New phone, New Plan questions...

[pdarrah]

We currently have a Family share plan with 4 phones.

#1 (Dad) Blackberry
#2 (Me) Droid X
#3 (Mom) basic phone
#4 (my son) basic phone

Phones #1 & #2 need to be smartphones and at least #1 needs to be Global. Dad & I run our family business and our phones are a vital part.

Phone #1, the blackberry, is on its last legs so we really need to upgrade. All 4 phones are eligible for upgrades. I have been very happy with the Droid X and Dad has decided it is time to move away from blackberry. He wants the 2 of us to have the same phone so I can easily help him with it. At 72 he is pretty good with new tech, but he is always a little nervous about diving into something new

I had been thinking the Droid Razr Maxx would be a good choice - it is a global phone & the battery life would be really nice. Now they have added the Droid Razr M and the reviews are pretty good - however, none of them directly compare it to the Razr Maxx. If you had to choose one of these phones today, which would you choose? Is the Razr Maxx worth the extra $100?

Phone #3 is being left alone - Mom makes maybe 3-5 calls per month and flat out refuses to use a smartphone.

Phone #4 is my 13yo son. The plan is to pass my Droid X on to him. I'm assuming that once I'm moved to a new phone, we can factory-reset the Droid X and have it switched to him.

With all of this, as best as I can tell, we need to change to the new Share Everything plan. I've been looking at our data usage and it isn't too bad. We have wifi at home & at work which seems to be a very good thing. I average about 700MB/month on the Droid X. I got up around 1GB when we had a week long power outage after a storm. I mostly use email, twitter and some web browsing. The only video is short clips (like a news story or interview on a web page). Dad only uses 40-50 MB/month on his blackberry. I assume this will go up with a droid, but he isn't going to be streaming video or music (hearing aids make listening on a phone a pain). EMail & web browsing (mostly news) is about it for him. The kid, of course, has 0 data usage now - but we've already discussed that anything that uses a lot of data (like video) needs to be done on wifi. We are thinking that 2 GB might be cutting it close, so will probably go with a 4GB package.

I'm pretty sure that the new package will end up costing us about $30 more than the old would have (had we been able to add another smartphone). We lose "unlimited" but since we aren't mega users, I guess that isn't that big a deal. We pay by the text right now, so having the unlimited texting is a plus (I'm assuming the kid will be using that now!) and being able to occasionally use the phone as a hotpot will be nice.

Am I missing anything here? Have I interpreted all the info on the new package correctly? Any suggestions?

 

[saichick04]

Hi! Well, where to start! Lol. It's awesome that everyone is up for an upgrade however losing unlimited data does well..suck. The new plans do have unlimited mins and text which is good for your business. Keep in mind you'll have 3 smartphones on your account now. It is good you'll be on wifi majority of the time to help save some data! Each smartphone will cost you $40 dollars per line. Plus your mom's basic phone at $30. I'd at least get 2-4gb of data just to be safe, 2gb shared will be $60 and 4gb $70. So $210~$220 a month before taxes... I think you've already done all that math. Your 13yo will for sure use his share of the data! Lol. The coverage is great and well you get what you pay for. I have a Droid RAZR Maxx and it is awesome. The battery life is unreal on this thing. Honestly to save a hundred why not get your Dad the Razr M? It's smaller and has alot of the same system settings as the Maxx. Sure the battery is smaller (2000mAH) but it's still more than a standard 1750mAh I think. But then again by Christmas the Razr HD and the Razr Maxx HD will be out and well...everyone wants the newest and shiniest toy. Also is storage a big issue? The Razr M is 8gb but has an SD slot for up to a 32gb card. And the Maxx is 16gb and comes w a 16gb preinstalled. I'd say sit down and comb over the plans Good luck!! Oh and don't leave out the SGIII that is one sweet and sexy phone lol.

 

[pdarrah]

Hi saichick04 - thanks for the input. Sadly, the SGIII isn't an option since it isn't Global (at least I don't see it listed as Global at Verizon's site) . I'm not sure the blackberry is going to make it until Christmas - he's having to pull the battery every few days now. I honestly can't imagine any of us really needing an HD screen - If for some odd reason I want to watch a movie NOT on the 42" TV, my husband's iPad is a much better option than any phone.

I'm really unsure between the Maxx and the M - is battery life & size the only real difference? Smaller sounds good, but I don't want to have to be constantly charging. My X makes it through the day, but usually is down to 20% by the time I plug it in again at night.

I agree that 4gb of data seems like a good idea and worth the $10.

I doubt my dad will need much storage - I'd be surprised if he ended up with more than a handful of extra apps. On my X, I have 4.8GB free still for app storage and 10GB on my 16GB SD card. Occasionally, I fill up some space if I take a bunch of photos, but I'm pretty good about pulling them off regularly.

 

[saichick04]

Ah! I am not sure about the SGIII being global if not then scratch that! Yes battery life and size are pretty much the main differences. I guess you'll have to wait and see how people are reporting the battery life on the M. There is also a thread about w the M when you receive an email you have to click to open it naturally and then click something else to view the entire message. Apparently that's annoying to some lol.