Will the phone make the grade....

My current phone is a stupid phone - as in not-smart.
I have been a reluctant to get one that is more intelligent, because I think, based on what I know of my personality and how I see a couple friends using their smart phones, I would be playing with it too much.
However a couple factors are pressuring me to now seriously consider getting one (actually probably today). These factors are directly related to may Fringe play.....

Last week I went to a session for producers, directors, and stage managers of plays being done at this year's Edmonton Fringe Festival. At that session they were mentioning the power of social media, especially Twitter - I have a twitter account I don't use, because how I see it, it works better for someone constantly able to 'tweet' - my twitter account: https://twitter.com/#!/hughkemeny

Yesterday, after a job interview, I went to one of the major malls to check what smart phones my provider had to offer, and what a couple competitors had to offer in terms of phones and plans. Throughout the rest of the day I made it to a couple more places, and narrowed things down to two phones (the two that I talked to providers about earlier in the day).

They are:
HTC One V - with Koodo (my current provider). Koodo has the phone on sale, and with what remains of my 'tab' (10% of my bill goes to pay the phone back / recover my 'tab'), the phone would only cost me $79 + tax. My plan would change, but after looking at it all, the amount I pay per month would stay about the same (depending on my data usage).

Motorola Motoluxe - with Virgin. I am tempted to switch to Virgin because of the deals the sales person (who was at one of those multi-provider places) said are sent to Virgin customers. There wasn't any super special deals on that phone, or the equivalent plan to what I would get with Koodo (which would work out to exactly the same - causing the plan to drop out of the equation). Virgin also offers a 'tab', and with using that I would only have to pay $30+tax for the phone, plus the $54 still remaining on my Koodo tab. Bringing the phone to a comparable price.

The other places I went (Cost-co & Best Buy) wanted me to sign a 3 year contract, and get the much better phones for next to nothing. I am not ready for that - been without a contract for in the ball park of 6 years. Plus as I'm still relatively unemployed, I don't want to be paying too much for a plan. Both Koodo and Virgin have plans I like for $40/month (+tax), with <25 MB data. They both offer the same sliding scale for data usage (which rests every month): $5 more for up to 100MB, $10 more for up to 300MB, $15 more for up to 1 GB, and $25 more for up to 3GB.
Currently I pay $42/month +tax.

Last night I spent time researching the two phones to see which one had better reviews.
Both apparently aren't great! But I'm looking at a starter phone (I'll probably consider an iPhone in a couple years, when I have the money), so I can understand they don't have the top reviews.

After doing all the research I have decided on the HTC One V, it had slightly better reviews in industry reviews, and I don't have to worry about switching providers.