I only buy used phones and can take financial hit busting or losing one. Don’t bother with insurance for personal items. Most I ever paid for used phone was about $200 for a used iPhone 5s last year. I use prepaid phone service…don’t like contracts for my cell phone service.
We like verizon because we never don’t have coverage - all kid colleges, all outdoors camping and hiking locations, all standard vacations spots . . . coverage is everything
Check out Republic Wireless… perfect for a college kid who has wifi access almost all the time. Our whole family has been on it for over a year and a half. They actually have kiosks at some college bookstores now. We are saving loads of money. My kids think it is great. We pay $115/month w/tax for 4 smartphones (unlimited talk/text and 3G data (4G data is another $10/month). They also have a $10 plan which is unlimited talk/text - data only over wifi. They route everything over wifi even calls and use the sprint cell network when not on wifi. It has gotten great reviews.
Our TMobile plan is $100 for unlimited talk & text for 4 lines, plus 2.5gb of data per line per month. It’s about 1/2 of what we were paying for Sprint and we have better reception. An unexpected benefit was we had unlimited data and texting in S.Korea as well. There is no contract, so we could switch carriers any time we wanted. We bought android phones, OnePlus One with 64gb of storage new for $349 apiece.
In the past, we got “free” phones with 2 year contracts. This is the first time we bought the phone separately. S also bought two Lumia Nokia Windows phones for about $60 apiece. We are trying to decide which we prefer–there is a learning curve in switching between phones and systems, especially between Apple, android and Windows.
The biggest thing I experienced about not having a phone in high school and then not having a smart phone until my last semester of college: it’s a lot easier to get left out because you don’t have the communication tool. It’s stuff like Snapchat or Whatsapp that people use instead of texting and that you can’t use on a flip phone. Because I’m an introvert and not the most actively social person, I think that sort of confounded things.
I agree with the paragraph above. You can’t survive without your apps. I need my Google Calendar, Evernote, Braincards flashcards, and Crossy Road 
You need a phone to get access to your apps. It’s 2015, people.
My bosses get pretty annoyed if I do not reply to their emails promptly, which I can only do because of a smartphone. It’s v useful but some of my friends have been able to work without it.
Wow, I continue to be gratified by how many posts this question is getting! I particularly appreciate the thoughtful posts from students (otoribashi and nanotechnology) who give good concrete examples of how useful it is. Rest assured I’ve submitted and am already working out with my son about the best options for his future smartphone.
@MidWestM, I did check out Republic Wireless but I think I like Cricket better when it comes to that sort of thing. It seems more reliable according to what I read online.
@uskoolfish: I agree that it can be annoying when people glory in not adopting a technology, suggesting that it somehow makes them superior. In fact, acting superior is always annoying, regardless of what is inspiring it. But at the same time, I think there is no harm in looking at the pros and cons and making a reasoned decision.
@GeekyStudent - I don’t question the need for portable computing. I just questioned whether a smartphone was necessary, and speculated about using a tablet instead. Yes, its 2015 and apparently almost all college students have smartphones. But in 2018, people will have a new favorite gadget. And then in 2020, a new one. In fact I would not be surprised if in a few years, the smartphone will be bigger and bigger… more of a small tablet. Or it will be something entirely new and we’ll all be laughing at smartphones, which by then will be piled up in a giant pile somewhere awaiting “recycling.”
@dragonmom: we have a backyard with a clothesline, and a rack inside. Sheets have to wait for sunny days. We used to have a dryer but it broke and it was nice to have the extra space (and we rarely used the dryer anyway). Also I like hanging out laundry, spending time in the back yard with the birds and mosquitoes. I am not a Luddite so if we do find we need one, we’ll buy one.
“have Verizon and all the smartphones (we have iPhones, Samsung, and LG) all default to WiFi when in range of a known network. So while on campus at least, they should not be chewing up data usage. I would think they all pick up on WiFi automatically, but I can’t say that with certainty. It is absolutely worth asking before buying the phone.”
Isn’t that just a setting on any phone - where you can set it to default to wifi or stay on the phone line unless you manually override it? I don’t think that has anything to do with the brand of phone.
Haven’t read the thread but my son’s LAC would communicate through email. Assignments for tomorrow would be changed at 7 pm and meetings would be adjusted midday. I got him a smartphone a couple of weeks into the year. It was essential. My daughter started college in Canada and we got her a smartphone when we got there. I don’t know if it was so essential, but it had proven quite valuable for many things including like getting her response to things on days she had classes and clinical assignments and can’t talk on the phone.
Anyway, a smartphone isn’t “essential” just like anything beyond one pair of shoes, two pairs of underwear, shirts and pants aren’t “essential” but of all the things you can spend money on to set your kid up for college, this one has a major bang for the buck. Give the kid the old towels from the closet and buy him toiletries from the dollar store if you must.
“I don’t question the need for portable computing. I just questioned whether a smartphone was necessary, and speculated about using a tablet instead. Yes, its 2015 and apparently almost all college students have smartphones. But in 2018, people will have a new favorite gadget. And then in 2020, a new one. In fact I would not be surprised if in a few years, the smartphone will be bigger and bigger… more of a small tablet. Or it will be something entirely new and we’ll all be laughing at smartphones, which by then will be piled up in a giant pile somewhere awaiting “recycling.””
So what, though? You’ll deal with those things in 2020.
The first mobile phone I got was in 1992 - it was a car phone that was the size of a brick and attached to the inside of my car and was expensive enough that you only used it for emergencies. What difference did it make that a few years later I wound up with a mobile flat phone, then a mobile flip-phone, and then ultimately a smartphone? I don’t get your mentality of “there will just be something new coming along.” So just get left behind in the meantime?
I mean, we all bought CD’s even though iTunes came along and now music is often heard through streaming. Who knows what the future brings - but you don’t stand like a deer in the headlights just because you can’t predict what will be the new smartphone of 2040.
Texting is the cheapest, with ATT gophone we pay $20/mo for unlimited texting. Unlimited calling and texting costs $30/mo, unl calling and txt with data costs $45 and up I think.
You can customize your plan to what you need. So far we use wifi where available (home, restaurants, hotel, school). When my D goes to college we may add data because then if she is not near wifi she can still use the map functionality if she was lost (she can turn data off when not needed). Unlocked android phones have become pretty affordable and run around $100.
We pay just about $100/mo for all four phones, no contract, no overage charges, just pay month by month.
When you look for a provider make sure the coverage is good at school foremost, but also at home and maybe where they might have to travel for internships, a carrier with good national coverage, not just regional.
For example in our area Verizon and ATT have better coverage than Sprint or Tmobile, but it depends.
All big 4 should have prepaid plans, which can save especially if only one is on the plan or if you don’t want a contract plan. Straighttalk and Net10 also offer good prices and should have coverage on all big 4 provider networks depending on phone model.
PG–“deer in the headlights”? “left behind”?
Can you not understand another point of view (I’m not saying share it, I’m just saying understand), without the contempt?
The concept of questioning what’s needed and, one’s reasons for wanting something, then making a mindful decision based on one’s own needs and wants, isn’t that odd, really. A lot of people think that way for economic, environmental, and/or personal considerations.
“Getting” someone else’s point of view doesn’t mean you have to share it; it’s really just stepping out of a prevailing view in order to imagine the existence of another one.
There’s nothing wrong with questioning what’s needed and making decisions based on one’s needs, wants, budget, etc. There are certainly technology “toys” I don’t have.
My comment was more to the fact that “well, we don’t know whether smartphones will be even around 10 years from now - there may be some newer, bigger thing.” Well, that’s very true - ten years from now we may all have chips implanted in our wrists or something. However, I don’t see what the relevance is that is for today. If you can benefit from a technology and think it’s worth the money, then you get benefit from it.
For example, I got a lot of use out of a Sony Walkman for exercise. Then, the original iPod came along and that turned out to be more convenient. Then, the iPod Shuffle which was even better since it was so small. Now I don’t even have a separate music player because it’s all integrated on my iPhone and I run with that. I still got value out of all those “intermediary steps” along the way, even though (little did I know) there was future technology that would make each of them obsolete. That was my point. I would have had zero music to help me exercise if I had passed on the Sony Walkman / iPod / iPod Shuffle because I was awaiting some magical one-day in which it would all be on a smartphone.
I love my smartphone, and I love technology, but I don’t think it’s a need - it’s a want, especially for someone not working yet (but even for a person that’s working).
I have a flip phone and an iPod. Most college campuses have wifi, making an iPod an excellent choice, since one can put Google Voice onto it, and make calls in the US for free. I highly recommend this option. The flip phone is good for emergencies.
If you kid is not going to be in some rural campus bubble they may not be under the wifi umbrella as completely as you think. I have one kid who does kind of live in a bubble and uses very little data and another who will not be in a bubble and will need the maps and other features of a smartphone including those safety features that @fallenchemist mentioned.
You are no doubt correct, PG. But not having ever really looked into it I didn’t want to say with certainty.
I also agree with you that the argument that there will always be something faster, cheaper, better, etc. is a poor reason for standing still. Now if one is going to make a lifestyle decision to basically “go Amish” (and I hope clearly that is not insulting to anyone in any way, it is a perfectly valid choice), that’s different. Although to attend modern college and make that choice strikes me as quite difficult. But that has nothing to do with the OP in any case, she certainly never made anything remotely like a claim such as that. However, I can understand someone having the attitude that they prefer a more “old fashioned” world, a kind of interaction that seemed more personal and direct, and no doubt to them less complicated and intrusive. At the same time, I think it is safe to say they are raging against the dying of the light, just in a different way than was meant by Thomas.