Do You Really Need a Smart Phone? 851
Roblimo writes "My phone is as stupid as a phone can be, but you can drop it or get it wet and it will still work. My cellular cost per month is about $4, on average. I've had a cellular phone longer than most people, and I assure you that a smart phone would not improve my life one bit. You, too, might find that you are just as happy with a stupid phone as with a smart one. If nothing else, you'll save money by dumbing down your phone." I stuck with a dumb phone for a long time, but I admit to loving the versatility of my Android phone, for all its imperfections.
Many smartphone alternatives (Score:5, Informative)
There are many alternatives besides the premium plans and phones (iPhone, high end Android).
T-Mobile via WalMart: Android phone for less than $200. 100 mins talk, unlimited data and text for $30/mo.
Pageplus: Bring your own CDMA phone. My kid has a Palm Pixi. If you don't abuse data or use wifi for data, it's cheap.
iPod Touch: That's the way I went. I have a cheap prepaid phone that costs less than $10/mo for my light usage of calls and texts. My iPod is in a wifi zone much of the time where I can leverage apps including free texting.
I'm on the waiting list for Republic Wireless who is trying an iteresting business model for $20/mo. The phone has to have a home zone of wifi. When wifi is available, it uses it. Otherwise data will be used. The phone is a basic Android.
It just takes a little effort and research.
I'm amazed at what people will pay for iPhone plans. Some use the value, but I know plenty who still just use it to call and text mostly paying almost $100/mo.
Re:I dont have a phone (Score:0, Informative)
Hey, MINE TOO! And it sucks at both.
Water? Pshaw. (Score:5, Informative)
My phone is as stupid as a phone can be, but you can drop it or get it wet and it will still work.
My two-year-old dropped my iPhone 3gs in the dog's water bowl. From the time I heard the *ploink*, realized what I had heard, and ran to the kitchen and pulled out the phone out, it was completely submerged in disgusting dog water for at least 15-20 seconds.
The touch screen was so wet that I couldn't swipe to unlock in order to power down. The phone was on at least another 1-2 minutes. I finally turned it off (obviously can't pull the battery with an iPhone) and let it dry out for a couple days. On day 2, I put it in a ziploc baggie with some silica gel packets. During the drying process it would occasionally--randomly!--turn itself on with no interaction from me.
After 2 days of drying, it was good as new. Fully functional, no visible damage, screen fine, touch response fine, etc.
I was very impressed.
Re:without some damn 2 year contract (Score:4, Informative)
I have an iPhone - wait for it - without a contract. It's on AT&T's GoPhone style pay as you go service.
So once you get past the initial hardware, which then comes down to a typical hardware decision, I get all the fun of a smartphone in places with wifi (work and McDonalds!) but all the low expenses of a prepaid-as-you-go plan.
$100 in phone service lasts me about 4 months.
Re:No Smart or Dumb Phone (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Shocked. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Rob's been reading my posts... (Score:5, Informative)
Who says this has anything to do with employment?
I make a reasonably decent wage. I do have problems with needlessly spending money on stuff that has no perceived value to me.
Several years ago I turned off my land line telephone. I had a cell phone and saw no need to pay for two telephones. (About $550 a year savings.)
About a year and a half ago I turned off all cable TV services. I put up an OTA antenna, and wouldn't you know it, the six channels (even in HD) I get are more than enough for me, as I don't watch a whole lot of broadcast TV to begin with. ($1200/year savings.)
I do have a smart phone now, but work subsidizes half the bill per month. (It's my phone, but they pay for me to use it to get email/calendaring and to keep in contact with vendors/trades/etc.) I can tell you two things: 1. Having email on my phone is convenient, I'll admit that. 2. The convenience is NOT worth $100/month! I'll just go to my computer. I can say if work wasn't subsidizing it, I wouldn't have a smart phone. If it was only a couple dollars more a month, I'd consider it. But where I am right now, smart phones are 2-3x the monthly cost of a dumb phone.
Everyone's values are different. However, the price of these current services are insane.
TV/Phone/Internet: $150+/month: $1800+/year.
Cell Phone: $100+/month (with taxes etc...): $1200+/year.
I can live without TV, and I could live without a phone if I had to. Internet? Probably not...
If the cost of smart phones was about the same as a land line with long distance (around $25-$30 a month) I wouldn't have a problem with it. Heck even $35 a month with a data plan. Most carriers are charging $30+ for 500MB of data! Never mind the voice part of the phone. It's just batshit crazy.
Re:TP (Score:0, Informative)
Pooping: a personal problem for people from prehistory to the present.
Re:Needs differ. Duh. (Score:4, Informative)
I ride the bus to and from work every day. I could carry a dumb phone, plus an mp3 player, plus a netbook, I suppose... but instead I have an original Droid, and it gets all that done in a much smaller and more convenient package, along with GPS navigation, flash drive file transport, encrypted password wallet, and a cheap camera.
I carry a dumb phone and have half the features you mention even on that... specifically mp3 player (yes, my dumb phone does play mp3s), flash drive file transport, and cheap camera.
The only catch is that I need to have a Micro SD card for storage and a USB cable A normal to B mini to transfer files off.... which incidentally comes with the phone as part of its charging cable.
Re:Water? Pshaw. (Score:4, Informative)
On day 2, I put it in a ziploc baggie with some silica gel packets. During the drying process it would occasionally--randomly!--turn itself on with no interaction from me.
After 2 days of drying, it was good as new. Fully functional, no visible damage, screen fine, touch response fine, etc.
I was very impressed.
Since most people don't keep silica gel packets around (I won't judge you based the contents of your kitchen cabinet), it's worth pointing out that the same result is possible with rice.
Re:Needs differ. Duh. (Score:5, Informative)
Holy crap! I have never in my life done that before! I had no idea such a thing was even possible!
(Or, just maybe I load [gutenberg.org] them [baen.com] onto [thefifthimperium.com] my [antipope.org] phone [infinityplus.co.uk]. And save the dead-tree stuff for bedside at home.)
Re:Shocked. (Score:5, Informative)
Which carrier offers such a plan in the United States?
Any carrier who offers a tablet plan. Just buy the SIM and put it in your cell phone, the carrier won't know the difference.
That said, you can also get a super-low minutes plan, which is useful if you're roaming in an area that doesn't have data coverage. I'm guessing that grub is using something like an iPhone, as there's an IM app that's very similar to SMS messaging on it. Personally, I have been known to break 500 texts/day, and wouldn't be able to do what he's doing. But you can still get a low minutes plan, and add data on top of it fairly cheaply, though, without sacrificing the added functionality... my plan (admittedly it's in Canada, but there are carriers in the US that offer similar plans) is 150 anytime minutes, 5pm evenings/weekends, unlimited domestic LD. That's $25/mo (they have one that's $15/mo for 50 anytime minutes, still has unlimited long distance). I have a $10/mo addon that gives call display, call waiting, call forwarding, and unlimited global texting. I'm on a flex data plan on top of that, which goes from $5/mo for 25MB to $30/mo for 3GB, tethering included, and has an overage charge of $0.02/MB. They're available, you just need to shop around and look at what are called MVNO's in the US (and usually called Fight Brands everywhere else in the world)
Re:Shocked. (Score:5, Informative)
$2/day isn't very cheap if you're actually using it daily. For about $20/month more, you could get a full blown Android plan with subsidized phone and more or less unlimited everything besides daytime voice minutes (450 peak minutes), with 3G speeds and 4G where available. Factor the $20/month extra into the roughly $200-400 discount on a best of breed Android phone like the SGS2/Evo3D/Photon, and at worst you're breaking even and getting way more for your money.
Before you say "I wouldn't be using it daily"... yes, once you get a best of breed Android phone, you will, because you'll discover all kinds of things that were dysfunctional internet-wise on older phones that suddenly work well, and you'll find yourself using them anytime you're stuck in a line somewhere, waiting for something, or just bored. Plus, it's EXTREMELY difficult to make an Android phone not sip (if not inhale) data 24/7. It can be done, but it's something you have to actively work to make happen. Any data plan where your billing unit is "minute where at least one byte of data gets transferred" will positively bankrupt you with an Android phone if you forget to disable data, because so many apps endlessly sip data nonstop in the background. Not enough data to really make a difference with a normal plan, even one that's capped at 2 gigs... but plenty to run up a gigantic bill if you're getting metered by the "data-minute" rather than by the megabyte.
Re:Shocked. (Score:4, Informative)
Well, I can't speak to costs in other places. Where I am you have 2 choices of network, AT&T or Verizon. Verizon will require a 2 year contract on a data plan, which is basically $100 a month. Subtract out the $35 a month I'd pay anyway for my existing plan, and then add $300 for the hardware. Toss in an app or two now and then and you're getting right up there in the $80+ a month range. Of course I could buy a phone unsubsidized and just drop it onto my existing plan, but there's no data at all on that except at the 'pay as you go' highway robbery rate, and a decent phone will set you back north of $600. I'm pretty sure AT&T is at least equally expensive and their network has crappier coverage (as it is neither of them will sustain a reliable connection at my office or home). Honestly though even if the reception was rock solid it is still a rather expensive luxury.