Never had a cell, need one. Recommendations?

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Gensou

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 8, 2007
Messages
344
I've never had a cell phone.
What is a good carrier, package, phone?
I moved to US 7 years ago and never found the need for a cell phone. Now that I'm somewhat popular ( lol ) and I've been asked for a phone number a couple times I feel somewhat embarrassed giving my landline #.

I want a package with:
  • unlimited text preferably
  • a set amount of minutes of talk time. i won't be talking to anyone excessively

Is there a package where it gives you a set amount of minutes? Like a couple hundred minutes a month? what happens if you go over these minutes?

I want a nice/sleek phone. Not too expensive. I don't really care for the whole touch screen thing. I just want to be able to text pretty well on it.

Thanks guys, I'll see if I can come up with any other requirements.
 
You may just want to visit your local mall, which will usually have a variety of phone sales kiosks and stores. You can see which provider has the balance of plan, pricing, and phone selection you want.

If you tell them what you just posted here, you will find something you want.
 
Gensou said:
I've never had a cell phone.
What is a good carrier, package, phone?
I moved to US 7 years ago and never found the need for a cell phone. Now that I'm somewhat popular ( lol ) and I've been asked for a phone number a couple times I feel somewhat embarrassed giving my landline #.

I want a package with:
  • unlimited text preferably
  • a set amount of minutes of talk time. i won't be talking to anyone excessively

Is there a package where it gives you a set amount of minutes? Like a couple hundred minutes a month? what happens if you go over these minutes?

I want a nice/sleek phone. Not too expensive. I don't really care for the whole touch screen thing. I just want to be able to text pretty well on it.

Thanks guys, I'll see if I can come up with any other requirements.
Click to expand...
att.com
sprint.com
verizon.com

They all have webpages, they all have their plans outlined. Find one that fits your preferences. Read the fine print, each has differing policies on going over your minutes each month. Plan to pay around $40/mo for basic ~400minutes + $15-20/mo for unlimited texting + ~$3-5/mo in taxes and gov't fees. More if you want data and internet access.
 
If you need/want extra chargers or other accessories. Amazon.com or ebay will have MUCH cheaper prices.
 
NOKIA 6120

I had over 50 phones in the past 5 years and nokia 6120 is the best phone I ever owned
 
If you're going to go heavy on the texting, don't forget to pay attention to the keyboard. You might prefer a full-QWERTY model rather than struggling with T9 on a numeric keypad. And make sure the keyboard is big-enough, comfortable, has intuitive key feedback, etc. These criteria should significantly limit the model range you're looking at.
 
Just shop around. In addition to the advice about chargers etc from Amazon, I would compare what Amazon is selling phones for with contracts opposed to what the carriers themselves are offering.

Also of note, you can buy a phone from someone and then activate it on the native network for that type of phone without a contract.
 
To chime in, you may want to figure out what your friends have. Eg if they have verizon, go verizon. Youll have the perk of unlimited talking and texting to verizon customers.

Also, I have Verizon, and Ive never had a problem with it. I seem to get pretty good service wherever I go. The drawback for me is Verizon has some rather lame phones. They have some decent touch screens, but since my Samsung ICH-730, I've decided to ditch touch screens until we have much much more durable touch screens.

Also Verizon you cannot change your phone on the fly. It can be rather expensive to upgrade phones mid contract.

I know for Verizon, they just added the Top 10, like T-mobiles favorite 8 or whatever. This allows you to add your favorite people you talk to, even out of network, or landline unlimited.

This could be a perk. If you have say 12 friends you keep it contact with, and 7 are verizon. You can add the 5 other.

Whatever's cheapest and provides the best service IMHO. I have verizon because the parents got me a verizon phone back in the day. It has just been cheaper to write them a check every month to keep me on their plan.

I have a BlackBerry Pearl. It's a nice phone, but (correct me if Im wrong) with Verizon you have to have data plan. My part of the bill comes out to 70/mo because of this. This is unlimited text/1500 min/data.

After having a full qwerty keyboard, I really hate this mini qwerty. I dont like the tactile feel of the Storm.

-Michael
 
Honestly, your first move is choosing a provider. You can choose a phone, then a provider, but your service options will be limited and you may not get the best bang for your buck. Find the provider with the plan you need, then choose a phone from their options. Much simpler that way, IMO.

If you don't travel much, you might look into a smaller company like Cricket. They typically have much cheaper plans than the bigger guys and NO CONTRACT. The downside is that they don't have as large coverage areas.

If you do a lot of international travel, a gsm-based phone and company might be worth looking into. Currently, the only two are AT&T and T-Mobile.
 
I had Verizon and Sprint and recently canceled the Verizon lines since they were more expensive with less features.

I currently have a Blackberry and an LG Rumor with Sprint on the SERO plan,
$30/month ($34 with taxes and fees) per line, Total of $68/month.
500 anytime minutes (per line)
Unlimited Texting
Unlimited Data
Unlimited Sprint to Sprint
Free Nights and Weekends start at 7pm

My Verizon Plan was $75/month :
$59.99 plan with an extra line for $9.99.
15% Government Employee Discount brought it down to $60.99
Taxes and fees were $15.
700 shared minutes
Free Nights and Weekends start at 9pm
15cents/text (Text plans were $5 for 250, $10 for 500, $20 for 2000, and these were per line)

You will have to find out which provider gives the best reception in your area, then possibly go with the provider that more of your friends have.

Sprint currently has the Everything plan for $99
You get unlimited everything.

Cloud15x said:
Also Verizon you cannot change your phone on the fly. It can be rather expensive to upgrade phones mid contract.
Click to expand...

When did they change that? I changed my phone online a couple of times myself.
Sprint offers that as well, just log onto your account and change your phone.

These are the screens you get to when you do online activation when you want to change a phone,
verizon-activate.jpg


sprint-activate.jpg
 
Okay, what I mean you cant change your phone on the fly is.

No SIM card means you're suck with buying a locked phone. You can buy one on somewhere else, but if you go through Verizon, it will be expensive, if you're still in contract.

When you're out of contract, the phone price lowers, because they love to resign you into contract for 2 years.
 
Make sure you check coverage in your area before you purchase any phone. You can do this at the carrier's website usually. Certain areas may have dead spots and it's going to be really annoying when you can't get phone calls or texts in areas you frequent.

Other than that, go to a local store and look at their phones and see what you like. Also, try to stay away from mail-in rebates if possible, the last one I had I needed to have 6 months of confirmed service and a paid bill, then I had to wait another 4 months before I even got my rebate :mad:
 
If you are not going to be talking a lot (I don't know if by 200 minutes you meant total or just for anytime), you might look into a no-contract option as well. Something like Virgin Mobile will offer a basic plan for 200 anytime minutes + 500 n/w with 10 dollars for unlimited texting. There are a few phones on virign mobile with a full keyboard as well.
 
I found http://www.gsmarena.com/ to be very useful. Though it's only for GSM phones and carriers, but GSM is better anyway (more widely supported worldwide).

I spent a couple hours looking lastnight and found this phone to stand out as far as a mainstream regular non-smartphone: http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_g705-2520.php
I would love to get the G705u with UMA (WLAN VOIP) calling, but they're sold only in Poland, Spain, and France. :(

Also, be sure to check out the "Phone Finder" at the bottom of the brand list on the left side column.

As far as carriers go, I'm in Canada and I am with Fido atm. So I can only offer some perspective.
I get:
100minutes
unlimited txt
name/number call display
voice messaging
missed call reminder
5pm evenings and weekends
unlimited on-phone browsing
for $40CND / month. ($33USD at the time of this posting)
I could drop the unlimited browsing (which is slow as shit anyway) for unlimited anytime UMA calling for an extra $5CND/month. ($4.12USD)
The 100minutes isn't bad considering I get 5pm evenings and weekends and could also get the UMA calling which would be unlimited call time for me (considering that I spend my days working within range of a wireless router attached to the internet)


_
 
Last edited:
MamaBoard said:
NOKIA 6120

I had over 50 phones in the past 5 years and nokia 6120 is the best phone I ever owned
Click to expand...



wonder if mamaboard thought of buying a phone that cost more than 20$? i think the nokia 6120 would be unbearable to use.. i suggest TMOBILE and a TMobile WIng .. very cheap service and cheap phone with full keyboard.. also i suggest getting a microwave and a toaster.. maybe try taking showers too! (if you dont have cellphone yet who knows what else you skimp on)
 
Gensou said:
I've never had a cell phone.
What is a good carrier, package, phone?
I moved to US 7 years ago and never found the need for a cell phone. Now that I'm somewhat popular ( lol ) and I've been asked for a phone number a couple times I feel somewhat embarrassed giving my landline #.

I want a package with:
  • unlimited text preferably
  • a set amount of minutes of talk time. i won't be talking to anyone excessively

Is there a package where it gives you a set amount of minutes? Like a couple hundred minutes a month? what happens if you go over these minutes?

I want a nice/sleek phone. Not too expensive. I don't really care for the whole touch screen thing. I just want to be able to text pretty well on it.

Thanks guys, I'll see if I can come up with any other requirements.
Click to expand...

I have 450 minutes of talk time that roll over + unlimited texting for $60 a month. I'm on at&t. I have a "Tilt" phone, "HTC 8925" .. but there are plenty of phones with full keyboards
 
Zepher said:
When did they change that? I changed my phone online a couple of times myself.
Sprint offers that as well, just log onto your account and change your phone.
Click to expand...

Alltel has that as well.

Of all the major carriers, Alltel has the lowest rates and the best prices on phones (at least on the PDA phones). The problem is that Alltel got bought by Verizon so if you go Alltel, you will end up Verizon eventualy, but I would suspect that your lower priced contract would be honored after the transition.

Thankfully, I live in one of the markets where Alltel get's to live on.
 
SuperSubZero said:
You may just want to visit your local mall, which will usually have a variety of phone sales kiosks and stores. You can see which provider has the balance of plan, pricing, and phone selection you want.

If you tell them what you just posted here, you will find something you want.
Click to expand...

Good call, then visit a small reseller or online reseller to actually buy for better deals
 
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