Iām assuming you do not own a car at all? I wish I could do the same only if my commute wasnāt over 30 miles one way and all the gear I have to carry. 
Do we need Flagship phones anyway?
Sweet!
But I heard itās not doing well in sales that they stopped production until their current stock was sold. Since the Tesla is more popular.
True. Now its all about the unlimited data plans with speed caps after a limit. Making older plans seem bad but the newer ones seem worseā¦if you read the fine print lol
I did not hear that they stopped production on the Bolt. Teslas are nice but they take forever to produce for some damn reason. I think I would prefer the 2018 Volt to be honest. I love fossil fuels 
My commute is 23 miles, I either bike/train/bike or bike/train/tram/bike or bike depending on weather.
I usually pick up some groceries on way home so a little often.
Been doing it this way for 15 years so far. Initially I could find excuses then instead of applying intellect to invent excuses, I used my intellect instead to invent solutions, and over progressive decisions on choice of where to live and choice of what to work, I eradicated the need to drive.
My bike makes electricity too, it is only 3Watts but enough to keep a phone topped-up, so I get home with a charged phone, and runs off beer and burritos. $7 burrito and $4 of beer gets me about 70 miles. I find beef with rice burritos get better mileage, and if you add cheese it slows me about 10 mins in every 6 hours. Pizzas are evil, they slow me down by like 30 minutes. I should write a book āBurritos good, Pizzas evilā (best seller?)
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So I travel between USA and Europe fairly often and that contract thing, in USA if I get a month-by-month pre-pay or post-pay with no handset and I buy the unlocked handset separately, works out about half the cost of getting a 2 year contract and a subsidized phone.
A worked example:
So in USA I got 4 lines for the family, total incl tax, monthly $135, each line 10GB with carry-over of unused data. That gives everyone more than enough, I use about 2GB/month, the others vary between 1GB and 6GB. We circulate unlocked phones around the family, e.g. an unlocked straight from Google Nexus 4 from 2013 went to a family member til it broke at 3 years old, then they got a OnePlusX for $249. My 2014 Nexus 5 went to another family member, I replaced its battery ($13 I think off ebay) and it then eventually died at 4 years old and they got a new $99 Moto G4 Play with a $19 64GB microSD card. One of my family members seems clumsy and smashes a phone every 6 months so they they tend to be given an older used phone and I get myself a new phone. I have nil clumsiness so I tend to get the new phones. The net affect is a cost of about $300/year on phone keeps 4 people in phones, a mix of new every year or two and cascade down amongst the family. Combined that works out at $40 per person per month to have a working phone.
Every calculation I do with contract works out substantially higher, I see figures of $70-$100 for equivalent data GB.
Month-by-month, if there is an offer, then you take it, no payments to exit, no unlock fees, so you can move between carriers at will. We flipped from a deal from ATT to a deal with T-Mobile about a year ago.
The same calculation in UK, Giffgaff, if we move the family for a couple of months to the UK, we tend to go for 10ukp Goodybag is enough most and so the monthly cost drops a little from USA costs.
I have heard that Canadian market seems to be one of the worst in the world, so I accept in some countries it makes sense to use contract.
For me, Iām not going to buy it. If all features work as expected, my father would buy it. Itās just the difference in income.
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That is an ingenius way to think of things. Never focus on the problem but always the solution. Beer and Burritos! Who woulda thunk!
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really cool profile picture
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some people even say apps are luxury, $700 for a satellite phone that can be used ANYWHERE one the Earthās surface seems better than relying on cell towers.
But if power grids are affected then cell towers wouldnāt work either. If you are in a hurricane, or stuck in the woods the Sat Phone is better.
CMB affects space more than on ground. I also said yes most of the time, I did not say no, neither always, nor never.
Power grids can go offline but cellular not due to they have local UPS. Iām surprised you did not know that already given you probably been in a power blackout but cellular stayed working and wondered why?
Complementary technology.
Going back to Flagship phones, when I am reliant on phones I carry two phones. On some of my trips I am moving and away from home for weeks and I leave with two phones. I also have a smartwatch which is a phone also (email, voice) which is waterproof, for backup. I store offline maps using two different apps (maps.me and google maps) so I can navigate in event of cellular loss.
I have dual-SIM phones so need two networks to be down before Iām offline.
One can get a dual-SIM high performance phone, and a slower phone, and a smartwatch, for less cost than one iphone 10.
so funny hahahhaha
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Why do we need all those?
Iām perfectly fine with one smartphone and no smartwatch. I always have my phone anyways.
Donāt need dual-SIM phone, but if you happen to buy a phone for less than half the cost of an iphone which has dual-SIM, and you happen to get a 4th T-Mobile line for free because you are not on contract so take advantage of time-limited free offers, and happen to get a work ATT line for free so you can be on two networks at once, if you happen to find that say St Louis has faster T-Mobile than ATT, and happen to have an ATT signal in the Californian mountains but no T-Mobile signal, then why not. If you also happen to spend a lot of time moving fast and light and just go to the supermarket with your smartphone and pay for everything on your Android Pay, then why not.
OF course these are not needed, but the point is that they all collectively are getting you into more features and benefits for still less cost than a āflagshipā phone.
My ATT-SIM Smartwatch cost me $172 total delivered and the $15 of credit on the PAYG is now down to $12 after 3 months, as it only charges for outgoing calls/texts, and I point my Google Voice to it when I want to go minimalist light.
