General questions re Wifi phones

Fogmatic

I'm about to buy my 1st smartphone, so please excuse the no doubt very elementary questions. I've had problems finding an introduction to smartphones that's up-to-date (as opposed to written years ago, when everyone else started using them!).

I'll be getting a PAYG one with Wifi. (My only option for using smartphone technology. I'm not a latecomer through any technophobia - I've only just discovered that the prices have got more affordable since I last asked around!).

Anyway, just to be prepared;
1. Is there anything that phones can't do over wireless internet connections, that they can over 3G etc?

2. If a phone is AGPS enabled, can it be told to use plain old GPS instead? I gather AGPS constantly uses little bits of data, and I want to avoid all data charges if poss. (especially when outside Ireland), and don't mind that GPS is a bit slower.

3. When Wifi phones are out of reach of wireless signal, do they have the facility to refrain from going to the phone network for internet access?

Aquos76

On all smartphones you will have the option to toggle cellular data on or off, that just means that you can totally restrict the way the phone connect to the internet. Also on an iPhone for example, you can actually choose which apps can access the internet on cellular data if you like.

Fogmatic

Thanks (that's some time saved immediately!).

Alanstrainor

Yes, you can disable cell data from all phones. But I'd have to ask if it makes sense these days. Data is cheap, and a lot handier than hopping from wifi network to wifi network. Also, make sure you download a map app that allows you to download maps, I would recommend downloading "Here Maps" which allows this. This will mean you can use the maps without the need for a data point.

biko

Fogmatic wrote: »

1. Is there anything that phones can't do over wireless internet connections, that they can over 3G etc?

Wifi and 3G are the same from the phone's perspective, each is just a network.

Fogmatic wrote: »

2. If a phone is AGPS enabled, can it be told to use plain old GPS instead? I gather AGPS constantly uses little bits of data, and I want to avoid all data charges if poss. (especially when outside Ireland), and don't mind that GPS is a bit slower.

Depending on phone you can turn off AGPS, see more below.

Fogmatic wrote: »

3. When Wifi phones are out of reach of wireless signal, do they have the facility to refrain from going to the phone network for internet access?

If you turn off cellular data it will not use 3G for anything at all, incl AGPS

Fogmatic

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Yes, you can disable cell data from all phones. But I'd have to ask if it makes sense these days. Data is cheap, and a lot handier than hopping from wifi network to wifi network. Also, make sure you download a map app that allows you to download maps, I would recommend downloading "Here Maps" which allows this. This will mean you can use the maps without the need for a data point.

Thank you for the pointer re maps.

And for the other advice. I guess I'd better explain why a Wifi phone is my only option;
No 3G where I live; even the 2G's quite weak. I can't email myself a tiny low-res photo from my 10-year-old phone (I could to start with, but might have had the the district's only network to myself at that point).
My home has a Wifi LAN, but also has my laptop etc - it's when I'm not at home that a smartphone will make all the difference. Especially in towns, & especially in London which is my usual holiday destination (maps, events, maybe knowing that a friend I might never see again is just round the corner, etc). So most uses coinciding with likely public Wifi, and also with data roaming (expensive if pay-as-you-go, expensive to have a contract for such occasional use, & I have to mind the pennies).
(Maybe I should have just said 'It's complicated', but that seemed a bit abrupt!).

Fogmatic

And thank you for those clarifications, biko!
Queries all answered now, I think.