an app, that light should of been a default option.

 

Over all I actually don’t have too many complaints about the nexus 6 . So heres to another edition of phone fun

 

Phone fun part MMMMDCCCLXXIII (Han shot first!)

Posted on by Forge77

In the last edition of Phone fun I had picked up the Galaxy Note 3. Now this phone is about the size of a small moon but does not hold a dime of the planet sized Galaxy Mega. Now while in hardware the phone is good but the software side of the phone can be completely rage inducing.

die-hard-banana-phone-bruce-willis-samual-l-jacksonFor all the phones functions there are parts of the phone that are completely annoying. Having to reset every wifi password every month or so just annoys the hell out of me. For whatever reason when the phone has a poor wifi connection it decides its a good time to dump every wifi password on the phone.

There should be no reason on this earth to do this. What ever process samsung made in making this phone had to been a result of being high and saying “dude wouldn’t be funny when people had a bad connection to make all the passwords disappear!”

the_finger_atomicThe above image is the results of what happens when my phone decides to dump passwords on a weak connection. some of the passwords for wifi are more complicated than quantum theorem.

The UI of the phone is also bothersome . like they overcomplicated the whole UI to make it simpler Yet somehow made it more complicated. While annoying I simply replaced the UI it was kind of a duct taped maneuver because it did not stop the more annoying elements.  While google experience is a really simple nice UI touchwiz still attempts to rear its ugly head when you do other things.

I really do wish that phone manufacturers would allow for a stock UI …. Rather than install all the random bullshit with no options to remove.

For example.. Beep and go..  Fuck beep and go with a hand grenade, when it updates itself it decides that it shall annoy the ever living fuck out of you not matter the hour of night . I hear a notification in the middle of the night getting up thinking somethings wrong its Beep and blow… “Would you like to add cards for your shopping experience.” FUCK THAT . uninstalling bleep and fuck only updates itself again .  I don’t give a flying fuck about installing my customer loyalty cards to my phone. I don’t need Creep and GO to know what I am buying. they can go fuck themselves with a fire hydrant. Sadly enough I’d pay 50$ to buy the phone without bloatware just to not have to deal with that kind of shit.

Any app that has a push notification needs to die. I do not need to be reminded that I have not played a game in 20minutes. thats grounds for instant uninstall for me.

Things I allow notifications for.. Weather alerts/ Text messages / Emails / Missed calls. anything else is useless, including facefuckspace.

the first thing an app should ask when it has notifications is ask. if you say no . give the are you sure and never ask again function. because if you annoy me to the tiniest degree its to the shit can with your app.

People should stand up against annoying apps instead they just deal with the annoyances .

Phone fun ∞+1xπ, The empire strikes back.

Posted on by Forge77

Awhile back I had gotten the Galaxy Nexus , and the phone through and through was a pretty good phone other than needing a small nuclear power plant to keep the battery up.  While the nuclear power plant option was a little steep in price I did get a Satechi 10000 mAh Portable Energy Station, Its as close as you can get to nuclear power for a phone without the radiation hazards.  Not to mention that the nuclear power plant has some mobility disadvantages.

Funny enough after a year plus with the phone I realized it had the same problem with its predecessor the phones antenna was not up to par, there were nights I was ready to eat my phone due to the antenna dropping calls or doing other strange shit.  Alas though … the Galaxy Nexus met its end, While the phone was tough it was not tough enough when it picked a fight with a concrete floor and the floor won.  While my comment about the back battery cover feeling like your going to break the phone is only partially correct. The phone itself can take some serious abuse.

The phone I chose as its replacement was the LG nexus 5 , It improves further on the Nexus line of phones with some disadvantages. You loose the ability to some degree to replace the battery on your own, while the battery is “non user serviceable” with a few tools you can get the battery replaced on your own.   Battery life is improved a slight bit while 24 hours is still the high bar for keeping a charge on the phone with light use as I am looking at my phone now and with 38% of the battery left and 1day and 2 hours on battery.

Continue reading “Phone fun ∞+1xπ, The empire strikes back.”

Phone fun ∞+1 Just because its been awhile.

Posted on by Forge77

So, As we left off way back when in phone fun MMXXIV I ended up with the Nexus S 4g, Since I’ve had that phone it was pretty smooth sailing as far as a phone goes. The phone was durable to the point of being thrown into a wall multiple times.

This edition of phone fun has ended up with a mostly positive review of things since I decided to upgrade to the Galaxy Nexus , this phone is step above the nexus s and has more bells and whistles .. namely a FUCKING NOTIFICATION LIGHT!!!!.. Holy hell do you miss those when you don’t have one.

If is there is one thing a phone must be with it has to be a notification light because you become obsessive with checking if you have missed any messages.

There are a few complaints about the Galaxy nexus….

They are minor, Yet annoying..

The back battery cover feels like you’re going to break the thing when you try to access the battery, Also with the battery is its life , You feel like you need to carry around a small nuclear power station in order not to run the battery down. Phones are progressing at an amazing rate, but the technology for batteries are not. Going 24 Hours is the high bar for newer phones, if you lock yourself in a room for a day and ignore every phone call , You might get over one day.  Even with batteries progressing at a slow rate why don’t companies at least mitigate with a small change to the the phone that would go many miles by simply putting a solar cell on the back cover. Sure it doesn’t solve anything if you live in a cave but what the hell .. Its a start.

The other minor issue is getting Google voice to work with the phone when transferring from one phone to the next, which seemingly has a strange fix. If you update your phone to the most recent version of Google voice you will have errors and the phone will never sync to it. The way around it seems to be using the stock version of Google voice which works out.

but so far this phone seems to be a win .

Phone Fun MMXXIV – thank you sprint….(nexus S 4g)

Posted on by Forge77

After Much Dealings with replacing my phone more times than the amount of explosions in a Michael bay movie, Sprint has worked with me and I have gotten away from HTC..

After going back and forth with the executive customer care since my phones kept having issues. they offered to restart my contract and pick up a phone at new contract cost, which was alot better than returning phone after phone. I tried to get a brand new EVO in hope of getting a phone without issue.
It just seems sprints flagship phones from the refurbished end are TERRIBLE.

From the B spot to random reboots and bad sound…

I wondered if HTC’s release products are the same – there is no way quality control should of ever let these phones back on the market. A refurbished phone is like a repaired car, It should look and act like NEW..

Anyways I am fully done with HTC.. the only way I’d use one is if one was given to me…

well, This time i’ve gone with a Samsung… though, The second phone problem going back to Phone fun 3 was a samsung.  This time I’ve gone with a Samsung Nexus s 4g

Now in previous post I’ve had my “Requirements for my phone”.

  1. to make calls –
  2. The Phone is configurable
  3. good battery life
  4. add/make ringtones
  5. Applications that don’t cost a years pay for a small 3rd world country
  6. Durable

Basically The nexus S is as follows.

  1. This phone makes calls and does it well with one small stipulation.. in some areas the antenna for the phone is lacking.
  2. Configuration on most android phones is your mileage may vary.. but this phone you can configure it pretty much ANY way you please… rooting is fairly simple. reflashing is simple.
  3. This point Really needs a to be explained, since any smart phone will not hold a candle to a “dumb” phone , On average a smart phone lasts about 1 day on a decent charge. The EVO on average would require charging after about 18hours. The nexus easily passes the 1 day marker and most days it gets close to 2 days before requiring to be charged.
  4. on android phones this is a dead simple process.
  5. Android Market has all kinds of applications- but, Its now not cost … but moreover privacy with apps now.
  6. While this phone feels very light its fairly durable. the EVO in comparison weighs alot more.

So far  this phone has served me extremely well .. and hopefully (knock on wood a tree or something) I will not have any issues with this.

Im leaving this post fairly short.

Hopefully I will not have to go back to this post and make phonefun MMMXXXVI

Phone fun CDIV: WTF HTC?!

Posted on by Forge77

SO………………
Yeah..
IN the last issue of phone fun.. it actually turned out to be not so much phone. err fun….. well the Story might of stopped if it hadn’t been time for a new contract and me wanting a new phone due to the horrid life of the HTC touch. The HTC touch at the time i thought was a good phone but the thing is those phones seem to SUCK. I had gone through 11 or More HTC touches.. Now in the end Sprint made good on there end and offered me a HTC Diamond to make good. the HTC diamond was a much better phone.

Figuring my contract was up in 2010 , I figured I’d start with a brand New phone the HTC EVO, funny enough I didn’t even pre-order the phone I figured i’d goto the store and buy up the phone and they didn’t have it I’d wait. I went in to best buy On the day before the phone was due to be released and tried to pre-order the phone which didn’t work so well since the pre-orders we’re filled as of that day , So I was told to come back at the crack of opening at best buy, they were actually opening early that day to sell the phone. so on June 4th i got out of bed at the crack of dawn and headed out to best buy , Waited At the entrance and was told that it may not be possible to get the EVO , well since i was the first person in line which upped my chances, I got in the store first to find out they had only 2 EVO’s being sold on the floor and the rest were filled in as pre-orders. I was thinking Yee-fucking-ha as I got to the Mobile area first and started filling out the paperwork for the phone. The guy who was behind me was also in line heard the same thing i heard about 2 phones and thought i was going to buy both. Even if i wanted to i couldn’t.

But Happy i had the phone I walked out the door with a day one release phone and was Happy … Till about 6 months down the line. I had gone to the local store and was buying soda – I had been using the phone as a music Player after a bike trip and was thirstier than a man lost in a desert on mercury. So i took the phone out to shut off the music and while trying to manipulate the phone it happened….
The phone dropped and it was like slow motion. in a last ditch effort i grabbed the earphone plug…. Bad mistake… almost as bad as playing with a flamethrower in a gunpowder factory. As i had the cord thinking i was saved the phone stopped for what seemed a moment and the earphone jack disconnected and snapped the momentum of the phone Screen down to the cement … FUCK , I stirred at the phone for a moment like a dead animal not wanting to know if it was truly dead. After getting some courage and picking the phone up the worst of my fears were confirmed . the screen was smashed and only being held together by the screen protector. Well, the second thought swirled through my mind as to “AH HA , I have insurance.” so i picked up the pieces and headed down to the repair center , They quickly replaced my screen and i thought i was on my way again.. wrong…

Trip 1 phone 1:
WHen they had replaced the screen they goofed it up by somehow putting what seemed to be bad glass on the screen which was causing pressure on the LCD making the colors go all LSD on the LCD . I brought it to the original repair center and they said they would take a look at it. figuring i was in OK hands I left the phone with them to come back 2 hours later. when i picked up the phone sprint claimed to had have replaced the Screen and made sure of everything was ok. but, I did notice something. the Receipt for the back end service area your not supposed to see was in front of me , at the time i questioned the “DNR SENT BACK TO Customer”. not thinking what it meant i had left and was halfway home when it hit me…

DID NOT REPLICATE. FUCK….and behind the screen was the same dust that they had got in the phone from the first replacement.
So… Trip 3 i went back and explained my problems and how they did nothing and they offered to replace the phone. I was fine with that figuring I’d get a phone that was in better shaped than my phone. 2 days later I received that phone. that phone had its own problems Dead pixels and sounding like a constipated cat when getting calls.
Trip 4 Phone 3:
This trip ended up with sprint offering to send a Phone to my house in order to save me the trip of picking it up from the service center, well that was all good except this phone was also in sad ass shape. when you hit the touch screen the colors went into strobe mode and than freaked out………..
So another trip to the sprint repair center
Trip 5:
Again offered another phone i was still sort of happy with the service I’ve received from sprint. So this time it was offered that they would ship a phone from sprint corporate to the repair depot so they could inspect the phone themselves.
Trip 6 phone 4:
Miserable failure…. I had gone down the street and realized this phone had some pretty bad issues too..

In the end of this phone sprint again offered to ship the phone from corporate to my home.
I had asked and was told that I would be receiving a brand new EVO, which I would of been happy with Had i Actually had received on rather than Yet another refurbished problems.
Phone 5:
I ended up dealing with that phone for less than a month when i noticed the screen looked like it was badly put together and it had literally waves in the screen, that had looked like whomever worked on the phone crushed the LCD screen in there hands. The phones when it was off looked phone but when you looked at it it had whats known as the B-spot but about 10 times worse.

At this point I had it with refurbished phones I had it with the EVO. I was sick of running across the state and i was sick of seeing people order replacement after bad replacement of phones. Whatever company that repairs and refurbished the Sprint EVO’s was doing a terrible job. I would not be surprised if they just cleaned the phones up and let them loose into the world. For One of HTC’s flagship phones they made no effort to make these phones aesthetically pleasing for being a refurbished phone.

Sprint or whatever company handles there repairs seriously needs to check themselves for Quality control. there is no reason in the world these phones should be sent out into the wild like they are. Also the costs involved with this is likely crazy.. Replacing a phone 5 times has to has some costs behind it that are expensive.

For now I’ve sworn off HTC. It may not be there fault but after being through so many phones it leaves a bad taste in my mouth…

Explain the fee… Sprint and there goofy “Free” 4g Fee.

Posted on by Forge77

I recently got a new phone on the fact of the phone i had was starting to have some issues. I know my luck with phones is not exactly the best. but, I decided I’d go with a brand new phone rather than a older phone.

So I picked up the HTC EVO and Figured i’d go with a plan with unlimited text and data, the one curious part was the fact that sprint wanted a 10$ Premium data fee, which made no sense, at first i didn’t think much of the fee than I saw multiple sites post about how 4g was suppose to be free, so I got curious. So what does this “premium data” cover?

Strangely enough it has nothing to do with data as sprint.com explains

Premium Data

This phone can do it all and then some. Because we’ve boosted your data experience with this phone’s amazing services and features, you’ll need this add-on. Enjoy:
  • A wicked fast processor to make your apps run smoother and faster on our Sprint 3G and 4G network
  • Top quality media experience with oversized screen, high resolution video and HD recording
  • High-quality pics to snap and share with friends and family
What the Hell? So somehow the “wicked fast” Processor is somehow “wicked fast” with this fee? Not so much. If you research the phone you’d realize the frame rate of 30 FPS, the frame rate is about as smooth as watching a constipated cow, not to mention this processor is nowhere near new.
Oversized Screen? HD Recording, we’ve not hit a point that deals with DATA yet.
High Quality pics? try taking a picture or a video in a dim room it looks like your filming from a black hole.
the phone performance-wise is MEH… Its not super its not bad. although the screen is 4 inches that’s about the only driving point to the phone.  There is a noticeable skippyness to the frame rate , Even killing off most processes you end up with no improvement over all.
Sprint Really Needs to just out and say they are charging for free 4g.