iPhones for people who don't make calls very often?

[nhood01]

Hi,

i wanna buy an iphone this fall, but i'm not sure what is the best option for me.
I don't make calls very often, so i'm not sure i want to be locked into a 2-year, $2400 plan. The least expensive plan i can find is $80/mo.

Buying an unlocked phone might be a good choice. Its $700 up front, but i could put in a $10/mo sim that would suit my lifestyle better.

I thought i'd see if anyone can put forth other good options or advice for me.

Thanks

 

[jcpb]

Hi,

i wanna buy an iphone this fall, but i'm not sure what is the best option for me.
I don't make calls very often, so i'm not sure i want to be locked into a 2-year, $2400 plan. The least expensive plan i can find is $80/mo.

Buying an unlocked phone might be a good choice. Its $700 up front, but i could put in a $10/mo sim that would suit my lifestyle better.

I thought i'd see if anyone can put forth other good options or advice for me.

Thanks

A dumbphone and pay-as-you-go plans are good enough for occasional calls, despite what some iSupporters would say about this.

 

[Lucille Carter]

Many carriers will not allow you to use a $10 plan on your iPhone.

How about getting a cheap phone and get a iPod touch?

 

[madsci954]

If you have good Tmobile coverage in your area, they have 100 min, unlimited texts, and 5gb of 4G data, throttled after that, plan for $30 a month. It's buried on their site but it's there.

 

[nhood01]

Thanks for the input, guys.

I know a pre-paid phone would easily suffice.
However, its more about using iOS and enjoying
the aesthetics of the phone.

That $30/mo Tmobile plan looks promising. Can
you get that plan with the subsidized $199 iPhone?
or will it require an unlocked phone?

 

[madsci954]

Either a down payment for a tmo iPhone and the rest get added to your monthly bill (like an extra $20 a month), or bring an unlocked phone. The factory unlocked model Apple sells will work on tmo.

 

[jcpb]

Thanks for the input, guys.

I know a pre-paid phone would easily suffice.
However, its more about using iOS and enjoying
the aesthetics of the phone.

That $30/mo Tmobile plan looks promising. Can
you get that plan with the subsidized $199 iPhone?
or will it require an unlocked phone?

Then your only options are:
1) buy unlocked and go Tmobile
2) buy used (best if already unlocked) and go Tmobile

 

[Dalton63841]

GoPhone works on an AT&T iPhone. Buy the cheapest $14 gophone, cut the sim to fit the iPhone, and activate it like normal. You can use the el cheapo pay per minute plans for whatever. You would have pay extra for smartphone data plan(and use unlockit.co.nz), but if you don't use 3G it will work perfectly.

 

[eyoungren]

One alternative which would be free is to buy an iPod Touch and install Talkatone. Talkatone leverages Google Voice. You'd have to get a Google Voice number, but any domestic calls you make would be free. SMS would also be free and you can use an email address for iMessage.

The one downside would be that to use this you'd have to be on WiFi.

I did this with my GV number when my sister gave me her iPhone 3GS. I'm not on AT&T and I had a primary phone at the time so I used this process as a way to learn iOS before I committed to buying my iPhone 5.