educate me on smart phones

I've has this old razr for a few years now and decided it's time to upgrade a little. I know a few people with iphone 3gs and none have any complaints. My wife wants an iphone 4. I have another friend that says android phones are the way to go but he doesn't own one. Educate me on the differences, pros & cons of each, etc.

I talk a lot, text a fair amount (not compared to my 17 yr olds 3500+ texts/ month!! I'd like to be able to take pics, videos, etc and upload them to the internet, peruse my favorite sites, etc.

That's a text every 12-13 minutes, day and night.

lilith wrote:That's a text every 12-13 minutes, day and night.

Only a Math nerd would say something like that.

I have no idea about smart phones as I've never owned one or felt the inclination to own one. Mine texts and calls and has customizable ringtones and wallpapers, and an alarm, that's all I really want in a phone.

Ask Dr. ARM, he's owned a Blackberry and a... whatever the hell he has now, but it's a smart phone.

Teach me, Dr. ARM. I'm looking for a reasonably priced phone plan with maybe a blackberry. Also, there's this. Thoughts?

That looks good. Only problem with Blackberries is the fact that most phone services are charging you an extra monthly fee simply for having a smart phone. I had a Blackberry Curve for a long while because I received it before the enormous price-hike occurred and I was excluded from that fee. Then it broke and now I no longer have a smart phone. Smart phones are effectively just phones with overpriced internet capabilities. I'm not sure if this holds with every phone service, but it does with AT&T and Verizon. Be sure to ask about it when you're down at your local phone store.

I've been busy lately so I still haven't done any research on this. I need to figure out what I want (not need) and see how much my bill will run each month. I pay $173/ month now for four phones (AT&T Family 2100 plan plus unlimited text) I may add another line, plus make two of them smart phones so that's going to put me in the $250/ month range with the data plans. I'm not sure I want to spend that much on phones.

Well, I ended up buying a couple of Samsung Captivates and a couple of LG Vus. I really like a lot of the features but the camera is...well, it sucks. It doesn't even have a flash! I do like the Android system though. I am anti-i-anything really. I still have time to return this phone though. The Mrs. wanted an iphone 4 and she's not crazy about the Captivate so she may still get one of those. We'll see.

This thing even makes phone calls!!