Can I Use a Straight Talk SIM Card in my T-Mobile Google Nexus 5 Phone?

A couple of months ago, I simultaneously dropped my Verizon cell phone in the toilet and shattered the screen at the same time. It sucked. This incident, however, put me in the market for a new smartphone. If you know anything about me, you know that I'm REALLY into my electronic gadgets and I'm always up-to-date on the latest phones, so I pretty much immediately knew that I wanted to get the Google Nexus 5 Android smartphone.

The Nexus 5 is the latest in Google's smartphone lineup, and you can buy it unlocked directly from the Google Play Store for $349. A good deal, but more money than I could afford to shell out at one time. I decided to search to see if I could get the Google Nexus 5 directly from one of the major cell phone carriers in order to get a subsidized price, and I settled on T-Mobile.

T-Mobile sent me the Google Nexus 5 with no money down, and a small monthly payment would be added to my regular cell phone bill until I paid off the phone and owned it outright. I will wait to get into the whole story in another blog post, but let's just say T-Mobile ROYALLY screwed up my account from the get-go, and after hours upon hours upon hours of trying to fix the issue on the phone with customer service, I finally ended up getting a credit for the purchase price of my phone and cancelled my T-Mobile service.

So now, I was left with a perfectly good Google Nexus 5 phone from T-Mobile without any service. I needed to find a SIM card in order to get my data and voice services working again. At first, I thought I would be locked into getting a SIM card compatible with the T-Mobile network, but after doing some internet research, I found out that ALL Google Nexus 5 phones are unlocked regardless of who you purchase them from, so now I could get a T-Mobile SIM card or an AT&T SIM card...either one would work in my Nexus 5.

Ultimately, I went to Walmart and bought an AT&T-compatible SIM card from Straight Talk wireless. I've found that, in my area, the AT&T network is MUCH better than the T-Mobile network, and I was happy that my Nexus 5 could accept a SIM card for either carrier. My Straight Talk wireless SIM card works absolutely perfectly in my Google Nexus 5, and I am able to get data, voice, texting, and even picture messaging on my Nexus phone with no issues. At $45 for an unlimited Straight Talk plan, I am literally paying half of what I was with Verizon, and I have an awesome phone that I love. Even though my experience with T-Mobile was abysmal, in the end, all is well that ends well I suppose.