Using an iPad mini as a cellphone

I’ve had an iPhone for perhaps five years, with AT&T as my provider most of that time. The monthly payments to AT&T really bothered me, since most of what I was paying for was talk time. I can’t remember now how many minutes I was alloted per month, but it was an unfeasibly large amount — probably 2000. I had many thousands of minutes rolling over from month to month.

Like many people I hate talking on the phone and do so as little as possible, so the money I was paying for this service was completely wasted. Typically I would use 40 minutes a month, although AT&T bills by the minute, and many of those calls would have been less than that — basically as long as it takes for me to leave a brief message on someone’s voicemail.

Oh, and I only had 250 MB of data per month, which was generally enough for me, but isn’t much. And no texts. The almost $70 a month I was paying for voice and data didn’t strike me as good value.

Why doesn’t AT&T has a phone plan that gives you, say, 200 minutes a month rather than 2000 or 4000? Well, they’re raking in the money, and they have no reason to change in the oligopoly that is the US cellular phone system.

Mostly I used the iPhone for email, music, mobile browsing, maps (rarely), reading, and for the calendar, contacts, and to-do lists.

When my last contract was up I switched to using Straight Talk. Straight Talk takes AT&T’s service and sells it to you for less than AT&T does. Great! So for about $47 a month I had unlimited talk time (which was as useless to me as it always was), plus 2 GB of data (more than I’ve ever use by a factor of five to ten), and unlimited texts, which was cool.

But even $47 a month struck me as too much. Then I had a brainwave: get an iPad mini, and use that as a mobile phone.

The iPad mini with AT&T’s lowest level of data service (back to an adequate 250 MB a month) would work as a mobile device, plus I’d be able to do sneaky calling using free apps and a Google Voice account.

So how’s it going?

Very well.

I still hardly make calls, but when I need to do that I use an app called GV Phone by MO+, which allows me to make and receive phone calls using my free Google Voice account. And it allows me to make unlimited texts.

And the iPad mini is much better than an iPhone for any of the other uses I put it to. Reading on it is a joy. And while the iPhone keyboard is too small and the iPad’s is too large, the iPad mini’s is perfectly proportioned.

The drawbacks?

The main thing is that the iPad mini is rather large. It can be crammed into my front jeans pocket, but at the cost of being able to walk in a normal fashion, or to sit down without experiencing great discomfort.

It should fit into my chinos pocket, which in the past I’ve carried the similarly sized Kindle around in (without discomfort). Chinos’ pockets are on the side of the leg, making it easier to move when there’s a large rectangular object in the pocket.

It does fit into the pocket of my winter coat. In short-sleeve weather I’m going to have to carry a bag, or some form of (heaven help me) “holster.”

But one thing I’ve found is that not having it in my pocket all the time is great. When the iPad mini is on my desk as I go to the bathroom, I’m less likely to … well, some things are better left unspoken. Anyway, a bit of separation between us and our devices is not a bad thing, in this tech-addicted age.

A minor thing is that the GV Phone app carries ads. I wish they had a “pro” version that was ad-free. Another is that I can’t (yet) choose the ringtone. A third is that the iPad mini has a speaker rather than an earphone, and so all calls are effectively “on speakerphone.” I make so few calls this hasn’t bothered the people around me yet. And the iPad mini doesn’t come with earbuds, Apple being cheap so-and-so’s, so until I splash out on a pair I’m stuck with broadcasting my calls to all and sundry around me.

The fact that the iPad is “on speakerphone” has one advantage, though, which is that you don’t have to hold a book-sized object up to the side of your head.

A small thing, related to Google Voice. I live in New Hampshire, but Google Voice doesn’t have any NH numbers available. So I ended up with a Mississippi number, which confuses people, even though ages ago I emailed them and asked them to update their contact lists.

Cost-wise, this was a great deal. I sold my iPhone on Amazon for $270, and netted $250 after Amazon took their cut. With a two-year contract with AT&T, the iPad mini (32 GB) cost $450. I’m saving $33 a month by switching from Straight Talk (I’d have saved over $50 a month switching from AT&T’s 250 MB iPhone plan to AT&T’s 250 MB iPad plan). The difference of $200 will be paid for in six months because of those savings in the plans. And then I’ll save about $400 per year compared to Straight Talk and about $800 a year compared to AT&T’s iPhone plan.

That is sweet music to this Scotsman’s ears.