New smartphone....maybe

Our phone contract with Verizon expires at the beginning of December; it seems hard to believe that we've had our Droids for almost two years already. I wasn't going to upgrade my phone bc I was under the impression that the tier packages wouldn't start until you upgraded. I have since found out that the tier packages automatically start once the current contract expires. Which bites, but Rick and I are thinking that we could "share" the 2-gb package. He could take a gb and I'd take one and it should be enough to see us through as long as we're still able to have unlimited texting. We've been vigilant about checking our usage right at the end of the month and one gb each seems to be OK for us. Rick actually gets online with his phone more than I do....I get on to check for updates for my apps and, rarely, to access the forums that I frequent. My big thing is texting.....I seem to text a lot and Rick texts more than me. It's easy to stay in contact with my kids and our nieces and nephews by texting. And Rick stays in contact with all the people from his union, both the local and the international by texting, too.

That being said, I'm thinking of upgrading to the Droid Razr Maxx HD at the beginning of December. My co-worker has the Maxx and he's completely fallen in love with it and so has my supervisor. Battery life is longer than with my Droid X.....I'm charging my X up twice a day most days. To be fair, it's bc I play games frequently.

I should add that neither one of us texts while driving. We simply don't. I don't know how people do that, to be honest. I do, however, use my Bluetooth to talk through my cell when I'm driving Hannah. It's nice to be able to press my steering wheel and say "Call xxxxx" and be connected! My sister and I talk quite a bit while we're in our cars.

Does anybody have the Maxx HD? Do you like it? Or not? Any thoughts? I'd like to stay in the Droid family as, overall, we've both been really happy with our Droids. Thanks!

I just upgraded my phone on Thursday. . .I got a Droid 4 because that's the only Droid they had with a full keyboard. I just don't like typing on the touchscreen :tongue2:. So far I think I liked my Motorola Droid better but it's only been a few days so I guess I can't really have a full opinion yet. The new plan didn't start until I upgraded :dk:. I held out for as long as I could but my old phone was really buggy and wouldn't charge properly so I had to. I hope I don't go over 2 GB and I thought she said that was for just me, not for everyone on the family plan? Yikes, I hope so. If I have to share that with my brothers it's not going to turn out well :lol3:. I guess I should go in and ask, or see if it's on their website.

I have to say that I'm not overly impressed with the battery life on this thing. When my old phone was new it held a charge for a pretty long time. This one, not so much.

We just did the Verizon upgrade in July and so far we haven't had problems with the 2gb. I was worried hat we would have an issue while on vacation, because I look a lot of places, things, etc up, but we did OK. My husband got a razr, but to sure if it is the Maxx. He's happy with it.

the free phone right now with Verizon upgrade is the Apple 4, isn't it?  That's what we just got.  Went from an old (very old) flip phone to the Apple 4, so am totally new to texting, don't know what to think about having a camera, the internet, etc. all on my phone.  I'm busy watching Youtube classes on how to use this thing.  Kind of fun.

You mean they force you into the new tier programs and you can't keep the one you are already on. Mine is not up for awhile, but that might cause me to shop around to see what else is out them when my 2 years is up.

I upgraded to a new phone/contract about 6 months ago and got to keep my unlimited data. They told me I was "grandfathered in", and that I would be able to keep my current plan as long as I was a customer. It was my understanding that no matter if I signed another new contract or not, I could still keep my unlimited data. Granted, I've been with them for 7+ years so maybe that's the difference.

If I were you I would call their customer service line and talk to someone in sales and make sure they are telling you the truth. I know for a fact that they get paid a big commission for signing someone to one of the "new" data plans that is currently on "unlimited". They even make outbound sales calls to do so. I interviewed with them recently.
 

I have a Droid HTC that I got last year when I did the "college road trip" with dd.  Dh has a Droid- and the kids have- something.  It's a smartphone, but not a Droid. 

I know eventually they're going to make us do the tier thing.  Right now- dh has unlimited data.  I have 4GB ( wayy too much for me- but it's cheap).  Kids have 300 MB each. So we don't share minutes, and a tiered plan would wind up costing us more.  

I do more texting with DD when she's away on campus (not right now she's at home on break )  It's so much easier, and I know she's going to answer it.  She does NOT check her voicemail and it's kind of annoying (something that we need to discuss while she's at home this week) Youngest texts too.  But we all use one of the "free" apps (yes, I know they eat data).  But we try to use wifi as much as we can.  We do at home.  The dorm/campus is wifi and dd has figured out how to use it. 

I don't know what we're going to do when someone's phone needs upgrading.  We can't get rid of the cells.  We're going to ditch the landline the end of this month b/c the ONLY phone calls I got over the last month were Romney/Obama calls.  It was cheaper to drop the landline and go with the cable provider for internet/tv.  And dd needs hers b/c she's 3.5 hours away at school most of the time and it is the only way (well besides facebook and she said something about giving up facebook for a while)

The battery life of the Droid drives me nuts.  Some days i've had to charge it 2x too.  And it's not like I play a ton of games on the thing- I have a Kindle and that's so much easier on the eyes.

Cheryl

bigperm20 said:

I upgraded to a new phone/contract about 6 months ago and got to keep my unlimited data. They told me I was "grandfathered in", and that I would be able to keep my current plan as long as I was a customer. It was my understanding that no matter if I signed another new contract or not, I could still keep my unlimited data. Granted, I've been with them for 7+ years so maybe that's the difference.

If I were you I would call their customer service line and talk to someone in sales and make sure they are telling you the truth. I know for a fact that they get paid a big commission for signing someone to one of the "new" data plans that is currently on "unlimited". They even make outbound sales calls to do so. I interviewed with them recently.
 

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See, that's what I thought we were going to be allowed to do. But as I understand it, the "grandfathering" stopped right around June or July, I'm not sure. And from that point on, we were required to tier as contracts expired. It's not the length of time as I've been Verizon for longer than 7 years. You have a good suggestion....calling CS to talk to somebody.....and I will do that today. If I can keep my unlimited everything, I'd gladly do so and stay with my Droid X. Thank you.

I think the new free phone is the iPhone, but I'm not interested in an iPhone....overall, we're both really happy with our Droids. It's just that....well, I've kinda got "new phone fever". And when I saw the screen on my co-worker's Razr Maxx? I drooled.  Seriously, I liked it that much and I'm not normally one to drool over any phone (although I did with my X, too). But if I have to stay with my X, I can do that.

I have a ReZound & they are fairly cheap now as they've been out for almost a year. The thing is though Android Smartphones haven't really advanced much in the past year or so. If I were going to get something new I'd get a galaxy S3 w/ the quad core processor. The screen has a higher resolution than the Razr Maxx. I really don't care much for Moto after my Droid X experience. I went through 5 of them before they finally let me out of my contract and into a new phone.

As far as your contract goes, tell them that unless they let u keep ur unlimited data, you and ur husband will go to Sprint. They have it. I'm not telling u to go there as their an awful company, but the thought of losing a long time customer is usually enough to get something done.

I seriously would check out t-mobile value plans.

$79.99 a month for 2 lines- unlimited talk & text and then $10 a line for UNLIMITED Data with a speed cap @ 5 GB.

 Jut changed to those and literally cut our phone bill in half (we have 3 lines)

I would love a Droid X lol-- Right now have a Samsung Galaxy S - I would like to upgrade to the Galaxy S III but that is $179.00 I don't feel like spending!

No, I'm not changing from Verizon. Everybody I know is on Verizon, so most of my minutes are free. I'm not jeopardizing that as I'd end up paying a small fortune to talk to people.

I forgot to call Verizon today.....I got busy at work and it slipped my mind.

Our Verizon contract expired today. We went down to the Verizon store last night and I said, "Look, our contract expires tomorrow. We have two Droid X phones on our contract. What's going to happen? Are we going to be forced into a tier package?"

The bottom line is.....nope. As long as we don't upgrade to another phone, we're good to go. Bigperm20, you were right. As long as we stay with our Xs, we're ok and grandfathered. So we have 700 phone minutes (not a problem since most of the people I talk to are also on Verizon), unlimited texting (which both Rick and I do a lot of), and unlimited data (Rick is online more so than me).

Needless to say, we're sitting tight for now. I'm not going to say I won't upgrade at some point. But I'm going to wait until the Droid Razr Maxx HD goes on sale or somehow gets cheaper.

You could always buy it used online. Heck, you could buy the Droid Razr or Razr Maxx and not go wrong.
Or give it six months and it's price will probably be half what it is now.

We're going to wait until it either goes in sale with Verizon or we can find it at a good price. I'm willing to wait around....esp knowing that my package isn't changing.

If upgrading will change your plan though.. is it really worth it to upgrade even at a sale price?

Yeah, if it's a good price (for the phone), I'd be willing to upgrade.

That's the problem.....new phones come out and usually I'm good with them; I can take 'em or leave 'em. But every once in a while a phone will come out that I start to drool over. That's what happened with our Droid X phones. I was perfectly happy with my old clamshell phone. Verizon called when our old contract was up and I even told the guy I was happy with my little silver "Prom Queen" as that particular phone was called.  Four months or so later, the Droid X phones came out and I fell in love. And we upgraded, both of us, with the data packages (Rick didn't want a new phone.....until I did). And for some reason I'm now drooling over the Droid Razr Maxx HD.

Depending on how much it will change your plan though, it may not be worth it.

If it raises the price $20 per month, times that by just 2 years and you've spent $480 PLUS the price of the phone.
If you instead buy it used or unactivated, you may be able to spend less than that AND not have to change your plan.

See what I mean? :nod: