So my phone needs replacing. I really only use it to call my answering service and contact clients when I'm out of the office. I would like to check on traffic but for the most part it wouldn't help me go around it. Oh, but the social pressure. So, do I need a smart phone or not, are there things I'm not considering?
I only got one because it was free with my contract downgrade, strangely. I like it. I never thought I'd use it for all the wiz bang stuff, but it's good to check email or quick facts online when the mood strikes. There's no harm in a smart phone even if you only use it for calls, so it's safe to give it a go.
A smartphone has so many uses : you can read your mails, manage your calendar, check the news, listen to music or radio, navigate around, play, take notes, take photos, draw, make long calls for free (VoIP), make video calls, etc. You may say you don't need these, but later you will realize that these functions are useful and comfortable.
Once in a WHILE I wish I had one. I mean, like twice a year. But because I don't travel around a lot—and when I do travel, I have left email and internet purposely behind—I don't really need one. However, just a couple of times I wished I could check things while I was out, like restaurant locations and opening hours, bus schedules, stuff like that. Do these few times justify buying and maintaining a SmartPhone? No, not yet. I make due with my StupidPhone on pay-as-you-go for calls when I'm out and need to contact somebody. I have a landline at home that works fine, takes messages, etc. And a desktop computer. Omigod. I'm a dinosaur!
I have a smart phone, and aside from the internet to me it's just a phone. Unlike others of my age group, I found this whole app, 'Angry Birds' thing to be so very boring.
The downside with smartphones is the short battery life. You have to charge it pretty much every day, but if you can live with that (or carry a spare battery with you), they're definitely very useful for checking just about anything. Even my 60-yo Mom, her 65-yo spouse, and my 61-yo step mom all have smartphones, and they use them (in addition to calling and SMS) for everything ranging from emails to Facebook to photography. T and I also use the phones for navigation, so it's also a big plus. You being American, you'll probably pick an iPhone, so I'm not sure what iPhone specific pros and cons they have. I've got Samsung Galaxy S4 mini and it sure is pretty handy.
Well, I am a technomaniac and pretty much feed off of technology. I was actually surprised when I found out WF.org didn't have an app You don't have to buy a smart phone if you don't want to, screw social pressure. I remember when smart phones had just become the 'thing' and everything that was good had a touch screen. I personally found touch screens to be high-maintenance and counterproductive, especially for someone like me who dropped her phone twice a day and couldn't care less if she spilled tea on her phone's screen. That's when my old phone broke down (my precious Nokia 6303i), but I still wasn't convinced though, because I didn't want to go from good ol' keypad typing to the hellish world of autocorrect and whatnot. I eventually ended up buying a smart phone, because I realized I was just being a stubborn regressive old man. See, I really wanted to stay on top of technology, and so for that I had to accept change and change myself. It's really just that. And I have had to change yet again, when my smart phone was stolen and I couldn't get it back. Having lost around one worth $700, I couldn't afford to buy another high-end smart phone, and though my family thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to get a smart phone around half-price, I refused to get a smart phone if it couldn't be up-to-par (I guess I'm pretty spoiled ). I just got a run-of-the-mill $60 Nokia phone for basic necessities, until I could save up for an expensive phone again. To be fair, it's been not that bad; yes, many things I did on my smart phone, I can't anymore. I can't snap a picture of a random moment at college, I can't check my emails or make my assignments on my phone in college, or upload my text messages to Gmail, and all sorts of things I had begun to use my smart phone for...but it's been 5 months, and I'm doing fine. Well, I did get a tablet for $300 instead But I got it 2 months ago and I don't even take it to college. Bottomline of my sob story which may have put numerous to sleep--ultimately, it hardly matters. Smart phones can become a necessity if you want them to, but even today you can be just fine without them. There's no harm in using them, though, because I think we all have the faculties necessary to draw a line at phone obsession.
I have a phone that does voice and text. It also has a calculator and a GPS navigator (which is very useful!). There's a way to use it for email, but it's so arcane I don't bother. I can take pictures with it, but I don't know what to do with them once I have them. They're in my phone and that's where they stay until I delete them. (If I have to take pictures for work, I have a separate camera. I know how to get its pics onto my computer!) My birthday is on the 31st of July, and I'm going to buy myself a gift or two. I'd thought of a smart phone, but decided, naah. I want a guitar amp more. And maybe a new and better Kindle.
It's actually pretty divided here, with iPhone and Samsung Galaxies being the two biggest sellers. I am thiiiisssss close to going for a Galaxy S5 because I actually believe in shopping like a smart consumer and not just giving in to brand loyalty. I'm a very much an Apple boy, but every few years I reach out from the Mac Family to see what's out there and make sure brand loyalty isn't hemming me in. So far, I've not been given enough reason to want to ditch Apple. Paradoxically, the thing that's making me look at the GS5 is also the very thing that makes me apprehensive: its size. They've been pushing that huge screen for a while now and there's a very American part of me that sees it and thinks bigger, bigger, BIGGER, Type 2 Diabetes bigger!! But it's pretty much a phablet now and I'm not sure about the convenience of that. I use the Nike+ lozenge in my running shoes, which connects to my phone for keeping track of workouts. I know it will connect to the Galaxy, but can I go running with what is almost a tablet? Not sure... @GingerCoffee, I work as an independent contractor, so for me a smart phone is indispensable. I can't be arsed about twitter and rarely make use of even Facebook on it, but emails, and the ability to d/l a PDF, scan it, and respond to the client with an estimate while I'm in the checkout line at Walgreens is actually a must. I have competitors and a slow response means someone will scoop the work from under me. As an FYI, at least as far as AT&T is concerned (I can speak for no other carrier), there was a time you could pick up a smartphone up off eBay, install your SIM card, and only make use of the smart features when you were in a wifi zone, thus getting around the data-plan (a.k.a. phone mortgage), but not anymore. We tried that with mom when her precambrian phone finally died and we got her a little Palm Trio, which she liked muchly. As soon as AT&T "saw" the new phone making use of the SIM card, they slapped a data-plan onto her account. My mom called AT&T while channeling Rosie Perez and got the data plan removed, but they explained that she would need to switch to a not-smart phone, else it would happen again and they wouldn't remove the charge a second time.
I think they just launched GS5 mini, at least somewhere in the world. I don't like those big screens either, so it was pretty obvious what I'd want. My mom has Xcover 2 which is pretty handy for the non-touch buttons it has at the bottom, which in GS4 are touchies and sometimes I press them by accident. It's also more cumbersome to text with a smartphone, I think, but I still wouldn't change back...
I don't know where you live, but my main reason for wanting a smartphone was the weather app. I grew up in Illinois, and our weather was so unpredictable. If you weren't on top of the severe storms, you could get caught in a potentially dangerous situation. So I felt more comfortable having radar directly on my phone that I could keep an eye on while I was out shopping or something. Plus if you deal with clients a lot, I think it'll benefit you to be able to check your email regularly.
That happened to us as well. My son put the AT&T sim card in a new phone and they changed us without asking to a data plan. It's one reason neither my son nor I are still using AT&T.
As someone who resisted the smartphone craze until my last phone since I never really do anything on a phone except call and text.... I love having one. I don't particularly love the one I have right this second (but I get a new one in September - YAY!) I use it FAR more than I ever thought I would.
I'm not very tech-savvy. My mom bought me my first cell phone for my 18th birthday. I didn't think I needed one but she got it for me because she was worried about my driving back and forth from college. I had that same phone for seven years. It wasn't fancy in the least, just a cheap, pay-as-you-go flip phone, but that thing was a tank. I can't guess how many times I dropped it, kicked it, stepped on it, lost it, or got it wet- and it just kept going. My husband always made fun of me because it was so old and simple, but it did everything I needed it to. Finally he decided it was too old and got me a smartphone for Christmas; don't ask me what kind, it's black and says Samsung at the top. On my old phone I called, sent/received texts, used the calender, and used the alarm clock. On my new phone I call, send/receive texts, use the calender, use the alarm clock, and take pictures. It's nice and all, but doesn't do anything "omg amazing!" for someone like me who isn't really into all the bells and whistles. Mostly I just take pictures of our cats with it when they do something cute.
You could probably find lots of handy (no pun intended, Germans) uses for a smartphone that you wouldn't necessarily think that you wanted or needed, and maybe you could replace a few objects you bring around with you anyway (mirror, torch, Internet connection, games, maps, notebook etc.), but, depending on the pricepoints and what you feel like you want the most, I see no need to succomb to the peer pressure.
You might look into the new BIAS 7s. It has a large screen and only filters in what you want to receive.
Yeah, that's another reason I'm dragging anchor. My pay-as-you-go works fine for me, as I only use my mobile for urgent out-of-the-house things and don't 'converse' on it. Do I really want to go onto a contract and start paying much higher charges for something I'll never use much? No, not really. If and when I get to a point where I'm out more than in, I'll consider it. But right now my StupidPhone costs me around £40 per year ...and that's enough for me. Our landline/broadband/overseas calls etc costs us around £185 per quarter, and that provides everything I—and my husband—need.
I used to prefer stupid phones, but nowadays I'm happy with my smart phone. Before getting one, I didn't do much with my phone because all it could do well was calling, texting, e-mails, and recording song ideas and it had a great calendar but the smart phone has some features that have come in very handy, especially GPS, quick internet access, a much better camera, MS Office, Adobe Reader, and the capacity to run emulators (I have around 150 NES, SNES, Genesis, GB, and GBA games in my phone). I also use the unit converter and translation apps a lot and really like the weather app as well since I can check the temperature with one glance etc. I do miss actual buttons though, and the battery life is definitely worse than on my trusty old Nokia E51.
