Reno, ALL phones are extremely expensive to buy outright. That Samsung Note 3 is no less than $400 through Amazon. I have two phones I bought discounted with a 2 year plan almost 2 years ago, and a newer phone I bought outright (a customized Bamboo case Moto-X with max storage), but not everyone can afford to cough up full price for these phones.
For most people, it makes sense to get into a 2 year contract where they pickup most or all of the cost of the phone. Any decent 4G smart phone is going to cost at least $400 to buy out of contract.
I used Sprint for a long time, but their technology is WAY behind the times - at least here in Central Florida. 4G is scarce on the Sprint network except in large cities.
I switched to Verizon almost 2 years ago and have been very happy. 4G coverage is very good, even in the rural area I live in, and data speeds are fast.
I also like their simple family plans and the fact that I can adjust the data plan as needed (easily done from the phone itself or via the web account). I have a 2GB a month plan right now, but the account is setup to warn me when I hit 75% of that in my billing period. If I start to use too much, I can just bump up to the next plan (3GB) for an extra $10 (if you go over then you get charged per MB which gets expensive). Then I can just drop the plan to 2GB again the next month or whatever. Call and text minutes are unlimited, and they include Canada (I can text to any country unlimited).
Their plans are simple: $40 per line, then whatever the cost of the data plan (which is shared between all the lines). $40 for 2GB, $50 for 3GB, etc ($10 for each +10GB tier). I consider myself a fairly heavy data user, the wife very little. We rarely go anywhere near the 2GB unless I'm traveling and using the phone as a hotspot for my laptop a lot.
Oh, and that's another nice thing about Verizon. Using the phone as a Wifi hotspot is free - it just comes off your data plan.
Their data is pretty fast - fast enough to use on my PC at home in an emergency on the rare occasions when Comcast goes down. Using the Ookla Speedtest app, I get 20MBps down, 3.87 up here in my house (just ran the test). That's comparable to my Comcast internet.
Customer support has been pretty decent so far. The people in the Verizon store are knowledgeable and polite, and everyone I've ever dealt with on the phone was very nice.
I just traveled out of the country for a week and a call to customer support instructed me that what to do to use the phone outside of the country without spending a fortune on roaming fees. Just before leaving, I logged into the online account and added "Global roaming" to my wife's and my lines for $25 each. That gives you 100MB (if you go over you just get dinged for another $25) and phone call rate (which vary by country, the rates are fairly high in the Bahamas) was $2 per minute and text was 50 cents for each received and 5 cents for each sent. They have a webpage that shows the rates for each country. On the last day of my billing cycle, I turned off the Global Roaming plan.
Just got the bill today, coincidentally, and despite the fact that neither my wife or I limited our call and texting much, and I was using data pretty heavily, our trip only added $200 to the bill (I was preparing myself for some kind of screw up and a bill for thousands).
Most of their most premium top-of-the line phones cost $200 under a 2 year contract. A Galaxy 4 Note is pricey and will set you back $300 even with a 2 year contract, and Galaxy 5 $200. But they also have sub-$50 phones, especially if you don't mind re-certified phones. They even have some $1 and free phones. When I setup the account 2 years ago, I got a 3rd line for my brother and since he has a habit of losing phones and likes iPhones, I got him a re-conditioned iPhone 4s for $1. Not surprisingly, he lost it within 6 months. I made him go get a pay-as-you-go phone from Boost Mobile.
All three of my phones are Gen-1 Moto-X phones, and I love them. I prefer a pure Android OS than the awkward Samsung Touchwiz GUI and all the bloatware that comes on Samsung phones.
You can get the 2nd Gen Moto-X for $50 (half off) right now, which is a spectacular deal.
Here's their list of Android phones with 2 year contract prices:
http://www.verizonwireless.com/smartphones/android/
Here's a list of their under $50 phones, including some free ones (again, with a 2 year contract). The reconditioned phones I've seen from them all look like new, complete with chargers and new batteries (my brother's iPhone looked brand new). You are also entitled to a one-time (within the contract) re-conditioned phone as a replacement for a lost or damaged phone that's outside warranty and you don't have an insurance plan.
The only pay-as-you go company I've ever dealt with is Boost Mobile. My brother has a really nice 4G LG phone with a screen as big as mine. Phone cost $250 I think (there were cheaper options) and it costs $45 a month to recharge with a 2GB plan.
There are plenty of mom & pop places that will replace your screen. There's a small place in town run by a Chinese family, and he must make a killing because the Verizon store sends you to him to replace a screen or battery if you don't have insurance (in addition he sells used phones and repairs tablets). I just priced that out last week because I cracked the glass on my newer Moto-X. They wanted $160, and that seems to be the average for a 5" screen phone - a bit more or less depending. You can find people working out of flea markets around here that charge even less.
I wound up RMAing it through Motorola since it's still under warranty and they're shipping me a NEW replacement phone via advance RMA for $100, 2 day shipping. It would have been $100 to do it through Verizon's insurance (which I'm paying for on my wife's phone) but that would have been a re-conditioned phone. The $100 is for water or physical damage - if the phone dies for any other reason, it's free (not sure what the policy is on lost or stolen phones). If it's under warranty, then they deal with it as a warranty replacement through the manufacturer.
BTW: I would avoid buying a used phone via E-bay - they are often stolen and you'll find you can't activate it. I've even seen supposedly "Factory refurbished" phones on Amazon that wound up having stolen IMEI numbers, but if you deal with Amazon and not a re-seller, at least you can get a refund or replacement without a hassle.
