Would someone explain "Smart Phones" to me

Wendy said:

You never know, Tom, you might like it. I remember a few years ago when you never paid to stay at campgrounds and look at you now

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I never had a period of time when I never paid to stay at campgrounds. It was RV parks that I never paid to stay at, but only because I could not afford $30 per night. Now I can afford it so I am staying in RV parks.

There is no question that I would use a smart phone and that I would like it, I just don't know if it is worth the $30 per month. The only way I can find out is to spend $150 on a smart phone and $30 per month for two years for a data plan. That is almost a grand to see if I like it.

While I pay plenty for my kids (yea right 'kids' 18 n' 21) I don't use a "smart phone", I still use a 3G Moto Razor, blue tooth to the netbook for internet when RV'ing.  Careful with the smartphones, they are so 'smart' they may eat up your time by updating all the 'smart' stuff that is resident on them through the online airtime.  By the way.... I won't even tell you what my monthly bill is for all our phones.... Might give someone a heart attach....

McDonald's is a great place to go to update your aps. Libraries are good, too.

Tom, consider taking the plunge and signing up for a two year contract.  You'll get a better phone for free, saving $160 up front.  Right now Verizon offers the Motorola Droid 4G for free, you'll get 2 Gb vs. 1 Gb per month of data, more minutes than you'll need (450 per month) AND you'll save $10 per month.  PayGo requires $50 per month basic service plus a $30 1 Gb data plan, the contract offers $40 per month for 450 minutes talk plus $30 for 2 Gb data.

Yes, it means committing for 2 years (24 months or $1680 plus taxes) but you'll pay $240 more if you Pay As You Go for the same period.  Add to that the $160 cost of the phone if you buy it yourself and PayGo will cost $400 more than signing the contract.

Wendy, hold off a bit on Mike's smartphone.  Verizon will be announcing shared data plans this summer and that should be less expensive than 2 separate plans.  We have our two phones (my Droid Bionic and Lorna's feature phone) on a shared voice plan and if/when we move to a shared data plan I could just activate my old Droid on her number.  But that won't happen as long as I can keep my unlimited data plan

Aren't you paying something for your MiFi ?

Lou Schneider said:

Tom, consider taking the plunge and signing up for a two year contract.  You'll get a better phone for free, saving $160 up front.  Right now Verizon offers the Motorola Droid 4G for free, you'll get 2 Gb vs. 1 Gb per month of data, more minutes than you'll need (450 per month) AND you'll save $10 per month.  PayGo requires $50 per month basic service plus a $30 1 Gb data plan, the contract offers $40 per month for 450 minutes talk plus $30 for 2 Gb data.

Yes, it means committing for 2 years (24 months or $1680 plus taxes) but you'll pay $240 more if you Pay As You Go for the same period.  Add to that the $160 cost of the phone if you buy it yourself and PayGo will cost $400 more than signing the contract.

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First off I have not used credit in the last 30 years so I have no credit rating and no one is going to sell me a data package.

Lou, your numbers do not make sense to me. A $50 voice plan and a $30 data plan adds up to $80 per month which is almost $1000 per year. Right now I am paying $100 per year for a dumb phone. If I upgrade to Verizon's pay as you go smart phone it will cost me $460 per year ($30 per month data and $100 per year for voice) plus $150 for the phone.

So all you really need is a dumb phone that has wifi, so you can connect to your air card, anywhere you wish to carry it to.

Smart phone apps are just a convenience. One can find out any info they need with a simply search, with a phone that has wifi.

Anything you can do on a smart phone, you can do on your laptop. Like playing some games from facebook, or buying apps from the intel app up center. If that's your thing.

Figure out what do you really need. Or what you really want. And what your willing to pay for.

And there's your answer.

Are you sure you can transfer your existing Paygo to a smart phone?  The Verizon site says it's only available with a basic phone - otherwise it's $50 per month for 450 minutes of talk plus $30 for 1 gb data per month on a Smartphone.

Versus $40 for 450 minutes and $30 for 2 gb data per month on a 2 year contract - with a phone included.

That price is plus taxes, of course.  I'm paying just under $80 per month for my Smartphone, on a contract that's about to expire.

Any of these come to about $1920 per year - you can buy a lot of doodads like a separate GPS, netbook, etc. for that amount of  $$.

If/when Verizon terminates my unlimited data plan I'll probably go back to a regular phone and get my laptop Internet elsewhere.  A Smartphone is nice, but it's not worth that kind of money for stuff that I can do with other devices.

So all you really need is a dumb phone that has wifi, so you can connect to your air card, anywhere you wish to carry it to.

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Barb, a dumb phone doesn't have a data plan, so even if it could wi-fi (or Bluetooth) connect to a laptop, there's no Internet access.  Some phones have limited on-screen web surfing through a mobile portal, but these can't connect to a computer.

I agree - Tom's best bet is probably staying with a regular phone, especially if it's only costing him $100 per year.  I may do the same when my Smartphone contract expires.

Lou Schneider said:

Are you sure you can transfer your existing Paygo to a smart phone?  The Verizon site says it's only available with a basic phone - otherwise it's $50 per month for 450 minutes of talk plus $30 for 1 gb data per month on a Smartphone.

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You are losing me Lou. I don't know what Paygo is and I don't use it. I did a search on Verizon's site and got no hits with Paygo.

Lou Schneider said:

Barb, a dumb phone doesn't have a data plan, so even if it could wi-fi (or Bluetooth) connect to a laptop, there's no Internet access.  Some phones have limited on-screen web surfing through a mobile portal, but these can't connect to a computer.

I agree - Tom's best bet is probably staying with a regular phone, especially if it's only costing him $100 per year.  I may do the same when my Smartphone contract expires.

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Not exactly true, however not sure how available.... I in-fact do have a 3G, unlimited plan for $19.95/month, blue tooth to laptop, have had it since 2008.

Tom, If it's too confusing and too costly, then you probably ought to stick with what you have.

Sorry Tom, Paygo = Pay As You Go, the prepaid plans.

While there are feature phones with WiFi, there are none available in the US to my knowledge, and definitely none from Verizon Wireless.

Wendy said:

Tom, If it's too confusing and too costly, then you probably ought to stick with what you have.

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It is not too confusing. I am just perplexed as to why people pay $30 a month for a data plan so they can have the Internet 24/7. I don't need to be hooked up endlessly. What is it that the smart phones can do that I can't do with my laptop or netbook besides fit in my pocket?

I had the Iphone for years because of work. Email, web browsing, sharing a calendar, intl calling, camera, GPS for navigation, etc, etc, and work paid about $120/month.
Gave it up and don?t miss it a bit. I will say I went with Verizon, and did get a smart phone just in case I had withdrawal. If needed, I could turn on the data plan for about $30 per phone. When I purchased the phone and signed up I didn?t turn on anything except the phone and text plan. I actually had to get two but the phone bill and text plan is about $80/month for both phones with no data. Gives us plenty of talk time and text messages. I only surf the web on my laptop, have GPS for my laptop and don?t need to get email or calendar info during the day anymore. If someone needs me they can call or text. When my contract expires I will probably look for something less expensive now that I know I can live without all the bells and whistles, I say save your money. I have never found an app that I couldn?t do on the laptop or live without. I got the phone (Pantech Crux) and service thru the Verizon store. JM2C

zzyzx said:

It is not too confusing. I am just perplexed as to why people pay $30 a month for a data plan so they can have the Internet 24/7. I don't need to be hooked up endlessly. What is it that the smart phones can do that I can't do with my laptop or netbook besides fit in my pocket?

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If you wanna try it without the VZ 2 year contract... buy a phone outright and then activate VZ on a Month-to-Month basis.  If you like it, keep it; if you don't, drop it... no penalties.  You can find phones for sale all over the place: new ones, used ones; big ones, little ones; some with cameras, some without; some with memory cards, some without; some with good reviews, some not; you know the drill.  We found a pair of Samsung's on eBay for $75 each; works fine; set up for VZ and took about 5 minutes to activate... then it has taken us about 2 months to learn how to use most of the features.  If you can find a phone guru to wipe all the VZ bloatware off the phone before you activate it, you will benefit in the long run.  The utility is in the "apps" which need a data plan to load and operate... that and the sync feature with your google accounts (or APPL, if you drink the cool aide). 

We were Tracfone addicts for years and now "like" the new technology but it is very expensive.

Re: Would someone explain "Smart Phones" to me

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Tom, they're smarter than all of us put together!  :  Sorry, I just couldn't resist that comment.  :-X

Jerry finally dragged me into the 21st Century a few months ago.  We ditched my old "telephone only" instrument for a Droild like his.  Every day I'm amazed by it.  The GPS function is unbelievable, including seeing the backyard swimming pool of someone we visited yesterday!  But I had a really neat use for it a couple of days ago.  We fueled at a huge Pilot/Flying J.  When Jerry went into pay I told him to ask them how to get out of there because it was really crowded and I couldn't see an exit or any trucks leaving.  He turned on the Google GPS function, zoomed in on where we were, and I studied it when he went inside.  Darned if I couldn't see the entrance where we arrived and the exit to leave with several rows of trucks in front of me to drive around.  THAT was really useful!  Also, when we called our current campground they weren't very forthcoming about how to enter.  They definitely are clueless about driving an RV because we were told to just drive into the parking lot of the store in front which turned out to be a gas station and convenience store.  Yeah, sure, a 40-foot motorhome and toad in a standard C-store parking lot.  They could have told us to drive another 100 yards to the "real" campground entrance!  Again, Jerry zoomed in with the satellite view and we could see the layout.

The best part is when you want to search for something, you don't have to type it.  You simply speak it into the phone and most of the time it starts the search before you're finished talking.  Jerry loves it for messages because he's not the greatest typist.  When we go somewhere we've been before Jerry doesn't always want to carry the camera, but we've now taken some really good pictures with the Android phone.  The clarity is excellent!  AND - we even use it to make phone calls!  ;D So, like Wendy and others I'm learning to like my new phone that is smarter than me.  ;D

ArdraF

ArdraF said:

AND - we even use it to make phone calls!

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You should post this on an iPhone forum. I bet there are a lot of iPhone users out there that don't realize they can actually make calls on their phone.

I held a BBQ for some of my family members yesterday and there were two teenagers there that I didn't get to talk to very much because their face was buried in their iPhone most of the time. They would sit there leaning against each other and type away. I was wondering if they were chatting with someone else or each other.

Thank you Ardra for your informative reply. I can see that there really won't be an advantage for me to get a smart phone. There is only one of me and so there is no one to look at the iPhone when I am driving. I only have a 32 footer with no toad and it is like a sports car to me. I have no problem just about anyplace I drive it.

Yes the camera is excellent but since you can't put a 500mm lens on it then it is worthless for me.