Corfy

April 05, 2010 at 8:24am

The big thing holding me back from getting a Pre (or the Droid) is the mandatory $30 a month for two years data plan that you are required to get with it (that is on top of the voice plan and text plan). What is the point of saving $100 up front if you pay an extra $720 over the life of the contract? Especially with today's economy, I really can't afford an extra $30 a month, especially for a service that I don't feel I need.

I currently have a Palm Treo 755p from VW and absolutely love it, although it is getting a bit long in the tooth and is rather beat up after being dropped countless times over the last two years. Actually, given the choice between the Pre and the Droid, I'd take the Pre (given my previous experience with Palm). But I don't have a data plan with my current phone, and I don't feel I really need one. I can read books, do word processing and spreadsheets, play (simple) games, sync calendar and contacts with my computer, listen to music, watch video files, and many more activities with my Palm without Internet access, but some of these are tasks that typically can't be done with a "dumb phone.". If I need to add anything to my phone, I download it to my computer and add it during my next sync. I don't see how "smart phone" and "mandatory internet access" became synonomous.

If I were out and about more, I might feel differently, but most of the time I'm either home or at work (both places I have Internet access). When I'm away from those places, it is nice to not be reached by email for a while. "Email from anywhere" is nice, but "email everywhere" would seem to be a bit much.

I guess I'll stick with my trusty Treo until it dies and then go with a dumb phone that doesn't require a data package and lose my books, my word processing, and my spreadsheets.

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