looking at sprint's family plan prices for smart phones, they are beyond ridiculous unless you absolutely need unlimited data
Sprint is cheaper but I would hardly say you get more for the money. Sprint is getting less for less money. You get significantly worse data speeds, coverage, and general reliability than everyone else with them.
Not exactly... you get more minutes that you will never use because you're only charged for calling landlines before 7 pm. Anything after 7 and any calls to mobile phones are unlimited. I'm on a 3-line Sprint plan right now and we average maybe 200 anytime minutes a month, with the vast majority of minutes being AnyMobile or night/weekends.Astro, I came up with the same numbers and on paper it looks like you get more on Sprint's network for the same $$.
If that's all you do, you're probably okay... but if that's all you are using, why have an iPhone? Kind of a waste of money if you ask me. And 1500 minutes? Do you really talk on the phone that much?I'm thinking we're going to opt for ~1500 minutes shared over 5 lines and ~3GB of data, though I may drop the data for the rest of the family's phones down to minimum and bump mine up a little since I do a lot of streaming. I figure 300MB is probably enough if all you really use your iPhone for is to check maps and the weather occasionally, right?
You can't go prepaid unless you're willing to buy a device for full price. With a contract plan you can buy a brand new phone every 2 years for the subsidized price. Without a contract, you have to put down more money up front to buy something, and you might have to get a slightly older phone to save money, but you save a lot of money on a monthly basis.I'm thinking I'll either stick with AT&T and add a line when we renew (4->5), or move over to Sprint and ebay the family's current iPhone 4's. I don't think you can go prepaid if you have a few stubborn people who insist on having the latest iPhones on your plan, can you?
If that's all you do, you're probably okay... but if that's all you are using, why have an iPhone? Kind of a waste of money if you ask me. And 1500 minutes? Do you really talk on the phone that much?
If you're using 1500 minutes but only a few MB of data, why not spend tons less money and get a flip phone? Better reception, better voice quality, better battery life.
You can't go prepaid unless you're willing to buy a device for full price. With a contract plan you can buy a brand new phone every 2 years for the subsidized price. Without a contract, you have to put down more money up front to buy something, and you might have to get a slightly older phone to save money, but you save a lot of money on a monthly basis.
You can put any AT&T iPhone on Straight Talk for $45 a month though. Once your family members' contracts expire, they can just buy Straight Talk sims, stick them in their AT&T iPhones, and they'll spend a lot less. Of course if they want a NEW iPhone, they'll have to pony up because they're really expensive to buy without a contract.
Personally I don't think it's worth signing a new contract and using up a phone subsidy just to buy a smartphone. On the other hand, $50 for an Atrix 2 isn't a bad price. But in two years you may have wished you had picked up the best one money can buy. An extra $150 to get a higher end device is peanuts compared to the aggregate monthly cost of the plan you signed up for, which is measured in the thousands of dollars.To address the OP original question, when I was ready for an upgrade, I thought about an iPhone for about 3 min., did a little research, and opted for the Moto Atrix 2; cost me $50 for an refurb (new, as far as I could tell) and a 2-yr. reup. Great phone; 4.3" display, none of that Blur crap, rootable, and quick as can be. Love it.
I wasn't aware you could do that with an iPhone but it stands to reason. The current state of phones is as follows:
2x iPhone 4 in good working condition
1x 3GS with a shattered screen
1x iPhone 4 that went through the wash
+ need one additional line added
My mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and father-in-law will all wish to have iPhones, but I think they're happy with the 4's performance. We need one replaced, however, and two new smartphones on top of that. I was looking at a refurb iPhone4 and 2x refurb Galaxy 2 S or equivalent, depending on the carrier we choose. How is Straight-Talk's coverage and service? $45 x 5 per month doesn't seem very much cheaper than going with a family plan, which comes in around $250 for 5 lines and has subsidized phones.
We can try something less than 1500 minutes, but how do you feel about unlimited texting? I don't think we use very many texts and the android devices will probably use google voice for texting, so I'm thinking it might be cheaper to go pay-per-text.
EDIT: The wording on AT&T's site suggests that we wouldn't get unlimited mobile to mobile unless we got the unlimited texting package.
Going to pull the trigger on two Galaxy S II's tomorrow on AT&T, any final thoughts? I'd love to get the One X but I can't budget in an extra $130 right now (plus the wait for it to come out).
Any other suggestions on phones with better cameras, better resolutions or bigger screens? Or is the GS2 definitely the phone to get in this generation?
Going to pull the trigger on two Galaxy S II's tomorrow on AT&T, any final thoughts? I'd love to get the One X but I can't budget in an extra $130 right now (plus the wait for it to come out).
Any other suggestions on phones with better cameras, better resolutions or bigger screens? Or is the GS2 definitely the phone to get in this generation?
NO. I do not recommend buying any phone that doesn't come stock with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
The Samsung galaxy s2 uses last generation tech.
See the galaxy s2 way down there?
=
See how that beats everything on the chart?
All I actually see is your abstract score on your phone. So many variables can affect that. That's the nice thing about standardized tests done by websites like Anandtech. None of those phones are overclocked, and they all use the stock browser to provide a meaningful comparison
Well all of that is great. Don't get defensive about your SGS2. They are great phones, but they have been surpassed and do not represent a "better value" as they cost the same as brand new tech like the One X. The OP states his main 2 criteria are camera and screen size. I'm not sure which has the better camera as I think they are both 8 MP, but the one X has a much larger screen.
And for all the Galaxy love, I wonder why no one has mentioned that Samsung is announcing the SGS3 on May 3rd. I think it would be a bad decision to buy before then.
Well all of that is great. Don't get defensive about your SGS2. They are great phones, but they have been surpassed and do not represent a "better value" as they cost the same as brand new tech like the One X.
And for all the Galaxy love, I wonder why no one has mentioned that Samsung is announcing the SGS3 on May 3rd. I think it would be a bad decision to buy before then.
NO. I do not recommend buying any phone that doesn't come stock with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The Samsung galaxy s2 uses last generation tech.
ICS runs fine on the GS2 but it's no contest between the One X and the GS2, IMO. The screen on the One X is *that* good.
Don't be pound foolish. Wait for the One X.