Originally Posted by
wphamilton
I was the same as you, carrying an old flip phone, then got smartphone to use as a wifi tablet, then got cell for it so that I don't carry two ... it's a slippery slope. I've been screwed by phone companies in the past so I make a special study of paying them as little as possible.
On the Google Voice, make sure you have an alternative lined up because it will cease to function as you use it on May 15 when they are disabling the XMPP support (all of the third party stuff). I had a similar setup for my house line - you can't beat totally free - but since that's ending I settled for forwarding my GV number to a Callcentric incoming DID (which is still free) and used Callcentric's pay per call outgoing VOIP which is "almost" free so it's almost the same thing. Callcentric forwards the GV to both my cell number and wifi SIP number, so my phone picks up whichever is available, prioritizing the wifi (or data if I turn that on) if both are available.
With those mobile hotspots I could be like you and turn off cell using only VOIP over 3G data and wifi (or if you had one you could get your email or news even without wifi fairly cheaply), the difference being that my flip phone is disabled now and I'd leave it off. The big drawback with that as sstorkel said is the coverage map. And maybe the hotspot devices aren't that great, that I don't know.
I have a Nexus 7 tablet. I've had mine for over a year now. I only use it light to moderately (I have a desktop PC and a laptop at home also) but it has held up well and and has worked perfectly. I have taken it traveling in the car and on airplane trips. I have a cheap usb keyboard case that turns it into a mini laptop.
A few months ago a friend upgraded her smartphone and gave me her old one. It's a LG Marquee with Android 2.3. My tracfone flip phone is cheap and fine for my light talk/text needs so I didn't want to use the smartphone as a cell phone. I like it as a mini wifi tablet though. Much easier to carry around than the Nexus 7. I like the camera and GPS (loaded offline maps). The Marquee is kind of old and slow so I have been looking for a more updated used smartphone to use as a mini tablet. I just last night bought a used ZTE Flash on ebay for $60. 4.5" screen, Android 4.0 (ICS) and 12mp camera. This might be fun to play with.
I also use Google Voice and could make calls on wifi on the smartphone. I have been using GV at home with a Obi100 and have been happy with the free phone calls. I've been deciding what to do for the end of the xmpp support when I can't do that any more. I want to keep my GV acct. I think I'm going to get a $25 GVMate adapter to use with the GV. It's a little less convenient than the Obi100 but I think it will work for us.
I don't care about using the smartphone for phone calls but data might be nice sometimes. I might look into prepaid services like Ting or Republic Wireless where you can bring your own phone to use. Or I might try the Freedompop for some free limited use wifi on the go.
I'm not a big techy but it's fun to play with some of these services and gadgets as the tech filters down to the cheaper prices.