Advice Wanted...Please?
Nov. 11th, 2012 05:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatYou helped a great deal on the humidifier problem...so wondering if you can help with the smartphones?
I need to upgrade to a smartphone. Feel like the last person on the planet with an old cell phone. Which can't text. Been trying to do this for about a month now. But each time I walk into T-Mobile or any store for that matter, I'm overwhelmed with options.
No idea which one to pick.
My needs are very simple:
1.texting, (probably will do this more than make actual phone calls - people text don't call now.)
2.phone calls,
3. apps for airlines
4. Personal GPS - navigational aid (tells where closest subways are and how to get around)
5. internet access. Don't need it for music (have ipod touch for that). Won't use it to read - already struggling with small print as it is. Probably will use for Facebook. Not for livejournal. And do not envision watching tv or movies on a tiny screen.
I currently have a T-Mobile Nokia Classic flip-phone that is over three years old. Last one I got was in 2008. So no longer on contract. But changing services could be dicey or difficult. Might be easier to stick with T-Mobile even if their in-store service is horrible.
Can you help? Please see poll below of all the types of phones that I know of:
[Poll #1878263]
I need to upgrade to a smartphone. Feel like the last person on the planet with an old cell phone. Which can't text. Been trying to do this for about a month now. But each time I walk into T-Mobile or any store for that matter, I'm overwhelmed with options.
No idea which one to pick.
My needs are very simple:
1.texting, (probably will do this more than make actual phone calls - people text don't call now.)
2.phone calls,
3. apps for airlines
4. Personal GPS - navigational aid (tells where closest subways are and how to get around)
5. internet access. Don't need it for music (have ipod touch for that). Won't use it to read - already struggling with small print as it is. Probably will use for Facebook. Not for livejournal. And do not envision watching tv or movies on a tiny screen.
I currently have a T-Mobile Nokia Classic flip-phone that is over three years old. Last one I got was in 2008. So no longer on contract. But changing services could be dicey or difficult. Might be easier to stick with T-Mobile even if their in-store service is horrible.
Can you help? Please see poll below of all the types of phones that I know of:
[Poll #1878263]
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-11-11 10:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-11 10:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-12 11:22 pm (UTC)My current phone is a Samsung, just can't text - well it can but if you try to write "can" - you get "caught" instead. So "can we meet" becomes "Caught we meat". I gave up finally. It's a classic flip-phone. All it really does is receive text messages from T-Mobile and send and receive phone calls. It costs me no more than 26 dollars a month. But, I want to be able to text - becoming an issue. So is the GPS/Airline app bit.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-11 11:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-11 11:14 pm (UTC)I didn't get a cell phone at all until 2004, and then I got a simple Samsung that didn't do anything but make and receive calls and send and receive text messages - it didn't even have a camera. It was cheap, simple, reliable, and the charge lasted for days. I loved it. In 2011 I dropped it in a stairwell and Verizon told me repair was impossible, and then offered me a free "upgrade" to a smartphone, and I bought the sales pitch...and have regretted it ever since. I have to charge it every single night (and if I'd lost power in the hurricane I would have been in trouble - the battery goes so fast). I don't use most of the "smart" features. It's really not worth the extra money.
So...I would recommend thinking twice before you assume that you must have a smartphone.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-12 11:16 pm (UTC)I may go for one of the simpler Samsung models that receives calls and text messages. Currently have a Samsung, but you can't text to save your life. All it really does is receive phone calls and text messages. Also I sort of want the GPS and Airline apps.
Reluctant to jump carriers. Just because cancel one and do another.
The i-phones are bloody expensive. I can see spending 100 bucks a month if I'm using it all the time, but my phone is off most of the time. Not a phone person. Find the things annoying.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-12 03:17 am (UTC)I always thought that the choice for a smart phone was between an iPhone and a Blackberry, but you don't even list the latter... are they no longer a thing? Stephen Fry wrote quite a bit on the topic a few years ago (this is one article, but really he wrote a whole series of articles): http://www.stephenfry.com/2009/06/19/iphone-therefore-i-am-stephen-reviews-apples-iphone-3gs/
personally I find it difficult to even read these articles without glazing over (it is funny: I adore computers, and I want an iPad, but just the thought of a cellphone weirds me out).
no subject
Date: 2012-11-12 04:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-12 11:19 pm (UTC)T-Mobile has 50$ a month plans, which isn't too bad...
So many phones so little time.
Date: 2012-11-12 07:51 am (UTC)But I can recommend the Iphone, everyone in my family has a version of it, even my 89 year old mother. It is super simple to use and the text set up on it is the best I've found with any mobile... And I've had every brand since I got my first over 25 years ago.
Seriously a monkey could operate one and the camera and ipod with it are idiot proof and make life so much easier.
Anyway hope this helped.
Cheers :D
Re: So many phones so little time.
Date: 2012-11-12 09:09 am (UTC)Having said that - the 5 lives up to all the cynicism I expect from Apple. Changing the charger is pure marketing rubbish. Grrrrrr!
Re: So many phones so little time.
Date: 2012-11-12 11:17 pm (UTC)AT&T is about that as well.
I don't use it enough. Are there cheaper i-phones?
no subject
Date: 2012-11-13 06:23 am (UTC)The iPhone system is a bit easier to use and get used to while the Android system that Samsung uses is more flexible. The time will come someday when you want the device to do something different and that will be the time when it's easier to get the Samsung to cooperate. Until then, the iPhone would have saved you a lot of small troubles.
So either one is a good choice.
Apple recently released a new maps program that treats people who get around without a car with some contempt, removing street-level navigation features in favor of more driving directions. They've promised to improve it but that might make a difference to you. It certainly reminded me that the Americans think of me as a second class citizen for being an urbanite.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-13 10:55 pm (UTC)I ask because that's the option available through T-Mobile and may be the easiest to upgrade to. T-Mobile doesn't carry the I-Phone.
Oh, I'm a complete urbanite. No car. So want the walking directions.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-13 10:56 am (UTC)Shop around ask about the older version of the Iphones, they are cheaper and the companies are competitive. Other than that I used to always have Samsung's'
Hope that helped.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-13 10:53 pm (UTC)I'm on foot in NYC, no car, so it's easy to do in my area. Particularly if anything goes wrong with it.