I just ordered a 64GB Nexus 6P and I'm leaving AT&T for @ProjectFi! #GAFE #edtech #YOLO

I remember when the iPhone came out. My husband and I were living in Georgia at the time and we went to an AT&T store to try it out. It was tethered to a huge iPhone display and I remember saying "HOLY COW! I'm browsing a website ON THE PHONE!" Shortly thereafter, we abandoned our beloved Blackberry devices and jumped on the iPhone bandwagon. We knew our mobile experiences were forever changed!

Then I fell in love with Google. Our district went Google and I became a Google Certified Trainer. I drank the Google kool-aid and I was Google smitten. I applied for the Google Teacher Academy three times and finally got to go to Chicago to become a Google Certified Teacher. I spent 2 days with Android loving folks and came home a changed mobile user. Shortly thereafter, I abandoned my beloved iPhone for a Samsung Galaxy S5 (after I spent 30 minutes hemming and hawing with the poor kid at AT&T). My mobile experience was again changed!

Here I am again at a sort of mobile crossroads. I currently have a Samsung Note 3 and have service through AT&T. I pay about $112/month, which includes my AT&T "Next" fee (dropped my shiny new S5 a while back and couldn't bring myself to fork over $500 all at once for another device). I am grandfathered in with an unlimited plan from a million years ago, which is actually really great. However, because of that, I rarely switch over to wifi. I don't have to worry about overages, so who cares?! I will admit that I regularly exceed 5GB per month.

So, why now? Why switch? Well, There are several reasons...

• I am ready to move on to a new device and have been interested in the Nexus for some time.
• I would REALLY like to reduce my bill - over $100/month is CRAZY.
• Fi offers unlimited talk and text and some interesting international options, as well, which are attractive to me (we are going overseas in a few weeks).
• I am also just kind of curious. I find the Fi project interesting and just kind of want to see what it's all about. 

In case you have never heard of Project Fi, here's the gist...

• You pay $20/month flat rate for unlimited talk and text.
• Data is $10/month per GB. So if you want 3GB per month, you would pay an additional $30/month. You choose what you want and can change at any time.
• You only pay for what you use, so if you have designated a 3GB plan and you only use 2GB, they credit your account!
• You MUST use a Fi-approved Nexus device to have the service. Apparently these devices are equipped with the software to switch between LTE and wifi.
• Oh, yeah ... see the phone actually switches from LTE to wifi when it's available WITHOUT YOU DOING A THING! (this was a big selling feature for me)

This short video might help you understand a little better...

I did a lot of reading (this post was pretty useful, as was Reddit) and watched a lot of YouTube videos. After talking it out with my husband (who is still a die hard iPhone user), putting it out there on Twitter and Facebook and emailing a colleague who used to work for AT&T, I decided to pull the trigger!

Then I got hung up on which device to choose ... the 5X or the 6P. What to do?! Research, of course! I did comparisons of the 5X and 6P and even threw in the Note 3 to see what I might expect from my new device. I took into consideration the size, battery life, camera quality, available storage and price. Here's what I discovered (that mattered to me)...

• The 5X is smaller than the 6P, which is roughly the same size as the Note 3 I have now.
• The 5X is made of plastic and the 6P is aluminum.
• The 6P has a better display.
• The 6P reported better batter life.
• Cameras are both about the same.
• The 5X only offers up to 32GB, but the 6P goes up to 128GB.

Although the 5X was significantly cheaper ($249 for 32GB), I ultimately went with the 64GB 6P for $549 because the pretty blue 5X was sold out. :) Just kidding. I really wanted the increased storage capacity and battery life is a biggie for me. I am a little hesitant about the size of the 6P ... it's slightly larger than my Note 3, but I was able to adapt from the S5 to the Note 3 fairly easily and don't think I could go back to a smaller device now.

Soooo...now I wait! I wait as patiently as I can for my Project Fi kit and Nexus phone to arrive. I will post an update as soon as anything new develops. As my husband told me earlier this evening, YOLO! :) Why the heck not try it?! We have a saying in our family that nothing is permanent...if there's something that isn't working for us, we change it! So, if Project Fi isn't a good fit, I can hang my head and tuck my tail and go crawling back to AT&T.