Help pick my new phone!

Eric_L · 02-08-2008, 07:00 PM

Alas! My 2 year contract with Stinkulair is nearly over. Two years of shoddy customer service and a horrid first generation razr near an end!

I had been a customer of the same company over twelve years - so when they asked me to sign a 2 yr contract I thought nothing of it.

I'm smarter and more experienced now.

So it is with glee and excitement that I am shopping for my new carrier and phone. Things have changed much in two years - but many of the newer features mean nothing to me. My primary wants are;
1) Call people. duh!
2) Take photos. Even crappy ones will do. It is my backup camera for emergencies only.
3) New idea - calendar. My wife and I will each have one. With three kids in three schools and three scout orgaizations, plus our own lives - we need to stay organized. I figure we can use a calendar which we could sync together (good) or access online (better) and avoid overbooking.
4) minor want - web browsing. Not really important, but could be a convenience. My web browser at work has become bogged down with an over-ambitious firewall and a seperate browser could help productivity.

Things that matter slightly less than a rats ass: MP3, video content (WTF - I have a 120" screen for that!), email, games, recording video, text messaging, video messaging, etc.

I could go into the store and ask - but I have difficulty trusting a salesperson who's still finishing puberty. So I thought I'd run it past ya'll. Here is what I'm considering so far - but I am open to suggestion;

Verizon LG Voyager. It does almost everything. It costs alot. I like the screen - big enough to actually read the calendar and the text buttons convenient enough to actually use it. It does everything but wifi - but with the high-speed 3g it may not be needed - so long as I have the unlimited plan.... I can afford it but I don't want to bleed cash for no good reason.

T-Mobile Wing. {Elmer Fudd font on} "Wing-wing-wing.... Haywhoa?" - {Elmer fudd font off} OK, bad humor aside this looks also like it could do the trick. Not sure - but it looks like the memory is better but the web browsing not so much. Still alot of money....

AT&T Iphone. Fun and sexy. No internet away from home except in select wifi areas. Still have to deal with Stinkulair. Too bad - looks fun.

Any other ideas? I have thirty days to decide... and counting. I realize that cell providors require a min. 1 yr contract from any new customer. So be it. Verizon at least has a 30 day free look. I'd love to hear your feedback, responses and experiences.

Thanks

Blu · 02-09-2008, 08:14 AM

I have never had a cell phone until recently, January 29th to be exact, and I chose an iphone.

I am thrilled with it! I love the touch screen features and I have to say that it is very tough. I dropped it from chest high (not on purpose) and it landed face down on the very hard cement floor and not even a scratch!

I love the calendar feature! I love the web surfing! I love it a lot more when it is around a wifi spot but it still works if I have good signal.

It won't be long before third party apps will be available now and that will really make for a lot more uses! It is just out and out fun to use and I'm happy I got one now!

Joseph Bolus · 02-09-2008, 09:34 AM

Quote:

AT&T Iphone. Fun and sexy. No internet away from home except in select wifi areas. Still have to deal with Stinkulair. Too bad - looks fun.

I think you're confusing the iPhone with the iPod Touch. The iPhone uses the AT&T EDGE network to connect to the internet when it's not near a Wi-Fi hotspot. The EDGE Network is slow compared to Wi-Fi, but it usually gets the job done.

Speaking of Calendars, Google provides a custom interface of their on-line Calendar application for the iPhone.

Check it out:
Google calendar receives an iPhone makeover - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

BrianW · 02-09-2008, 09:53 AM

I've enjoyed having my Sidekick II (T-Mobile) for the past four years. The PIM (calendar, to-do list, notes, contacts) and email functions are available on the web from any computer. In fact, when I got my phone, I entered all my contact information on my home computer so I could do it using my big keyboard. As I entered the contact information on the computer, it almost instantly appeared on my phone.

It has a camera (640x480 - adequate for emergencies, but that's it).

It has instant messaging.

For email, you're given a T-Mobile address, but you can also connect it to your regular POP3 or imap mail server.

The web surfing is brilliantly implemented in a thin-client fashion. This means that another powerful server somewhere is doing all the heavy lifting of fetching the web pages. It then reduces the pictures to a size and color palette that the Sidekick screen can handle (pictures are always fit to width), and does some minor reformatting so fonts are readable, and so that stuff doesn't get pushed off the screen. This design drastically minimizes the data that's sent over the air, making web surfing a MUCH faster experience. So when you download a Hubble Telescope image from NASA, you're downloading a reduced-resolution image that's optimized for your screen, not the actual 23MB image (which would take forever) and then reducing it on the phone.

And it has some great applications available. I've loaded the following on mine:

* Periodic chart of the elements -- Handy for my own purposes, but great for winning bar bets, too.

* Unit Conversion Calculator -- Includes units you've never even heard of for length, currency (configurable), speed, volume, temperature, weight, numerical base, metric prefix, time, date, area, energy, power, force, and pressure.

* Graphing Calculator -- Now you'll know just what that sinusoidal repleneration suppression equation really looks like.

* RSS news reader -- It allows only 5 news feeds, but it's great to have.

* Fitness Tracker -- Stores your exercises, weights used, calories burned, and tracks your progress in your fitness routine.

* Sidesheet -- A small spreadsheet program. I use it to track my car's mileage and to do comparison shopping when evaluating different quantities at different prices.

* Weather Underground -- This is MUCH more than just weather forcasting in your area. I have a weather station at home that updates my phone (through a web site), so the temperature, rainfall amounts, and conditions it shows on my phone are the temperature, rainfall amounts, and conditions at my house! That's really cool! Plus, it gives standard forecasts for your zipcode, weather alerts (with a configurable ring tone), and radar data, just like any other weather service. The radar image is nice because it contains crosshairs to indicate the location of your house (or office, or cardboard box), and the radar map can be configured to be much larger than the screen so you can scroll around to see the detail. The radar map is also animated, so you can gauge speed and direction of a storm.

There are also many games available, but I can't load all that many due to the limited memory of my old phone mode. (A new Sidekick will fare much better.)

Best of all, the Sidekick has a really nice keyboard. I think the iPhone is cool, but without a real qwerty keyboard, it's just not worth my consideration.

DISCLAIMER - My sidekick model is discontinued, so ymmv. I don't know which of these applications are available on the new models, but I know that some of the new models have things mine doesn't have, like a lot more memory, and mp3 capability.

Do you have a price limit?

Eric_L · 02-09-2008, 10:51 AM

the new sidekick.. (LX i think) is supposed to have a better screen and all the same functionality. Sounds interesting... The reviews I saw said it is a good beginners model. Not sure what distinguishes it for beginners...

re I phone. At&t = stinkulair. I can't stand the thought of continuing with them for another year... Also - most of the time when I would use it I am not in a wireless area.

**HTF Ads**

Dennis*G · 02-09-2008, 04:23 PM

can't talk about any fancy phone, but I have Verizon and love the coverage I get everywhere I have gone so far as compared to to Cingulars coverage I had before, and if I had the money, I would love a Voyager

Buzz Foster · 02-09-2008, 09:42 PM

Avoid the Palm phones. Never thought I'd say that, but my Treo 700p is nothing but trouble, and there has been no innovation in the palm family for several years, now.

Mine reboots spontaneously, drops the SMS chat logs, won't hold a bluetooth connection to my Jawbone, and has a dated Blazer browser with no video support.

Marque D · 02-09-2008, 09:59 PM

For less than $200 I picked up

T-Mobile Dash ($99 after rebate)

Motorola HT820 (~$35 on ebay)

4GB microSD card (~$43 at Office Depot)

The Dash has Wi-Fi and Office Mobile which lets me edit documents. It can run a little slow every now and again but I love it. Sometimes I hang up the phone on accident while talking and the volume control is stupid and useless. You have to add a data package which is $20. Also currently it doesn't support youtube mobile.

Eric_L · 02-10-2008, 12:30 PM

Today my wife and I took a look at a few different phones. We decided that we really don't like the Voyager unless the vibration mode can be disabled. The touch screen was a bit clunky. Had to press hard and there was no 'momentum' when you tried to scroll fast. That alone was not a problem but the constant vibration each time we touched it was enough to kill it as an option.

She liked the Env but I understand that internet capabilities are limited - which knocks out our idea of calendar sharing.

We then went over to Tmobile and looked at the Sidekick DX, Sidekick Slide and the Wing. The only dealer is a mall kiosk, so the functionality of these was off. I had played with a friends DX and expected my wife to really like it. I was a bit surprized for her to tell me she liked the Slide and the Wing most. I think that she feels the rotating screen is flimsy.

Brian W - you seem pretty knowledgeable about your phone; I notice that the T-mobile offers access to other email servers like AOL, earthlink, yahoo, etc. as well as corporate servers like Lotus Notes. With a public server like yahoo do you know if it would be possible to link/sync the Sidekicks calendar to my Yahoo or Google calendar?

At the end of it all my wife said that she really likes her Itouch and that if the Iphone is half as good she would like it most of all... grrr. I notice that Iphones have to by sync'd through Itunes - the only thing I've ever sync'd is my Itouch. I don't see the calendar anywhere on Itunes. Would I have to Sync everything the same as my wife's phone to get the same calendar or could we be selective about what get's sync'd?