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Project Fi has great deals on two Motorola phones for Black Friday. If you’ve been interested in trying out Project Fi, this looks like a great deal to get started: Get the Moto G6 for $99 or the Moto X4 for $149 on Project Fi. Greg has been using the Moto G6 on Project Fi and has written about his experiences with it (See: My Google Fi experience so far). If that has intrigued you, this is a pretty cheap cost of admission.
The Deal
- Get a Project Fi Moto G6 for $99 or Moto X4 for $149 with activation on Project Fi
- Direct link to this deal (though you’ll want to sign up using a referral link to save $20 — see “Key Terms” below this)
Key Terms
- Must pay for at least 1 month of Project Fi service ($20), but you can offset that by signing up through a friend referral link and getting $20 credit (here’s Greg’s)
Quick Thoughts
These prices are terrific if you’ve been thinking about getting into ProjectFi. You do have to activate the phone for at least 1 month. That month costs a minimum of $20, which can be offset by signing up through a friend referral link (which gets you a $20 credit) – see Greg’s referral link under “Key Terms” above.
Other phones are also on sale, but the Motorola ones are the best current deal.
If you’ve never used a Motorola phone, you might be pleasantly surprised. They have a number of innovative software features — simply twist your wrist to activate the camera, shake the phone like a handshake to activate the flashlight, some can automatically sense when you’re driving and read your text messages / speak your caller ID info and allow you to answer without even looking at your phone, etc. I’ve owned several Motorola phones and loved them except for the fact that the cameras don’t perform well in low-light (which is ultimately why I switched when I had a baby — I knew I’d be taking more and more photos). I can’t vouch specifically for the G6 and X4, and the G6 is obviously a more economical line, but I’m generally a fan of Motorola phones even though they don’t get the press that other devices do.
And Greg has clearly been pretty happy with Project Fi. I considered buying a G6 to use as my new primary hotspot device, but one other drawback for those in rural areas is that none of the current Project Fi phones support T-Mobile’s Band 71, which is the long-range LTE band they are slowly rolling out in rural areas. The absence of that band, which very few current phones support, will not be a deal-breaker for most, but in my case I’d prefer to either have Band 71 support or a Samsung phone with Samsung Pay capability.
Still, those interested in Project Fi can’t do much better than this for a point of entry. Just don’t forget to activate the phone within 30 days or I believe you’ll be charged full price. I believe this promotional pricing is scheduled to last until 11/27, but it could certainly be pulled early.
Make sure you’re using the Best credit cards for Black Friday deals. We’ve added this to our running list of Black Friday Deals.
H/T: Slickdeals
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Don’t the terms for this deal (which is now officially over) specifically state that there is no minimum activation time? So, you can just activate your phone, cancel 5 seconds later, and pay pennies for the prorated time it was actually activated (i.e., not $20)? That’s what Fi customer service told me anyways!
I’m not sure
Please post the terms if you find them.
It looks like the terms are no longer up (since the deal is over), but I have a screenshot from when I purchased my X4 (it arrives Wednesday). It clearly said “There is no minimum activation time needed for this discount.” This was verified by their customer service I’d post the screenshot, but it doesn’t look like there is any way to. Also, if you use a $20 code, both you and the referrer get $20 off their bill. But, you have to keep service for 60 days to actually qualify (at least those were the terms when I looked into things).
Nick or Greg, pardon my laziness. I do occasionally would like to have Project Fi’s international roaming option, but it only happens one or twice a year. In most of time, I have my primary phone with H2O (~$27/month), which I don’t have plan to drop anytime soon. In such a scenario, would it still make sense to have a Project Fi phone in parallel considering maintaining that number (Line) may be costly? In other words, what’s the minimum monthly fee when you don’t use the phone at all in that month? Thank you.
You can pause service at any time for up to 3 months and pay nothing. When service resumes you can simply pause it again
Thanks, Greg. It is a little hassle but understand. Do you suggest three is NO any charge at all between pauses. If you, say, leave a few days between pauses, would that cause a whole month fee, prorated free, or no fee (assume the phone is never used since pause is removed)?
That’s my understanding: no charge if you pause again right away. If you leave a few days I think the monthly fee is prorated. I’m new to this though so I’m just going on things I’ve read from others.
[…] Cheap Project Fi: $99 Moto G6, $149 Moto X4: Super cheap way to get into Project Fi. […]
BTW, Samsung phones, which are sold by T-mobile has both Samsung Pay and band 71.
Grrr! I got interested during the last $99 sale on the Moto G6, but procrastinated and the price went back up to $199. I bought, and now the $99 sale price is back 🙁
I agree that Moto G-series phones are excellent choices. My favorite feature is the slot for a microSD memory card…for $30 or so to purchase a 128GB card you can convert a 32GB phone to a 160GB phone.
The Moto G6 has a USB C connector, rather than the older micro USB connectors. Cables with USB C connectors are available on eBay for less than $1 shipped from China, or a little more if you select a US-based vendor.
I would also be a good idea to purchase a case of some sort for the phone, because it is very slippery and easy to drop. Once again eBay comes to the rescue, with clear silicone cases for about a dollar shipped.
As received, my G6 did not have the shake-to-turn-on-flashlight feature. I installed the free “Tiny Flashlight + LED” app by Nikolay Anaviev to get that functionality.
Hmm. Are you sure you shook it right? Greg didn’t know about that feature, so I picked up his phone and shook it to show it to him and it worked. He was surprised, so I don’t think he installed anything.
My father-in-law has a cheap Moto E-series and it also has that feature…
Whatever…it works now with the app 🙂
Maybe a video. Hehe.
Are the LG Project Fi models same as unlocked meaning they will work on all 4 carriers (GSM and CDMA including Sprint) ? How long does one need to be on Fi to unlock?
I believe it’s unlocked out of the box. In order to avoid being charged full price for the phone, you just need to activate it on Google fi for a month. I think you could then swap out the SIM card right away. Purpose behind activation is so that you only pay 99 for the phone. If you don’t activate within 30 days, it says they’ll charge you $250.
Project fi works on Sprint and T-Mobile, so I know these phones have both CDMA and GSM capability. That said, you should probably Google the specs to be sure it has the bands you need for Verizon. I’m not positive.
thanks Nick! I will check the Verizon compatibility. Do you know if the 30 days clock start from date of order or date of receiving the shipment?
I signed up using the referral link posted here. Thanks so much for this deal! its showing shipment will arrive between 11/28-11/29. Now if I want to refer someone today how can I do that ? Will I need to activate service before I can refer someone or just signing up for Project Fi is enough?
I think you do need to activate service before you can refer others
[…] Cheap Project Fi: $99 Moto G6, $149 Moto X4 […]
Would this work on the Verizon network?
I’m sure it would
[…] Cheap Project Fi: $99 Moto G6, $149 Moto X4: Super cheap way to get into Project Fi. […]
is the phone locked to google fi?
My understanding is no — you have to activate it on Google Fi, but then it’s unlocked.
Definitely not locked. I’ve swapped in my AT&T sim to try it out that way and it works fine.