$100 drop. Ebay (buyspry 99.5% positive) offers the Google Nexus 4 16GB Unlocked Smartphone for $289.99 with Free Shipping. No contract is required. This is the reference smartphone for Google right now. It has the latest software updates. Use this on T-Mobile or AT&T. Sells for $340 at Amazon.

We use one to test the BuyVia app and can't think of another phone in this price range with this amount of value.

Learn: No-Contract Plans, Unlocked Smartphones

Choosing the right plan for you is time consuming and can also be a hassle. We've done the research and you may save over $1,000 each year! Be sure to check out our no-contract Smartphone plan article: How to Find the Best No Contract Smartphone Plans where we compare all of the major network carriers. Check out our How to Buy an Unlocked Smartphones article to learn what it means to have an "Unlocked" Smartphone.

Reviews on the LG Nexus 4:

Cnet's editors gave this phone 3.5 of 5 stars, saying "The competitively priced LG Nexus 4 delivers a pure and polished experience with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, it's powered by a snappy quad-core processor, and it's packed with new photo-editing and camera features." However, they also note it lacks LTE functionality, using instead HSPA+ to get 4G speeds comparable to that of LTE networks.

LG Nexus 4 Specifications:

• 4.7-inch True HD Display Protected With Corning Gorilla Glass
• HD Resolution Screen 1280x720
• 16GB built-in storage
• 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro Quad Core Processor
• 2GB RAM
• 1.3MP front and 8MP rear cameras, LED flash, autofocus
• 1920x1080 full HD camcorder
• 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless and Bluetooth
• Android 4.2 OS (Jellybean)
• 4.9 oz
• 5.27 x 2.7 x 0.36 inches
• 1-year manufacturer's warranty

We recommend that you assess plan pricing based on how much data you use per month (not from Wi-Fi) to find the best value for you. The average users tend to not use more than 4GB/mo.

Low Cost Service Plan with Unlimited Talk, Text, and Data

T-Mobile offers a web exclusive pre-paid plan great for unlocked phones:

• $30/mo for Unlimited Web & Text with 100 Minutes Talk

Straight Talk, a prepaid carrier that is owned by Tracfone and Wal-mart, sells micro SIM cards for the that cost $14.99 + Free Shipping.  You can pop these into any AT&T-compatible, T-Mobile-compatible, or unlocked GSM phone.

• $45 a month buys you unlimited talk, text and data with no contract or credit check.