Project Fi

westonb27 · March 15, 2016

Hey all. I've been a long time Nexus user, and I'm considering jumping on the Project Fi service with a 5X. Has anyone had any personal experience with the network or the phone? I know the 5X feels cheap, but I have small hands and the 6P is quite a bit bigger than my OnePlus One. Hopefully someone can tell me a little about how the service is. If it helps at all, I'm in Arizona and Nevada frequently for school and to go home. Thanks for any input!

themctipers · March 15, 2016

Wow, it's been a long time since I heard of project fi.

If I remember correctly project fi uses T-Mobile and Sprints towers and frequencies.

Boink · March 15, 2016

I've been on Project Fi for 7 months now using a Nexus 6. I can't speak for the quality of the 5x but I can speak for the quality of Fi. Pricing is $20 per month plus $10 per GB of data used. You select a plan based around how much you expect to use in a month, then you are credited back for any unused data or charged for any data over your plan at the same $10/GB rate. As a result I can only recommend Project Fi if you use less than 4GB/month, any more and it becomes more cost effective to use a standard unlimited plan from another carrier.

The combination of the Sprint and T-Mobile networks results in great coverage in most areas. I've only run into 3 dead zones and those were in very rural areas on small county roads. One thing to note is that when my phone switches networks (Sprint to T-Mobile or vice versa) there is a small period, 1-2 seconds, without data coverage. This is only a mild flaw in the coverage and very rarely happens while I am actively using data.

Call quality is great with few dropped calls. When there is no signal calls are automatically transferred over to a connected Wi-Fi network, great if your home or workplace is a cell dead zone. However, receiving calls over Wi-Fi doesn't always work if the signal is particularly weak.

One of the often forgotten features of Project Fi is the ability to make calls and texts using a computer or tablet. Any project Fi customer can simply open Gmail and have full access to their texts and call history. This saved me when I had to send in my phone for warranty repair and I was still able to make phone calls using my laptop while connected to Wi-Fi.

Overall I would highly recommend Project Fi if you are a light data user. The service is great and has only gotten better over the time I've used it but it can get very expensive if you use a significant amount of data.