3/28/16

Google Fi review for Northern Vermont, England and Germany


I live in northern Vermont and have been using the 5x with Fi for about a month.

Initial impressions: love it.

The coverage has actually been better than my previous ATT iPhone with a caveat.

I use xFinity for my home internet - which means I have use of the xFinity wifi hot spots. By using the feature on my phone it means I have coverage  anytime I have xFinity. This has meant that I have "cell coverage" in places where I used to have only minimum ATT cell signals (coffee shops, downtown Jericho and Underhill, etc.)

The only anomoly has been while driving. The phone tries to switch to Wifi anytime there is a signal - which means that the phone sometime switches to Wifi from cell tower. In a few cases this has resulted in a sort of "pixelated" call quality in the middle of a call while driving. I haven't had any dropped calls but have in a couple of cases noticed a real degradation in overall call quality.

In terms of moving from iPhone to Android Nexus5x - the hardest thing for me has been relearning where the phone power and volume buttons are located. I was already using the google ecosystem for nearly all my communications so in terms of setup and use it was an almost trivial. Contacts I simply imported into gmail, photos were already uploaded to google photos and music was on google play.

The form factor was perfect for me and I've had no issues at all with performance.

Overall highly recommended.

Update.
I'm just back from a week long trip to Germany and England and Canada with my fresh Google fi account and the 5x.

Overall - fantastic. Being able to spark up my phone and use Google maps to navigate trains subways and city streets anytime I wanted while travelling was revolutionary for me. Coverage was seamless the entire time.

How much does Google fi cost to use in Europe?

My total "extras" bill for a week of heavy use in Europe was 10. What I discovered was that

*cellular network calls are .20/minute which adds up.
*because everywhere you go in Europe you have wifi I used almost no data and the data I did use was cheap.
*wifi calls are cheap to place and free to answer.
*texting is always free.

Tips for using google fi in Europe

So when in Europe use Google maps anytime and anywhere, text.your friends and have them call you when you have wifi.


Update - turns out international calls are a scam in the part if Google
. the phone does not use wifi as a call vehicle EVEN IF WIFI IS ACTICE AND CONNECTED..

THIS COST ME $30/IN CALLING CHARGES AND IS COMPLETE BULLSHIT! BE CAREFUL WHEN TRAVELLING INTERNATIONALLY.