Top Shelf Episode 004: stop the carrier bullshit

You want a new phone. You pay too much. Your reception is awful in the exact location where you live and work. And yet, despite the ongoing frustration with your carrier of choice, there’s a very good chance you’ll stick with it for years — even decades.

Now the best phones are available on pretty much all the national wireless networks. T-Mobile is now banking on a new campaign that doesn’t lock you into two-year plans. Is it everything we wanted, or will anyone even notice?

Welcome to Top Shelf, a weekly show from The Verge that takes a deeper dive into the products and experiences of the technology that shapes our lives. Join David Pierce and a veritable gaggle of (mostly organic) friends as they showcase the best in consumer electronics, past, present, and future. We’re now on iTunes, too!

Top Shelf: Episode 004

Directors: Billy Disney and Jordan Oplinger

Producer: Ross Miller
Studio Producer: Brendan Murphy
Executive Producers: Chad Mumm and Kyle Kramer

Editor: Regina Dellea
Assistant Editor: John Lagomarsino

Special Guests: Nilay Patel, Sascha Segan
Host: David Pierce

Shooters: Christian Mazza, Regina Dellea

Vox Studio Manager: Marcos Bueno
From Vox Studios: Robert Langevin, Will Buikema, Nick Prouty

Presented by: Virgin Mobile
Special Thanks to: Joshua Topolsky, Jim Bankoff, and Marty Moe