worth getting a smartphone?

[mamamia88]

right now i have a dumb phone i don't pay a cent for because i'm on the family plan. if i got a smart phone i would have to pay for the monthly fee out of my own paycheck. i don't really make many phone calls and i only really keep it around for emergencies but i like the idea of a "do it all device" in my pocket. what do you think is it worth around $70 a month for a smartphone or should i just stick with what i have?

[AllRadioisDead]

I love my iphone, I could never go back to a normal phone.

[eksasol]

right now i have a dumb phone i don't pay a cent for because i'm on the family plan. if i got a smart phone i would have to pay for the monthly fee out of my own paycheck. i don't really make many phone calls and i only really keep it around for emergencies but i like the idea of a "do it all device" in my pocket. what do you think is it worth around $70 a month for a smartphone or should i just stick with what i have?

I never like smartphones which are phones wit keyboard, but no touch screen. Much better to get a touchscreen phone or one with both touchscreen and sliding keyboard. I was in your position, I got an HTC Snap which was terrible, then I bought an HTC TouchPro2. Of course, my phone is WinMo which I don't recommend, WinMo is irrelevant now. However, HTC makes many good phones for Android as well, ranging from cheap (Hero) to very expensive (Nexus One), so you have some choices.

I am on Sprint and I did the upgrade when I was eligible for the 2 years upgrade. Its only worth it if you are going to be on an unlimited data plan and needing Internet anywhere you go. Of course, it's good if you get something with GPS capability or can run Google Maps. If you have no real reason and you don't need email, message, etc send directly all the time, there are probably better use of $70. And of course, if you don't want a data plan, they won't even sell you the phone.

For my situation, I live far from the city. There are customized (xda) firmware for my WinMo phone that give it tethering ability so I double the phone as an Internet source.

PS. If you do plan to get one, do research and go to specific forums and ask about the phone. You're not going to get any good feedbacks from the workers at the stores.

[chucky chuckaluck]

i'm addicted to my droid. i now have internet access in every bathroom i enter.

[RichardLinx]

I could never go back to using a "regular" cell phone now. Getting a blackberry really opened my eyes. Seriously, it does everything. It's so freaking handy too. The other day I got some error while installing openSUSE on a Macbook G4, couldn't find paper, then I remembered I could just take note of the error on my blackberry.

Handiest thing ever. Smartphones are well worth it. And you don't have to go on the plan if you buy it 'unlocked' online.

[madjr]

it's your money, you will become addicted

is worth it, specially the android ones you could do anything with them, no need to jailbreak, they support flash and has lots of apps/games and google services built in. unlimited storage

many will also let you use them as a modem, so you'll have internet on your lappy. for some thats the only internet they pay

depending on the carrier am sure you could get it cheaper thant $70

[ve4cib]

My first phone was a (very) dumb phone. It was a pay-as-you go Virgin Wireless Motorolla something-or-other. The call quality was sketchy, the battery didn't last, and the minimum top-up amount was too high (and the maximum time between top-ups before you lost your minutes kept getting cut shorter and shorter) so that it just wasn't worth it anymore. I went several years without a phone and was quite happy.

Enter the N900. I'd always been a fan (on paper) of the N800 and N810 tablets, so when I heard about the N900 also being a phone I was suddenly struck by this urge of "I must have one!" Well, to be honest that urge also struck me when the very first Android phones came out, but I managed to hold off buying one of those.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I finally bought an unlocked N900 off NewEgg.ca, used it as a PMP/internet tablet for a while, and finally caved in and signed a 1-year contract with Rogers. (And for those of you in Canada you know how painful it is to sign a contract with Rogers. My 1-year voice + 500MB/month data plan has a total cost greater than that of the phone. And the phone was somewhere in the $600-$700 range!)

Rogers being overpriced aside, I am a huge fan of this little device. With conservative use and a little tweaking you can get a full day out of the battery. Because it can charge over a USB port it's trivial to charge it at work/school/wherever if you wind up needing more battery life.

I used to be one of those people who liked a dedicated device for everything; mobile computing I use a laptop, photography I use a camera, music I use an mp3 player, etc, etc... Each device fit into its niche very well, and performed admirably.

My N900 is not as good a camera as my Pentax. It's not as good a GPS as a Garmin. It's not as good an mp3 player as my Cowon (they're really very similar in terms of sound quality and memory, but the fact that my Cowon has hardware controls that can be manipulated inside a pocket by touch beats a touchscreen interface IMO). And it's certainly not as powerful or useful a computer as my HP laptop.

But most of the time I don't need a Garmin GPS, and my Pentax is 6MP; only one mega-pixel more than the N900. (The Pentax is also waterproof, and probably more shock-resistant too, but unless I'm hiking or taking pictures in the pouring rain that's rarely an issue.) If I'm taking the bus to/from work I don't need a full laptop; I have a computer at work and a computer at home. So this little Swiss-army-knife of techno-gadgetry works very well for what I want to have with me, but without requiring a tactical vest to carry everything around in.

Is it worth getting a smart phone? It really depends on your wants/needs. I certainly did not need to get one. Now that I have one do I enjoy it? Yes, I do. Would I recommend getting one to a technophile? Yes. Would I advise my mother to get one? Probably not.

Just remember to be reasonable in your expectations of what a smart phone can and cannot do. It's like a digital Swiss-army-knife; it does a lot of things decently, but doesn't excel at any of them. Yes, it's possible to perform surgery with a Swiss-army-knife, but a set of scalpels will do the job much better.

[Gallahhad]

right now i have a dumb phone i don't pay a cent for because i'm on the family plan. if i got a smart phone i would have to pay for the monthly fee out of my own paycheck. i don't really make many phone calls and i only really keep it around for emergencies but i like the idea of a "do it all device" in my pocket. what do you think is it worth around $70 a month for a smartphone or should i just stick with what i have?

In your case. No.
If your not an internet/information/email/text/phone junky, then you would just be paying for a data/sms/mms/voice plan that you don't need, and the part you do need, you currently get for free.

I love smart phones, we have 2 here in my home. But I'm a junky.

[shooting]

I want to get a smartphone but I'm worried that it will be outdated really fast. I want to get the Droid. I don't like the iphone cause it's on at&t so should I wait or get a phone?

[RichardLinx]

You might as well just get one now. Either way your tech is going to become outdated after six months no matter when you get it. That's just how it is with phones.

[Naiki Muliaina]

Got a samgsung slide (corby pro in some countries) a while ago. £100ish pay as you go, web, wifi, 3g, messenger (ebuddy rules!), never use my phone as a phone. I love it. Costs me at most £5 a month for web access, and does me fine and dandy :)

In my case it suits me as i didnt pay £300 up front or get roped into a £20 s month contract.

[HappinessNow]

I just got my first "smart"phone this past Monday; the Google Nexus One (ATT 3G version) and I have to say to call it a "phone" is very misleading...a phone is just one of many functions that it does.

I bought my phone unlocked directly from Google and only had to pay $15 additional for the unlimted data/web/messaging plan from ATT (up from my $15 1500 minute messaging plan which I canceled).

All my calls are automatically made through my Google Voice number and all Voice mails are automatically routed through Google Voice; I love that Wifi connection is automatic also.

I honestly could not do a comparision/contrast to other smartphones since this is my first one but I have tried out in stores or friends: iPhone, Motorola Droid, HTC Droid Eris, and the Motorola Backflip and I have to say out of all of those I like the Nexus One the best.

[Oldskool Slacker]

I have to say to call it a "phone" is very misleading...a phone is just one of many functions that it does.



I'll second this. I think of mine as a handheld computer with the ability to make voice calls thrown in.

I have a Motorola Cliq, on T-Mobile. The interface takes a little getting used to, but overall it's great.

[3rdalbum]

right now i have a dumb phone i don't pay a cent for because i'm on the family plan. if i got a smart phone i would have to pay for the monthly fee out of my own paycheck. i don't really make many phone calls and i only really keep it around for emergencies but i like the idea of a "do it all device" in my pocket. what do you think is it worth around $70 a month for a smartphone or should i just stick with what i have?

It's not flashy, it's not slick, but it's a smartphone and it's cheap. The Nokia e63. It's a messaging phone (think Blackberry, with the keyboard instead of number pad) and you can usually find them in cheap plans or in prepaid starter kits. It even has 3G and Wifi, which is excellent for such a cheap phone.

The E71 is the same, but thinner and with GPS.

I'll reiterate that this is not a flashy phone that you'll show off, or is super-simple to use, or think "This is cool", but it works well as a phone and there's a LOT you can do with it even before you use the Ovi Store.

[Jaecyn42]

In my experience, using an iPod touch in tandem with a dumbphone is a decent SmartPhone surrogate, provided you can access WiFi when you need to use it.

My phone is an LG Banter. I can use it for limited web functions (checking email, facebook, etc) when WiFi is not available. But when I can get a connection, I vastly prefer my iPod.

However, this will saddle you with a new set of problems. Getting your iPod to play nicely with Ubuntu or, if you lack WiFi at home, booting ******* every time you want to add a song or update an app.