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My 2-year commitment to Sprint just ended, and I need new phones. I was hoping to get some input from y'all on the boards, since so many of you are tech savy.

The current draw is switching to Verizon, since they have much better coverage in my area. There is a Verizon tower just around the corner. Sprint has been spotty at best, and I've had more dropped calls lately than ever.

Verizon is currently offering a free iPhone 4 (not the 4s). I realize that these are no longer in production, but I was wondering if it is still worth getting anyway. I like free, and I am not really that picky about phones. I rarely use mine as it is. However, if being locked into one of these for the next two years is a bad idea, I would like to know. I have generally been fine with being behind a few years in tech (just got my first PS3 this month!  ).

Being behind the tech shouldn't be too bad. At some point you might run into some apps not being able to run on your phone (due to not being able to update the software), but it doesnt seem like that would matter to you.

Make sure you check up on the data plans.

Verizon is offering a HTC Droid Incredible 4G Lite for free.  Also, it's seems like a much better phone than IPhone (click me)

Verizon is offering a HTC Droid Incredible 4G Lite for free.  Also, it's seems like a much better phone than IPhone

OK, so let's go there. The only phones I ever hear about are iPhone and Galaxy. Why is that? Are the others just consolation prizes? Granted I do not require much, but if there are a bunch of phones that are free anyway, shouldn't I get the "leading" brand?

No idea how much it is right now but the Droid 4 has the keyboard you're looking for and is running android 4.0, which is important.

Android 4.0 is as easy to use as iOS but you have to find a phone that doesn't have a manufacturer overlay on it. Samsung and HTC put their own interface over the android core and those are all pretty terrible. Anything Motorola in the past 2 years or the nexus s from Google will be stock android

I plussed you for dumb phone. Sometimes it is necessary to speak in laymen's terms.

@Sean: I plussed one your post, too.  I'm old school (as if anyone on the boards didn't already know that), so that's the phone I usually go for.

@Techno: I also was wary of touchscreens because of the spread of viruses.  Other people normally will ask to use a smartphone way more often than a dumbphone.

@YMT: Surprisingly with my responses above I'm actually going to recommend the iPhone.  Although old school I often get into a predicament of needing a certain tool at a certain time.  And to me, a phone is just a tool.  I want the highest quality tools.  So when my company offered to pay for my phone I grabbed a 4S.  To me, the 4S is like a hammer - it does its job as intended and does it well.  I don't need a Popeil Pocket All-in-one tool that I need to read a 350-page manual and the philips gets stripped and the bottle opener breaks.  (FYI - my best friend's wife's Android has regularly scheduled flights across the living room.  )

Also, a word about data: you and your family should consciously use WiFi whenever possible.  My daughter was using up the data on her plan often at the beginning of her contract.  I reviewed with her what activities she was doing and how much data it was using.  She never gets close to her data cap anymore due to wise use of WiFi.  Education is a powerful thing, eh? 

Gotta agree with Stamp. Apple products are widely known to have superior craftsmanship coupled with a fluid and reliable OS. Never had to get any of my iPhones repaired, never had it bug out or crash. iPhone 5 is definitely the way to go.

I just started as an engineer at Verizon, and have been a customer of them for a lot longer. I am still learning a lot about the phones/service/etc., and am by no means an expert as of yet but so far I have gotten the impression that most of my coworkers are anti-iPhone. I suspect it has to do with the fact that Verizon's relationship with the iPhone is newer and hasn't been as well established as with Android phones; thus we are more used to dealing with Androids. Also, we are very partial to the 4G LTE network, and are primarily focused on that at this point: I am currently not even really learning about how to deal with previous network technologies at my job because my bosses don't see the need at this point. You won't get access to 4G LTE network on the iPhone, unless you get the iPhone 5 (which seems to be outside of your price point at this time). I can't really speak to the bugginess of the iPhone or the Androids at this point, but I do know that I will likely be learning much more about Android systems in my job. I personally wouldn't get an HTC, as I had one of those and it did crash after 1.5 years; though it may have had more to do with the fact that it was the first 4G phone to be offered through Verizon and it was buggier than the top of the line 4G phones now.

I of course will also tell you that Verizon is definitely the way to go. It has the best coverage overall, and the most expansive 4G network. I've also learned a lot about Verizon's commitment to excellence in the past couple of weeks, and its customer satisfaction is the best in the industry. Sure, I might be biased, but I honestly do believe that. 

As for the "dumb"phone vs. smartphone argument, I have experience from all three angles: Never having had a smartphone, Having a smartphone, and Going back to the "dumb" phone when my smartphone crashed. Obviously, when I had just my basic phone, I survived with it, and I had no problem accessing the internet with my laptop. When I upgraded to a smart phone, I used it all the time: checking email, as a GPS, as my Bible in church, watching Netflix/Hulu, reading books, playing games, etc. etc. I easily made the $30 a month extra for the data plan worth it for me personally. When I then had to revert to my dumb phone, I am surviving (until my company-provided phone gets in later this week/next week of course) and I am not necessarily convinced that I would go back. Everything that the average person can/does do with a smart phone you can do with a laptop, minus just a bit of the convenience factor (and the 3G/4G network availability). The biggest issue with dumb phones is that there are fewer and fewer of them, and not a lot of attention is paid to their design/features, since smartphones is where the money is for both manufacturers and wireless companies.

If you ever have questions about anything Verizon-related, I can certainly be a resource for you. I am learning a lot right now, so even if I can't help you right away, I can certainly talk to the people I work with who have much more experience.

Quote from: Ironica on January 22, 2013, 03:33:02 PM

I've had a few repairs on our IPhones and I didn't even bother repairing the broken speaker on my last one.

iPhone in a bowl full of rice overnight. Speaker fixed.

You seem to be assuming the only damage Iphone's ever receive is water damage. My cousin's Iphone was having a problem with his audio as well, basically the headphone jack was broken and it was reading there were headphones plugged in where there weren't any, effectively turning off all the sound. Iphone's aren't impervious to breaking,

It didn't fix anything, the headphone jack had physical damage. The entire headphone jack had to be replaced.

Thats not the point, the point was you just assumed his broken speaker was water damage. A single side of the speaker dying is probably not water damage.