Tablets that can be used like a phone

tidbits wrote:

The closest you can get is anything that’ll tie you into a phone

 

For example -

Samsung devices tied in their services on their Tablets

Apple devices tied into iMessages

 

They have options to hand over to their respective tablets.

 

I will tell  you it’s not the carriers making this imaginary line.  It’s OEMs that are.  Why would they give you that ability on a Tablet which is often hundreds of dollars cheaper than their phones.  They’d rather you buy the phone and also buy their Tablets.  Carriers base their plans by the options OEM’s offer them.

Sorry but I will tell you it is the carrier making the imaginary line, because the hardware and firmware in a given device is not imaginary it is functional. To wit; I took the same samsung galaxy tab a 8 2019 that tmobile would not or has not yet provisioned a sim card for, they should and maybe soon will when they realize that consumers want what they want and will find some carrier that will provide said service. For example once they find out i was able to get 4g lte cellular for $20 a month with unlimited talk and text, 10gb premium high speed data from MINT Mobile, it beats my former $16 month straight talk mobile home phone. And keeps my $50 month100gb hotspot combo for mobile internet and $20 phablet now a reasonable $70 month. Dont get me wrong I do like tmobiles’ 100gb hotspot, it works well, but they wanted another $65+ to add voice line which wasnt going to work for me, $115+ a month is too much. I would have liked to have had one bill but not for $50 more than 2 separate bills. All the carriers share the same networks and towers making the service the same either way. The only difference is if you prefer a brand name or can be satisfied the same with plain label. So now you can see that it is the service that is more imaginary and the device in your hand that you utilize is real. just the same as the extra cash in my pocket that i saved is not imaginary. and the device is still a samsung device just the same as a carrier might sell you too, so its hardly the device that is the imaginary line. not when it is used to type this message, on a tmobile page from a plain label carrier with a brand name device. And you ask why would they give us that ability, well because its what we want thats why. now granted the device is not sold retail in U,S. but that doesn’t mean it we cant buy an international version with the capabilities for that same hundreds of dollars, you mentioned, less. Thats what I did and saved myself the initial hundreds on the purchase and countless hundreds more on the monthly service savings. We are the consumers it is our money to save or our money to waste the choice is our own.

The closest you can get is anything that’ll tie you into a phone

For example -

Samsung devices tied in their services on their Tablets

Apple devices tied into iMessages

They have options to hand over to their respective tablets.

I will tell  you it’s not the carriers making this imaginary line.  It’s OEMs that are.  Why would they give you that ability on a Tablet which is often hundreds of dollars cheaper than their phones.  They’d rather you buy the phone and also buy their Tablets.  Carriers base their plans by the options OEM’s offer them.

The original question in this thread, now listed questionably, solved never was answered in any way I can understand. The best answer quoted being kinda tricky. Well To me all that needs done is simply remove the trickery and the imagery along with the cloak and daggers and answer the question Mr tmo-mike.

xlabs wrote:

@tmo_mike_cif I insert my phone sim in my tablet, can i use the tablet as my phone. I understand about the separate data line for tablet, that is not what i’m asking though. Data works with my phone sim in the tablet, but voice calls are failing, need quick help please. My phone is broken and not able to get a new phone at this time, i want to use my tablet as phone, please help. Thanks!

Hello tmo mike are you still here? Please answer xlabs question for us.

@tmo_mike_c if I insert my phone sim in my tablet, can i use the tablet as my phone. I understand about the separate data line for tablet, that is not what i’m asking though. Data works with my phone sim in the tablet, but voice calls are failing, need quick help please. My phone is broken and not able to get a new phone at this time, i want to use my tablet as phone, please help. Thanks!

I read a lot, and what I’ve read on this seems to be a little rabbit warren of people agreeing that getting carriers to support Phablets as Real Mobility Devices is tilting at windmills, but that tethering a tablet to a phone (and a number of headsets) by bluetooth or WiFi or even USB cables is a world of possibilities and self-determination.

Wearing an arbitrary number of computers at once is a slightly different warren of long strange trips. Hey, all your outfits match if they’re all behind a giant  courier bag! Cool.

mr.frank wrote:

tmo_mike_c wrote:

Ah. That's kinda tricky because when we set up the tablets, the lines are created with plans that do not have voice capability included. So, even with a pre-installed or downloaded dialing app, trying to call from the tablet will result in an error message.

Hi Mike,

I know that this here is more than a year old, but I’m still dealing with the same question/issue. 

I have an additional line in my family plan, which I used with a smart phone before. I bought a Samsung tablet and wanted to make “normal” phone calls with it, but that doesn’t work. So when you setup the tablets, the NEW lines don’t have a voice capability included. What about a line, which I used already with a smart phone? So the moment I insert the sim card in a tablet, T-Mobile converts it to a “tablet line” - means you taking out the voice capability (blocking the voice capability)?

 

timmat1 wrote:

so if you used a sim card from a phone, wouldn't that be able to be used to make calls on a tablet?  Or am I missing something?

tmo_mike_c wrote:

Does the tablet you're using have call capability? We have dedicated tablet plans but those service include messaging and data.

 

Well… in my opinion you didn’t answer the question from timmat1.

I don’t care about your dedicated tablet plans - I want to use the tablet as a big smart phone - with the line that had messaging and data and call capability in my phone before. 

The tablet I bought is an unlocked Samsung Galaxy Tab E 8.0 SM-T377T. It didn’t had the pre-installed standard dialing app on it. I installed the standard dialing app - hoping it would give me the call ability, but - No - I’m still not able to make calls.

The same unlocked tablet from At&T has the dialing app installed - as far as I know, but I didn’t had a chance to try that version with my t-mobile sim card.

So is just T-Mobile taking out the calling function on this t-mobile branded tablet version - or basically on ALL tablets?

So back to the original question: 
Is there any tablet, which I can use with T-Mobile - including the standard voice capability?

Thanks

Did data work?

tmo_mike_c wrote:

Ah. That's kinda tricky because when we set up the tablets, the lines are created with plans that do not have voice capability included. So, even with a pre-installed or downloaded dialing app, trying to call from the tablet will result in an error message.

Hi Mike,

I know that this here is more than a year old, but I’m still dealing with the same question/issue. 

I have an additional line in my family plan, which I used with a smart phone before. I bought a Samsung tablet and wanted to make “normal” phone calls with it, but that doesn’t work. So when you setup the tablets, the NEW lines don’t have a voice capability included. What about a line, which I used already with a smart phone? So the moment I insert the sim card in a tablet, T-Mobile converts it to a “tablet line” - means you taking out the voice capability (blocking the voice capability)?

timmat1 wrote:

so if you used a sim card from a phone, wouldn't that be able to be used to make calls on a tablet?  Or am I missing something?

tmo_mike_c wrote:

Does the tablet you're using have call capability? We have dedicated tablet plans but those service include messaging and data.

Well… in my opinion you didn’t answer the question from timmat1.

I don’t care about your dedicated tablet plans - I want to use the tablet as a big smart phone - with the line that had messaging and data and call capability in my phone before. 

The tablet I bought is an unlocked Samsung Galaxy Tab E 8.0 SM-T377T. It didn’t had the pre-installed standard dialing app on it. I installed the standard dialing app - hoping it would give me the call ability, but - No - I’m still not able to make calls.

The same unlocked tablet from At&T has the dialing app installed - as far as I know, but I didn’t had a chance to try that version with my t-mobile sim card.

So is just T-Mobile taking out the calling function on this t-mobile branded tablet version - or basically on ALL tablets?

So back to the original question: 
Is there any tablet, which I can use with T-Mobile - including the standard voice capability?

Thanks

https://www.plum-mobile.com/product-category/all-models/phabletstablets/ (Not that I've used any of them.)

I use the tab s4 works great with any carrier tmobile a little tricky using digits a tmobile app. You have to tie your tablet sim number to your cell phone number as a digits line.  I think it costs me 10$/mon for the digits line.  You don't have to keep the devices in proximity either.  A lot of tablets can be used this way you just have to make sure they support tmobile bands for calls