My beloved LG Chocolate is cracking. And by cracking, I mean it’s already been cracked several times over on the keypad portion only. The touch sensitive spots on the front are still great and responsive, I have no issues there or with any other keys, except for the keys for 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 0 and #. I must not use 4 (ghi), 7 (pqrs) or the * (vibrate) keys very often, hehe.
Luckily, my cell phone (which is on a 3 year contract) is coming up for a contract renewal soon (my current contract ends on September 2, 2010). So I have some options!
I don’t talk on the phone much at all – my big thing is texting (last month I may have had 1500+ incoming and 1500+ outgoing) and I’d really like a phone that also comes with separate keys (for the LG Chocolate that I have, the number pad is all one piece with grooves to separate the numbers – not the best thing in the world, but it didn’t really start to die until maybe this year…)
Both phones that I’ve been looking at (that would be at $20 for a 3 year contract and $100 for buying outright) have slide-out QWERTY keyboards. The phone for Option #2 is also touch screen (oooh, ahhh), the phone for Option #1 does not have a touch screen (awww). Both have expandable memory with a miniSD card, both have a music player, camera, video camera, voice recording, alarm clock, calculator/tip calculator, global clock and a lot of other features that my current (beloved, but cracking) Chocolate has.
Phone for Option #1 has up to: 5.5 hours talk time, 12 days standby
Phone for Option #2 has up to: 12 hours talk time, 7 days standby
Option #1 – Stay With Current Provider
- $10 – move current cell number to a new phone
- $35 – “one time” activation fee
- $30 – per month for a plan with unlimited text/picture/video messaging, 150 minutes, evenings & weekends, voice mail (3), unlimited talk on my birthday
- $20 – cell phone, on a 3 year contract
Total cost (for 1 year): $425 (before taxes)
Total cost (for 3 years): $1145 (before taxes)
Caller ID is $8/month and not included above. If I include Caller ID, it would be $96/year and $288/3 years and bring the totals up to $521 and $1433 respectively.
Cons: No Caller ID without additional money. On a contract. What in the fudge is up with this fee to move my number from one phone to the next?? Activation fee?!
Pros: Would for sure be able to keep the same phone number. Picture messaging! Unlimited evenings and weekends – no need to ‘top up’ or worry too much about running out of minutes. Voice mail.
Option #2 – Jump Ship
- $100 – cell phone, no contract
- $20 – per month prepaid plan with unlimited Canada-wide texting, unlimited mobile browsing, unlimited calling from 3pm-6pm, INCLUDES CALLER ID, voice mail is pay-per-use (takes out of whatever prepaid credit I have in my account), I’d also get unlimited talk to people on prepaid with the same company (i.e. my sisters)
- $40 – SIM card
- $100 – for minutes outside of the package listed above in Option #2, at $0.25/minute – 400 minutes spread out over a year (at $100 for ‘top up’, it doesn’t expire until day 365).
Total cost (for 1 year): $480 (before taxes)
Total cost (for 3 years): $1160 (before taxes)
Cons to switching to Option #2 is that I would be unlikely to transfer my number from provider #1 to provider #2 (and I’d then have to go through and change my number on a bunch of accounts – like school, the libraries, bank, etc, etc – not to mention telling everyone about it) – however, if it is possible to move my number from provider #1 to #2, provider #2′s website states that it will do it for free. I’d also have to pay additional $$ for regular minutes (hence the $100 or additional top-up money).
Pros would be… unlimited mobile browsing? I’d get the unlimited texting that I want as well! Also, no contract. Overall, less expensive if I were to add in caller ID for Option #1. No activation fee. Free chatting with my sisters (like they don’t hear me talk enough as it is).
So… Internet, what do you think? Tell me your thoughts on my Option #1 and Option #2!