I just celebrated the 10 year anniversary with my Motorola V400G from AT&T. :eek:
I have decided to upgrade, possibly go to a new provider and ditch my land line. I think I want a smartphone; but do I really need a smartphone?
I have checked various websites (Sprint, Verizon) but there are so many choices! How many gig of data do I need on a smartphone? Do I need any data on a non-smartphone?
I am not computer illiterate. I have an ipad (without the cellular svc) and ipod. I am comfortable downloading to my computer and then transferring whatever (apps music) to a phone.
My suggestion would be to start with the provider and figure out which ones have good service in your areas. If you’ve had good luck with AT&T in terms of call quality, there may not be any reason to switch away from the devil you know. At this point, each provider is likely to have comparable plans and phones anyway.
Many people don’t need a smartphone but quickly decide that they are immensely convenient. We all used to struggle through our daily lives without having maps and the internet with us at all times, but that capability does make a lot of things easier when I’m out and about. It’s also a camera, an alarm clock, and a flashlight.
In my experience, you will need less data than you expect. If you have a Wi-Fi network at home, then you can do any major downloading there and not use up your data allotment. 2GB is plenty, and even 1GB should be fine, at least at first. Some people discover text messaging to be very convenient as well, and most plans will include unlimited texting these days.
Once you’ve settled on a provider, picking a phone becomes simpler. Since it’s your first smartphone, it seems to me you could go two ways with it: Go whole hog and get the newest, fastest phone to really immerse yourself, or start gradually with a cheaper model from last year, figuring that you won’t even notice that it’s a bit slower than what some other people are carrying around. Since you have Apple products already, you might find the iPhone to be a seamless experience, but Android is really quite user-friendly as well. Go in to the store and hold them (without the intrusive store cord attached) to see what feels good in your hand.
Does Sprint coverage work for you ? Do you have Wifi/a wireless router in your house. If so, do republic wireless: https://republicwireless.com/
If not, do another carrier prepaid - generally either T-mobile prepaid directly or Straighttalk (sold at walmart) are the cheapest. Under no circumstances purchase directly from Verizon or AT&T unless you like paying more.
As far as gigs of data you need, basically, they are all enough for reading your email and facebook, and basic web browsing and none of them are enough to do enough else. They should really be forced to do their commercials in terms of movies. It would be “our plan provides enough for 1/4 of an HD movie per month”, “NO ours is way better, we give you 1/3 movie per month, for all family members combined for the low low price of $150/mo”.
As you already have an iPad and an iPod, the iPhone makes sense. Any apps you buy for the iPhone are available on the iPad. And since you’re probably going to keep it for a long time, buy the newest, latest model, so obsolescence is as far off as possible.
If you want an entry level smartphone that’s cheap and powerful and you don’t want to spend time learning to program it then consider a Nokia 520. You can buy it for $50 to $60. No need to insure it because it’s so cheap. It comes with a 5 mp phone capable of good panoramic shots and the free GPS programs work great. I can make better panoramic shots on this phone than I can with my expensive camera. The software behind it is spot-on.
It’s windows based so you build your screen the way you like it. There’s no flipping from screen to screen to screen. It’s designed to build everything on one screen and it’s easy to do. Pick what you want and pin it. Move it around the way it makes sense to you. I make the “phone”, “Message” and “email” buttons extra large and group all the rest as I see fit.
My nephew showed me how to pin one item to the front screen and that’s all it took for me to program the phone. I never bothered to download a manual. And don’t let your carrier tell you they can’t download your old phone numbers. There’s a free app for that.
The downside to a windows phone is you can’t get apps like touch tunes. It doesn’t have a super high resolution camera but it’s damn good for the price. The upside is that it’s really easy to use.
you only need 10 gb of data for normal use and you might look into tagging onto a family plan.
The Nokia 520 does a great job of suggesting words for texting so you don’t have to spend a lot of time typing words and there is also a voice to text function that works pretty well. The same goes for websites like bing or google. You can also use their artificial intelligence program called Cortana if you want. That tracks everything you do and anticipates what you’re looking for.
The upgraded operating system is definitely better as are the free programs that run underneath it. You can voice ask for a business near you and click on the address with options to navigate to it.
None of this is anything special in the phone world except for the fact you can do it all on a $50 phone that fits nicely in your pocket. You’re not getting an $800 super high resolution screen and you’re not paying for it either.
From a bit of Googling around, it looks like there are a couple of Casio point-and shoot cameras that can shoot at 1000 frames per second. Other searches indicate that arrow fly at about 300 feet per second. So I think you could get useful information about the performance of an arrow if you use one of those cameras to shoot the flight. Given those cameras cost about $150, it might be worth it to try.
I can not get Republic Wireless since they use Sprint and Sprint does not cover my area. I would like an iphone (an older less expensive model) or I’ll try the Nokia Lumia 520.
I do not make many calls and have never texted although I can see that would be useful.
If sprint isn’t an option then I will make the assumption that T-mobile isn’t either. In that case, the easiest thing to do is to buy an unlocked Iphone off of ebay (depending on the model, make sure it takes a sim card), or an unlocked phone like the Nexus 5 or Nexus 6 and then order an AT&T sim card from Straight talk. That will run you $45/mo for the same AT&T service you have now - unlimited talk/text and 2gigs of data, with throttling, not extra $$ if you go over.
After much research and hand wringing* I finally went with AT&T and a iphone 5. I went with the iphone because of the comfort level of familiarity with ipod/ipad. One thing I neglected to consider prior to all my research was the discount I receive as a former employee:smack: I did not know I was receiving a discount until a friend (also former AT&T emp) mentioned the discount when I told him I was looking for a new plan/phone.
Thank you everyone:)
*I spent many hours at Verizon, Sprint and AT&T stores phone phondling.
