Please help me pick a cell phone and plan

[Leimanu]

This is me with a smart phone

 

 

I have a regular cell phone but need to get a phone that I where I can clock into work while out in the field, so I need to switch to something with a data plan.

 

Someone told me about the plans at Wal-Mart, SmartTalk and Total Talk, around $35/mo, so I took a look and I'm out of my league.  How do I know how many Gigs I'll use a month?  Which phone, Samsung, Motorola, etc?  Does it matter if the screen is 1/2" bigger than the other one?  I think I only want to pay around $100 and would like to keep it for awhile.

 

I basically will use it to log on and off, and maybe listen to Songza or something once and awhile and some of the cool fitness apps.  I don't intend to stream movies.

 

Could I please get recommendations?

[insanity]

I currently have a Sony Xperia, I love it, but it's a "gamer's phone" if you do a lot with games/videos then it's a good choice.

http://www.sonymobile.com/us/products/phones/xperia-z3v/#black

 

As for data plans, if you're streaming music constantly then you might need a 2+ gigs, but even I have a hard time hitting my limit of 2 gigs.

 

Screen size, I didn't think that mattered really until I got this one, my last phone was a Razr and a good bit smaller, and was another good phone. Though that's a diminishing returns thing, I myself want a bigger screen, but too big and it becomes really cumbersome of a phone.

 

The Galaxy Note 4, was for my fiance, one of those phones... the thing is massive but you also gain the abilities of the phone which are nice, but smaller hands will find it very hard to hold and talk on.

 

http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxynote4/note4_main.html

 

Actually... now that I think about it, your profile says you're in central Florida, where about? I still have my Razr, I might be able to toss it your way and you can use it.

[Raze]

Depending on how much voice and text you use you might also want to look into ting.

 

https://ting.com/rates

 

I'm thinking of switching to this myself. They also have both types of phones available (GSM and CDMA) GSM is the backbone for such services like T-mobile and CDMA is the backbone for services such as sprint. Since it doesnt look like you will be using much data this service might be a great choice. It is $6 a month for the device (if you buy it from them you pay the cost and it is yours and its done) and pay as you go for minutes, text, and data. I stream a ton of music and some fitness apps and between my wife streaming music and myself (when not at home we use wifi at home) we average about 600 megs a month.

[PMyrrh]

For what your saying you need, it sounds like a plan with1 gig or less would work. I recommend against getting a two year contract, get a track phone or a monthly plan.

[vikinginyogapants]

Also recommending against yearly / two-year contracts. Another suggestion is looking into Virgin Mobile--they have a variety of monthly plans, including several options for around $35 a month. I currently use the unlimited text & data + 300 minutes, but that's because I use a lot of data and don't talk any more than that. I believe another option is unlimited text & talk + 250 MB (?) of data, although music streaming and apps can eat that up pretty quickly.