So I am finally looking at upgrading my regular old dumbphone to a smartphone. I have never owned a smartphone before and I’m trying to figure out what data plan would best suit my needs.
The phone I am looking at (a garminfone) is apparently capable of wifi calling–which I guess is free? I think? I rarely place or receive calls on my phone anyway–I don’t like talking on phones. So my first question is, can I get away with a data-only plan? I do have wifi at home, do I have to specify the use of wifi to make a free call over it? How does all that jazz work? The data-only plans charge 45 cents per phone minute, and I don’t want to end up with a nasty surprise on my bill. And the minimum number of phone minutes you can purchase through T-mobile is apparently 500–way way more than I would ever need in any month. Really the only time I can see NEEDING to place a call outside a wifi network would be in the case of a car breakdown. My car is reliable so… not often enough to make minutes worth purchasing, imo. (Please correct me if I’m wrong!)
My other question is regarding the internet surfing component. I’m looking at 200mb per month vs unlimited, which is a $20 monthly difference. How much web browsing is 200mb on a phone? Obviously it will vary depending on the sites being loaded, but I’d like to use the phone for internet browsing while I’m at work (plus it’s half gps and I’m sure I’ll want to look up destinations while on the road, up to several times a week) and I might rack up as many as… say, 20 hours of web browsing a week. Is 200mb enough/not enough to cover that level of use?
Any additional or random advice is most welcomed! The plan I most have my eye on (I think) is $50 a month for unlimited web and email, but no texts or phone minutes included–and I’m hoping that calls over wifi would be free and unlimited (just in case), but I’d like clarification on that. I’m currently paying less than $40 a month for my current dumbphone plan, and I’m trying to get an accurate idea of pricing before I settle on this upgrade for certain.
I can confirm that wi-fi calling, using T-Mobile’s ap, does use your minutes. You should definitely get some kind of voice plan for your phone. I signed up with a 300 minute plan back in '08 but I don’t see that option on tmobile’s website.
From looking at tmobile’s free-with-a-2-year-contract phones, I would recommend the LG Optimus T. It has a proper 3.5mm headphone jack (the Garminphone only has a mini-usb port) and I think the Optimus had a newer version of Android (2.2) compared to the Garminphone (2.1).
I don’t have any first hand experience with either phone so I can’t comment on which one runs more smoothly or has a better user interface or battery life.
Anyway, I hope this helps!
-sent from T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk
I have chosen the garminfone based on what is free for me to upgrade to. Since I’m an existing customer, I don’t have access to the same deals as new customers do (and if I weren’t an existing customer, I would choose a carrier that offered blackberry touchscreens instead). The garmin is free (ends up being $25 after the upgrade fee, tax, and shipping). The LG would cost me 80 bucks, plus the upgrade fee, tax, and shipping, **and **it has a rebate attached–I’m completely disinterested in any form of rebate hassle. I’ve also read reviews for both, thought they both sounded pretty good (and much better than my dumbphone), and I anticipate being happy enough with any 2.x version of android. I do appreciate the feedback though. The LG looks like a nice phone but I do not do rebates.
Crappy that there’s no way to get a smaller number of minutes. I wouldn’t use 500 minutes in a month if my apartment burned down and my car spontaneously combusted.
I use less than 30 minutes per month so I feel your pain!
Are there any other smart phones available for you to upgrade to, at a low cost? I’m curious what your options are.
As far as free smartphones go, there’s the garminfone with car kit, the t-mobile dash 3G (which I’ve seen through reviews has significant issues), or the t-mobile comet (which doesn’t look terrible but is kind of “kiddie”). The LG is supposed to end up costing $30 after rebate (plus the upgrade fee/tax/shipping), but I’d have to plunk down $50, add three months of a $20/month payment plan, and then get the rebate. blech. Do not want.
It’s hard these days to get a smartphone without unlimited web browsing and text included in it. The only one I know of where you can have the smartphone but no email or internet would be a BlackBerry, but I’m sure they’ve stopped that too.
Well now I am looking at the intercept through virgin mobile and it looks like they offer a 300 minute plan plus unlimited data for $25 a month–which is pretty gdamn sweet. But um, not sure how Virgin works. They say it’s not a contract? So do you have to pay for the phone up front? Do they have any way to sign up for a contract and subsidize the price of the phone over a year or 2?
I feel like a dumb butt about these things.