Please help me pick an android phone for verizon

[Jay H]

Background - skip this section if you wish:

I currently have a basic phone that doubles as my mp3 player. It has a cracked screen and failing aging battery and is just over all falling apart. When looking for a replacement I have seen mostly cheap junk that gets poor reviews and can cost as much as 80 bucks.

80 bucks for a used motorola droidX or droid2 or HTC droid incredible, wow that is a lot of hard ware for the money. I have been thinking about buying one and using it with out a phone plan at all for its gps, blue tooth, wifi ect capabilities.

It totally sucks I cant have an android phone with out a data plan. With wifi I really could avoid using data. That would make this decision a no brainier.
So I am just going to pay 40 a month to be on my parents verizon plan and in the rare event that I consume data it will pull from there data plan shared among there devices and I will just pay them per mega byte.

Here are my criteria:

If some one wants to suggest a non verizon plan option for a decent droid that I will pay no more than 80 bucks for and no more than 40 a month for and not be locked in a 2 year contract for I will hear it. I am not committed to Verizon. I do not use my current phone very much, I am not a big talker I am a moderate texter and I currently use about 10mb of data a month. Really I just need a phone.

I do not want to spend more than 100 bucks. Preferably I would like to stay under 80. If its less than that you just nailed this question for me!
It needs to be android since that is what I like.
I need blue tooth, wifi and GPS, 3.5mm head phone plug, a micro SD socket. I dont care if the micro SD is internal. GPS navigation especially back country and Being a mp3 player will be a frequently used task. Yes I will be using GPS with pre loaded pulled from wifi maps.
I already have a large lithium ion battery pack with a USB 5v out put for field recharging but cheap replacement batteries like with motorola devices would be nice.

Here are my top picks

Motorola Droid 2 or Droid 2 global
Motorola Droid X
Motorola Droid X2
HTC Droid Incredible

Newer droids tend to cost more than I would like. The galaxy III is a small fortune to some one in my income level.

Part of my reasoning for keeping it below 80 bucks is that if it is lost to damaged that is a lot less painful than 200+
I know you can get insurance but that means shelling out big bucks for something purchased New or through Verizon.

Any good devices I am missing? I am currently looking mostly on Ebay any where else I should look.

Is there a droid device that is verizon compatible that uses a pure android OS ( ie nexus ) with no verizon skins ect. Being able to upgrade to jellybean with out having to wait for a verizon roll out would cool. I would be willing to pay a little more for this.

Thanks for any help!

 

[gary in ohio]

I have a droid2 global it works fine for me... As for data plan costing, There is a 0mb plan that cost nothing so you can get a phone without data, PROBLEM is if you do use data then your getting high with very high MB rates, if you really think you can do without data it might be an option. My droid2 has unlimited data, A shared data plan would raise my monthly cost by $50 and move me from unlimited data to 2gb of data. For the casual use my wife/son would have for data its just not worth it. It would be cheaper to have seperate data plans unless you have 3+ phones on data...


As for the cost of new droids, I have yet to pay more than a few dollars for a droid phone. There are 20 Verizon phones available for under $20 from amazon wireless. They can add to an existing plan or start a new one.

 

[Mash5]

I got a Razor MAXX in Feb. I love the big battery in a thin phone. For my use I never have a problem getting through a day with a charge and that is a big deal with these smart phones. Even on my heaviest use days running a lot of video and such...

 

[ssssnake529]

I have a Casio Commando through Verizon.

http://www.casiogzone.com/commando/

Having destroyed several other smart phones, I'm happy to report that this thing is still going strong after several years of use. It's waterproof, shock-resistant, and extremely tough. Screen is fine, works well with all the apps I use. Couldn't be happier.

 

[cnynrat]

I had the original Droid for a couple years, which I believe is the prior model to the Droid 2. Overall I was quite happy with the phone. One of the reasons I was attracted to that phone was the physical keyboard, but it turned out I never liked the physical keyboard and did all my typing on the touch screen keyboard. The keyboard adds to the thickness obviously, so not a particularly good tradeoff unless you really need/want the keyboard.

I currently have a Droid Razr which I love, but that's probably out of your price range.

 

[Jay H]

Well after a lot of searching around I found what looks like a really good option for me. I did not want to pay 200 dollars to upgrade to a 600 dollar phone which ruled out most of the high end verizon options like the much acclaimed droid razr maxx.

I discovered that you can buy Motorola phones with the 2 year contract subsidy direct from Motorola. I think I have decided on the Droid Bionic. With the carrier subsidy for a 2 year plan its only 10 bucks and 70 dollars for a 1 year warranty/insurance. The insurance is even cheaper than through verizon. So for 80 bucks I will get a brand new Motorola Droid Bionic with insurance on it. This is certainly better than a 80 dollar used droid 2.

I am certainly a technology geek so I look forward to trying to get the new ice cream sandwich operating system on it and all the cool apps.

 

[Corey]

I have the Bionic.
Best phone I have ever had and typing from it now.

 

[Jay H]

Thanks to every one for there replies

Now that I have had my Moto Droid Bionic for a little while I have a few observations

1.
Do not under any circumstance buy a product from the Motorola website. They literately messed up every step of the process. From issues with there website to messing up billing and shipping address, to trouble verifying the available upgrade on my verizon account. Then it went from incompetent to stupid as they shipped my new phone already activated, this led to my current phone getting booted off of the plan and left me hanging. Complete with incorrect activation instructions (a call to verizon cleared that up right quick). None of this had any thing to do with verizon. What an ordeal - its easier to buy a used car or start an off shore shell company.

2.
This hardware is darned impressive. It really does multi task. I have it running a full feature mp3 player, running GPS navigation, and also running my blue tooth ODB ii scanner with torque app in the car all at once with some regularity. It does this with out issue. This thing really is a tiny computer. I also really like this odd pentile display sure its not glossy and ultra sharp like a samsung but I really can see it surprisingly well out doors in full sun. Great for GPS and taking photos.

3.
I wish verizon was not the only major player. They are the reason for all the bloat ware apps that are pre installed and cant be removed with out rooting. I hate bloatware. I also hate the total lock down on most aspects of this device. Google hands out perfectly good code and then hard ware manufactures and carriers have to go and mess with it.

4.
Microsoft is looking very generous right about now as they support programs like windows XP for 10 whole years. This phone is 1 year old now and Verizon is blocking the Ice Cream Sandwich Update and dragging there feet a lot. Annoying and a shallow veiled plot to make us want new hardware not significantly better than my bionic.

5.
The last two points above make me want to install the latest .246 leaked Ice Cream Sandwich build and root this thing. Those who have report that it works better and appreciate new features. They also tend to root and in doing so can remove all the software they do not use. Evidently this increases battery life a lot and just generally makes your phone faster and smoother. I am kind of a technology junky so I am about ready to try this.

6. The webtop feature and lap top dock are fascinating. I would like to get a cheap lapdock and give it a try. Allegedly this is the biggest improvement offered by the ICS leak .246 .

7. There is an FM radio built into this thing and simply installing an app got it working, it uses a set of headphones as the antenna. Kind of neat and some what useful at times. Its just like a low end little transistor radio.

 

[Seeker]

If your're not fond of the Vz apps and dont value anything they "add" to your phone, root and install CyanogenMod. This will wipe the bloatware and install a blisteringly fast OS that is very close to factory Android and is well supported by the CM team (some of the folks writing CM port the Android code for the various phone manufacurers). The FM radio uses the WiFi antenna (if memory serves) and should work on any phone (app comes with the CM OS).

Come back in a month and tell us how you still like the phone. I would be interested to hear.

--Allen