Recommend me a phone and/or plan

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Recommend me a phone and/or plan

Grifter: Jul 24, 2003; I do this technique called a suplex. You probably haven't heard of it, it's pretty obscure.

Country/Provider: USA, Minnesota. I don't really have a preference for a provider.
Current contract status: None. I am looking to buy my first phone ever.
Budget (phone/plan): $100 (phone), $40. However, I don't need much in the way of features so if it can be done in less than that, great.
Features I know I want: I don't talk much on the phone, but I do want this to be my primary line. I'm getting rid of my landline when I get a new phone. I probably do 90% of my calling after 9 PM. An evenings and weekends plan is a must. I occasionally text, so a small plan to cover that would be good. My other big concern is ringtones. I want to be able to customize my phone with my own wavs or MP3s for different callers. That's about it. If there's some customization work to be done (installing BitPim looks fairly simple from what I see on their website) then that's fine.

I read the FAQ but I know next to nothing about phones besides that, I've never purchased one before.

# ¿ Dec 27, 2008 16:50

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 00:05

Grifter: Jul 24, 2003; I do this technique called a suplex. You probably haven't heard of it, it's pretty obscure.

Country/Provider: Verizon/USA

Current contract status: Expires at the end of this year

Budget (phone/plan): Not much!

Features I know I want: Here's where it gets interesting.

Currently I carry around a phone (LG Octane) and an iPod. I use the iPod for music and movies and rarely other things (stopwatch, alarm, pictures). I'm interested in combining these things into one device, but I don't want a data plan. I don't want to pay for a data plan but more importantly I simply don't want to have the internet on my phone. I guess I'm looking for smartphone like functionality (apps for media player stuff and maybe other tools) with iPod like storage (room for lots of movies and music) but in terms of wireless capabilities I'm only looking for calling and maybe wi-fi. I will also say that I don't know a thing about phones, so maybe this is easy - I could just buy an android or iPhone or whatever and then not get a data plan. Is this possible?

# ¿ Feb 22, 2012 19:13

Grifter: Jul 24, 2003; I do this technique called a suplex. You probably haven't heard of it, it's pretty obscure.

Duckman2008 posted:

That is certainly not possible on Verizon. The only carrier remotely friendly about letting you have a smartphone sans data is tmobile, and you must buy the phone outright or used to do it. Honestly, stick with your current combo.

drat, too bad. Thanks for the info. I was hoping for something like a phone that I could make calls from but I would put apps and media stuff on it by plugging it in, like I do with music for my iPod now.

# ¿ Feb 23, 2012 18:00

Grifter: Jul 24, 2003; I do this technique called a suplex. You probably haven't heard of it, it's pretty obscure.

My wife and I have finally decided to get on the smartphone bandwagon. We currently both have dumb flip phones. We had a two year contract with Verizon which has expired, so this is a window for us to make changes if that's what we decide to do. I will preface this by saying I don't know much about smartphones so my requirements may be things that exist on every phone.

Country/Provider: USA, Verizon
Current contract status: Month to Month
Budget (phone/plan): Preferably somewhere around what we pay now, which is about $100 for both of us.
Features I know I want: Camera, video camera, ability to post pictures directly to social media, navigation, MP3 player, maybe plays videos?

I've been looking at the Verizon prepaid plan. Verizon because tests show that they are the best provider in my area for quality, speed, etc. The plan I am looking at is $45 per device, 1 GB data per month, unlimited talk/text. So that would be $90 for the two of us. Their contract plan is $130 for up to ten devices and 10 GB of data. We only need the two devices and can live with less data so I feel the prepaid option is best, but I'm open to opinions from those who know more thanI. I have not had a data plan before but I think 1 GB will do us because we spend most of our time at places with wireless networks (home or work) that we can put our phones on.

So it looks like the phones we would be restricted to are those specifically offered on the Verizon site, linked above. Am I generally better off buying elsewhere but selecting the model on the site, or just ordering through them? I will probably be going with one of there lower end phones (like less than $100 per phone). Are any of the phones listed their specifically thought to be good? I'm interested in the iPhone 4 because I assume I can sync my iTunes like I can with my iPod. Here are the phones listed on the site also in our price range.

Moto G by Motorola
Luge by Motorola
LG Transpyre in Black
LG Optimus Exceed 2
Apple iPhone 4 - 16 GB
Nokia Lumia 928
Samsung Galaxy Legend
LG Optimus Zone 2

# ¿ Nov 25, 2014 00:09

Grifter: Jul 24, 2003; I do this technique called a suplex. You probably haven't heard of it, it's pretty obscure.

LastInLine posted:

The Moto G doesn't make use of Verizon's LTE network and neither does the iPhone 4. Get an iPhone that does.

Every single one of those Android phones except the Moto G is terrible and the Moto G won't work on LTE. I wouldn't consider any of them to be viable options.

I'm not that concerned about internet speeds. It's actually kind of a plus for me that it's slow. I spend too much time in front of a computer normally anyway, so if I'm out I could use a disincentive to make me stop and talk to people instead. I'm thinking about pulling the trigger on the iphone 4.

anakha posted:

You can also expand your options if you're willing to consider moving from Verizon.

Call quality is important to me, so I'd rather not switch. For my area verizon is best. When I started looking into this I was considering smaller companies that lease time on the big networks but couldn't find on the verizon network that also had good rates, so I ended up back with Verizon.

# ¿ Nov 25, 2014 02:19

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 00:05

Grifter: Jul 24, 2003; I do this technique called a suplex. You probably haven't heard of it, it's pretty obscure.

RVProfootballer posted:

That's really bad reasoning. Just stick with a dumb phone then.

Do not get a 4.5 year old phone, that is incredibly dumb. My impression is Verizon prepaid usually isn't a great option, but others are probably more knowledgeable about that. If you're on a plan without a subsidy, as others have said a Moto G or Moto X, either 2013 or 2014, will be good options. If it supports Verizon's LTE bands, a 2013 Moto G LTE would be a good bet for cheap and decent, or a 2013 Moto X for just a little more. No off contract phone that is cheaper than a Moto G will be worth the tradeoff of a slightly cheaper price.

If you are buying on subsidy, spend the $100-200 to get a current flagship, like an iPhone 6. You're new to smart phones, you want one that is top of the line so it is as nice and pleasant to use as possible. The notion that people new to smart phones should get a cheap bad one is completely backwards.

I'm now considering this, I can't tell if it's 2013 or 2014.

# ¿ Nov 25, 2014 03:54

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Recommend me a phone and/or plan