It's on the heavy side,

See, I only have laptops to compare it to, rather than tablets, so I'm always impressed with its weight. But I know that's not apples to apples.

and the tablet only is clunky, but it's connected up the wazoo, and with the keyboard attached has nutso battery life.

Seriously, the keyboard taps into some dark magic to provide that much battery life. It's amazing.

I've never had a smartphone and am considering it! On a cheap-o plan. But I have no idea how to decide anything. I don't want to spend a lot of money on the phone, because I don't think I care that much about bells and whistles.

I'm currently with T-Mobile, and have fine service from them, so am inclined to go on one of their no-contract plans. But Virgin Mobile gives significantly more minutes for $5 more. But I don't know that there is a Virgin Mobile store for me to go see the possible phones in person. I've looked at some CNet reviews, but they review almost too much on the curve for me -- they give a good grade for "not as bad as you'd think, given how cheap it is," and I can't tell if that will be a problem for me or not.

In short, does anyone have any advice for picking an entry-level smartphone and plan?

I bet Megan Walker does!

Jesse,

I think the main thing to ask yourself is: what do you imagine doing with a smartphone? For example (and I don't know if there is an equivalent in Android), but before I bought an iphone, I bought an ipod and kept my other phone (which was a Nokia and I loved Nokias).

I wasn't sure I'd like the iphone and found that having an ipod was a much cheaper way to have access to the app environment and see if this was an ecosystem in which I wanted to spend more cold hard cash. After using an ipod for about 6-8 months, I got an iphone. I also knew some key things I wanted from a smartphone, but very much enjoyed the possibilities of iphone.

You have a lot more options now than I did back then - but I would say this to you:

while it is possible to move from iphone to android (and vice versa), the app ecosystems in both cost $$ and it might be difficult committing resources to one and then switching to another unless you have easy access to used devices, etc. So now is the time to ask and see which models you might want to try.

I know most about iphones, so if you end up getting one and have questions, I'm happy to help and provide recommendations for apps, etc. I have bought a lot, so I can give reviews, etc. If you get an older iphone (like before iphone 5), you probably can get a really good deal on the price of the phone. I got Beau a 4S 16 GB for a really good price on Verizon.

Others can chime in on Android.

I think the main thing to ask yourself is: what do you imagine doing with a smartphone?

Yeah, I have no idea! Which is why I don't have one yet. I have a "texting phone" and an old iPod mini, which I mostly use for podcasts.

I will do some more self-examination before committing to anything.

How much money have people spent on their apps, and would you rate yourself on a scale of low, medium, or high usage?

I think I might have spent $20 apart from work requirements (two big apps for $20 each), but I don't think of power user as an expensive place to hang out.

How different are other people's experiences?

do you facebook, tweet, take photos, play games, need gps, need to email, travel a lot (car, bus, or plane), read, watch video, listen to music, skype?

those are a sample of things a lot of people do with a smartphone. There are more of course, but I was trying to keep your personality in mind. the biggest recurring expense of a smartphone is the data plan per month.

I don't talk on the phone a whole lot, and I don't text much except with Beau, but I use data and even with our shared data plan it is not cheap.

Yeah, I have no idea! Which is why I don't have one yet.

I use my smart phone (it's Android via T-Mobile) for texting, tweeting (and reading Twitter), reading email, taking photographs, reading my LJ flist. Also tracks my menstrual cycle, keeps my to-do and shopping lists, gives weather forecasts, keeps books via Kindle so I always have something to read while on the train, IMDB and Wikipedia, manages my Netflix queue, tracks buses via GPS, books reservations via Open Table, and uses GPS and the maps to give me directions. Oh, and it has a flashlight function, which is AWESOME.

None of those apps cost me a dime, btw.

That's not all I have on it, but those are the functions I use the most. I don't Skype or stream video on it, because it's always clunky and slow. I don't know if that problem is the phone or the network, but I don't care much. If I want to see video I can look on my laptop, and I don't Skype much anyway.

Even if you don't have a Virgin Mobile store, you can see available phones in other stores. I pretty much narrowed it down to two or three and then irritated other stores by going in, touching the phones, and not buying them.

do you facebook, tweet, take photos, play games, need gps, need to email, travel a lot (car, bus, or plane), read, watch video, listen to music, skype?

I do some of those things! And can imagine doing others. I don't travel a lot, and have no real commute right now, but that could change, of course. The NextBus app might be worth it. And, I don't know, maybe I would do less personal business on my work computer if I had a smartphone, but it's not like it looks better to be playing with your phone at the office. At least right now I just look like I'm typing, which could be anything!

It's just the lack of imagination -- I don't use one for anything right now, but I'm sure I would get into different habits/routines with the option.