I was a bit late to getting a smartphone (2013) but I do have one now. The only thing I find that would really be harder for me to go without is GPS.
Of my group of about 10 friends I see frequently, only 1 doesn’t have a smartphone. He seems to have no desire for one.
You can buy a prepaid smart phone at walmart or a grocery store and just not activate it. I’ve seen some inexpensive ones for $20-$30. You can buy an iphone ($500+) from Apple and not put it on a plan. My daughter gets all her school emails on her phone almost instantly which is a big plus. With a laptop she’d have to check her email and that would not happen as often. An ipod touch would work on wifi also.
My kids (and myself for that matter) do a good chunk of communication on closed facebook groups of friends or in the kids’ cases teams, musical groups, clubs and study groups. If your kid does any of those kinds of things they might be out of the loop a lot. A tablet is great but it doesn’t fit in your pocket so unless he carries his bags with him everywhere it seems like a clunky solution.
There is a big difference in how these devices are used now, vs even one and two years ago. Yes, he needs it. Better to do your research and get it this summer, find out which carrier works best around his campus.
Of course the musical library is on the phone as well so one, all-purpose device.
A flip phone is perfectly adequate. Yes, you can do more with a smart phone, but that doesn’t make it necessary. My daughter just finished grad school and only got a smart phone recently. She managed just fine. Even graduated at the top of her class.
She also had a kindle which was occasionally handy.
With the availability of wifi almost everywhere, you can get by with a small data plan if you are disciplined–only use data when you absolutely have to, otherwise, use wifi.
Wow, thank you everyone! I am very pleased by all this information, and also by how many responses I received! Your input is very much appreciated.
It seems to me that the reasons most commonly given above for a student to have a smart phone are: (1) so professors can email when they are cancelling class or something along those lines, (2) finding out directions, and (3) boarding passes. And, I think he could manage without one.
Still, after 7 years with a really tiny flip phone, he may actually like to have a smartphone because, while not a true necessity it will make his life easier and college is going to be a big adjustment as it is. I only hope it is not a huge time waster, because I see a lot of that going on. On the other other hand, if he had a smartphone in high school, maybe I wouldn’t have gotten some of those calls at work, asking me to check his email to see whether a meeting had been moved or cancelled, etc. Not to mention the time he went into Manhattan for an interview, got lost, and called me so I could give him step by step instructions.
I am interested in what MADad and others have posted, which is that with wifi everywhere, a small data plan may be okay. I hadn’t realized that. Verizon is our carrier, expensive but with good service or so they tell me. But for my son I am thinking he would do fine with some kind of pay-go set up.
I see people have posted various links and will look at them all.
Anyway, you all have given me a lot of good ideas and I will definitely get this sorted before he goes off in August to a city far away, 0_0. So again, muchas gracias!
There is some learning curve in using a smartphone and being sure that you are using your wifi instead of the cellphone network when possible. H and I mostly use our cellphones with wifi, so rarely use any of our data. Our plan is with tmobile–4 lines with 2.5gb data apiece for $100 plus tax. It’s about half the price we were paying with Sprint for unlimited data and we rarely get anywhere near the 2.5gb of data (after 2.5,gb, you just get slower speeds and NO overage fees). Also, we had free, unlimited data and text when we were in S. Korea.
Thanks @HImom. I’m checking out Tmobile and also Republic Wireless which seems to default to wifi when available. Since son can be a space cadet, I would like to get this going before he goes to school and gently persuade him to consider some kind of calendar function that will remind him when to do things. Sigh, I’m sure that is wishful thinking.
One issue is cell phone reception. Try to find out how good or bad reception with various carriers are on your S’s campus. On summer, out of 5 apartments our kids lived in, they got NO reception at any of them with TMobile, so we switched to Verizon. It greatly increased the price of our contract, but I figured the whole point of having cell phones was so we and they could communicate. So far, TMobile has much better reception now and we haven’t had that issue since we started with them in 2/2015.
Some companies will pay any early cancellation fee if you cancel your contract to switch to them, so check for that as well. When we switched to Tmobile, they offered to pay any early termination fee but we were on month to month by that point. With Tmobile, we are still on month to month.
It’s important to find out CURRENT reception for the various carriers, since TMobile seems to have greatly improved reception over the past few years.
A smartphone is great. But perhaps flip phone and tablet (using campus wifi) would work ok.
DS has has smartphone in college. He really leverages the power of it. I can’t tell you how terrific it was having him along with us on our recent Europe trip. (After a semester abroad in Singapore, he was well practiced on travel stuff). ALthoug we did not do international calling plan, he was able to download maps at hotel wifi and navigate us through the city. He also found reviews on restaurants etc.
The google translate app was magical - he could take a photo of a sign or a menu item and get real time translation to English.
T-Mobile can also use wifi for phone, text, and data.
Yes, we have a pre-paid tmobile phone for my nonprofit. I mostly make and receive calls via the wifi, so hardly use any minutes. I think I spend less than $55/year on minutes for the phone.
Today at college, smartphone is a must, not a luxury. Shouldn’t have to find a pc in the library to check emails or link to important sites in and out of class. You can take care of so much business and busy-ness throughout the day and use time more optimally. It’s 2015 - time for a smartphone.
I wouldn’t go with pay as you go plan for data. Most new users are not aware of their usage, they may go to FB and click on a video by accident(sometimes those videos just start playing) and use up a lot of data. He may stream music or movie without knowing. I got a pay as you go plan for D1 when she was in Australia. I got a 500 bill one month.
Young people tend to be more forgetful, so I am not sure if I would trust them to flip to wifi whenever it is available.
There’s a difference between pre-paid and pay as you go. You can get a single pre-paid smartphone service including 2.5GB data for only $35/mo. with Cricket Wireless (AT&T). They’ll sell you a smartphone for cheap or even give you one for free after rebate deals, or you can maybe even use your own present smartphone with them.
“seems to me that the reasons most commonly given above for a student to have a smart phone are: (1) so professors can email when they are cancelling class or something along those lines, (2) finding out directions, and (3) boarding passes. And, I think he could manage without one.”
These days I think texting is almost more important of a communication vehicle than the telephone.
I got my kids iPhones when they were still in high school - not sure exactly what year. They weren’t even sure they wanted them as they were fine with the Motorola Razrs (remember those?). But they soon turned out to be indispensable. Having a camera everywhere you go is nice, too. No, it’s not a “necessity” the way food and shelter and clothing are, but it’s kind of like having just one electric outlet in your room - it’s not a “necessity” to have several but it sure is convenient.
This is what I say about my iPhone. Before I got it I didn’t know why I needed it. After I got it, I don’t know how I lived without it.
It is not a necessary item, but is nice to have. If it’s within the op’s budget then go for it. If a smartphone is really pushing the budget, wait a while and see if he can live without one. I think he can.