In a Quandary

[twistedlefty]

Sprint customer since 94-95 great plan upgraded/changed to in 2004.
Family 550(SM) Talk Plan: $59.99/month
3 phones, touch pro, samsung highnote, samsung M320
2 with unlimited data and texting, free picture mail, unlimited nights/wkends after 7pm.
with all this i am paying roughly $100/month

i wanted to upgrade to an android phone such as the evo 4g when i became eligible for my $150 discount but i would lose my plan and with the extra charges of $10 per month it would bump me up to around $140/month.
and this is without counting the cost of the evo minus my discount.

retentions offered to let me upgrade to a Touch Pro 2 and i could keep my plan and everything the way it is except that i would have to pay the additional $10/month smartphone fee.
i just started trying custom Roms on my TP and it has of course breathed new life into my TP and i could probably hold out longer and see if things change for the better (new plans, phones, etc.) but the offer on the TP2 will expire soon and I'll need to make up my mind. btw eating the extra cost per month on the evo upgrade/plan change,etc. is out of the question as i cannot afford it in my monthly budget.

any ideas suggestions, opinions, food for thought?

[darren.wlsn1]

well if epic/evo a no go tp2 is such a great phone so i say get that, sprints plans are not gonna get any cheaper if you wait.

[twistedlefty]

thanx Darren, that's the way i see it as well. i just wanted to see if there were other options i might have overlooked.

[jrebo]

It's great that they are not forcing you into a data everything plan. I suggest that you look at your monthly minutes per line over the past year, all minutes. Virgin Mobile may be a way to get an android phone (Optimus V). 300 minutes, unlimited text & web for $25 month + fees. There's an Optimus V forum on Howardforums if you are curious about the phone's performance.

I don't have Virgin Mobile, but it's an option I'm looking at because I have 5 lines and I don't want to upgrade my plan. Put it this way. I won an Samsung Epic and I couldn't afford to activate it. Good Luck.

[Tinkerbell]

Originally Posted by twistedlefty

i just started trying custom Roms on my TP and it has of course breathed new life into my TP and i could probably hold out longer and see if things change for the better (new plans, phones, etc.) but the offer on the TP2 will expire soon and I'll need to make up my mind.

I agree with Darren. The TP2 is a great device. If you are already customizing your TP then you are well on your way to a great experience with the TP2!! Have a blast!!

[EyeB]

why would you need to pay $10/month extra for tp2? thought it just needs a plan with data. From what I can tell, tp2 doesn't need the smartphone charge unless it changed in past month or 2.

Just asking, but how much is the TP2 with the offer? Since I'm seeing used TP2 sold around $100-150 where I am, craiglist/ebay too. Unless you want the insurance on the phone, I don't see much point in buying it from sprint if it doesn't save you more than an used phone. I know people like "new" phones, but some of these second hand phones are pretty much brand new (just make sure you check esn so you know it isnt stolen or anything).

The reason I bought my touch pro ($35 used) is so I can keep upgrade for a better phone (hoping wp7). I also know if I don't sell it, $35 isnt a big loss but I'm sure I can at least sell it for $35.

I'd try out android on your current touch pro jsut to see how you like android. So far everything except hotspotting works on my sprint touch pro. It gets hot with a bit of use, but you can assume that and other bugs will be gone in real android phones. But playing around with android like this, I can tell I'm not entirely sold on Android. Android/iOS are based off of icons/widgets which I don't particularly like.

[twistedlefty]

Thanx for the responses everyone. i decided to pull the trigger on the TP2. it turns out that i am getting it for $49.
Eybe~ i tried to explain that logic to them but they said that all smartphones are required to pay the $10 per month data fee now. i have a great data plan and i want to hold onto it, so another 2 years is no big deal. heck i ran a stock sprint rom on my TP all this time so i should be able to deal with the TP2 for 2 years with all the roms that are available now, and like you said android is mostly working on the TP2 if i want to mess with that.

[twistedlefty]

hmmmm a little worried now . just got an email saying my tp2 has shipped but the listed cost of item isn't $49 it's $233.47. hopefully this is the price before my discounts etc and the bill this month will reflect differently...