My Search For A New Smart Phone: Maybe a Flip Phone?

This is it! The hundred dollar monthly bill with Verizon is getting reduced by about half.

The old Android is getting traded in. It is good that we can trade in our old devices. Mine are building up, from the ancient RAZOR to the little Samsung flip.

I actually want my little flip phone back. I do not want to have to slide my finger across a greasy or wet screen in order to answer a phone call.

I no longer want to accidentally invoke the voice search because the button is where my hand should be.

I want to flip that little fellow open and be on my way with the phone call.

I want my pretty little analog clock and information screen on the front of the device so that it shows when the cover is closed.

I miss my little Samsung and may just activate it. But the web awaits with new phones, new opportunities, cheaper prices for plans, and new reviews.

So I will take a look at every option.

The worst is the VGA camera, which is the equivalent of about .3 megapixels. Not worth having.

Most flip phones have 1.3 or 2 megapixels. A few have 3 mp or so. So I will make sure that there are at least 5 megapixels, which will still make me have to buy a separate camera with better resolution.

But wait...what is this Blackberry flip phone with 5 mp camera? Huh?

The first Blackberry flip phone was the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220. This phone came out in September of 2010.

But now, there is the Blackberry 9670 flip with a QWERTY keyboard and a 5 MP camera. Sigh. Oh my, it is hot, hot hot. I'm in love, but not with RIM and a limited apps market.

There's the Samsung Omnia SCH-i910. PC Mag list this one among Verizon's top phones. This bad boy takes pics at 8 MP.

The newer mega smart phones are coming in with 8 MP cameras, these being the desire of many smart phone users.

But these cameras are off the charts in price and I don't need to power up another 5 devices! I Feel decadent and overloaded just thinking about it.

I found a cool data usage calculator at LIME. This calculator allows a person to use sliders to choose between about 10 kinds of smartphone activities. I found that I could do plenty of photos, browsing and all of my normal activities on less than 2 GB a month! So why am I stuck with an unlimited plan?

SInce I am extremely cheap and on the frugality warpath, I found out that I can get a plan with 2 GB of data on the new phone, while staying with the best carrier: Verizon.

Smart phone users are also looking or wi fi hot spot capability so they can cut the internet bills by using their smart phones to power their laptops and home PC's.

Carriers are catching on to giving more variety in their data plans, users are now able to pay for what they use, not for the maximum that never gets used.

Sprint figured out that they have customers who are data hogs and customers who are data misers. Hence, their new plan choices of 3 GB, 5 GB, or unlimited data.

But I love Verizon.

I will play "Angry Birds" and other games elsewhere and not through the smart phone. "Angry Birds" is not for the cheap of data plan or the faint of heart.

At any rate, that little calculator at LIME would also help me to maintain a frugal approach to my 3 GB Mini netbook wireless plan and my 2 GB smartphone plan.

Here's the solution: The basic flip phone is not going to happen. Those basic phones do not have decent cameras, and I still need to upload to the cloud right away. That's just how I roll.

Of course the basic phones make me feel as if I am being evicted from the palace and sent back to the dungeons to sleep on a pallet. The phone companies work hard to make going back to a basic phone a heartbreaking choice. At the same time, we customers get used to the perks of having a smart phone and find it impossible to go back to the bad old days.

The Thunderbolt HTC from Verizon is the solution at a monster discount which I will not disclose. I think it takes being pushy and 6 1/2 years of not eating at sit down restaurants as I have done.

Verizon will eventually have to break down on those plan prices even if their service is exquisite. The data misers are stuck paying the same as the data hogs.

At any rate, I am glad to be staying with the best service provider for 2011. (Sprint is in second place and AT$T is the worst for the second year in a row.)

Yeah, I can power up the neighborhood with this new device, because now I have two monster wi fi hotspots, but I will not share with others before I get my password locked in.

(Always password protect your wi-fi devices from the very first day, or the world can get in there and find out all of your business.)

The new smart phone has an 8 mp camera, so I can zoom without trashing the picture quality. Plus, I can get my plan for half what I am paying. Best of all, I won't have to fumble around with both a battery sucking camera and smart phone while in the wild.

Endgaget reviews the device this way: "In other words, the Thunderbolt has a very real opportunity to be the finest 4.3-inch device HTC has ever made -- for the moment, anyway. Let's see how it fares."

Yeah...let's see. Next year, I will not be upgrading my phone at the same time that I need a new camera and a backup for my ailing laptop at the same time.

Fortunately, Cyber Monday was also very good to me, so I am through with the complexities of getting the best deal on new telecommunication toys for the next two years at least! I will have a good smartphone camera, which I actually prefer to any other camera when in the heat of battle.

And now, after months of fretting about my battery eating little HP Photosmart and ailing laptop, I will be able to take and upload better photos without paying an arm and a leg.