Need cell phone advice!

[Tilas]

I'm looking to upgrade my phone to a smart phone because FINALLY they're available in my community. But I don't know what to do, so I have a few not so quick questions.

iPhone 5 VS Galazy S III? Which is better? I have an ipod touch (8GB) already, (it's totally full), so while an iphone would be nice cause I could transfer everything to it, I've ready a lot of reviews saying the Galaxy is superior. ....I also like the huge screen on the Galaxy.

The plans kinda suck (no surprise up here), but I was looking at the $65/month for 1GB data transfer, unlimited text and 300 minutes. Would 1GB be enough? I don't plan to ever download video or music on it (what for, I can do that on my PC at home). I mainly want it for email, text, phone calls, and occasionally when I want to look something up, or check the forums I go to. 

I use my ipod touch quite heavily for my banking, contacts, and games like draw something that requires a net connection. I love it, but not being able to access things like my bank when I'm away from wi-fi it really annoying, which is why I'm leaning towards a smartphone.

I'm so leery about contracts because my last one sucked (the plan was ok for the price, but the phone I had was AWFUL and they wouldn't let me ditch it).  But there's a big special promotion going on right now cause 3G is new to town so they're doing all this free hookup, 3 months free, plus $100 off the purchase price of any smartphone... IF you get a 3 year contract.  So.... the iphone ($900 retail) and galaxy would be ($800 retail) would only be $80 instead of $180 (for the smallest 16gb phone) each on a 3 year contract. ....That is awfully tempting. Plus the rep said that if I decide to cancel contract early, it's a $250 disconnect fee and $250 data fee. Still, that's $580 total cost on a $900 phone. ....worth the risk?

I dunno. I want to take advantage of the promotions but I'm so leery about getting myself into something that might cost a fortune. All I've ever had is a basic CDMA phone that barely does text, I've never had a smart phone before.  Help?

[Talismarr]

I'm in the same boat as you! I'm one of like, 3 people I know who don't have a smart phone yet. I would love to get an iPhone, but am stuck in a contract until at least summer, perhaps even longer! I'm scared to sign another contract too when I do upgrade. Technology moves and advances so fast, I'm surprised they still have 3 year plans. I guess they need the contracts in order to make the money on the phones, they're quite pricey! I'm not quite sure about iphone vs galaxy either. The galaxy looks pretty neat, but I think the screen on that one is a little too big for my preference. And I am partial to mac products 

I'm curious to hear other people's input too!

[ashes]

I have an iphone 4 and I love it.  I plan on upgrading to the 5 probably in February or March (my contract expired in October).  My husband also has the 4, but my mom just got the iphone 5 (her first ever smartphone too!).  It has better phone service in our area over the 4, which is why I want to upgrade.  (My husband, myself, and both my parents are all on the same family plan since we get a mega discount through my dad's work - it was part of his retirement package).  My husband and I pay only $90 a month total for both our iphones. 

I actually have never heard of 3 year contracts.  I got my first cell phone in 2001, and it's always been 2-year contracts.

[Stuntmang]

If you have an iPod touch already, I'd say go with the Galaxy. You can share your 3G as a wifi connection, which your iPod can connect to and use to access the internet and such. You get the best of both worlds, and it's cheaper.

[kaoskat]

Good luck finding a new phone!

[Sandi]

I have an iPhone 5 and I like it very much. It's my second smart phone. My last one was an xperia x10 mini pro, it worked fine but it was a bit tio small, imo.

[Psivampyr]

Well I don't have a Iphone, I have a LG Optimus Logic and I LOVE it. My husband has a Galaxy LG Optimus Q, with the qwerty slider keyboard. I prefer to have the qwerty keyboard, but when I got the phone it was on black friday sale, so I paid 30.00 for it. My husband loves his phone too, he's watched netflix on his and played games. I have gone to the Arena and chatted on it as well as the World of warcraft chat port thing they have. The only drawback with the droid phones is that there aren't many case options out there.
Anyway we go through Straight Talk at Walmart it's 45.00 Unlimited everything- talk, text, internet. NO contract and it's month to month.
 It's  the best deal with cell phones that I have seen. Also the new droids from what I can tell with the blue tooth can enable tablets and stuff to get on the internet via the wifi they have. Here is the website, you can see if they service your area and such. My sister lives in some small isolated NC town/island but she gets service out there with Straight talk, I had bought her a refurbished slider phone for her birthday. When I bought my hubby's phone I went to ebay and got one cuz it was way cheaper. They also have a bring your own phone option, but I have never used that so I don't know much about it.
https://www.straighttalk.com/

[teresat]

I went with an iPhone 4s after using an iPod touch for a long time. It was a smooth transition. No thinking involved for me. It was also very easy for me to get different Apple products to talk to each other.

My iPhone 4s has HotSpot but I haven't activated it yet. I used Android in the past but I had much better luck with getting iOS to work for me.

Good luck. I think going to an Apple store and a cell phone store to actually try out the products might be helpful.

[RAMChYLD]

Well, you already have an iPod. Put this way- if you get an iPhone, all the apps on your iPod can be shared with your iPhone and vice-versa. Apple allows up to 5 devices to share an app account. If you get a Galaxy S3, well, you need to buy any apps that you have on your iPod all over, assuming there is even an android version of the app out.

My advice: It's completely up to you. If you wish to keep your apps from you iPod, well, iPhone 5 is the only way. However, if you want access to both iOS and Android app libraries, then get a Galaxy S3 and supplement your iPod with it (I have an Android HTC ChaCha/Status that I use as a hotspot for my two iPads).

[Tilas]

All really good advice, thank you everyone. My brother is screaming ta me to not get ipod, but he's an apple hater so..... yah lol.  He tends to forget I have 3 ipods, 1 ipod touch, and 1 ipad. I'm sorta into apple.   I know, sounds like a lot, but the 3 ipods I won so I didn't actually spend anything on them. I'm thinking of I do upgrade to iphone I'll give my husband my ipod touch if he wants it, or sell it if he doesn't.

I'd love to go shopping, but there's only 1 carrier here, and the big wigs are in town for it today and tomorrow for the promotional sale, so now is the time to buy. Though, they don't have that much of a selection, just the iphone and galaxy. It's all they brought down from the Whitehorse.  At least they brought the top models instead or trying to sell us junk.

I'm really leaning towards the iphone 5, as mentioned above and by some other friends, I won't have to spend anything extra since I already have all the apps I use everyday, which, considering I have probably hundreds of $$$ in apps... probably the best option. 

[Eviecorn]

Good points made on both sides, with the apps issue and already owning an iPod.  I'd still say the Galaxy, but you can't go wrong with an iPhone either.

[Sunshine]

I'm an apple hater too BUT some of my good friends had the new iPhone... I gotta say, everything they advertise as new for that new iPhone is something my droid RAZR has been able to do for months now... BUT - I've been oogling over the new Samsung... got to play with a buddies one night, and I like it even more than my own phone (which I LOVE, best phone I've had in 10 years - ...no it's not 10 years old, but of all the phones I've had in the last decade, it's the best)...

If you already have apple stuff it might just be easier to go iPhone. They're all the same pretty much, I mean srsly... in a few months, the next big thing will be coming out and we'll all have obsolete phones.

[EienMau]

I have a 4S iPhone and I love it...

Before that I had a Samsung Galaxy Fascinate/Captivate [whichever was AT&T's model - I'm constantly getting them mixed up] and it was horrible.  It started randomly shutting itself off after 4 months, and AT&T refused to help me fix it, and also refused to help me send it back in for warranty-covered repair. =\  So I switched back to Sprint [which I had 5 years ago] and got the 4S under contract.. I paid $400 for it, but it's a 64GB model ^_^;;;;

[HoustonCollector72]

I'm on my 2nd iphone, had the 3gs and now I have the 4s, before i had HTC smartphones ,Titan 2 the last one of the HTC's I used.
I got to say the Iphone has been very good to me so far.
I'm under ATT and the network has decent speeds where i live.
You mentioned 3G ,I know we are already on 4G and LTE here.

[mercynova]

I don't know anything about plans over your side of the pond but if you like the bigger screen of the S3 then why not have a look at the Galaxy Note II. I just got one last month and it is seriously awesome. Any apps I have on it look beautiful on such a big screen and it's good because I have rubbish eyesight I guess the downside is they wont ever fit in your pocket... but they have the best processor on the market right now I believe and they're well worth a look at!