New phones for the family

A big day in telecommunications technology for our household.

Margie lost her mobile right before Thanksgiving.  Or, rather, it was likely stolen from the vehicle (it had been left in there for charging, I had moved it into the center console); the most likely location (the only time the car was unlocked when not in our possession) was from valet parking at a restaurant, but since it was a few days afterwards that we actually discovered it gone, it’s hard to say definitively (hard enough we didn’t feel justified in reporting it).

Aaaaanyway, so we needed to replace Margie’s HTC Incredible.

Now, one option we discovered is that my HTC Incredible on our Verizon account comes up for its 2 year tech refresh in late January.  So, we thought, maybe we could do something interesting with phone shuffling in the interim …

Especially since …

We’re planning on getting Katherine a (basic) phone for Christmas.  Something she’s been jonesing for, and, honestly, she’s shown enough responsibility for in a variety of areas. And it would be convenient for her to be able to contact us more flexibly.

(Sssshhhh … don’t tell her!)

So our initial thought was get a basic phone for Margie for two months, then when I upgrade to a new phone in January, give Margie my Incredible, and give Katherine the basic phone.

As it turns out, since the account is Margie’s (through her employer, who has a ridiculously good set of account discounts), she’s able to do an early upgrade for cheap.

Sooooooo … Margie came home from the Verizon store with a Motorola Droid X2 — nice-looking phone, larger screen than  the Incredible, still 3G (but not a big concern for Margie), well-reviewed.

Also home (and stashed away for two weeks) is an LG Cosmos 2 for a certain someone.

More exciting, and/or daunting, is what’s up next for me, assuming I do the upgrade in late January.  All sorts of 4G LTE phones in the Android smartphone section, which is kind of cool.  One of the larger screens might be handy — but also less convenient worn on the belt.  I’ve liked the HTC, but a Samsung or Motorola phone is certainly not out of the question (I’ll have to ask Margie how she enjoys her Droid X2).

Also of interest (to me) is the question of a tablet.  I’ve been struggling to think of how I would use one, and, between my Kindle and my smartphone and my netbook and my laptop table in the family room, I haven’t come up with a compelling reason for one.  But I remain tempted.

(I actually used one of the Samsung Galaxy tablets at the Verizon store to do review lookups on the handsets we were interested in. Very nice, esp. with the keyboard dock.  But, again, with the wealth of devices I already have, it doesn’t do anything that I can’t do to 80% of at least already.)

One added note on the affair.  We have always had very positive, helpful, patient customer service at the Verizon store near  Park Meadows (by the Home Depot), and today was no different.  I’d like to give a shout-out to Chris, who took care of us today.  He was the right degree of helpful and supportive without being pushy or negligent, and made the experience that much less stressful.  Thanks!