My experiment with Virgin Mobile and Android has come to an end a bit earlier than I expected. My Motorola Triumph came to an unexpected demise over Christmas. It was mostly my fault but my husband thinks that the Christmas elves had something to do with it. I plugged my phone into the outlet next to my bed at my sister’s house. The charging cord did not reach to the end table so I put the phone on the floor next to the wall. When my sister put a comforter on the bed she accidentally stepped on the phone cracking the screen. The phone technically worked but I could only see about a 1 inch width of the screen down the length of the phone. That seriously limited my smartphone usage.
Tired of hearing my complaints about my phone prior to being stepped on, (camera constantly failed, ringer unexpectantly went silent or loud despite my settings, it rebooted whenever, etc.) my husband declared that my Christmas present would be an iPhone 4s and I just had to pick the carrier. (I secretly wonder if my husband was in cahoots with my sister.)
After comparing the apples, oranges, and grapes of mobile service plans among AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, that there is no concensus as to which mobile provider is better. There are almost an equal number of people who love/hate AT&T as they do Verizon and Sprint. I also learned several other things during this time. First, I don’t hate Androids. I simply like iPhones better because I like the simplicity and overall user experience with them. Androids have much more flexibility but I don’t want/need that. Additionally because there are many Android manufacturers there is wide varience in the product. I don’t know whether my Triumph was a lemon or all Triumphs are crummy devices, but it didn’t perform as I think it should have. If I have an iPhone I don’t have worry about that type of variance. Second, Virgin Mobile is a great way to get the smartphone experience at a fraction of the smartphone cost (compared to AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint). Its network is limited but if you live within the network, it isn’t too bad for the price. While I am not on Virgin Mobile any more, my husband still is and he is happy. He has 300 min. of talk, unlimited data, and unlimited texting for $25/month. If that plan suits you, you cannot beat that price. Things get a little more expensive and the differences between VM and the big 3 begin to get closer as you get more voice minutes. I was at 1200 min. of talk, unlimited data, and unlimited texting for $45/month. I will be paying $65 to AT&T for 900 min. of talk, 2G of data. I won’t have texting plan but I’m not a heavy texter so I will see how I do at .20 cent a minute. In the past I have observed my data usage and I hover around 800MB to 1.3G. So while I will be technically getting less stuff from AT&T, I am getting what I need at only $20 more than VM. To me $20 more is worth having the iPhone after having spent time with my lemon droid.
I considered Verizon, but the service cost more than AT&T and I really like the ability to surf and talk at the same time. So now begins my adventure with discovering my new 4s phone. I am glad that I decided to try things with Android and Virgin Mobile. I am now very comfortable helping users with their Androids as well as those who have iPhones. I enjoyed discovering the different apps and ways to make things different. The nice thing is that my husband still has an Android, and I can always “test” things on his phone to see how things work compared to the iPhone.
So even though I am back to the iPhone, I wouldn’t say this experiment was a total loss. I became quite familiar with another mobile platform and learned a lot of things in the process. Androids (perhaps not the Motorola Triumph) offer a great smartphone experience. You are not “losing” anything by not having an iPhone.
LOL smart phone life span! My mom is weighing the pros and cons of getting an iPhone or just getting an iPad. My mom is old school in that a phone is a phone and really that is all she wants to use it for. She doesn’t text. The screen is too small for her to do any smart phone-ish stuff. So she is thinking that she would use the iPad for things like FaceTime, email, etc.
I’m loving my iPhone so far…Siri doesn’t quite understand me yet (or I haven’t figured out how to talk to her) but that is more fun than functional in my mind. My husband has an LG Optimus V. He has told me he has had some minor quirky problems but nothing to the extreme that I had. The random reboot really was a problem when I was traveling on a plane one time. I couldn’t get the damn thing to turn off, I had to remove the battery to make sure it stayed off or else I risked being Alec Baldwin.
Your comments about Android devices have been similar to my husband’s feelings about his former Droid 2. Android is different on each device, so apps don’t work consistently. The random reboots drove him insane! He couldn’t stand the bloatware but didn’t want to jailbreak the phone (even though he’s an IT professional). He completely regretted moving from Blackberry to Android, and decided to get an iPhone 4S in November. So far, so good!
BTW, which Android model does your husband use?
My mom received an iPhone 4s from the christmas elves, so I look forward to your observations on it. My Motorola Droid 2 is about a year old now and is starting to get a bit senile, sadly. A friend told me to wipe it and reinstall the OS but I think i’ll just coddle it for awhile. Lifespans of smart phones are definitely shorter than dog years. Happy 2012 Krafty!