Smart Phones, Data Plans, and Upgrades....HEEEELLLLLP

[indytechnerd]

Ladies and Gents, I need your advice. Recent events have pushed my wife and I to the point of finally stepping into the current level of technology. We've got standard phones with unlimited texting, but have never ventured towards smartphones and the can of worms that goes with them.

So I wanna hear your input. Which provider is good and which sucks. Which phone (OS) is good and which sucks. Why is it so friggin' expensive? All I ask is that if you're gonna dis something, give me a good reason.

I'm one of those people who reads the one star reviews on Amazon to weed out the irrelevant reviews. "[*]I bought this widget model xg2000 and Amazon said it would be here in 3 days. It got here in 5." Don't be that guy. Give me something to chew on.

 

[long coat]

Who are you with now?
We are with Sprint & we pay $100 a month for 3 phones (very old plan). When we upgrade we will pay $180 a month for the same thing, but they are still cheaper than the others.

 

[011101110111]

I know people go gaga over the smart phones, but honestly, beyond the phone ringing when a call comes in, what do you really need? Are you ever that far away from a computer that it can't wait?

The feature that I have on mine that I like in the voice recorder. I record notes to myself and can record memos to go look something up when I'm near a computer.

Smart phone data plans often range about $1000/yr (or about $80/month + tax and other fees). Granted, some plans are less than that, but still a lot of money for functionality that in some cases is redundant.

 

[rbrthenderson]

I've got the iPhone 4S and I pay roughly $134 for two of them on my plan with Sprint. The reason I went with Sprint is because they do not cap or throttle my data so I can use as much as I want. (As opposed to Verizon or AT&T which have caps and throttling.)

If you're going to make the jump the smartphone, I suggest going with the iPhone simply because that's the market standard for development. All of the latest apps will hit the iPhone for sure but may not be developed for Blackberry or Android. My iPhone runs extremely smooth and doesn't lag, which is a huge pet peeve of mine. I have not ever dropped a call with Sprint and very rarely do I run into service issues.

Bottom line opinion: If you're gonna make the jump, do it right and go with a proven platform that works.

 

[rich8483]

well, if you are new to smartphones. you might not use the data that much... or not as much as some people and can get away with the smallest data package. (the texting should not count against data, so even if you text a ton, it wont affect data usage) i get away with the smallest data package. but i also spend a lot of the time in a wifi area, like at home using your own internet for example which is then "free"

im on my first smartphone so take what i say with a grain of salt if you may. but i switched to att from sprint/nextel when i bought it a year ago. nothing to compare the data to obviously but the cell coverage was much better in my area. customer service is good. as for data, att does have "att wifi hotspots" dont know if other providers have those, or can use the same ones??

mine is an android operating system and i like it.

one thing to note, whatever you buy, be prepared to charge it more often then your current phone. smartphone are more or less small computers and use more battery (as well as get played with more) but still have the same sized battery. and should also get rebooted regularly like a computer.

 

[steveh_131]

As far as providers go...I recommend that you ask around people who are nearby and find out what they use and how their reception is. Compare this with price and make your choice.

For phone selection, it really depends on how you want to use it. If you primarily want to be able to email and text and call, then I suggest a Blackberry. A physical keyboard is so much easier and faster than touch-screen keyboards (in my opinion). And you can't beat a blackberry for efficiency if you're focusing on those activities. If you get one with a smaller screen, you can pull off several days of battery life in between charges.

If you want to play with it more, I recommend an android with a good-sized touch screen. They will typically drain your battery fast (1 day or less with moderate usage) but they are far superior for things like watching movies, browsing the web, high resolution cameras, and there are multitudes of apps available to perform almost any function that you can imagine. And if you enjoy some light hacking, you can easily root it and install custom operating systems, overclock the processor, etc.

I can't say much about iPhones as I have never owned or used one. Just my two cents.

 

[lucky4034]

Its all about the needs of the user....

Do you like to talk on a phone or do you prefer to text?

Do you like to take pictures ALL the time and post them on Facebook?

Do you travel constantly and could use a good GPS?

Do you use a computer to organize your day to day activity?​

IF you said yes to at least half of those above... then a smartphone might be perfect for you. Just keep in mind that a smartphone costs about double what a standard phone costs.... and please whatever you do... keep in mind that Iphone = Harley Davidson. Its a quality phone but it WILL NOT perform any other type of phone with similar hardware. Unless you have an Apple computer then there really isn't any advantage.

IF you said NO to most of the questions, then save the money and just get a standard phone.

 

[civicisaye]

Another iPhone vote. Had my original until earl this year before it died. Now rocking the iPhone 4, from which I have made every post in this forum. Also using sprint. I had hacked my original to work with tmobile (who suck and that's why I switched to sprint, PLUS I got three of the iPhone 4s for 99 each)

 

[mainjet]

I have a droid2. I really like the phone but I will consider an iphone for the next one.

I like the apps that you can get and all the information that they can hold. I use mine for business so email, GPS navigation and programs like word and excel are important to me.

I play golf and instead of buying a $300 GPS for the course, I downloaded an app for a couple bucks that does it all. I use the note feature extensively to store data (encrypted) that I want to have access to at all times.

my phone uses bluetooth through sync in my car. So everything is hands free.even if I get a text message, I just tell the car to read it to me and it does (which can be pretty funny to listen to sometimes). I can surf the web anywhere I am in the country, I can use google earth, etc.

I have verizon which I have found to be a very good provider. I don't have call troubles or anything like that.

one tap on the screen and I have my CCW app that tells me everything I need to know about guns laws across the country. Anoth tap and I am listening to a police scanner. Another tap and I am browsing the internet or sending money to my daughter at college through zashpay. Oh it's time to play golf - tap, I can tell you how many yards to the hole.

Right now I a currently downloading 2GB of music onto my phone.

It's endless but it's pretty costly too. I have myself and my kids on my business plan. My wife is on our personal account but she just has a regular flip phone. She says she just wants to flip it open and easily make a call. Well, she would be very happy with a smart phone but she just doesn't want to think about it. She was the same way about the ipad until I bought her one. Now she says all the time "I love this thing". Then, the other day she turns to me and says the "ipad 3 is out".

 

[88GT]

I've got the iPhone 4S and I pay roughly $134 for two of them on my plan with Sprint. The reason I went with Sprint is because they do not cap or throttle my data so I can use as much as I want. (As opposed to Verizon or AT&T which have caps and throttling.)

If you're going to make the jump the smartphone, I suggest going with the iPhone simply because that's the market standard for development. All of the latest apps will hit the iPhone for sure but may not be developed for Blackberry or Android. My iPhone runs extremely smooth and doesn't lag, which is a huge pet peeve of mine. I have not ever dropped a call with Sprint and very rarely do I run into service issues.

Bottom line opinion: If you're gonna make the jump, do it right and go with a proven platform that works.

I have Sprint and routinely lose coverage (go to roaming). I do not like Sprint's customer service for two reasons: I do not like being helped by someone for whom English is a second language and has to rely on a script for the majority of the conversation; as a result of the first issue, SOP is often for the customer service reps to respond with boilerplate dialogue that leaves me feeling like my issue isn't really being addressed but rather they're trying to stuff it into one of the 4 options showing on their flow-chart based on the yes/no responses to their canned questions. That said, when I went to move to AT&T, the idiot at the counter made it as difficult as possible to transfer. So I didn't. I think all the carriers are pretty much equal in that they all have their strengths and weaknesses. What you gain with one, you will lose something else.

I have a droid phone now. It DOES lag something fierce and it annoys the hell out of me. If the iPhone were better in no other way than running smoothly and on-demand, it would be my next phone. I do have an iPad and a Mac desktop, and have had zero problems with the OS on those. So another vote for the iPhone. Of course, the iPhone wasn't available on the Sprint network when I bought my phone. Hence, the droid.

Do you have a tablet? I have come to the conclusion that the smartphone features of my cell have become superfluous now that I have an iPad. True, the apps are different, but unless it's a specific app that is only available on one or the other, there are usually sufficient counterpart alternatives. Scheduling, logging, recording, games, etc. If you just need an app for any given task, there's no real difference. It's only if you need an app for your employer or your school or your organization that was programmed for one specific OS. Anyway, back to my point. I now use the iPad for all of the activities I used to do on my smartphone, plus I get to enjoy a bigger screen and easier navigation. I will be reverting back to a basic talk/text cell at the next upgrade point in my plan.

 

[HDSilvrStreak]

I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 on AT&T (paid by work) and my wife has an iPhone 4S on Sprint. We just got both about 2 months ago. Prior to that, just used the phones. So far, I've been very pleased with mine and I use it much, much, much more than I thought I would. Um...much more.

Also, I like my Galaxy better than the iPhone.

The Sprint plan is unlimited data. However, unless you're streaming data or music (like Pandora or I heart Radio), the data is probably not a big issue.

The Galaxy is an awesome phone. Can't believe work actually sprang for a decent phone. My last one sucked.

 

[sepe]

I have Sprint and routinely lose coverage (go to roaming). I do not like Sprint's customer service for two reasons: I do not like being helped by someone for whom English is a second language and has to rely on a script for the majority of the conversation; as a result of the first issue, SOP is often for the customer service reps to respond with boilerplate dialogue that leaves me feeling like my issue isn't really being addressed but rather they're trying to stuff it into one of the 4 options showing on their flow-chart based on the yes/no responses to their canned questions. That said, when I went to move to AT&T, the idiot at the counter made it as difficult as possible to transfer. So I didn't. I think all the carriers are pretty much equal in that they all have their strengths and weaknesses. What you gain with one, you will lose something else.

I have a droid phone now. It DOES lag something fierce and it annoys the hell out of me. If the iPhone were better in no other way than running smoothly and on-demand, it would be my next phone. I do have an iPad and a Mac desktop, and have had zero problems with the OS on those. So another vote for the iPhone. Of course, the iPhone wasn't available on the Sprint network when I bought my phone. Hence, the droid.

Do you have a tablet? I have come to the conclusion that the smartphone features of my cell have become superfluous now that I have an iPad. True, the apps are different, but unless it's a specific app that is only available on one or the other, there are usually sufficient counterpart alternatives. Scheduling, logging, recording, games, etc. If you just need an app for any given task, there's no real difference. It's only if you need an app for your employer or your school or your organization that was programmed for one specific OS. Anyway, back to my point. I now use the iPad for all of the activities I used to do on my smartphone, plus I get to enjoy a bigger screen and easier navigation. I will be reverting back to a basic talk/text cell at the next upgrade point in my plan.

From talking with people that have had Sprint (and 1 that had worked Sprint Level 1 CS), the rep is stuck with the script and for years it was one of the worst call centers in the country fielding the calls. Last I'd heard, level 2 support was still in the states. Level 1 was split between the Philippines and India. I've always pushed 2 for Spanish. I don't speak much Spanish but with T-Mobile it'll take you to a call center in Texas. Same thing has worked with Dell and HP in the past.

If you've got the "Droid", you'd be looking at a 2 1/2 year old phone. Could be a bunch of reasons for the lag. I've used a Droid when it first came out and didn't notice any lag between it and my phone, which was another android based phone with higher specs. Now? Both need replaced.

OP, it all depends on the carrier you want and how much you're going to be using the data and apps. I prefer smart phones simply for the apps (I've seen similar for iPhone and android based). If you really want to get confused, check out HowardForums: Your Mobile Phone Community & Resource - HowardForums Home and get ready to have more information than you could ever really want about cell phones.

 

[indytechnerd]

Thanks for the input folks, you've made my decision clear as mud.

To answer some questions:
1. Right now, we have Verizon, and while coverage is good, I don't like that the phones are locked down and you have to backdoor the damn thing to put your own ringtones on it. Upgrading our phones within Verizon would add $30 a phone for their 5GB? data plan, and that's pretty chunky.

2. My wife won't use a ton of data, maybe check email and the occasional google maps. I, on the other hand, will probably use Pandora regularly since I don't have an ipod/mp3 player and we can't get it on the computers at work. Plus there's all that INGO surfing and facebooking that I'd do.

3. We do not have a tablet, at least not a 3/4G one. We have a wi-fi enabled Kindle Fire, but that's it.

 

[INyooper]

I, on the other hand, will probably use Pandora regularly since I don't have an ipod/mp3 player and we can't get it on the computers at work. Plus there's all that INGO surfing and facebooking that I'd do.

I'm actually in the process of looking for another wireless provider. I currently use Verizon and have no complaints about their service or signal (can't remember my last dropped call). OTOH, their data is limited, while Sprint has unlimited data plans, free cell to cell, roaming, longer nights and weekends (start/end at 7, rather than 9), and still comes out less expensive than Verizon.

The only uncertainty for me is the call quality and coverage in northern Indiana. Toward that end, Sprint allows one to use the phone for up to 14 days with the option of dropping the contract with no penalty, which I'm planning on trying out soon.

Honestly, if Verizon didn't have a data limit in place, I'd probably stay with them. Though, as you mentioned, I use Pandora quite a lot though, now, only via Wifi. If I didn't have to be concerned with watching my data usage, I'd use it a lot more.