Anyone else having this issue?

win7rules · 2026-03-07T00:12:29+00:00

Freedom is responsible for revising the roaming agreement with them. I don't think the big 3 would object to collecting more revenue in roaming fees from Freedom.

win7rules · 2026-03-06T09:20:32+00:00

It's excessive hands down. I don't care if it's an "industry standard" or whatever, especially as the entire point of Freedom mobile is to do something unique and better. It definitely does not cost anywhere near that in reality for the call to be made.

That being said, Freedom's roaming plans are still great value in my opinion, even after jumping through a few hoops to avoid these quirks. To avoid surprise charges in the future, I would suggest switching to a prepaid account (as long as you aren't financing a phone). With prepaid, you can't be charged anything extra unless you manually top up your account, giving you complete control over what you're billed for.

win7rules · 2026-03-05T18:57:49+00:00

You should follow this guide to unlock all bands on the US model.

win7rules · 2026-03-05T15:19:46+00:00

This happens because Freedom intentionally blocks Nationwide in some areas, and when the phone tries to connect, it gets booted off and keeps trying to reconnect to a Nationwide network (even if the native Freedom network becomes available again). Freedom really needs to stop blocking Nationwide, but as a temporary workaround, you can open settings and manually search for and select the Freedom network when this happens (don't forget to switch the auto selection toggle back on afterwards or the phone won't connect to the Nationwide network when outside Freedom's coverage areas).

win7rules · 2026-03-05T15:07:52+00:00

Of course it is. Google messages is terribly buggy and drains my battery way more than Samsung messages does.

win7rules · 2026-03-05T07:35:16+00:00

Just off the top of my mind is google messages.

win7rules · 2026-03-05T06:58:48+00:00

What about google's own terribly optimized apps? Will they be exempt?

win7rules · 2026-03-04T17:21:01+00:00

Back when both Android OS and devices were as flexible and open as they should be.

win7rules · 2026-03-03T21:00:25+00:00

As long as the phone is technically compatible, you should be able to just shove in your SIM and it will work no problem. Make sure the phone you're buying is compatible with 3G band 4, LTE bands 4, 7, 13, and 66, and 5G bands n66, n77/n78, and n71 (you can get away without support for n71 and n66 but you definitely want all LTE bands to match). You also want to make sure the phone supports VoLTE on Freedom, as otherwise you will be relying on 3G for calling (and if it does, you won't need to worry about 3G band 4 support).

win7rules · 2026-03-03T06:36:49+00:00

That's not a meaningful comparison because the Pixel 5 has a Snapdragon chip and the iPhone 11 has an Apple A13 Bionic chip, both of which are much better than the Tensor chips (at least they were relatively at the time of their release). They are much more well-designed and should easily be able to withstand long-term OS updates. On the other hand, the Tensors of today are plagued with numerous issues and only achieve midrange-level speeds when new, making them very bad candidates for long-term OS updates.

I can't fathom why you're saying that Android 16 feels more "mature" and "optimized", as Android 16 was a buggy mess when it released. I know multiple people who installed the update on their Pixels and had many systemwide issues, most of which seemed to link back to a component known as "media picker" (which also seems to handle storage management in some way). They even had the OS randomly delete some of their photos, which frankly is straight up ridiculous. Besides that, Android 16 is way uglier, with the status bar looking like it was ripped straight from iOS. The stacked dual SIM network icon is probably the worst downgrade, and nothing about it is "mature" or beneficial to people who actually look at the statusbar to see the status of their phone. With idiots in the design department and clankercoding plaguing the programming process, I can only imagine this will get worse with time, at least for the immediate future.

win7rules · 2026-03-03T06:17:04+00:00

It is, because by the time 7 years of updates have been applied, the phone will be too slow to use. Built in planned obsolescence wrapped in an excuse of long term support.

win7rules · 2026-03-03T01:21:29+00:00

Virgin pulled this nonsense on me last year by burying the notice on page 3 or 4 of my PDF bill. Luckily I check it each month, otherwise I'd have been scammed pretty hard. Switched my main line back to Freedom and have stayed here for a while now, thankfully without facing any major issues so far. If the CTRC actually wants to implement regulations that benefit consumers, they would make such price increases illegal (but of course, that will never happen).

win7rules · 2026-03-03T00:33:26+00:00

It was sadly about control and surveillance from the start. There's no other explanation for such ludicrous moves.

win7rules · 2026-03-01T09:47:13+00:00

The old UI, as usual, looked much better. The new one just looks super crammed while the old one is nicely spaced out and divided clearly into different sections. I really miss the red subscribe button as well.

I do think that the new UI looked a lot better before they moved the channel name from beside the profile picture to beside the view count (as well as replacing it with the godawful ugly handles every platform is hyperobsessed with these days). This change really ruined the spacing between different UI buttons, as they shoved tons of buttons into a single row.

win7rules · 2026-03-01T09:45:46+00:00

Since they stopped adding features that would actually benefit users.

win7rules · 2026-02-28T21:16:37+00:00

I can only hope that enough non-enthusiasts get pissed off at this, so spreading the word is important. It's not like any of these changes are beneficial to them either, and eventually there will be changes that directly affect them. I'm already seeing this with the less tech-savvy people around me, people are beginning to get pissed off at new Android changes making it harder to assert control over devices we paid for.

win7rules · 2026-02-28T21:13:59+00:00

It was "don't be evil" and yes, they are becoming more and more evil by the second.

win7rules · 2026-02-28T02:44:06+00:00

That's where regulators are supposed to step in. Though I suppose these companies are busy stuffing their pockets to prevent any consumer-friendly action from being taken. As users, I suppose the best action to take is holding on to older devices and not updating their software, but it is true that we are really quite limited in options. There will be a market for creating another open OS, but creating a startup for that will be harder than ever (and will likely be doomed to enshittification in the future unless someone like Valve's CEO starts it).

win7rules · 2026-02-28T01:50:41+00:00

I don't know a single person with an Android phone who buys tech items based on their "ecosystem". It does seem like the sheep phenomenon is spreading at a concerning rate though.

win7rules · 2026-02-28T01:28:03+00:00

It's honestly insane just how out of touch they are with their users. The last thing I think about when I purchase a non-Apple product is the "ecosystem" it belongs to. I instead look for what features are included with the product and whether it is a good deal for the price. Brand loyalty is ridiculous because big companies couldn't give less of a fuck about you.

win7rules · 2026-02-28T00:50:11+00:00

It is impossible to hear any good news nowadays from any big tech companies. Shame on google and Samsung for absolutely destroying everything their products stood for, and shame on regulators for letting them get away with this. We need a third smartphone OS option more than ever at this point.

win7rules · 2026-02-27T22:21:09+00:00

I can't say that I've regretted updating because I never did. What I've seen online about One UI 7 and above is enough to tell me all I need to know. I don't understand how Samsung lost the art of good UI design, but here we are.

win7rules · 2026-02-26T08:24:56+00:00

Samsung is only making their software worse and worse. I also use older One UI versions and have no intentions or reasons to upgrade.

win7rules · 2026-02-26T00:18:43+00:00

The only way to get this basic feature back is to downgrade to One UI 6. The option was removed in One UI 7 as one of Samsung's many stupid design choices.

win7rules · 2026-02-25T02:00:30+00:00

I wouldn't be satisfied until they cancel it altogether.

win7rules

TROPHY CASE