I "think" the time has come to buy a smart phone, the last few weeks I have been in need of a phone that can do a lot more than my nine year old $12 Nokia dumb (nothing but love) phone. I would like to keep the price under $200 with NO CONTRACT . The three main things I would like to use the phone for is being on line (GRM app?) , some E-Mail, and using MS Office.
Tonight I spent some time at the T-Mobile store and found the Nokia 521, the one thing that caught my eye was the ability to work with MS Office. I have read some reviews about the phone and most people seem surprised how much this phone can do at such a low price. I did some reading about the windows phone and most people say the phone has almost no "apps" that work with the phone. Will I be missing out if I buy this phone over a android phone?
http://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phones/nokia-lumia-521.html
Anyone here own one?
What about yesterdays/ used smart phone is this something I should look at? If so any input what is good or bad? How do I get an older phone set up with a carrier?
Just looking for some input guys.
Thanks Paul B
I have a windblows Nokia Lumia and like it. It took me all of half an hour to get Gmail and Yahoo mail working as well as Facebook and the like. I've spent multiple hours on multiple days trying to get Gmail to sync to my wife's iPhone and failed every time.
I did play around with the iPhone, then I looked at the price 
Paul B
I have been using Windows Phones since late 2010. Nearly every app you could want is now available on the platform, and Nokia makes an amazing piece of hardware. I've used the Nokias, Samsungs, and now I am using an HTC, and have found that the differences basically come down to style, size, and camera. They all performed equally otherwise.
An iPhone is the easiest to get in to the whole smartphone world if you are just starting, having said that I just upgraded to an HTC one and it is awesome but not overwhelming.
Feel your way through and try everything, used iPhones are not too bad price wise (btw I have a 4 for sale lol)
Whatever you buy, research the hell out of it. The "cheap" phones don't usually work right and will drive you into an early replacement. I would recommend considering the used route as well. You can get last years 'hot' Android or Windows phone used for under $200 usually.
what carrier are you with now?... I love T-mobile and their new pricing plan is great... but when I leave the greater Houston area I know that my service isn't going to be near as good as if I was with about any other service
for phones... might look at the nexus 4 as it's now into your price range and unlocked and will work on any GSM service in the US
https://play.google.com/store/devices/details/Nexus_4_8GB?id=nexus_4_8gb&hl=en
the tmobile lg l9 is a bit under your price range at walmart
I have had an iPhone 4 for about a week and I love it. I should gotten one years ago. The only downside is that the battery life is less than my flip phone so I carry a charge cord with me in case it gets low. It otherwise has worked great, even I figured out how to use it with little trouble.
I have a Nokia Lumia 920, I think it is a pretty good phone, I think it ended up costing $100 total to upgrade from the iPhone 3gs I had before. If you need to use ms office I would recommend one, there are really plenty of apps for everything I use my phone for, if you haven't ever had a smart phone before I wouldn't worry too much about there being less apps for the windows phone.
