Time for an I phone
 

I have had this Pantech for many years, wife and daughter laugh at me.
should I pull the trigger? Brain trust?

$50 for a 5c at BBY

Or a "free" (entirely subsidized w/ contract) iPhone 4S at most carrier stores.

if you are fine with a cheap rugged phone why would you want to go to an expensive fragile phone? Because you want to solve problems you don't have? ... like "Angry Birds" skillz?

borrow one from your wife or daughter for a couple of days..... don't like it, don't get one

I bought a 3GS a few years back to see if the iPhone would work for me. It seemed fine and I went ahead and picked up a 4S. After many months of frustration, I traded it in for a Samsung Galaxy S4.

My mother wanted to try an iPhone, so I gave her my 4S. I suggest you pick up an older model on Ebay and "try it out", and see if it will work for you. If you don't like it, resell it. My 3GS is being used as an iPod...

James, what sort of frustrations did you have? I am happy with mine, but perhaps I am easily pleased, or just don't know any better.

Tom

If you want to upgrade to a smartphone, I believe an iPhone is a better choice than an Andriod. I have heard it so many times -- an iPhone isn't as customizable, you can't change settings and tinker with it as much as an Andriod. That may be true, but the bottom line is: you turn on an iPhone, and it just works. Period. No problems or crashes.

Andriods are more programmable, more versatile, if you want to get into programing it. Fine. But all that customization makes more a less stable phone. which can lead to frustration and a less than ideal customer experience.

Sure, the iphone is definately WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) and it only has very limited customization and programming available. But it works.

-Z-man.

I use a Samsung tablet and basically it comes down to being able to do the same things, in a similar way.

It is not the "customizable" features that are the issue. My phone and tablet are pretty much they way they came. It is features like swappable memory cards, easy access to putting files on, LAN file access, editing documents etc. My tablet is close to being a PC and I use it all the time. And I wanted a phone that had similar capabilities.

Buy an unlocked (and ideally jailbroken) 4 or 4S phone off of CL (these take commonly-available "micro SIMs", the new 5 models take "nano SIMs" and these are virtually impossible to find non-major carrier SIMs for (i.e. anything other than AT&T, T-Mobile, etc.) I recommend getting one with the most memory you can find (I believe 32GB is the max for both the 4 and 4S). Don't waste your time with one with only 16GB - you'll go through it in no time.

If you absolutely don't trust dealing with private party sellers on CL or Ebay (don't blame you), I believe you can still buy the iPhone 4 and 4S directly from the Apple store factory unlocked, it'll just cost you more. Get the GSM (AT&T) version, NOT CDMA. Once you have it, go get a SIM card from SimpleMobile or Straight Talk mobile and pop it in. You will need to access the APN settings under the "Cellular" menu to adjust the phone to work with the new carrier (it's defaulted to AT&T's settings usually). This is most easily done by jailbreaking the phone and running TetherMe (costs $5) but there are other ways as well.

This will give you a good phone (both the 4 and 4S are plenty good and not really lacking anything significant relative to the 5/5S/5C models) and most importantly - NO CONTRACT. Here's the math:

With a contract ($70/month is probably a minimum for what service through a major carrier will cost when you factor in voice/text/data plus stupid "made up" charges like "smartphone surcharges" and "high-data device" surcharges", on top of taxes, more fees and other crap. More realistically it'll be about $100/month, but let's just use $70 for sake of argument here:

"With contract":
$99 (32 GB iPhone 5C new in the box) + 24 months @ $70/month = $50 + $1,680 = $1,779 over 24 months

"Without contract / P-O-P's way":
$649 (32 GB iPhone 5C, factory unlocked new in the box) + 23 months @ $45/month (Straight Talk) + $60 (first month, includes SIM card) + $5 for TetherMe = $1,749 over 24 months
(I'm just using the published iPhone 5S price from Apple's web site for apples-to-apples (no pun) comparison, as I said above you'll need a 4 or 4S which you should be able to find for about $100-$200 on Craigslist in new or like-new condition - not sure what Apple charges for a new-in-the-box 32GB 4S that's factory unlocked but it'll certainly be less than a 32GB iPhone 5C factory unlocked in any case...)


You're coming out ahead doing it my way even at $70/month (and good luck getting a plan on AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint or any of the other "major" carriers that approaches that - like I said above, plan on $100/month minimum realistically unless you don't get a data plan or something like that, in which case you may as well not get an iPhone at all).

For yuks, at $100/month "on contract":

$100/month for 24 months + $99 (32GB iPhone 5C) = $2,499 over 24 months.

Bottom line - don't sign a contract. You're totally screwing yourself.

Happy iPhoning.

5c32g is $200 plus contract monthly. 5s32g is like $400 plus monthly contract. That being said, I'd only go for new if you have the chance wether 4, 4s, or whatever. I tried used and they're nit a good example of the iPhone experience at all. The devices get old and slow. There is nothing you can do about it either. After about two years, they're consumed. When old, they're frustrating. When newer than two years old they're great.

When you say Iphone do you mean that literately or is that generic for smartphone? I ask because I personally would never have another I-Anything, but that is just me and I don't want to get into that here.
There are a ton of options for phones be it an I-Option or an android or even just a solid regular old non-smart-phone.

You can save $30/mo on the service - but can you get LTE with Straight Talk? - and every two years or so you have to fork over $650 for an unsubsidized phone - they get obsolete and break.

Time for an I phone
 

I'm not sure about LTE - on my 4S I get 4G service pretty much everywhere. I have a month-to-month data plan only through AT&T for my iPad (runs about $15 a month) which gets LTE - I really don't see an appreciable difference in data transfer speeds between 4G and LTE. I'm sure it's there, but from a practical end-user perspective it doesn't really matter.

YMMV.

what do you need your phone to do? simple calls, email, text and occasional browsing?

Depends on the user. I have never come close to hitting the 16GB threshold on any of my phones. Typical for me is 5 GB of pictures and 2 GB of music give or take. Apps take little space and to be honest I am fine with most of the general purpose apps that come pre installed. The nice thing about going android and WP is the ability to add storage if the need arises.

Thanks for the laugh Z :)

Personally it is just a device to me... android or iPhone... both have pros and cons... and both have lovers and haters... (Ala Ford Vs Chevy, BMW Vs Porsche, Japanese Vs German Vs American cars)

Ignore the stamp on the case and pick what you like then find the best price.

FWIW I am extremely happy with the Samsung Galaxy products (we have three) I would recommend checking them out.

Guess what? You pick up an Android, and it just works! Just like an iPhone! You don't have to be into customizing your phone to enjoy an Android. You're just free from having Apple ram their choices down your throat. The idea that iPhones are somehow more stable is BS to me.

I'm stuck with an iPhone because of work. Read the recent IOS hater threads to see how frustrating it is to deal with Apple. No device is perfect and they all work, but Apple just gets under my skin. The fact that they refuse to have a removable SD card is probably #1 on my list.

Crap, looks like I'm going to be the last hold-out.