Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Looked at iPhone 4

I carry an antique Motorola Razr right now -- so antique that there is no way to transfer photos directly from it to anything else.  I have to send them to another phone number.  So I looked at the possibility of upgrading my phone.  Verizon has a free iPhone 4...but it turns out that even with the 300 MB/month data plan, it comes to either $62 a month (if I believe the web page) or $80 a month (if I believe the live chat operator on their website).  Either way, that's a bit rich for me.  I think I will stick with my antique for a while longer.

10 comments:

  1. I must be more of a fogey than you.

    I do not text (I think of it as a regression back to the days of the telegraph; talking is much quicker.)

    I do not take photos; all the pictures I like are between my ears.

    I use a phone as a phone, and the ones I like the best are rugged, flip-type with big numbers that announce themselves as you push them.

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  2. You should check out the 'no-contract' phones at Wal*Mart.

    Some of them are pretty nice and they have unlimited talk, data and texting.

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  3. For the price of 4-5 months of Verizon iPhone 4 you can get a no-contract Samsung Galaxy S2 that's roughly comparable on T-mobile from WalMart. The S2 has a better camera (8 vs. 5 MP), longer call life (18 vs 7 hours), and a bigger screen and more memory. My daughter loves her S2 much more than her friend's iPhone.

    Personally, I can't do an iPhone. I need too much internal storage because I use the phone to video stuff or take a ton of pictures when the kids and I are out doing stuff and I don't have other equipment with me.

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  4. I spend about $100 a YEAR on my TracFone. I have a camera for taking pictures.

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  5. While I love the concept of a smart phone, it is not something that we need. If you poke around at your providers web site long enough, you may find a "dumb" phone. We just exchanged our phones about 8 months ago without having to upgrade to a smart phone plan.

    A second option is that you purchase a used cell and use your SIM card to transfer your information.

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  6. If your Razr is CDMA, you should check out BitPim, a free phone data transfer tool. I've used it to get pictures and MP3s in and out of Verizon phones with similar restrictions.

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  7. You could look into Virgin Mobiles contract free iPhones. You buy the unsubsidized phone, the iPhone 4 is 550, and the 4S is 650, but the monthly rates are pretty low for the plans. They start at about 30 dollars a month and go to about 50 dollars depending on how many minutes you need, but all the plans have "unlimited" text and data. I think Virgin Mobile uses the Sprint network. Cricket mobile has similar deal as well.

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  8. In reference to Wal-Mart's offerings, the company behind that (one of Carlos Slim's ventures, which has some moral implications) has gotten a clue and you can get just a SIM card from them by ordering on the web. When my father did this with an iPhone 3GS a few months ago, the word was that if you keep below 2GB/month they won't cancel your $45/month "unlimited" plan.

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  9. I have been carrying the same Motorola Razr phone for over 5 years now. I'm on my second battery and thinking I am about due for a third. Everyone tells me that I need a smart phone. I'm not sold on the idea yet. My phone is a phone. I only send and receive about 250 text messages a year. So it works just fine for that. If I need pictures or videos - that is why I bought a decent camera and camcorder.

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  10. Check out Republic Wireless. They have an Android phone (Motorola XTC) that runs over Sprint's network or over WiFi.

    $20/month w/ no service contract. The phone costs ~$250 (and you must get it from them).

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