Is it better to buy a cheaper phone and use the money saved for data?

[kds]

So here is my conundrum, should I buy an older, cheaper android and use the money saved to buy more data or go for the best I can afford and suffer from data starvation?

The older phone has android 2.2 (not upgradable), a 800mhz processor, a locked bootloader, flash lite, and an ageing camera. The newer one has a 1ghz processor (1 core), an unlocked bootloader, upgradable to ICS, full flash support and a pretty decent camera.

I have internet access using wifi at work, but lots of sites are blocked, like whatsapp, gmail, twitter etc, so I imagine I am going to be on 3G almost all the time. Any pointers?

 

[RandomGRK]

Whats the difference in price between the two phones?

Data is an ongoing expense so on a monthly basis you will need at least 500mb in my opinion.

As for whatsapp and twitter being blocked, how does that work. I would understand the website being blocked but the apps?

 

[kds]

Whats the difference in price between the two phones?

Data is an ongoing expense so on a monthly basis you will need at least 500mb in my opinion.

As for whatsapp and twitter being blocked, how does that work. I would understand the website being blocked but the apps?

You can install the app (at home for instance), but you cannot connect to the whatsapp / twitter servers, so the app is installed but cant connect. So no messages can be received or delivered.

 

[CranialBlaze]

Ok i have wifi at home, work and every friends house so i personally only use 100mb data over 2 months normally.

I agree with RandomGRK, make little sense that the apps are blocked, not even sure how possible that is unless your IT department went and tracked down every IP used by those services and blocked them, which in itself would be senseless as the data consumed by the apps is negligible in a ADSL environment.

Personally i would not go for anything that supports less than 2.3 as 2.2 was utter rubbish, my moms got the wildfire s on 2.3.5 and its quite unimpressive, got the bare essential apps on and it regularly complains of low memory which is what your cheapie will probably also do.

Your better choice can only be the nexus s, your describing it to the T and its the weakest phone that will ever support ICS, HTC and Samsung cannot get ICS onto those low spec due to the requirements for their own custom crap. I'm telling you now, your best choice is actually a bit slow in my opinion especially after having used a Galaxy S2, you will find it extremely frustrating and your ability to personalize it will be extremely limited.

 

[CranialBlaze]

You can install the app (at home for instance), but you cannot connect to the whatsapp / twitter servers, so the app is installed but cant connect. So no messages can be received or delivered.

IMO, i would care more about the battery use than data abuse, 3G is battery intensive in this day and age, signal strength is not what it used to be, you battery life will decrease by up to 70% if you use it exclusively compared to predominantly wifi usage. Modern smart phones you generally get about a work day out of them, normal use my nexus s gets about 16-20 hours off charge and that's with modifications. Custom ROM/Kernal implemented Deep-Idle state which google plans on but has not yet implemented into stock kernels, ironically enough it can save up to 55% battery over what normal Idle saved you.

My Moms wildfire, before putting on Juice Defender as i did not want to root it, basically having internet for 4min per hour in idle state just about gets it to day 2 and thats what you could expect from your cheapie as it sounds to be int he same filed.

 

[BigAl-sa]

Ok i have wifi at home, work and every friends house so i personally only use 100mb data over 2 months normally.

Same this end.

Personally i would not go for anything that supports less than 2.3 as 2.2 was utter rubbish, my moms got the wildfire s on 2.3.5 and its quite unimpressive, got the bare essential apps on and it regularly complains of low memory which is what your cheapie will probably also do.

I've got a phone stuck on SE's version of 2.1, and it runs more than satisfactorily with ADW Launcher, Beautiful Widgets and Swiftkey X, which gives me enough customization for my needs.

 

[kds]

http://www.bluecoat.com/products/proxysg

They have a IP, URL and even google cache filter of any unauthorised site. Yeah, they're serious, banks...

The difference in price between the phones works out to about 100megs p/m worth of data. That I figure will see me through with e-mail, whatsapp and twitter. I just don't want to buy a cheaper phone and wind up being stuck with a doorstop for the next 2 years. For those who are interested, el cheapie is the Motorolla MB525, el mucho dinero is the Xperia Ray. Galaxy S2 and similar are out of my price range.

 

[Elimentals]

The difference in price between the phones works out to about 100megs p/m worth of data. That I figure will see me through with e-mail, whatsapp and twitter. I just don't want to buy a cheaper phone and wind up being stuck with a doorstop for the next 2 years. For those who are interested, el cheapie is the Motorolla MB525, el mucho dinero is the Xperia Ray.

Is the 525 like the Motorola Defy?

http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=3972&idPhone2=3514
http://phone-size.com/?s=45,28

 

[shamalh108]

dude, rather get the better phone. then use 8ta prepaid, R150 for 2gb+1gb(midnight hours) plus if you load it on the first of the month it lasts two calendar months.. maybe buy a cheap vodafone 858 or a mi-fi modem to use with the 8ta sim. its the setup im using and its great..

 

[Elimentals]

If it is a choice between the two I linked I would say go for the Ray. Has some serious Facebook integration and whatsapp pre-installed which sounds like what you are looking for.

You can always pop Onavo onto the phone and limit the rest of the applications to Wifi only

 

[kds]

Is the 525 like the Motorola Defy?

http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=3972&idPhone2=3514
http://phone-size.com/?s=45,28

Yes, Defy = MB 525. That phone-size.com is a seriously cool site.

M-Fi / 858 hotspot is an interesting option, need to look at that.

Edit: Onavo, that's exactly what I was looking for!

 

[SCHUMI-4-EVA]

I highly doubt you'd be able to get significantly more data just by choosing a slightly worse phone, for a month or two perhaps but then you're back to the same starvation but now with a crappier phone.

 

[RandomGRK]

I highly doubt you'd be able to get significantly more data just by choosing a slightly worse phone, for a month or two perhaps but then you're back to the same starvation but now with a crappier phone.

this, this and this. Get the better phone and sell a kidney.

 

[Viva]

What exactly is the price difference per month between the two phones?

Thing is, both phones are mid-range. Compare them here. You can also read about your fellow myBB forumite's impressions on the Motorola Defy here.

I have my Defy (slightly) overclocked to 1Ghz, which works just fine. I also have it undervolted, which saves quite come battery life. From what I have read, people suspect the Defy's CPU to be an underclocked 1Ghz Cortex-A8 processor. I have not installed CM7 yet, but it's not a issue at all to install other ROM's on the Defy, despite the locked bootloader.

The phones have the same amount of RAM and internal memory.

The Ray has a better camera (the Defy's camera is not all that good) so if that's important to you, you should consider the Ray.

The thing that would stop me from getting the Ray though, is the small screen size (3.3"). But people's opinions about screen size differ quite a bit, so that might be a non-issue to you. My Defy's 3.7" screen feels a little small to me, I would have preferred a 4" screen, if not 4.3".

What's nice about the Defy though, is that the screen is quite big compared to the body, which I really like. I like "all screen" phones.

I guess I'm saying that you should not write the Defy of to fast. Compared to the Ray, it's not a bad phone at all.

Also, it can do this :

[video=youtube;ZYCbpS3zPcI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYCbpS3zPcI&feature=related[/video]

 

[Viva]

That phone-size.com is a seriously cool site.

+100, excellent site!

 

[Polymathic]

You could shop around on gumtree for unwanted contract phones could strike a good deal