Upgrading a SmartPhone

Typically, you will buy a phone at a discounted price and agree to a 2-year contract with an early termination fee. The early termination fee will decline by $10/month or so. At the 18-month mark or so, the carrier typically will let you upgrade to a new phone at the discounted price if you renew the contract. You also can upgrade sooner for an " upgrade fee" although be careful because there is a cross-over point where the early-termination fee is less than the upgrade fee and the carrier might not alert you to that. All that said, if you are diligent dealing with your carrier by phone, and making sure the rep documents all the slights that you report that have victimized you over time, and painstakingly set out each of your grievances as they happen, and the carrier understands you are so upset with certain things that, even while you are speaking calmly and politely and know it's not the reps fault, you likely will change carriers, some wonderful accommodations can be made, including: putting you on a most favorable rate plan that doesn't even exist anymore and letting you upgrade your phone (e.g., to the Samsung Galaxy S3 with Android 4.0 OS that will let you run the Chrome browser on it) at the discounted price with no upgrade fee or early-termination fee.