What Smart Phone Should I Buy?

Hey Everybody,

This is kind of a split from a previous thread.

I'm in the market for a smart phone. For years I've prided myself on my phone being dumb as a brick, and stubbornly refused to upgrade to a phone with more bells and whistles that STILL doesn't make calls any more cheaply or reliably than my "dumb phone". Like the phone companies just GAVE UP on better sounding calls with more reliable connections in favor of "Yeah, that may be true, but OUR phone is also a TV remote!" (Woohoo.)

But recently my wife told me a few things that a smart phone can do. Namely, I can set it up to "call me" to remind me to do things.

Currently I create reminders in my yahoo calendar and get e-mail reminders. But since I only check my mail once or twice a day, I end up having to write some things on my hand so I don't forget them a few hours after seeing the reminder in my e-mail.

Granted, my understanding is that I can have my dumb phone call me, too. But if I use this feature, I'll use it ALOT, and I'll want an interface that's easier to use than my tiny dumb phone buttons.

So I need a smart phone recommendation. Is what I'm describing so basic that I could basically go with any smart phone, and should base my decision on something else? (Like monthly costs/plans etc.)

Anyway, I'm sure there are opinions out there on this one, so feel free to throw them at me. Holly and I are not quite sure where to start with our research. (Well, actually she knows what she's doing a bit. But I'm completely lost.)

What do YOU think?

I've got a Samsung Galaxy S3 and it's one of the best electronics I own. Heck, I'm typing this post from it! The big plus Android phones have over a the iOS products is their adaptability Imo. I don't use the default android keyboard or text message app... Or the default browser. Oh and my phone hasn't been jailbroken/rooted. If you want, I could mail you a lower end android phone I had before I upgraded to this to try out smartphones before buying, assuming I remember where it is right now? . The experience with that phone is nowhere near as great as this phone is though.

Another plus to androids over IOS devices is I have expanded the memory on this phone with a different microSD card 32 gb!

I think smartphones (all of them)could have their necessity summed up in this phrase, "You don't need one until you have one."

Wow, you're looking to start a war, aren't you? Well, let me fire the second shot.....

I'm on your side. My phone is a relic without a camera, keyboard, hi-res display or any moving parts at all. I'm upgrading to a smart phone as well, but for a completely different reason. My wife wants one she can play games on and take pictures, and a few other things. With the structure of ATT data changing in September, I will incur no additional cost in getting two smart phones instead of one. So we're both upgrading.

But what to buy? For me, the choice is simple.

I'm getting the iPhone. Not the latest model, I couldn't care less about the cutting edge hardware or the number of Gs. I use iTunes extensively to manage my media library, including movies, podcasts, audiobooks, etc, and I want something that works natively with iTunes. The thing is, iTunes is such an excellent program and suits my usage so perfectly that even if I got an Android phone, I'd use it with iTunes Agent.

I don't find any meaningful difference between different phone hardware or software models. Even the app selection is comparable between phones. For me, it all comes down to which one is going to most easily work with the media manager I already have in place. Apple.

So the questions to which you might provide your own most helpful answers are: what do I want to use the phone for? what apps do I need to run? do I have a preexisting setup with a bias for a particular system?

My opinion? For the usage you've described, pretty much anything you buy is going to exceed your needs. I'd just get the cheapest thing in the store. Just make sure there are no moving parts.

That is one big thing the iOS products have going for them, how seamlessly they intergrate, so I can't fault you for that. If someone already owns Apple products, I tend to recommend they go with those devices.

As for me and my tech, we shall use Android!

For some cost-effective options I liked Boost Mobile. You'll get some older smart phones, but calls, text, and data are unlimited starting at $50 (including taxes) and the cost drops down $5 every six months you're with the service . . . down to $35/mo.

You need to buy the phone, and prepay the account, but it's very inexpensive and you never need to worry about minutes and data.

The only reason I don't have them now is that they're on the sprint network, and sprint doesn't work well in northern Michigan.

mindspike wrote:I don't find any meaningful difference between different phone hardware or software models. Even the app selection is comparable between phones. For me, it all comes down to which one is going to most easily work with the media manager I already have in place. Apple.

I have to agree with Winston on this (in principal). All my media, contacts, calendars, etc, are managed by Windows applications or my Windows Live ID. Thus for me the choice was simple, I went with Windows Mobile 7 (HTC Trophy from Verizon).

Winston is correct in suggesting that you consider what you use to manage your email, music, contacts, etc, and get a smartphone what will integrate easily with it.

Drew.Rub wrote:

I have to agree with Winston on this (in principal). All my media, contacts, calendars, etc, are managed by Windows applications or my Windows Live ID. Thus for me the choice was simple, I went with Windows Mobile 7 (HTC Trophy from Verizon).

Winston is correct in suggesting that you consider what you use to manage your email, music, contacts, etc, and get a smartphone what will integrate easily with it.

I didn't even know Windows MADE a smart phone. I thought I only had two options: I-phone or Android.

Thanks for all the input! All of it was great and helpful. Keep it coming if you like!

I think I need a smart phone that *I* don't have to be smart for. (For me, "G" is the seventh letter of the alphabet and a half step above F#. So I don't know why you'd want more than one in your phone, let alone a network of Gs.)

Sounds like maybe I should go with a Windows phone, which makes me a little sad, since Epic Win is only on i-phone. But I want a phone that will make sense to me and the software I'm used to. (I don't care for i-tunes, because it wants to take over my computer.)

Paeter wrote:Sounds like maybe I should go with a Windows phone, which makes me a little sad, since Epic Win is only on i-phone. But I want a phone that will make sense to me and the software I'm used to. (I don't care for i-tunes, because it wants to take over my computer.)

Mine's been great. Check with your carrier and I'd say give it a try. Let me know if you do get one.

In the spirit of unity (lol) I'm gonna agree with tmorrill AND Winston. I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 [Epic 4G Touch...super-hyper-Alpha-longest-name-in-the-universe...] and precisely the reason I love android phones IS because of the integration with Google. I have gmail and my life in practically run through my Google contacts list and my Google calendar. I don't use Itunes quite as much as my gmail account but it would be nice one day to have some cross platform love. There IS a gmail app for IOS so... regardless, the increased memory is great too. Might need to get a new network though. Sprint was terrible after the storm. AT&T was about the only unaffected network. I couldnt call out or text out and got my texts in superbundles at odd hours of the day and night.

/my 2cents

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I've had both an iPhone and a couple different Androids and I recommend Android because of the flexibility. Like a hardware keyboard? You can find an Android that does it. Don't like the text messaging app that comes with it? You can load another.

As for cons against the others: like you, I really dislike iTunes. And the number of Windows apps is growing, but is still fairly limited from what I understand.

Anyway... I pretty much agree with what others have said; that's about all I have to add.

Thanks, Whiteboy, and Tim and Drew and... let's see...crap where did the message thread go? Okay, EVERYBODY! Thanks!

I'd go with the iPhone. Any iPhone - the iPhone 4 for instance is now free with some contracts and is a fantastic phone (with a fantastic camera) even if there are two newer models available.
It's intuitive, takes no learning curve whatsoever. And its Reminders app (comes free with the phone) might be what you like, since it has geofencing - so you can not only tell it to remind you of something at a specific date or time, you can tell it to remind you when you arrive at a specific place. How cool is that?
And you can voicecontrol it by Apple's Siri - which is so much more than your average voicecontrol or voice-to-text.

Plus, Android is an OS that's used by several hardware companies, like Samsung, HTC, Motorola and so on. All of them have their own interfaces on top of the Android OS. Something that Google isn't altogether happy with and is even considering making it "less open". Plus I've heard that Android updates don't always come in time. There are still Android phones and even tablets out there with Gingerbread, while there are two newer upgrades available.

Apple stuff works with Apple computers, but also with Windows pc's. I've had my iPhone way longer than my Apple computer and never had any compatiblilty issues with Windows.

If you want an affordable alternative, I'd recommend a Windows 8 phone, the Nokia Lumia looks stunningly beautiful and is surprisingly affordable, while at the same time rocking a state of the art (Windows) OS.

If you must buy an Android (which would be my last choice), then I'd definitely recommend either the Samsung Galaxy 3, or the Galaxy Note (which is so gi-normous it's almost a micro-tablet, which is pretty cool imho). Both have great reviews.

Let us know what you'll buy.

Thanks, ComiKate! Man, so much good input here! I'll have to be sure and have Holly sit down with me and read this thread before we make our final decision. Thanks again everybody!

Well, folks, thank you all so much for your help and advice! Due to my lack of tech skills and some nice benefits that come with Holly's job, it made the most sense for us to go with i-phone 4s.

Holly just got back a little while ago and we're now trying to figure out how these gizmos work. Glad I went with the "user friendly" brand, 'cuz it all seems really foreign and weird right now. But we're having fun!

Thanks again!

You're welcome!

The iPhone 4S is truly a great phone, on many levels, so congrats and have fun!
(try the iPhone game "James Cameron's Avatar", it's supercool! - and I'm not even a gamer but I still loved that one)

You are dead to me!

tmorrill wrote:You are dead to me!

Paeter, you've fallen to the dark side. I'll have to work to redeem you and your wife back to the light side. You know, the light that flows through Windows. All 8 of them.

Paeter, don't be surprised if you slowly start to exchange all your devices for Apple ones....

I started off with a simple iPod Nano about 2 years ago, and now look at me. I live in sort of an Apple universe!
What can I say. It just works!

Can't wait till iTV (rumored for 2013), then I'll probably ditch my Philips within 2 more years and go all the way.
Resistance seems to be futile...

ComiKate wrote:Paeter, don't be surprised if you slowly start to exchange all your devices for Apple ones....

I started off with a simple iPod Nano about 2 years ago, and now look at me. I live in sort of an Apple universe!
What can I say. It just works!

While I am no fan of iDevices, ComiKate, I understand your meaning. I'm a Windows guy (might be because of the Microsoft certifications I have, but call me crazy). My mp3 player is an original Zune 30Gb (which STILL works great), I have a Windows 7 Enterprise latop (thanks work), a Windows Phone 7.5 phone, and am looking forward to getting a new Surface in a few months. They all integrate really well, and I don't have problems with any of these devices.

Windows, Windows, Windows everywhere.........

Drew.Rub wrote:While I am no fan of iDevices, ComiKate, I understand your meaning. I'm a Windows guy (might be because of the Microsoft certifications I have, but call me crazy). My mp3 player is an original Zune 30Gb (which STILL works great), I have a Windows 7 Enterprise latop (thanks work), a Windows Phone 7.5 phone, and am looking forward to getting a new Surface in a few months. They all integrate really well, and I don't have problems with any of these devices.

Windows, Windows, Windows everywhere.........

Well, I too have a lot of Windows experience. My oldest laptop still runs good ol' XP, my other laptop does Vista, and on my iMac I also run Windows 7 on the side (via Parallels Desktop). My first smartphone was a Samsung Omnia which ran Windows Phone 7 I think. Or was it 6? Can't remember.
And at work we of course also have Windows on every pc.

Haven't tried the Surface yet, am curious about it but they don't do "Microsoft Stores" like Apple does with its stores, where you can freely try out everything handson. But I think the OS looks great, though it seems to have quite a steep learning curve.
And Windows 8 seems to be not much use on a desktop if you don't have a touchscreen with it. Except it boots a bit faster.

Though neither of the two OSes are perfect. Apple's OS does have its annoyances, albeit very small ones.
In fact, by combining the two I think I'm having the best of both worlds. In all honesty though, I may be running Windows 7 on my iMac, but I really do most of my work on the iMac's own OS.

So, all in all I'm not saying Windows s***s or anything. I'm just saying my own personal experience with Apple has quickly won me over to an even "better way", so to speak

Other opinions are, as always, available of course

ComiKate wrote:
Haven't tried the Surface yet, am curious about it but they don't do "Microsoft Stores" like Apple does with its stores, where you can freely try out everything handson. But I think the OS looks great, though it seems to have quite a steep learning curve.
And Windows 8 seems to be not much use on a desktop if you don't have a touchscreen with it. Except it boots a bit faster.

All in all I'm not saying Windows s***s or anything. I'm just saying my own personal experience with Apple has quickly won me over to an even "better way", so to speak

Other opinions are, as always, available of course

I tested Win 8 out at Best Buy with some touchscreen enabled laptops. It's slick. I had it installed on a virtual machine here at work, and it's definately a little clunky on a regular PC. I'll agree that there's a learning curve to it. And I will give Apple kudos for a lot of things, especially the Mac as a video/audio editing platform/graphic design platform. I'm sure that MS will never be able to match Apple in that field. And I can give the iPad a lot of credit, as I occasionally use my wife's iPad for some tasks, but not many (as she uses it a lot too). Surprisingly, my wife, an Apple kinda gal (iPhone, iPods, iPad) likes the look of Windows 8 and even thinks that she could get used to using it.

We're passing a Microsoft Store over the Christmas holiday, so I'll be patiently waiting till then to see if that's the tablet I REALLY truely want. With luck, I'll have the money saved up for it by then too.