Smartphone newbie (ETA: New question in thread - thx)

Catch23

What can I expect to pay monthly for the data plan?

 Right now i'm with Verizon with my basic flip phone (yep!) and the most basic phone plan (no texting, nothing special).

 I have finally woken up and realized its 2012 and maybe I should get with the program.

 Also any suggestions for a smart phone with a good camera and video capabilities?

TIA!

emisi

I think mine is either $25 or $30 for the data plan.  I have a Galaxy Note, and love it.  If the Note is too big, the Samsung Galaxy II is a very nice phone.

Raspberry807

Love my iPhone 4s... it has an 8MP camera that is really great. 

This link lists out Verizon's data plan rates, and has a calculator so you can figure out how much data you may be using monthly.  The cheapest is 2GB/mo for $30.

Catch23

Thank you both so much!

I think I am going with the iphone 4!  As for the data plan from Verizon, I'm still not sure yet which to choose. 

Question:  How would I know what would be the equivalent of 5GB a month?  Like when I'm surfing the net on the phone? How many days of computer surfing will exhaust that 5GB?

With phone minutes its easy - - If I only have 100 mins left I know I can only talk for 100 more mins before going over.  But how would I know what constitutes a GB?  KWIM?  AM I making sense?  (sorry if i'm not!)

monkeygirl18

Gigabyte cannot be converted to hours, they measure two separate things. Gigabyte is the amount of data something can hold, and hours is time of course.

That being said, dh has the 4g data pro package (we have AT&T) for his Iphone 4. That package allows tethering IE: he uses his iphone data plan and " connects" his laptop to it. He does this on the train every day for approx two hrs.  The most he has used in a months time is 1.5 GB,

 

I pretty much use my Iphone 4s for everything. I'm rarely on my laptop anymore (I am now though). I surf the web at work and at home and the most I've used is 145.75 MB.

 

We also make sure when possible to have a wifi connection as that does not use any part of the data plan.

 

As for per month Dh has 4G Data pro and it's $45 per month. I have 2G data pro and it's $25 per month plus $5 for 200 txt msgs. We have the 700 min family share plan which is $69 per month (the plan is $60 and then $9 per added line) and our bill is $161 per month. 

 

Hope that helps.

 

 

 

 

Raspberry807

Catch23:

Question:  How would I know what would be the equivalent of 5GB a month?  Like when I'm surfing the net on the phone? How many days of computer surfing will exhaust that 5GB?

According to calculator on the link I posted, you'd need to visit 500 webpages per day to use up 5gb/month.

I use at least 5gb/mo but I stream video and listen to Pandora regularly.

Catch23

Yes ladies - that was very helpful.  Thank you so much for taking the time to explain.  Greatly appreciated!!!

imwithrebel

Even on months when I've streamed a lot of music on my phone, I haven't even come close to the data limit. You're going to be addicted to your smartphone before you know it!