I resisted getting a smartphone for years, even though I wanted one. I just didn’t want to spend the money. And then I broke my Pantech not-smartphone. I wanted an iPhone, but Virgin’s plan rates were very good and they didn’t have any. (They have a limited selection of phones, you must use one of their phones, and the few iPhones they had were sold out.) So I got an LG Tribute – the best phone they had at the time – with Android.
For $50/month I get more data than I use. I don’t have time to watch movies. I like being able to talk to Google and have it find stuff, and then being able to use the Google GPS/map feature to find where I want to go. I downloaded a flashlight app because you have to download an app before you can download apps. The next thing I got was Waze, which has been minimally useful. And I downloaded a speedometer app that is fun, and useful for finding out how far off my car’s speedometer is at various indicated speeds. (It was fun seeing 548 mph on it when we were flying down to Anaheim. ) I’ve learned to use texting, and it’s handy-dander. Not that I text much. Maybe once or twice every couple or few weeks. I take photos with the camera occasionally (can’t remember shooting any video yet). Battery life is not as great as with the not-smartphone I broke.
So I don’t use the phone much; but since it only costs about a dollar per month more than the AT&T non-data, non-text plan I had before, I’m happy with it.
Chronos… one thing you may be kinds-sorta not realizing in all this is that while you think your needs will remain minimalist, having an immediate pipeline to the net in your pocket really does change what you think is useful and necessary as you discover new things and apps.
Beyond he stuff that comes loaded on the phone re the android apps I have very useful at home or on the go
1: FM Podcast - A huge universe of things to listen to
2: Google earth
3: Mobile versions of various favorite newspapers and magazine
4: Online banking app (specific to your bank)
5:Timesolutely lite - free little timer that uses rotary dials to set fast. I find myself using it all the time
Historically, I’ve alternated pretty regularly between Android and Apple. I’m currently on an Apple iPhone 6+. I’m probably going to stick with Apple for a while, because the reason for my latest switch from Android was frustration with the interface and bugs making it harder to do the basic tasks I wanted to do. Sometimes it wasn’t clear what was the fault of Google and what was the fault of the hardware vendor (Motorola), but honestly I don’t have the time nor inclination for investigating this or trying to customize the device. All I know is when I’ve been listening to a podcast for twenty minutes after holding on for dear life with both hands on a crowded bus and the volume suddenly drops such that I can’t hear it because of a “it is dangerous to listen to music for too long too loud” popup I want to throw the goddamn thing out the bus window.
I don’t think it really matters what your friends and family uses. My wife uses a Windows phone and I don’t think the difference has ever caused us inconvenience.
Given your extremely late adoption I doubt very much that philosophical differences like customization versus locked down “just works” are going to make much difference to you. Both Android and Apple have lots of applications available (both free and relatively cheap). They’ll both do the job and they’ll both have peculiarities that annoy some of the population more than others. My advice? Spend a lot of time in the store playing with each of the phones and see which one drives you the least crazy.
I’d think that the middle ground should actually push you closer to the iPhone. You can enjoy the security of iOS, but if you ever wanted to jailbreak it, you can always go down that road and be as open and insecure as Android.
But whatever you get, I’d recommend you don’t get something cheap for the sake of cheapness. This is a device that you will be holding in your hand probably dozens of times a day for the next 2 years. If you’re a person who can tell the difference, you do not want the constant engagement between you and your phone to be a cheap, plasticky experience. I would bet that getting a nice one will pay off in the long run.
I’m a diehard PC user (started in the days of the A:> prompt) but I’m also on my third iPhone. I’m the ‘tech guy’ so I fix problems for all my friends & family’s phones, Android & iPhone.
And I hate Android.
Android is extremely customizable, but with high customization comes the potential for high disorder, if you will. iOS is much more ‘ordinary consumer’ friendly. To me, iOS is to Android what Windows is to Linux. One is made for ordinary people, the other for geeks. And consequently 90% of Android features are only used by 5% of their owners.
If you’ve used an iPod Touch you’ll still recognize the modern iPhone’s interface. Another benefit is that more & more Android is becoming susceptible to malware, whereas iPhones are nearly impervious to it.
I agree with most of this, except for the last part. The Android malware threat is overblown, and mostly a risk for people who use dodgy third party app stores or install any random .apk they find. IF you stick with the Play store you have little to worry about.
A couple years ago I had an I-phone. On the way home from visiting a friend in the hospital recovering from a heart attack, I felt severe heat in my upper left quadrant. I thought I was having an MI. But, turns out it was only my I-phone battery overheating. Turned the phone into toast, so I replaced it with a cheap flip-phone.
I’m now, like you, in the market for another smartphone. After some research, I’m zeroing in on Cricket for service provider (low cost, no contracts, uses the AT&T network) and buying either their Alcatel One Touch Idol 3 ($149.99) or ZTE Grand X Max+ ($169.99). These may be good choices for you, too.
Yeah I agree. I’ve had an iPhone back when I had an Apple laptop and now when I have a Windows machine and it really hasn’t made much difference. That said, I don’t sync the devices very often, it just doesn’t come up in my workflow (leisureflow?).
I have a $60 Nokia Windows phone. The camera does 5 panel panoramics, video and burst mode camera shots. The Panoramic software makes seamless pictures every time. The free mapping software does a better job than my old GPS. The voice recognition system works well with text messaging and internet searches. tethering to my computer is faster than the phone’s own operating system.
It lacks something called Motion API which negates some of the function of a program that replicates cockpit gauges. The artificial horizon works but not the turn-and-bank indicator.
That’s about the lowest you can pay and achieve what you’re looking for. Windows phones have far fewer apps available. I can’t get popular apps like touchtunes which is annoying but not a deal breaker for me. I much prefer the Windows methodology than either of the other 2. It’s much simpler and required about 15 seconds of explanation.
While I would like a high-end phone with a serious camera I don’t see the dollar value in them. I can buy a better camera than most of them for $100. I would like the exact same size phone but with a faster processor.
For what it’s worth, I do use a Mac for my computing needs, but I’m not sure why that should incline me towards an iPhone. Sure, I like Apple, but I also like Google. Just what exactly are the advantages to staying in the “same ecosystem”?
I’m certain, though, that I don’t want a Windows device.
And while I do have an iPod Touch, it’s so old that the differences in interface between my current device and any modern device are probably greater than the difference between an Android and an iPhone. In any event, they’re all pretty intuitive, so I’m not worried about that. The only real advantage I can see that gives the iPhone is that I’d be able to copy over the apps I already have, but I have few enough apps, which are probably available for both platforms, that the advantage is very slight.
Given the choice between Windows or Linux, I’ll always take the Linux.
Anyway, I think this has cleared up a lot for me-- Thanks everyone. I’ll probably go in Tuesday or so to get it.
iPhone/Mac-wise, there are Continuity and Handoff. I’ve never used them, but there’s at least something that only works if you have other Apple devices. Oh, and if I get a phone call while my iPhone and iPad are on the same Wifi network, both will ring. I’ve not yet figured out why that is supposed to be useful.
eh. if it wasn’t for CarPlay I’d still be using a Windows Phone.
LOL no. The user interface differences between iOS 9 and whatever you have on your iPod Touch are mostly cosmetic. they still mostly work the same way, though there are more features on newer versions of iOS. the problem with Android is that there isn’t really one “Android user interface.” There’s the stock Android UI Google releases, and you can get on Nexus devices. Then there’s each manufacturers’ “skins” of Android with custom launchers, icons, home screens, and whatever else garbage they can shit all over it.
except when it comes to phones, Windows is the Linux.
I have both a Macbook and a plethora of android phones as well as an iphone in the past and the iPhone is very easy to integrate with the Mac, and windows for that matter. The Android phones have been complete nightmares to integrate with either. Integrating Android with a Mac is well nigh impossible but integrating with windows is also so bad that it makes no difference really which phone you choose. For something that is supposedly “open”, the difficulty of completing simply tasks like copying music files from a computer to the phone is such that it’s almost (almost) worthwhile to go with iPhone. The problem seems to be that almost all apps for either system seem to be 100% geared towards you using the phone as a complete standalone device, and they intentionally make it difficult to integrate with any desktop computer. Maybe this increases their in-app purchase revenue or something.
I just looked at the Google App Store, and to my great surprise there’s a free slide rule app. There are tons of free calculators, though I don’t know if there’s one that emulates the specific real world calculator you want. You should be able to go to the Google Store on your PC and search it for apps that are useful for you.
Here’s the deal I got from Tracfone (through QVC I’m ashamed to admit), $99 got me an LG smart phone (pretty middle of the road I think, with a slot available for a 32 gig micro SD card.) It got me 1200 minutes of talk that lasted about 5 months. It got 1200 text messages, and in 6 months I’ve used up less than a hundred. And it got me 1200 megabytes of data, and I’ve used up maybe 300 of them. I did get special deal of “triple minutes, data and texts for life”. A $70 phone card refilled all 3 categories with the same amounts as the original deal, so now I have nearly 2400 megs of data and nearly 2400 text messages because the unused ones roll over.
I picked up Nokia’s Here app for navigation, which was free and has the huge advantage of being able to download all the map data (including locations for gas, shopping and eating) without staying connected to any phone or data network while using it. Google’s app can’t do that.
I do need to stay connected if I want to get email on the road. But I can do that for a few minutes and then cut the connection again.
Life of the battery … If it’s just on to receive calls and text or mail messages, it will last maybe 2-3 days. Of course once you turn the screen on and start talking on the phone, it goes down to 3-4 hours. Just about everybody where I works runs and charges their phones via the usb ports on their desktop computers. And if you’re in a car you can run/charge it through the lighter. The chargers, one for house current and one for a car, came included with the original $99 package I bought.
So I expect operating costs to me about $150 a year, not including replacing the phone at some point. I eliminated my land line, which at about $40 per month was costing me nearly $500 a year (without any of the data services).
MetroPCS has an unlimited talk/text/data plan for $30/month, with the first gig of data at the LTE speeds; throttled after.
Go for a good quality low-medium-end smartphone–either new from Metro, or a used Metro (or unlocked GSM) from eBay. The latter route will get you a somewhat better phone.
You mention jotting down notes. With the Handoff feature that was mentioned, depending on how recent your Mac is, you can be taking notes on your iPhone for example, then when you sit down to your Mac, all the notes will be right there on your Mac just as they were on your iPhone. It works the other way, too, Mac-to-iPhone, as well as for apps like email, texts, web browsing and has 3rd party app support.
Incoming phone calls will show up on your Mac, so if you left your iPhone in your bag or it’s out of reach you can just “pick up” using the mic on your Mac. You can initiate a call too.
You can also use your iPhone as in Instant Hotpot for your Mac very easily.
So not a ton of stuff, but some little touches that make it easier.
We’ve been using Metro PCS (which rides on the T-Mobile network) for a few years now. $55/month for everything, including unlimited 4G LTE data. The only downside is that Metro PCS’s service area can be limited wherever you may be – for instance, it works fine in the 20-mile radius between my home and work, but it doesn’t work when we visit relatives who live beyond that 20-mile radius.
ETA: I just saw the post about Metro PCS’s $30/month offer. We paid the same, too, when we first started with them. Be aware that, like with all data plans, the price will creep up after that first year. Still $55/month is a bargain compared to people who are locked in a contract.
) I’ve learned to use texting, and it’s handy-dander. Not that I text much. Maybe once or twice every couple or few weeks. I take photos with the camera occasionally (can’t remember shooting any video yet). Battery life is not as great as with the not-smartphone I broke.