It's not necessarily better, it's just cheaper since you get to choose how much money you want to put on it. I usually choose either 1,000 texts per month for $9.99 or I get unlimited texting for a month for $19.99. I very rarely put money on it for calls because I don't talk on the phone enough for that. How much is an iphone or android monthly? Usually anywhere from $60/month to $140/month, plus the initial cost for the phone itself is typically anywhere from $200-$400. Screw that. My phone cost me a whopping $40, and I end up paying less than $300 yearly. Having the internet and all these fancy apps on my phone isn't that important to me.
It would definitely be nice if I could use instagram without having to use my phone.
Go with an iPod Touch. I have the Instagram app on my Touch but I've never used it. All you need is WiFi access and it's exactly like an iPhone or one of those
VirusDroid phones. I do Facetime chats with my girl all the time - she's done more boob flashes on her "cam shows" for me than any of the OCSMs here.
I have Skype and some service I hardly ever use where I can make regular phone calls if I wanted to. Texts are easy. So is checking email, etc.
Just because I like to be annoying, I did a cost rundown comparing how much more my girl has spent on her smartphone (iPhone) plan with Verizon compared to my dumbphone (10 year old Motorola flip phone) plan with Verizon: 30 months = $2400. That's a fair amount of money, ya know?! Plus, my account has two separate phones on it and she still pays $80/mo more than me. True, I've had to pay for internet access, but I had that anyway... and she has that too. Smartphones are a total rip-off, if ya ask me. An extra $80 a month for what?
I love this little device. I would have it surgically implanted in my body if it was a little smaller. And if I happen to be in a location that doesn't have free WiFi (although, that's pretty common now), I have a pay-as-you-go hotspot called Internet On The Go - there are others out there too. I think I paid $25 for a 3GB card and I haven't even used it all up yet. If you send and receive lots of pics or songs, I'm sure you would use 3 gigs pretty quick. But that's a good bit of data. Anyway, that's an idea. Plus, it's a kick ass music player.