Replace my Phone with the 5.0?

[mamamia88]

Thinking of getting the galaxy player 5.0 and going back to a dumbphone. Dropped my smartphone in the toilet last night and am thinking of just replacing it with a cheap $50 go phone from walgreens and maybe a galaxy player 5.0. What do you think? Anyone do something similar?

[CrowdAds]

[Syndrome]

I just have a pre-paid phone from walmart(straight talk) it has a 2 year accidental warranty. As long as I can physically provide the phone it will get replaced.

[Daniel644]

If you search the threads there is plenty on this.

1. the 4.0 and 5.0, while they can be bluetooth paired to a "dumbphone" that bluetooth is only for file transfers, they DO NOT support the BT Profiles REQUIRED to answer or dial out via bluetooth thru the dumb phone, ONLY the crappy 3.6 and maybe the 4.2 (not sure) support those BT profiles, so basically all a dumbphone and the 5.0 will do is transfer pictures and sound files.
2. Most people that look into something like this get a mobile hotspot and connect there player to the hotspots wifi then use there google voice number and apps like Talkatone to make calls and send and receive texts.

[Zapp]

I have a T-Mobile prepaid dumb phone and the SGP 5.0, the combo works really well for me. $100USD get me 1,000 minutes for a whole year which is enough for me. The SGP handles everything else, including Skype when I need it. Free wifi is almost everywhere. The only thing I occasionally miss is a live data connection when using the GPS on the SGP 5.0. But you can preload maps on the SGP 5.0 and work around that problem.

The mobile prepaid phone if only $35USD to replace if you break, or lose it.
If you lose the phone, the your maximum exposure is only the remaining minutes on the phone. No two year contract. The prepaid phone is very small, very light, and the charge usually lasts for three days.

There's a guy with a website called "Nimrod Street". He has terminated all his phone and data services. He uses his SGP 5.0 and free wifi sites for ALL his voice and data communication. If you don't need to be instantly available, you can make it work. Although, that's a little extreme for me.

[Big Sky]

This is pretty much my plan. The office has wifi and most places I go has wifi, or I can find wifi withing 5 mins any place in my city. I don't respond to emails from work and even less personally as I should; so I don't always have to be connected. Even so nothing to important that can't be texted. I am given a $75 a month allowance for a smartphone but I plan to pocket the cash instead.

When my contract is up I going to a dumbphone and using either my 5.0 or Tab 2 7.0. Don't think I really need a wifi hotspot. Thought the New Galaxy Note II is tempting.

[GeorgeP1111]

I have found that there are "Hot Spots" that will not allow me log into Groove-ip (Google Voice), Skype, Zello, EchoLink, yet I can log into various web sights fine. I talked to my son son about this and he said that many sights have the port(s) that these apps use turned off to prevent large downloads like movies and such.

This is just FWIW, I gave up trying to figure out what is going on with lot of this tech stuff these days. When it works,Great, when it don't.... I ask my kids! :-)

George

[mamamia88]

how does the sound quality on this compare to a rockboxed fuze? also anyone ever order from cowboom.com? they sell for $120 there. or did 2 days ago

[Syndrome]

I've purchased 5 psp 3000's from cowboom without any issues.

[mamamia88]

awesome i'll look into that. thinking of actually seeing if i can get buy using my vita/gophone for awhile. i can do gmail in it's browser, it has gps but without public transit, and has a facebook/twitter account. i still have my trusty rockboxed fuze. the 5.0 is probably a lot more pocketable though.

[Blackdog]

mamamia
This is exactly what I've been doing for about a year and it's great. Save a lot of money by not having a contract and data charges. I have an old Motorola Razr dumbphone. I like the phone a lot, for a dumb phone, and it stays on standby for days. Cost's me $50 a month. I could probably go cheaper with another prepaid but I like having the sim card and having the option of using the thing if I travel internationally...just pop in a third party prepaid sim card and I'm all set. The Razr is quad band so it's a great dumb phone for international travel.

The SGP5.0 for everything else. And it's awesome. I use all it's features. Alarm clock wakes me to music each day, calendar, lots of mp3/Flac player, videos, netflix, camera and viedo, calculator, voice recorder, save stuff to Dropbox, all my email and contacts integrated, just amazing. And zero cost. All wifi.

A few awesome apps to have: (you may know already)
Business Calendar...WAY better than stock calendar. Very useful.
K9 email to integrate several email accounts. Tricky to set up du to lack of documentation but well worth it. Many settings and options to control all email from one app.
Wifi Analyzer...lets you see graphically all the wifi in your zone.
GPS Test. Lets' you see all satellites available and signal strength. gives speed and altitude readouts, etc.
Cam Scanner. Use camera to "scan", trim, crop and adjust images and then convert to pdf. Very useful to storing receipts, expense account items, kids art, recipes, work or personal documents that you need to store or send to someone else, contracts, store all your ID, license and passports, etc.

Add a nice big 64 gB microSD and you'd be very happy.
good luck.

[Syndrome]

Originally Posted by Blackdog

Cost's me $50 a month.

If you went with a straight talk sim card you could get unlimited everything for 50$ a month, and its pre-paid as well.

[Big Sky]

Originally Posted by kmazza

I bought the Galaxy Player 5.0 also instead of a smart phone mainly because Verizon wanted $30/month for data. That's a rip-off. So I use the SGP 5.0 for everything except phone calls. The display is fantastic IMO. I hear people say the resolution is poor but I watch movies and videos and it's great. I also like the stereo speakers. The SGP has good volume too. There are so many things you can do on it. I have been playing with the voice recorder on it. I love it. There are a ton of games to play. I like Heavy Gunner 3D. It's a shooter game and rocks.

ugh! Verizon the nickel and dime network.

If you were to get a smartphone it is going to be so out dated before your contract is up and then you are stuck.

SGP and Tablets allow me the flexibility to upgrade if need be without all the hassles. Add a wifi hotspot if you need one.

Still, the Samsung Note II has me tempted.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by brosko

those who complain about the resolution are just being ridiculous. there was a guy on here or another site once who said something to the effect that he could not stand the 5.0 because of all the pixelation or something absurd like that. to me that is just being a little to picky. the screen is great like you said!!

The screen doesn't look very good next to an iPad 3, but asides from that it is just fine. I watched a couple of movies on my 5.0 while lying in bed last night.

[brosko]

Originally Posted by Marvin the Martian

The screen doesn't look very good next to an iPad 3, but asides from that it is just fine. I watched a couple of movies on my 5.0 while lying in bed last night.

Exactly what I say!

[blcistheking]

Screen is average at best. I really wish Samsung would stop putting low resolution screens on these devices. 800 x 480 on a 5 inch screen? 960 x 540 on a 5.8 screen? Cmon on!

[mamamia88]

well i went ahead and ordered a replacement inspire 4g for roughly the same cost as the galaxy player. i really don't do much video and i'm on straight talk so the monthly bill is $45. i could always drop the 3g part and go down to $30 if i wanted.

[Blackdog]

Originally Posted by Big Sky

Still, the Samsung Note II has me tempted.

Exactly, me too. For the first time, I might bite the bullet and go for full smartphone with data contract. That's one serious mofo of a device! And in my mind it's just about perfect size with a 5.5" screen. I think that 5-6" is the perfect range that combines good portability (ie, don't need a case, pocketbook or briefcase) and good readibility and ease of regular web browser.

I love the SGP but it's frustrating that Samsung does not take this product line seriously at all; it's really a complete afterthought...and instantly forgotten by them. They are not putting their best screens into these, as someone mentioned, there's no firmware updates ever, and there's no real plan for updating to newer devices running newer versions of android with state of the art processor, camera, etc.

[paulr]

I haven't felt the need for a data plan so I have a smartphone (Nokia E63) with the cheap t-mobile prepaid voice plan (under $10 a month with my low usage). I could imagine getting a used SGS2 or Galaxy Note and using it as a media player/wifi tablet/camera pretty much the same way, with no data plan. If I were to get a data plan at all, it would be for a mobile hotspot so I could use it with multiple devices (tablet, laptop, etc).

[mika558]

I did this exact thing. I got a Virgin Mobile SAMSUNG phone for $50, $35 a month plan. I use the phone for texting/calls, and my Galaxy player 5.0 for music and everything else.
I just look for a wifi hotspot. no need for a android phone. im happy with my dumb phone.

I am very tempted by the huge screen on the Samsung galaxy note/II.
I wish the 5.0 had a bigger screen like the Note.

I also use my Galaxy Tab 2 which does a lot of what i need without a data plan smart phone.