Hello everyone,

New user here - hope I'm posting in the correct place. I'm hoping to gain some insight from your wisdom regarding a conundrum I'm having.


I currently use a crappy nokia from 2005 I am in love with the Galaxy Nexus. I'm on a Verizon family plan that costs me $10 a month (family pays for a good amount of minutes and unlimited texting), and if/when I upgrade, I'll get a $50 discount from an unused New Every Two credit, and presumably have to pay $10 a month + $30 for the minimum data plan.

I don't know what my best option is, seeing as I will be on a study abroad program from January through at least July 1st, and possibly until as late as the middle of August. (around 8 months). In fact, I'm not even sure if the GN will work abroad, as the Verizon version will be CDMA. Here are the options I'm thinking:

Option 1: Buy Galaxy Nexus immediately upon release in US (presumably in around a week??) for presumably $249 after $50 discount. Get the $10+$30 per month plan. Use it for a month, and then go abroad and shut data off. Download some apps that work in offline mode before leaving for Spain. Use phone only with wifi for the next six months, and purchase a basic cell phone in Spain at a local store with a basic plan for voice and text messages. I will contact america when I have wifi using google voice, skype, etc.

Option 2: Buy Galaxy Nexus from Spain and sign on with a local carrier? The GSM-iPhone is already being sold in England and I imagine Spain will not be too far off. I speak Spanish fluently, but I bet they also have two year agreements and not 6-month ones. Buying the phone without the kind of subsidy given with 2-year contracts in the US would probably come out to be too expensive for me to be able to afford.

Option 3: Get the iPhone 4S, be very sad for two years, get charged up the wazoo by Verizon for using their international plan (I assume it is very cost prohibitive, please let me know if you know otherwise).

Option 4: Do not upgrade until I come back from med school. Since I'm using this ghetto 2005 phone, I don't have an mp3 player, nor a camera, so although this seems up front to be a cost-cutting move, I would like to have those for the next 8 months and would have to purchase those electronics as replacements.

Option 5: Anything else you think of

What do you think? Any advice or input you could provide would be appreciative. Please let me know if i posted this in the wrong place, or if there is a better website or forum for me to ask this question. Thanks!


See More: Desperate for Galaxy Nexus - but Going International (Spain) for 6 months