Google Latitude on low spec smartphone

My wife wants a "smartphone" but not up to full spec.

Looking at:-

http://shop.orange.co.uk/mobile-phones/san-francisco...

price looks right but will need a package for data.

Tried an Orange shop yesterday but did not understand what they were saying. Bolt on £7.50 per month but unable to use Google Maps; salesman said that package used to but now stopped.

Reason that interest in Google maps is so that my wife and I can use Google Latitude to track each other.

Accept that maybe have to pay for better contract but very reluctant to go over £15 per month, two year contract, including texts, minutes and data.

Any advice please?

Buy a 'smartphone' outright and get a SIM only contract with data..

Nokia provide street maps which you can download to their smart phones. This provides map data without the need for a mobile connection - in many countries.

HTC have something similar.

What's wrong with the traditional "Hi darling I am on the train..." ?

The advantage of Latitude is that both parties can see where each is; there are circumstances where this can be vital.

If I am on the train I would rarely phone to advise. However if I am incapable of speaking, due to a medical emergency, my wife could see where I am and make her way there. This happened last year and it took a long while to get her to me as she did not know the area I was in, I tend to go off local areas a lot, and she was getting instructions from a third party who did not know the area where she was nor the area I was in, as they where just driving through; causing both of us some concern until reunited.

I have to say that most of the time this would be more of a convenience rather than vital as we often meet up at places neither have visited before.

I have Mapdroid on my HTC but it does not send my location to another phone.

The San Francisco is easily unlocked and can be done for free. Just buy it pay as you go and then go for whichever sim only deal you prefer.

Some of us just prefer our wives NOT to know where we are

I got a Samsung Europa I5500 from carphone warehouse for £10 a month. It includes 100 mins 100 texts and 500MB of data. Is loads for me. Runs Android so does google maps with ease, and latitude.

Worth a look if you don't want to spend too much like I didn't.....

[edit] fwiw, it's not that low spec either. Is quite good all things considered.

Edited by deleted (Sat 28-May-11 17:46:14)

Thank you for the info.

Does it have the "smartphone" mini USB charger socket; means that we could both use the same charger when on holiday?

Yes, it has a "smartphone" mini usb charger - I could not honestly say it is the same as another "smartphone" mini usb socket as I don't have another one to check it with. But it did come with 2 cables. One the plug type for mains socket and the other was a usb data/charging cable which charges from the PC and Laptop no problem.

I do have to advise of shocking battery life though. I upgraded the phone, unofficially, to FROYO and now get a couple of days out of the battery. In itself for me this is not an issue since I can plug it in to charge over night. I also do use it heavily for gps, web, apps etc etc. If you turn off all the extras like gps, mobile data etc, the battery does last longer. 3-4 days between charges.