Buying a cell phone from Newegg?

[Fenixgoon]

So I'm looking into getting a new phone (and my own account) and I remembered Newegg having pretty good deals.

I'm looking at the Motorola Droid (HTC incredible = too pricey for me ) but I know verizon requires data plans for its smartphones. However, Newegg only says:

"On select smartphone devices, if you do not subscribe to a Data Plan or Data Feature, data usage will be billed at 1.5¢ per KB ($15.36 per MB), unless you add a data block or subscribe to a Wireless Email Feature. Other smartphone devices and all BlackBerry® devices require a Data Plan or a Data Feature"

Does anyone know if I can get a smartphone w/o a data plan from newegg? Has anyone had experience with this? If I can get a droid without a data plan ($$), that would totally kickass.

TIA!

 

[shortylickens]

Just so you know, even if you think you've disabled everything, the Droid CONSTANTLY pulls data for various things.
And why the fuck would you think a Droid kicks ass if you dont want a data plan? What the hell did you think you were gonna do with it?

 

[Fenixgoon]

Just so you know, even if you think you've disabled everything, the Droid CONSTANTLY pulls data for various things.
And why the fuck would you think a Droid kicks ass if you dont want a data plan? What the hell did you think you were gonna do with it?

a) i'm a cheapass
b) i use a phone to call people
c) use all the cool features when i'm in wifi areas. which i am a lot.

also: can you give examples of what it pulls data for?

 

[sygyzy]

shortylickens is correct. A phone always pulls data except this might be a moot point because if they really allowed you to have a phone sans data plan (I don't think this is possible), they would simply cut off your data so your phone would time out when it made the data requests.

To answer your question, data is pulled for:

IMAP/Exchange/Gmail sync
Twitter sync
GPS and location services
Weather and stocks
Misc widgets you may have installed
more...

 

[Fox5]

Verizon will likely detect your droid and force you to get a data plan.

If you want an undetected droid, buy a motorola milestone and switch to att.

But given the reliance on web apps, most of the cool functionality is likely to be tied to a data plan, even if it doesn't seem like it should obviously need it. Hopefully the phone fails gracefully instead of spouting out tons of error messages telling you to find a connection.

 

[shortylickens]

Guess what buddy?
You can NOT force an Android phone to only use Wifi for data.
It forces out a lot of data over the cellular network whether you like it or not.
If you only need a phone to call people, you dont need a Droid.

 

[Fox5]

Guess what buddy?
You can NOT force an Android phone to only use Wifi for data.
It forces out a lot of data over the cellular network whether you like it or not.
If you only need a phone to call people, you dont need a Droid.

A lot of android phones are sold in markets where data plans aren't common. Do they still require data there?

 

[QueBert]

how much is "a lot" of data? Plenty of people have Droids on Pageplus with no data plans and they seem to be okay. I asked a question here last month about data usage on a Droid and I got a much different answer from people.

 

[Fenixgoon]

how much is "a lot" of data? Plenty of people have Droids on Pageplus with no data plans and they seem to be okay. I asked a question here last month about data usage on a Droid and I got a much different answer from people.

interesting. what's Pageplus? what does it have to do with droid and data usage? link to thread?

also, lol at the responses. you'd think i'd have killed someone or blasphemed the iPhone in front of an apple-ite to draw that kind of ire (or maybe im just slow today and missing something)

 

[QueBert]

interesting. what's Pageplus? what does it have to do with droid and data usage? link to thread?

also, lol at the responses. you'd think i'd have killed someone or blasphemed the iPhone in front of an apple-ite to draw that kind of ire (or maybe im just slow today and missing something)

Pageplus is pre-paid contract free cell service that uses the Verizon towers, there are people who have the Moto Droid on it so I figured that would tie into this thread. Since Op wants to buy a phone full price from Newegg I figured mentioning PagePlus would make sense, they are much cheaper than Verizon if you don't need a ton of data.

link to my thread - http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2071442&highlight=

 

[Ksyder]

I use page plus as well, and my phone (windows mobile) has a nodata app that disables the cellular broadband connections in the registry, so you will use "no data" The wi-fi works fine though with the data disabled. These types of things seem to be created for people who have limited data plans. Perhaps there is something like this for the droid?

 

[QueBert]

I use page plus as well, and my phone (windows mobile) has a nodata app that disables the cellular broadband connections in the registry, so you will use "no data" The wi-fi works fine though with the data disabled. These types of things seem to be created for people who have limited data plans. Perhaps there is something like this for the droid?

It might not even be needed, I have a WM6.1 phone on P+ I had no clue this nodata app existed. But even without it I'm not getting hit with data usage, well I might be. But if I am it's pennies a day at most. It's possible the Droid on it's own uses very little data. I know P+ is much cheaper for data with no data plan than Verizon.

 

[Fenixgoon]

It might not even be needed, I have a WM6.1 phone on P+ I had no clue this nodata app existed. But even without it I'm not getting hit with data usage, well I might be. But if I am it's pennies a day at most. It's possible the Droid on it's own uses very little data. I know P+ is much cheaper for data with no data plan than Verizon.

sweet. i'll have to check out what the newegg deal is. and definitely look into P+

 

[Raduque]

The newegg text is wrong, unfortunately. Verizon requires a data plan for any qualifying phone. The system will read the ESN and automatically add the plan on, prorating and billing a month in advance for the next cycle. $29.99 required for Smartphones, and 9.99 required for "Media" devices.

I'll never for the life of me understand why people want internet-centric devices, without an internet connection. Get a Wifi PDA and a plain old flip phone or something if you don't want a data plan.

 

[Ksyder]

sweet. i'll have to check out what the newegg deal is. and definitely look into P+

This seems to be the best place to go for the latest drama surrounding Page Plus. Also make sure you read the stickies/wikis :thumbsup:

 

[shortylickens]

The newegg text is wrong, unfortunately. Verizon requires a data plan for any qualifying phone. The system will read the ESN and automatically add the plan on, prorating and billing a month in advance for the next cycle. $29.99 required for Smartphones, and 9.99 required for "Media" devices.

I'll never for the life of me understand why people want internet-centric devices, without an internet connection. Get a Wifi PDA and a plain old flip phone or something if you don't want a data plan.

I have not seen a PDA in years. Seems like every one of them disappeared or got melded into a cell phone. I had an ASUS A620 way back when. It was nice, but really it made me realize I wanted access to the world along with personal data management. Thats part of the reason Blackberries got so popular with the general public.

 

[iahk]

also, lol at the responses. you'd think i'd have killed someone or blasphemed the iPhone in front of an apple-ite to draw that kind of ire (or maybe im just slow today and missing something)

indeed, i was kind of like wtf to the responses too

 

[QueBert]

This seems to be the best place to go for the latest drama surrounding Page Plus. Also make sure you read the stickies/wikis :thumbsup:

The drama is with people who paid for the unlimited text/minutes and got kicked off for abuse. P+ has the slowest customer service I've ever witnessed. But as long as you don't sign up for the $40 plan and think unlimited means you can send 20,000 text messages a month you're alright.

 

[Demo24]

Guess what buddy?
You can NOT force an Android phone to only use Wifi for data.
It forces out a lot of data over the cellular network whether you like it or not.
If you only need a phone to call people, you dont need a Droid.

Yeah, unless you put it into airport mode and then turn on the wifi. Although then you couldn't make or receive calls or texts. Unless you figure out a way to do it through voip, then calls might work. Takes some work to get that done and working right though.

 

[Ksyder]

Yeah, unless you put it into airport mode and then turn on the wifi. Although then you couldn't make or receive calls or texts. Unless you figure out a way to do it through voip, then calls might work. Takes some work to get that done and working right though.

idk, i'm thinking that airport mode being on would prevent wi-fi from enabling.

 

[Fox5]

The newegg text is wrong, unfortunately. Verizon requires a data plan for any qualifying phone. The system will read the ESN and automatically add the plan on, prorating and billing a month in advance for the next cycle. $29.99 required for Smartphones, and 9.99 required for "Media" devices.

I'll never for the life of me understand why people want internet-centric devices, without an internet connection. Get a Wifi PDA and a plain old flip phone or something if you don't want a data plan.

PDAs barely exist. Also, why should I have to deal with two devices when devices exist that can do both? Smart phones = pdas + phone. You're practically forced into smartphones if you want a pda. Though the new 'internet tablet' and 'portable media player' devices are kind of pdas with a bigger niche, why should I have to carry two devices? Why would buying an Android wifi only tablet and a dumb phone make more sense than a smartphone running android?

 

[Raduque]

PDAs barely exist. Also, why should I have to deal with two devices when devices exist that can do both? Smart phones = pdas + phone. You're practically forced into smartphones if you want a pda. Though the new 'internet tablet' and 'portable media player' devices are kind of pdas with a bigger niche, why should I have to carry two devices? Why would buying an Android wifi only tablet and a dumb phone make more sense than a smartphone running android?

It's for those people who are too cheap to pay for a data plan. That's the only other option that won't possibly backfire on you (carrier adding a data plan, having to jigger with the OS to turn off data, etc).