Why a smartphone?

<p>Sort of sounds like monthly cost is an issue. Grab a prepaid AldiTalk SIM (any of the other comparable re-sellers would probably do, also; I just have experience with AldiTalk — which, incidentally, now uses the largest network in Germany after the Telefonica/ePlus merger). The cheapest Internet-Flatrate S plan is only €3.99/month and now comes with 500 MB of high-speed data (technically, it's unlimited, but it's at EDGE speeds after 500 MB, which is still good enough for Google Maps, email, texting and music streaming while out and about). Even though it's the "Internet" plan, you can still make pay-as-you-go phone calls and SMS — which I very rarely do anymore. And now it's good throughout the EU, too — an added bonus.</p><p><br></p><p>I love having a smartphone (currently a cheap, but surprisingly capable, Moto G5 I bought after my Nexus 5X died the Bootloop death) because it gives me all sorts of useful functionality (even if I don't use everything regularly, it's nice having it there when I need it). But like you, I don't use my phone for data-intensive things when I'm away from WiFi and I almost never make phone calls (and lately, I've started using messaging apps (WhatsApp, Skype, etc.) to make voice calls on the rare occasion when I need to since the people I usually would need to talk to also have these apps). The data-intensive downloads (podcasts, mostly) are set to download automatically only over WiFi. I very rarely exceeded my monthly data allotment when it was 150 MB and now it's recently been bumped up to 500 MB for the same price (and you can reset the high-speed data volume if you need to for only €3.00 — which, amazingly, even applies to the 5.5 GB XL plan that costs €14.99; reset it for only €3.00). </p><p><br></p><p>I've never really considered having anything other than a prepaid SIM and would be extremely hard-pressed to justify having a high-priced monthly contract, but I definitely would miss not having a smartphone. </p>