New MetroPCS Phone Offers Mobile TV Programming: Worth It?

03.08.2012
MetroPCS now sells a phone capable of receiving free TV programming. There's one problem, though--it's expensive. The will set you back $460, $200 more than its sister Galaxy smartphones, which don't have TV reception capabilities.

Aside from LTE data and TV reception, the Lightray 4G's specs aren't very impressive. The phone runs Android 2.3 (Gingerbread--which is now ), and sports a 1GHz single core processor and an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera. The big deal here is the TV reception.

powers the app and services that provide the TV broadcasts for the phone. Dyle's service is available in 37 cities across the US, and provides access to the local ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, and Telemundo affiliates, as well as the Qubo children's programming network in most markets.

Your mileage may vary, though: Dyle admits that not every network is available everywhere. For example in Philadelphia, only Fox, NBC, and the ION network are available, while Chicago has Fox, NBC, PBS, Qubo, and Telemundo. The two largest metro areas in the country, New York and Los Angeles, have four and six channels available, respectively.

No city has every major broadcast network, so you're bound to miss something.

And then there's coverage. The best coverage seems to be limited to the city centers, and everything gets spotty and unreliable not too far outside the city limits. Dyle seems to allude to the not-so-perfect coverage by telling users to try "moving towards a window or go outside" to get the best signal.