Help me with my first cell phone purchase

[Kaledor]

Hi all.

I might be one of the last people in the world without a cell phone (at least it feels that way). Now I find myself in need of one, mostly for work.

But I'm lost.
There are too many options, with too many providers, and too many codes...

I live in Michigan (USA), and I need a phone that can do the following:
- phone, text, email, and internet access.
- I would like it to be able to also take occasional pictures and video.

To me, it sounds like I needed a smart phone, so I started shopping there.

So here's my question: What phones are "good" phones? Do I want:
Iphone,
Android,
Galaxy,...??

What a #G? I hear all these commercials for 4G this or 3G that... what is that, and what am I looking for?
What am I looking at with data plans? It sounds like with smartphones you're paying for memory/data usage rather than calls and minutes. Can someone give me a clue what a service plan that gives you 1GB per month would be -- is that email once a day, once a week... if you check google maps one time, do you use all your monthly data??? Just what does 1GB per month give you.

Anyways, if you could share your cell phone stories, and help me make a more informed choice, I'd love it. I really just like to hear your thoughts and opinions -- from reading other threads, I know that many of you are very tech-savvy and figure you can give me great input.
Thanks!

 

[NewJeffCT]

What am I looking at with data plans? It sounds like with smartphones you're paying for memory/data usage rather than calls and minutes. Can someone give me a clue what a service plan that gives you 1GB per month would be -- is that email once a day, once a week... if you check google maps one time, do you use all your monthly data??? Just what does 1GB per month give you.

Anyways, if you could share your cell phone stories, and help me make a more informed choice, I'd love it. I really just like to hear your thoughts and opinions -- from reading other threads, I know that many of you are very tech-savvy and figure you can give me great input.
Thanks!

1GB is almost nothing - it's like checking your email once/day during the month, maybe not even that.

I think you can't really go wrong with a droid or an iphone, but I'd check on coverage by carrier in your area. Nothing is worse than being home and not being able to make calls. Not sure the iphone still has problems with calls dropping all the time, though. Somebody else can fill you in on that.

 

[Alan Shutko]

1GB is almost nothing - it's like checking your email once/day during the month, maybe not even that.

I disagree.

My wife is ok with a 200MB a month plan on her iPhone. She doesn't use it much.

I use my iPhone a lot, and looking at the last 16 months, I have used between 116 MB and 600MB. Here's what you need to consider:

1. Streaming video and music (i.e. Pandora or Spotify) will use a lot more bandwidth. I don't do much of either.
2. You will use more data and battery if you have your phone poll for new mail every 15 minutes or so than not polling until you open the app. Except for my MobileMe account which is push, I don't have my mail poll in the background. It downloads when I look at it.
3. If you are around wireless access points throughout parts of the day, you'll use less cellular data. With the iPhone, the battery is good enough that I leave wifi on all the time, and if I'm near an open and free wifi, my data can go over that. (We have an AT&T wifi hotspot at work near the conference rooms.) I've read suggestions for Android phones that recommend turning wifi off unless you know you're using it, since their battery life tends to be lower.
4. Tethering, of course, will suck data like no tomorrow. I don't tether with my iPhone; I got a Verizon mifi before AT&T decided to open up tethering, so I use that. Using my laptop on it ~8 hrs a day (but being conscious about not downloading big things) uses 2.5-3.5GB a month.

Not sure the iphone still has problems with calls dropping all the time, though. Somebody else can fill you in on that.

Well, it's gotten a lot better and I don't drop calls as much. I attribute at least some of the problem to AT&T. I don't put much stock into the antenna problems with the iPhone 4, since I've had the iPhone 4 without a case since release and had about the same level of problems I had with the iPhone 3G.

 

[JDragon]

Ok, let me put my work hat back on for a few minutes and see if I can provide some helpful information for you.

First with most carriers you will be looking at three things, voice, SMS & data.

For voice you will pick a minute per month plan, these are usually anytime minutes, which you use during the prime talking time of the day. Approx 6am - 9pm, the exact time depends on the company. In addition most companies offer free nights and weekends (nights are 9pm - 6am or so). Alot of companies also do unlimited mobile to mobile on their network. (IE find out what companies your friends have, then most likely your calls to them will be free for both of you).

For SMS, you will most likely be able to do a pay per message (usually runs between $.20 and $.30 per message) a prepaid bundle of x messages per month for y dollars. Or an unlimited messaging plan. Just be aware SMS are not considered data by most carriers so an unlimited data plan does not cover SMS.

For data depending on who you go with you may be able to get an unlimited plan otherwise you will be looking at a specific amount plan. (this is they way most carriers are going)

In regards to your question about how much data will you need, it really depends on what you use your phone for.

For example My wife has an iphone 4 and is averaging a little of half a gig a month for the last 3 months. She has 3 email accounts on it and gets multiple emails everyday on each account. She also uses it for facebook, and a few games like words with friends (online 2 player scrabble). I don't think she does alot of surfing or watches a huge amount of videos.

AS for what phone to get, best thing I can suggest is go in to a store and play with them or ask to see your friends and play with those some.

Most all smartphones are going to have close to the same options.

If you want something that just works, has a easy to use UI and has lots of apps go for an iphone, if you want something you can tweak and customize more look a the android options.

XG is talking about the Data network the carrier has available.

All the major carriers have 3g or 3rd generation networks and you should get between 500kb - 1mb download speeds with slower upload speeds.

4g is the new thing and is a bit different depending on the carrier. I can tell you that Verizon Wireless 4g will provide 5mb+ download speeds with close to that upload speeds. I'm not sure what speeds ATT is claiming for their 4g speeds.

The trick to anyone's 4g or even 3g network is you have to be in their coverage area. All the carriers should have coverage maps on their websites.


Hope this helped some.

JD

 

[Pbartender]

Hi all.

I might be one of the last people in the world without a cell phone (at least it feels that way). Now I find myself in need of one, mostly for work.

But I'm lost.

I went through the same thing about a month ago...

In the end, my wife (for my birthday) chose the Verizon Unlimited Family Talk & Text Plan (she didn't want to worry about counting minutes and texts), with 2 GB (I'm averaging less than 0.5 GB/month) of data per month. I got the Motorola Droid 2 Global, which I'm perfectly happy with.

 

[Morrus]

I use my phone very heavily for internet, downloading podcasts, emails, and so on. I'm averaging about 800Mb per month, and I consider myself a fairly heavy user.

I do use Wi-Fi when I can though, which helps keep it down. So in the home, it's all wi-fi not 3G.

I wouldn't worry about 4G quite yet. In a year or two it'll be all the rage, but for now it's only limited areas.