Need a new phone

[wheel]

Say I want a new phone, mostly for researching marketing, social media etc. I want to be hooked into what the young folks are doing.

What phone would I get?

I get a new phone every 10 years or so, even if there's nothing wrong with my current one and it's about time.

[koan]

Are you guys rich or something? I understand kids having a basic cell phone with an affordable monthly plan... but smart phones? The monthly fees are like cable TV. Although my geek side is interested, I haven't justified getting one for myself because of the cost.

[HuskyPup]

Are you guys rich or something?

Don't even go there!

How the heck my youngest daughter can justify to herself a full-on Nokia N8 for 2 years at USD 65.00 month when she's unemloyed I have absolutely no idea!

[LifeinAsia]

I haven't justified getting one for myself because of the cost.

Ditto that!

I too wanted to explore all the cool things, but couldn't stomach the monthly price. PLUS the monthly data charge. PLUS the taxes on all that!

I already have a pay-as-you-go phone (no monthly charges) that I hardly use- probably <$10/month for calls an an occasional text. It has an okay camera (but for taking real pictures, I use a real camera). So I certainly couldn't justify the expense of a smart phone.

So I did the next best thing- got a iPod and use it with WiFi. Sure, it only does about 95% of the cool things a smart phone can do. And I have to carry my cell phone in addition to the iPod if I want to make calls. And I can't use WiFi everywhere (although I have a MiFi for when I travel). But I also don't have to take out a second mortgage every month just to pay the phone bill. :)

[wheel]

The smartphone was a Christmas gift. She was going to buy one herself anyway, from her earnings because she works 10-15 hours a week.

The monthly cost was another $15 a month above the bare minimum monthly plan I was paying for. I don't think <$200 a year as a treat was a big deal given that in addition to working part time, she's getting 90's in school - and that's without any pressure from the parents. And she had the base 'free' phone for years.

She's quite clear that a phone isn't a fashion accessory that I'm buying every year to match her purse. She knows the iphone's it until she's in university in a couple of years and buying her own phone.

And in middle class western society, a few hundred bucks a year for a cell phone for a good kid, I don't see that as rich.

Anyway, I was at my friend's house of the weekend. He actually is rich (told me he expects to be a billionaire before he's done, and he's not exaggerating). He's the one the one that convinced me to eventually get an ipad. And he showed me how he can tether his ipad to his iphone for internet. The iphone can be set up as a wireless base station for a half dozen devices. So you can have the ipad, and a laptop and so on. That's very handy for vacation.

Surprisingly, I'm finding that either a blackberry or an iphone is really about it. All the other gadgets, doesn't seem like many are bothering with them. I'm not missing the next great thing. So maybe I'll just go get an iphone.
The next hurdle is that I actually am pretty cheap when it comes to this stuff. It's going to take some straining to get the purse strings opened big enough for me to purchase an iphone :).

[koan]

wheel, she does sound like a great kid! I'm just a bit surprised when I read every teenager has an Iphone these days, because these things are like $50 more than your base cell phone every month. It adds up! I like the newest toys too, but unless I can justify it on a professional level (being on the road often, managing clients, etc), this is too much for just the cool factor when something way cheaper can still do 90% of what I need. I do stay informed though.

To answer the OP, I think I would go for an android phone, like the Google Nexus. Hmmm.. maybe for research... lol.

[Matthew1980]

^^^

I see, like that 3D thingy on that link, though personally, I wish I had of spent the extra £50 to get me the X10 Mini Pro instead of the X10 Mini, so that I could have had the detachable battery & a full querty keypad. But me being the impatient so and so that I am, I needed a half decent phone for my holiday to Hong Kong, so I got the one I could afford literally the week before I flew.

Pity you can't retrofit hindsight - sigh.

Comically, this weekend, my phone decided to completely discharge the battery, and then took all weekend to charge up. I found that the car charger I had bought developed a fault and shorted the battery out. It lives now thankfully.

Well Weeks, I hope you are enjoying your new purchase :)

Cheers,
MRb

[BillyS]

Surprisingly, I'm finding that either a blackberry or an iphone is really about it.

Yikes, that's so wrong. Android is the clear winner in 2010 and it looks like 2011 will be even better.


I have a blackberry storm and my wife has a Droid X. Comparing a blackberry to an android phone is like comparing Windows 3.1 to Windows 7 (or your favorite distro...).

I would have recommended the HTC ThunderBolt, which will be my next phone.

[lawman]

>>I have a blackberry storm

I'm surprised you kept it. When I switched to Verizon a couple of years ago I was sure I wanted the Storm. I ended up taking it back the next day and got a blackberry with a real keyboard.

[wheel]

I bought the best phone available at the time and have a killer data plan. I actually use the phone about once every two weeks. I call my wife when I'm about a block away from the house and say "remind me when I get home to {something}". I bought the storm because it has big buttons to dial with. A regular blackberry, my fingers are too big.

Yikes, that's so wrong. Android is the clear winner in 2010 and it looks like 2011 will be even better.

Linux vs. Mac vs MS. What's better and what's got market share seem to be inversely correlated. That's what I'm finding out here....if you want to see what everyone's using, it's iphone or blackberry. Droid's for the linux crowd.

[weeks]

I bought the storm because it has big buttons to dial with.

I am really enjoying the buttons on the front of my phone; my old phone had a touch screen that was problematic. As I mentioned earlier, the lock down on this phone is great--you have to hit the OK twice to unlock. My pocket is not beeping and I'm not calling people from inside my briefcase. That's nice.

As you know, when you get a new phone you have to "set it up." I was pretty good about it for a while doing what I should do, but after a while I put it aside to do other things. Then, late last night, tired, I picked up the new phone and started playing with it, discovering it's little tricks. The designers really strive to be handy, and to discover some features you have sorta "let the force be with you." As I clicked this, pushed that, it was "ah, cool" several times. But, it's going to take a few weeks to become one with this phone.

It strikes me that a phone with a lot of features (an iPhone, for example) might not be good for those of us who cannot chew gum and walk at the same time.

Or, to put another way, the technology is beginning to become cooler, more sophisticated, than most real life people actually are or can be. Which makes me wonder: How many of these phone purchases are aspirational--I'm not this savvy and my life is not this cool, but the kind of life I see this phone representing what I aspire to have. And, maybe there is nothing wrong with that. Perhaps more people should aspire to be as sophisticated and smart as an iPhone.

I'm going to have a difficult time living up to the standards of my not-smartphone.

[wheel]

If they made a cell phone with a rotary dial, I would totally buy it. Seriously, why is it me that always has to think of these things?

[lawman]

Only wheel would think of a cell phone with a rotary dial. :)