I was asking the same questions not that long ago. I don't do social media, and I am generally not well up on phone stuff. However, after a bit of looking I bought outright, a Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro, partly because I wanted a real keyboard, partly because of its good camera. Paid £230, use it on vodafone PAYG, make few calls and receive few, but its a useful lifeline, and when we went on hols to New Zealand it was utterly brilliant. Google maps, finding campsites, looking up bus timetables and finding the bus stop and tracking the journey on the bus, emailing folk, checking up on YACF occasionally, listening to the radio or music, it was a Godsend. I also bought a spare battery (easy and quick to change) and a 32Gb memory card forall those pictures. Whilst most photography was on the DSLR, there were also over 200 taken on the phone, and when editing them in Photoshop, its not obvious which camera its taken with. Battery life, yes, its less than the other phone, but its so quick and easy to switch bits off and on, its really not an issue, and it'll generally last at least a couple of days if not more. As for using the alarm to wake up, I'd only ever do if away from home. Don't you all have an alarm clock?
In short, they may not be perfect at anything, but they'll get you sorted with almost anything, and of you travel about a fair bit, I could not conceive how to survive without one. I'm a convert.
In answer to Fungus, bloody ages. Several weeks, certainly.
