Will a Droid Incredible 2 serve my purposes?

[nikecar]

Ignore me as it seems you can do it, but not without issues.

Sent from someplace, and with something that you need not worry about.

 

[Bulldogg629]

Thank you JNT, thats what I needed. I was even going to do their $30 for 90 days and 160 min plan... as $100 all at once is even still a bit much for me. But its is a much worsedeal, doing it 90 days at a time works out to 640 minutes for $120 in the same year. It'll be a choice between those 2. As for the concern about burning through 1000 minutes lol you'd be surprised.. I currently use a trackfone and put 180 minutes on it every 6 months... I last filled it July 2011 and still have 75 minutes... and a lot of that was eaten up by texting myself reminders to my email. So you can see why I want to avoid the much larger monthly talk and full data plans. I dont own the inc2 yet but I'm going to be getting a used or refurbed one, Ive researched all android phones and the inc2 has the most features I want vs cost for a used one, so the tip from someone about going with a different carrier and phone is appreciated, but I have my heart set. Actually, with 75 min left on my cheap phone, Im not going to need new service untill this summer, so I'll just have the inc2 for camera, radio and mp3 in one pocket and the trackphone for emergencies in the other.

By the way, it was mentioned needing data for reliable gps, is that how smartphone gps works? through data and no data = no gps? not like a normal gps that runs on a direct signal?

Thanks again for all the help!

 

[jntdroid]

The Inc2 is a great device - one of my favorites over the last couple of years.

Navigation needs data to save (cache) the maps - it's not like a Garmin where the entire database is already downloaded. You can preload routes now through the 'labs' option in Google Maps, so it could work fine with some planning ahead.

 

[olimj]

Thank you JNT, thats what I needed. I was even going to do their $30 for 90 days and 160 min plan... as $100 all at once is even still a bit much for me. But its is a much worsedeal, doing it 90 days at a time works out to 640 minutes for $120 in the same year. It'll be a choice between those 2.

Check out pagepluscellular.com (or the PP wiki). It's pre-paid bring your own device on Verizon network (CDMA). Pretty much any VZ non-prepaid non-4G phone will work. You can get a barely used DINC2 on ebay for $200, just verify clean ESN. Even less on Craigslist, but I trust eBay more. Plans start at $80/yr for 2000 minutes (probably what you want) with other monthly plans for heavier voice/text/data users. You also still have option for 3G data and roaming (high per minute rate) in case of emergency. I've had a DINC2 on the $12/mo 250min/250txt/10MB data for several months now and loving it. I got it for much the same reasons you did, and mostly WiFi use.

By the way, it was mentioned needing data for reliable gps, is that how smartphone gps works? through data and no data = no gps? not like a normal gps that runs on a direct signal?

There are offline GPS apps like Sygic, Co-Pilot, or Navigon that act like traditional GPS. You pre-download the maps you want and no data required. Of course they aren't as fancy as Google Maps, but get the job done.

 

[Bulldogg629]

Thank you, I had a look at their site, their prices are good, the very lowest would require me to renew every 4 months and give me 400 min a year for $40, thats less than half the cost of the minimum tmobile plan. The down side it seems that PP keeps texts totaly seperate from the voice plan where tmobile and most others seem to just reduce your talk minutes as payment for texts. I also didnt find much about the bring your own device thing "While some phones not purchased directly from Page Plus or one of its dealers may work on the Page Plus network, we do not support them and their functionality may be limited." and that seems to be about the same stance as the other companies have, "if you can get it to work, go for it". So it seems what I want to do will work and I have a few choices for providers. Now I just have to convince myself to buy the phone, I had budgeted $150 for a smartphone but like you said they seem to stay pretty solidly at $200 on ebay.

 

[olimj]

The down side it seems that PP keeps texts totaly seperate from the voice plan where tmobile and most others seem to just reduce your talk minutes as payment for texts.

Not true - texts are deducted @ $.05 from the same cash balance as minutes (standard plan).

I also didnt find much about the bring your own device thing "While some phones not purchased directly from Page Plus or one of its dealers may work on the Page Plus network, we do not support them and their functionality may be limited." and that seems to be about the same stance as the other companies have, "if you can get it to work, go for it".

Yeah, don't worry about PP's official stance, people are even getting iPhones to work. Here's a good guideline for phones on PP:
Page Plus Cellular Compatible Phones