Advice...I'm looking for a smartphone. And with all the options out there I'm having a hard time deciding. I want to stray away from the all so glorious Iphone. I would prefer to stick to the Android OS because I feel like it has more options and you can do more with it (correct me if I'm wrong). I would like to find the top choices out there and the benefits and down falls of each phone. I would like to get the Galaxy Note but I've never had one and do not know anyone that has had one. From recent post and after reading several threads on here its easy to see that people here have a lot of advice to offer. Also I would like to know if a smartphone can perform the same task and offer the same opportunities if it doesn't have a network behind it. Let's say that you don't have AT&T or Verizon but if your smartphone gets rooted or jailbroke can you still use Wi-fi or other 3/4g cause I'm thinking that there is no point in having a smartphone plan if I don't have to have one, I'll just use a cheap phone and use the smartphone for other uses
As Mountainbiker mentioned, I too have two old phones, the OG Droid and D2, and both have no phone service but still perform all functions including texting (via TextFree), and phone calls (via Skype, or Google Voice), so as long as you have a WIFI connection, there's basically nothing a smartphone can't do without cellular service. My D2 is now my son's Game Phone, and my OGD is a glorified WIFI remote control for my AV Receiver and FIOS TV. I also use the OGD for email and texting at times, since it has the keyboard, though I have gotten very comfortable using Swype and TouchPal, and also Google Voice to Text Translation - which I do often to reply to texts and emails while driving...texting hands-free, so to speak.
You are correct as to having far more choices/customization with the Android OS, though there are certainly more apps with Apple. Even still, they are being ported over to Android daily and the selection in the Play Store (Google's answer to the Apple App Store), are mind boggling. Although you don't need to be rooted or "jailbroken" (a term used for Apple's iOS), rooting your Android phone opens up the universe of customization, including custom ROMs, Themes, Apps that do things only while rooted, etc. There's essentially nothing that can't be done in programming with an Android phone that's been rooted, including installing custom Kernels (except with Android phones that have locked Bootloaders).
As for phones, I have a Droid RAZR MAXX (Motorola), and my wife has the Droid RAZR (also Motorola). Both are spectacular phones, but the battery life on the MAXX is beyond exceptional when compared to virtually any other smart phone. Even though the RAZRs have locked Bootloaders, and so installing custom Kernels is (at least for the moment) out of the question, you can still install a wide variety of ROMs that run on the Motorola Kernel and do some amazing things. My MAXX is rooted, but the wife's RAZR is not. Still, she has a custom launcher (home page and apps manager), and has her phone pretty tricked out even without rooting. In fact, there is quite a large percentage of users who feel rooting is no longer necessary to get to the level of customization they desire, since there are so many themes and launchers out there that run on fully locked down phones.
As was said, what you intend to do with the phone, how you will use it will pretty much narrow the selection of phones down to a very few, and quite possibly to one or two. Think of what you are going to use it for daily, not just during extreme sessions but day to day use as well. One thing is for sure, Motorola radios (Cellular, 3G, 4G, WIFI, Bluetooth), are second to none so if you are in a fringe area for service, that could be an overriding factor for you. There will be some who say this is not accurate but those people are generally in areas where coverage is strong. There is plenty of evidence that Motorola phones perform better, make calls more consistently and hold the calls longer without drops than other manufacturers' in certain situations. YRMV.
