I was in the same boat at you. I'm at my computer most of the day, or at home where I can access the internet anytime I want. The availability of mobile data was always a nice feature, but not something I wanted to pay for. I decided to jump into walmart's straight talk plan. Got the Samsung Precedent (I think, can't recall for sure had the 3.5" screen, which was on the bigger side of the ones you can use thru straight talk, at least it was a year ago, not sure how things have changed since then)
Overall, I'm pretty happy. The phone does everything I could want it to do, which is mostly accept/make phone calls and send texts/pictures. I surf the web sparingly, mostly looking up random information when I'm out/about and questions come up. The navigation/map features have come in handy on more than 1 occasion where I wasn't 100% where I was heading.
As far as the service, it uses the verizon network (my phone, some use the ATT network, perhaps others as well) If I understand things correctly, I get 2nd priority behind the regular Verizon customers, so say if I'm at a Reds game on opening day, with a lot of people concentrated in one area using their phones/data I may have a hard time getting calls thru, but I don't know if that is urban legend or not. I've never had an issue getting a call thru in an area where I would normally expect to have little trouble.
There is one spot b/w my house and work, where I tend to miss calls, and see that I have a message all of a sudden. Prior to this phone, I was on Verizon, and had issues in the exact same area, so that part is a network issue, not so much a 2nd priority issue since I'm going thru straight talk.
You won't get the best phone, not sure if you can do 4G yet, the data is allegedly unlimited, but I've heard stories of people getting kicked off for going excessively over 2GB. I doubt I ever get close to that number; most places have wifi, so the mobile data is needed very sparingly. The battery dries up quick, need to charge it pretty much any day that I use for something beyond making calls. Seems if you have the mobile data on, or wifi, that it drains the battery quicker, even if you don't use it. I fix that, by just turning the data off/on real quick to get it from trying to update whatever is running in the background.
If you're looking for a smart phone, but don't want to pay the monthly bill that ATT & Verizon charge, I think its a great option. You won't have the best, newest phone on the market, but my guess is you don't really care about that, just one that can do most everything you want, while not getting the cool tricks they show in the latest commercials.
this is the phone I have on straight talk:
http://www.shopstraighttalk.com/bpdi...ionId=15771226
$150 now, I think it was up around $200 about a year ago. As mentioned, previously I was on a "dumb" phone about 5 years old, thru verizon, paying about $45 plus tax a month for roughly 200 minutes a month or something, plus I had to pay for each text sent/recieved (and what really frosted me was when my sister would send out a picture of her kids, then I'd get 15 responses back from people I didn't even know saying how cute the picture was. The pictures were cute, I'll give you that, but the $0.05 I paid for the response of some unknown person was annoying) With some nominal discount they gave me after signing up with autopay, I actually pay a little less a month for my phone that I did w/ my old phone, get the exact same phone reception as I did prior (as far as I can tell) plus a whole bucket load of better features.
I should add, since there was a lot of talk about poor customer service when I bought my phone, which made me slightly hesitant, that I had 2 issues early on with my phone trying to get it setup. The 1st came when it was time to automatically renew my monthly plan, and somehow my number got changed and everything got out of whack. It was handled pretty quickly thru customer service. A similar thing happened the 2nd month, my number stayed the same, but the auto renewal wasn't working. Again, a quick call and they got things setup/working properrly. Since then, I haven't had any problems w/ the service/phone in the last year+
Your guess is right. I lost the charger for my dumb phone and decided "it's time" to step up. I was looking at $80/month minimum. I hit the pause button, frankly, when I was reading the "Things I want to learn how to do" thread. What do I really need? An app for the next bus would be cool, an occassional map and, of course, a phone.
I'm still considering just picking up a charger for dumb phone instead. But at $45/month, I may just have to make my first-ever trip to Walmart.
I don't believe you have to actually walk into a walmart to purchase the phone/plan, you can do it all online thru smarttalk.com. If that makes you feel any better about not stepping foot into a walmart.
iPhone 4S.
Will go to the iPhone 5S when it gets released this October.
Cincinnati Reds: Farm System Champions 2022
I have straight talk and am well pleased with it. After buying the phone, which was around 150 or so, cant remember, I pay 45 dollars a month and get unlimited texting, calling and internet.
I just do the payment online as I get a card at walmart and it takes about 30 seconds on my computer.
I just bought an unlocked Motorola Atrix 4g $180.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
to use on T-Mobile's Prepaid plan. $100 will cover my voice needs for a year. I also have a prepaid Wifi hot spot I pay $17 a month for.
Sony Xperia TL. Best smart phone I have ever used (I have never used iPhone, but have experience with pretty much everything else - mostly Android phones). HTC was fine, but this Sony is a few notches better. Very stable and fast. And camera is more than useable.
I have an old HTC Droid Incredible that I need to swap out. However, I want one that is just as small, which is basically the same size as an iPhone. Suggestions would be welcomed.
Next Reds manager, second shooter. --Confirmed on Redszone.
You can get the iphone4 for like $450 from straight talk and use that.
You can also buy a used one from someone looking to upgrade to the iphone 5, though you may have to jail break it. I'm not sure how that works, you've been able to use the iphone on straight talk for a while, well before they sold the old version of iphones (they had to be an ATT version where you can remove the sim card, not sure that the verision model worked), but if you wanted to send text pictures, you had to jail break it. I read a lot into it, thought about going that route, but I wasn't sure what all jail breaking implied, both legally speaking and technically speaking in terms of updated the phone moving forward, but the samsung I got filled all my needs, and then some, so I went that route.
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