<p>What's the most efficient/best cell phone for a college student? I'd love an iPhone but I've heard that it's more of a luxury than a necessity. However, my school does have this important app that allows you to track all the campus buses and where they are, what time they'll be at the stop, etc. I find that and it's GPS system pretty useful, esp. when you're trying to navigate campus at the beginning.</p>
<p>Any opinions on this? Thx!</p>
<p>You don’t need an iPhone for navigation - not sure about the college app, though. I have a Verizon HTC Rhyme. It was free with a 2-year contract and has a navigation program. It’s not as fancy as most of the new smart phones, but it does it’s job and was affordable, despite the monthly service plan. I can access the Internet, e-mail, it has a Kindle app on it, and some other things. I don’t play around with it much, so it might have other cool features I’m unaware of.</p>
<p>If you shop around you might find a good phone cheaper. Always compare Best Buy Mobile and other retailers to your phone carrier. I usually get my phones at Best Buy for much cheaper than Verizon has to offer, and they set everything up for me.</p>
<p>Campus bus app is a waste of time at my university, and I’d suspect at most universities. You end up pretty much just walking everywhere.</p>
<p>I have a Droid and it’s really useful for checking my emails. It’s not necessary, but it really does save me a lot of hassle. When the power goes out, I can still use my phone to do stuff. When a teacher cancels class, I receive the email on my phone before I even get to class and see the sign on the door. When I need to respond to something immediately, I am able to.</p>
<p>I have a droid on Virgin Mobile. I don’t know how much the phone costs. I think it’s about $100-150? I don’t know. Anyways, I only pay $25 a month for unlimited texting, web, and data and get 300 minutes a month. It’s a pretty perfect phone/plan combo for me and there’s no contract.</p>
<p>I also use to check my Emails and replay if necessary. Its keep me update about my stuffs. I have Samsung galaxy note. It’s quite costly but more effective. I manage my schedule by this device and it helpful in texting.</p>
<p>Best ones now are probably the iPhone 4S, the HTC One X and its ilk (e.g. the EVO 4G LTE on Sprint), and the Nokia Lumia 900.</p>
<p>I’m not very familiar with cell phones so pardon my question if it seems obvious, but smart phones are the ones that allow you to download all sorts of apps, right? Everything else is just good for talking/texting/internet?</p>
<p>Like I said, an iPhone is really tempting, but I think I’ll be pretty distracted if I constantly have email and internet at my fingertips. I’ll probably be fine with just calling/texting and maybe a few organizational apps that allows you to make quick notes to yourself. I heard that an Android has better sound so when you call the voices are clearer. Anyone know if that’s true?</p>
<p>And thanks for all the advice. I’ll look into some of those!</p>
<p>Yeah, smart phones are apps + good internet access. You can sort of browse the web on a non-smartphone but it’s a painful experience. </p>
<p>As for call clarity, that depends more on the phone, not the software. Some android phones have awful call quality and others sound great.</p>
<p>AUGirl, does that sort of plan also come with nights & weekends? I’ve been looking to upgrade from my flip phone for quite a while now, but I really don’t want to pay the absurd amount of money Verizon wants for a data plan.</p>
<p>It seems like Verizon is expensive. I’ve never used AT&T. Are they good?</p>
<p>^^No. It’s 300 minutes a month for the $35 plan. You can get unlimited for like $50, I think… and like 1000 for $45.</p>
<p>That being said, I considered switching to Verizon but it was going to cost me more than double what I’m currently paying (and I’m grandfathered into the $25 rate).</p>
<p>Virgin is releasing the Iphone 4s later this month and the average iphone user is supposed to save about $1000 over two years… so I pretty much love Virgin. It’s cheap and no contract.</p>
<p>I think the cheapest of the big four are Sprint and T-Mobile. Both have good phone selections, but I don’t know what coverage would be like for where you’ll be.</p>
<p>My plan from Sprint is like $80 a month. 450 minutes, unlimited calls to cell phones on any carrier, unlimited texts and unlimited data.</p>
<p>Buy Samsung Galaxy S III 
It is made for humans :P</p>
<p>^^ I looked online to check it out. For some reason, this phone, the Android, and other touch-screen phones all look the same as an iPhone. I can’t tell the difference really. Can anyone differentiate? They all allow people to download apps, all have internet access, and are touch screen.</p>
<p>The apps are general different, and while the Android App Store (or its equivalent to Apple’s) has fewer apps than an iPhone’s, IMO there are some really awesome exclusives.</p>
<p>I know you’re against it, but i’d highly recommend an iPhone. I got my 3GS (I know, i’m only 3 years behind everyone else) this past Christmas for free (yes, free), and the cheapest data plan possible ($15/mo for 200MB, now the minimum is $20/300MB). The small data plan deters me from checking up on things often, but still gives me plenty to work with (plus, AT&T is surprisingly diligent about keeping tabs on my data…‘YOU HAVE USED 65% OF YOUR MONTHLY DATA PLAN’ text messages get annoying after a while, though). After lusting for once since they first came out, i’m so happy with my iPhone, that I honestly would never consider getting another phone, especially because I don’t have to carry around an iPod anymore (plus, the design change from the 3GS to the 4 prompts people to ask me, “Is that the new iPhone?” when they get to look at it; even people who own 4’s. I’m not even kidding, it’s happened to me like a dozen times).</p>
<p>Plus, if you go over your data plan, you get charged for an additional chunk of data, not some silly penalty. Example; if I use an addition 100MB over my 200MB data plan, AT&T acts like I just bought an addition 200MB @ $15/mo and bills me accordingly, ergo I only pay $30 for that month.</p>
<p>Granted, you HAVE to have AT&T for a 3GS. I used to hate AT&T (valued customers since 1995 my youknowwhat), but their service is phenomenal on an iPhone. My old Samsung was garbage (dropped just about every single call, lousy service) but i’ve never had any problems with my phone.</p>
<p>Also, my phone is freakin’ indestructible. It’s not made with Gorilla Glass or whatever the 4’s onwards are made with, so when you drop it, it doesn’t shatter, but I have a cute Hello Kitty case just to be on the safe side. :)</p>
<p>That was…really long, wow. Sorry about that. But since I got my iPhone, i’d never look back. ;~;</p>
<p>@AUGirl Virgin Mobile doesn’t have a Droid… unless you meant an Android device.</p>
<p>Lol, supposedly Nokia Lumia 900 is the best because all the other smartphones are beta.
[Nokia</a> Lumia 900 - Smartphone Beta Test is Over - YouTube](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube)</p>
<p>I feel lucky to be still part of a family plan with my parents. Getting a cell phone bill every month would be a lot of damage. </p>
<p>in my opinion, the best cell phone is a plain old school water proof flip phone. Easy to carry, long battery life and inexpensive. I definitely think the apps are unnecessary. When I’m out and about, I see at least 50% of the people around me doing something with their phones. I just think it’s so dumb and time consuming. It’s especially frustrating to bike past people who are texting/messing around and don’t know where they’re going. “Look up!”</p>
<p>In addition, they come out with new ones almost every freaking year. I don’t have pockets deep enough to keep up with that. </p>
<p>also, if you happen to live in the midwest, stay away from virgin mobile.</p>
<p>high powered high quality and high priced android for people who know about phones and want to do a lot with their phone: HTC One X, Motorola Droid Razr Maxx, samsung galaxy SIII</p>
<p>don’t know anything about smartphones but wants to get one: iPhone 4S
don’t know anything about smartphones but wants to get one in the future: iPhone 5</p>
<p>cheaper smartphone for people who want an easy to use and stylish phone: nokia lumia 900 windows phone.</p>
<p>The question here is not necessarily what’s the best cell phone, but rather what’s the best cell phone for you. From how I see it, there’s a few categories:</p>
<p>Dumb phone: cheap, extremely durable (in comparison to smartphones), great battery life, but doesn’t allow you to check your email / navigate / look up stuff online</p>
<p>Android: lots of options in form factor / style, usually comes with Gorilla Glass (much more durable than iPhone), does all the smartphone stuff, easy to tether and customize, but still doesn’t support Group MMS that all my iPhone friends use</p>
<p>iPhone: only one choice (very expensive), relatively breakable, almost zero customization but the default experience is solid, treated as a first-class citizen in app stores</p>
<p>Windows: great user interface, but poor app availability and web browser is very inferior to that of iPhones and modern Androids in terms of webapp support</p>
<p>I thought I was satisfied with my dumb phone and 2wk battery life when I had one, but as soon as I got a smartphone, I realized that I no longer needed to carry my netbook everywhere and stopped wasting time getting lost. I was very satisfied with the durability of my Android devices (Galaxy S 4G, then Galaxy Nexus), but the design aesthetic started to get annoying and I had issues with communicating with all my friends who use the iPhone (although an app can easily fix that situation, nobody has actually done it yet, and I never got around to writing one myself). I eventually decided that I want an iPhone, but only after they stop using their bottom-quality cheap ripoff of gorilla glass.</p>
<p>Droid Razr Maxx! The battery life is unbelievable!</p>
<p>if you like big phones
go for the Galaxy Note!</p>