|
Umph posted:Yeah I guess, I don't even really understand the fee, but is it for the pleasure of using a blackberry? Also I like to have something different then other people, that Nokia really hits the spot. I've previously suggested staying the gently caress away from Windows Mobile QWERTY-bars because they're all running WM Standard which isn't a platform -- it's a failure. A lot of people use a Moto Q or a BlackJack or some poo poo for a month or two and go around declaring "grrr i h8 winmo it fuken sux" based on that experience which is a pretty big disservice to what the proper version of WM has become. 800w, Treo Pro, Epix, and another device that I'm blanking on the name of represent a new class of QWERTY-bars packing 320x320 touchscreens and WM Professional -- which is great news if you've been craving that form factor. A lot of the big deal applications for WM Pro have started adding compatibility for the 320x320 resolution which is nice. These things also run the poo poo out of Opera Mini and it looks even better than it did on the Titan/Mogul and Kaiser/Tilt (last generation's sliding HTC QWERTY-bricks). All that said, I think Epix requires you to pay AT&T's fucknose $30/month "keyboarded smartphone (or iPhone) tax" so I'd skip it for that reason. If you can buy an Epix from eBay, add the $15/month data plan on your own, and then put your SIM into the Epix to get around it then you're good to go -- but if that's not possible you're going to want to look elsewhere. Peep an unlocked Palm Treo Pro if you'd like to roll with WM Pro (since it's not an AT&T phone, it should work fine with the $15/month data plan), and stick with the Nokia E71 if neither of those options pan out. It's a great phone on a sturdy-as-gently caress chassis, but it runs S60 which works wonderfully "as a phone" but harshly limits your "cool nerdy smartphone flexibility" options. Good luck!
|
#
¿
Dec 14, 2008 10:38
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 3, 2024 13:08 |
|
|
shodanjr_gr posted:a) Only 128 MB of ram (compared to 192-256 on the latest high-end WM phones)
|
|
#
¿
Dec 15, 2008 08:27
|
|
|
900ftjesus posted:While the Rumor won't kill your puppy Sprint sells enough good QWERTY phones that it bugs me pretty severely when people think the Rumor is an actual choice.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 16, 2008 23:36
|
|
|
ConnStalker posted:They all have problems though. The HTC is horribly crippled by Verizon, the Omnia doesn't have a full QWERTY keyboard, the Saga has a really small screen and the Storm apparently is also crap. Get Verizon's Touch Pro, or check Sprint coverage in your area (they roam off Verizon's towers, so it should be near-identical -- but you never know) and get the better, cheaper Touch Pro.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 18, 2008 08:23
|
|
|
Get an unlocked iPhone EDGE/2G, or get a locked one and unlock it yourself. It's surprisingly easy, and there's no reason to deny yourself the phone that you really want if 3G data isn't going to be a concern for you. I used an iPhone EDGE with T-Mobile for a couple months, and other than a few weirdnesses getting it to play nicely with T-Mobile's t-zones proxy for EDGE data (which I believe have been ironed out since then, if you do care about data), it was a fairly pleasant experience. I'm personally more of a Windows Mobile human being, and that coupled with an uncontrollable 3G data lust led me to break off my poo poo-cheap ride on a T-Mobile familyplan for my own Sprint line. Most stuff should work great though. Just do your data stuff when you're near WiFi, and get the $5.99/month data plan (assuming it still exists) if you end up deciding you need some EDGE data on that sucker.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 20, 2008 06:08
|
|
|
Q (Q-anything, really) is a junk phone on Windows Mobile Standard which is a junk platform. If you like the QWERTY-bar form factor, good options do exist. Get a Treo 800w if you're on Sprint (or wait until January for the 850w, an improvement in many but not all ways), get a Samsung Epix or Treo Pro if you're on AT&T. Change carriers if you're on Verizon or T-Mobile.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 23, 2008 01:19
|
|
|
yes, you can pop your SIM into any unlocked GSM/UMTS smartphone. You need a phone with WiFi if you don't want to pay your carrier for data. These are the types of stipulations that it's nice to see in your first help request so that people don't lay down a paragraph telling you to pick up U.S. carrier-locked CDMA phones.  I mean I see the Maple Leafs avatar now, but I'm no detective.Nokia E71 is another good choice if you're not particularly attached to Windows Mobile. Small, sleek, GPS, great battery life, WiFi. BlackBerry Bold is a good choice if you're okay branching out in that direction, but you'll be facing RIM's dogshit plan lock-in when you inevitably decide you want a real plan with a bonafide data connection. The keyboard is wonderful and the screen is best-in-class, but BlackBerry OS doesn't afford you a whole lot of customization freedom relative to WM Pro or Nokia's S60 OS (the OS you'll find on E71). Good luck.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 23, 2008 06:32
|
|
|
jeeves posted:Question about monthly plans: I think you're a little off on the prices. iPhone plan is $40 (voice) + $30 ("iPhone data") + $20 (unlimited SMS) = $90/month + whatever AT&T's taxes are. Legacy SERO customers pay about $34/month after taxes for the same plan, current Sprint EPRP customers pay about $68/month after taxes, and customers with unlocked UMTS smartphones on AT&T pay $70/month + tax (whatever that comes out to) for an essentially-equivalent plan. Sprint EPRP and AT&T's plan for unlocked-phone customers are the only acceptable wireless plans in the United States right now. You can pay T-Mobile $5 more if you're seriously craving Android and have decent T-Mobile UMTS coverage, but that's a pretty dubious choice. kbar fucked around with this message at 04:24 on Jan 27, 2009 |
|
#
¿
Jan 27, 2009 04:17
|
|
|
Steinbeck posted:You can acknowledge that other plans cost different amounts, but to imply that "The only good choices are the ones I, kalibar, endorse" is total horseshit. Plenty of people are happy to pay the iPhone and BlackBerry premiums. I think it's a really crappy thing to recommend to people who don't have any predisposition to those phones, especially in a market of ample choice. At the very least, it's worth recognizing that iPhone customers will be paying $2,160 + taxes for their phone service, vs. $1,680 + taxes for bring-your-own-phone or $1,440 + taxes for Sprint and a Windows Mobile superbrick. The iPhone and G1 are cool. But, you're paying a lofty premium for the iPhone data charge, and you're sacrificing 3G device-swapping freedom (and paying a $5/month premium) for the G1. More "Googlephones" are on the way to popularly-priced monthly plans, and while it's true that there isn't an identical iPhone experience on the way, you can do a lot of cool poo poo with an iPod touch and a WiFi-tethering 3G phone. I can justify a lot of expenditures, but ongoing premiums "because this manufacturer says so" really piss me off, and they should piss you off too. If a device is really worth that much more, they should be able to ask that price for it upfront and with a straight face. kbar fucked around with this message at 05:54 on Jan 27, 2009 |
|
#
¿
Jan 27, 2009 05:50
|
|
|
Steinbeck posted:Are you adding in the average cost of an unlocked device in the math on this?
|
|
#
¿
Jan 27, 2009 06:10
|
|
|
I guess I'll bite. Why Verizon? Do Sprint and AT&T not offer "G3" service in your area?
|
|
#
¿
Feb 6, 2009 05:01
|
|
|
I don't think any of us here can offer you a worthwhile price-based recommendation without doing a bunch of boring research on Australian carrier pricing. Just get an iPhone and pay what your carrier's asking for it, you sound like you want one pretty bad. If you have carrier options that are much cheaper than your iPhone-having carrier (like the U.S. does), what phones do they offer?
|
|
#
¿
Feb 8, 2009 08:06
|
|
|
Steinbeck posted:Yes the G2 aka HTC Magic (ugh). It's pretty great looking but sadly Korea's High-Tech Computing still thinks you want a special adapter to listen to music w/ a set of 3.5mm headphones. I'll agree that the constant omission of 3.5mm jacks is a dick move, but it's not like any of their phones have sound quality worth listening to anyway. If you're music's going to sound like poo poo, it may as well sound like poo poo via A2DP. I suppose that doesn't help Android customers yet, though.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 19, 2009 19:22
|
|
|
jeeves posted:Funny how iphones are 30$ for data + 15$ for texts.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 20, 2009 09:23
|
|
|
Open up your wallet a little bit and get an unlocked iPhone 2G. EDIT: Also drop the clamshell requirement. Good web browesers and flip phones don't go hand in hand.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 2, 2009 07:34
|
|
|
Expiration Date posted:I think I want to skip the contracts/monthly/etc thing and go on a pay-as-you-go sorta thing for a while. Unless you've got a predisposition against the iPhone, an unlocked and jailbroken EDGE iPhone (3G version is worthless to you) fits your criteria really well. There's a buttload of cool games in the App Store (some free, some for-pay), the WiFi works great with a variety of network encryption types, its web browser is arguably the best web browser on a cellphone right now, and the camera is at least serviceable and will let you Photoswap with goons and random-rear end iPhone owners everywhere. The biggest criticism to be leveraged against iPhone owners are the hilariously large monthly bills they're forking over to AT&T, but if you're packing one unlocked (expect to spend $310-350) and paying under 10 bucks a month to use it, that's a pretty sweet way to go. (As a self-indulgent side note, I've got an EDGE iPhone up for sale at HoFo, send me an e-mail mentioning that you're a goon if interested and I'll knock $20 off my asking price  )If the iPhone doesn't appeal to you, there are a bunch of cool, high-end unlocked Nokia phones available that have a heavy focus on multimedia and work great with T-Mobile To Go. They don't have the resolution, screen size, and browser slickness of the iPhone, but many models do offer WiFi, and the Nokia Web browser is at least serviceable. The real draw to those phones is absolutely the multimedia stuff, though -- 5 megapixel cameras with autofocus and VGA video recording. I'd suggest checking out the N82, N95-3, and N85 to get your feet wet. They're not as cool for goofy-rear end games as the iPhone is, though I'm sure DrTran can tell you all about what Nokia's doing with the N-Gage gaming platform. I wasn't super impressed with it on the N82, but it's a step in the right direction. Hope this is helpful -- T-Mo To Go is tailor-made for customers like you.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 9, 2009 09:04
|
|
|
topenga posted:Not quite. After you've added the $100 once, you can add whatever amount later and the minutes expire in a year. You do not have to put $100/year. My last manager uses so few minutes it's ridiculous. He put on $100 and just added $10 when they got ready to expire. I'm pretty sure he's got a bank of 1400 minutes by now. I've also heard tales of the $100 cards showing up at Walmart for silly poo poo like $95.88 or whatever.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 9, 2009 17:47
|
|
|
Haji posted:My main concern would be finding a quality smartphone that I can continue my SERO plan with. I've heard that they refuse to continue SERO with some phones. Don't want Blackberry - I hear there's an extra monthly fee and that doesn't fly. All three have GPS and Wi-Fi and WinMo Pro. Touch Pro is going to be the most-hackable, if you're into that (as many of us here are). Unless you've got a specific predisposition against HTC or slider phones, Touch Pro is your best choice -- it's the nicest phone on Sprint right now.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 18, 2009 07:39
|
|
|
You should wash away the memories of your failed marriage (sorry goon) by dumping that worthless loving carrier. Friends don't let friends pay Verizon Wireless. Ironically, the ability to "text, email, and check webpages" actually does make you a pretty upper-tier customer, since it means you'll be buying a text package and (probably) an internet package. Using WiFi as your primary data access on a phone doesn't even sound convenient, and trust me on this, it's even less convenient than it sounds in practice. The cheapest way to "have it all" right now is via Sprint's sneaky EPRP plan -- $60/month for 500 minutes, unlimited SMS, unlimited fast-rear end 3.5G data. Check the Sprint thread here in Cellphone Shack or just go to http://sprint.com/everythingplus and use Russ McGuire's kindly-made-public login credentials of russ.s.mcguire@sprint.com / 383 to get into the site. I think Sprint still doles out referral cash or something, so on the off-chance you end up doing this, send me or some other Sprint goon a message and you can get free moneys (25 bucks). A backup solution if you're primarily focused with cost, you still want everything, and you're willing to put a little bit of legwork into your wireless plan (loving ridiculous, I know, since it's just so easy to march over to a mall kiosk and sign up to pay "$rape per month" for the next "goddamn forever") is hunt down a Sprint customer with a legacy SERO contract and work with them to have a "transfer of liability" done on it so that you can have it in your name. They pop up over at SprintUsers' and HowardForums' buy/sell forums from time to time -- expect to pay somewhere in the ballpark of $100-150, which is hilariously undervalued. The reason you'd want to do this is that the old SERO accounts (which many of us here in Cellphone Shack are still using and will continue using until the end of time) cost $30/month for the same poo poo as the EPRP plan mentioned above, they're just not sold anymore and the only way to get one is to take over someone else's plan. Since you'd recover your $150 investment in five months by having this plan, this would absolutely be worth your time to pursue, but most people just cannot be hosed to mess with it. If you want access to the best and hottest phones available for North American customers, you'll need to be on AT&T. This is going to be more expensive (expect to pay $75/month for everything if you're using an unlocked phone, or $90/month if you use one of AT&T's "high end" phones like the "AT&T Fuze" [lol] or the iPhone). Given your requirements coupled with Sprint's more than decent device selection and pricing scheme, there's really no reason to explore this. If you are convinced you can keep your total cost under $60/month (or $30/month if you can rock a liability transfer) and you're certain you want to punish yourself with WiFi-only data access, T-Mobile To Go is absolutely the best choice. You can buy any badass GSM phone in the world, you'll have no contract, and you'll pay $0.10/minute for talking, $0.10/SMS for sending SMS and $0.05/SMS for receiving SMS. There are actually a lot of people with such light wireless usage habits that this would be cost effective -- and as an added bonus, you can buy a nice Windows Mobile or S60 smartphone and supplement your usage with Skype. If you're planning to text like a fiend, this won't be cost effective -- $60/month only buys you 600 text messages on this plan. Good luck!
|
|
#
¿
Mar 24, 2009 21:45
|
|
|
Anal Surgery posted:Thank you for the info, that was really helpful. This part you said right here just baffles me. I can have unlimited text and data for $60.00 a month? Goddamn that seems like a steal. I'm paying somewhere in the $75/month range for limited minutes, texts, and no data included. Most of Cellphone Shack pretty adamantly promoted the old $30/month Sprint plan when it was available, and the $59.99/month Sprint EPRP plan now -- Sprint's cheaper than the other guys anyway (though it bears repeating that you need to be an AT&T or T-Mobile customer for access to many of the best phones), and it's an even better deal with the "insider" discounts like EPRP and SERO.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 25, 2009 06:10
|
|
|
My understanding is that it's a really dicey proposition to attempt to renew a SERO contract through anyone other than Sprint. When the Treo 800w came out and Best Buy had it for 50 bucks less than Sprint, there were some folks over at SprintUsers and TreoCentral who gambled their SERO accounts by renewing at Best Buy -- I think the results were about half and half. Some people were able to renew successfully, some people were told that it couldn't be done without a plan change. It's probably all contingent on how competent a Sprint employee the Best Buy rep got in touch with. If it were me, I'd call up Sprint and get transferred to retentions. Tell them that Retailer X has the Touch Pro at Price Y, and say that if they can match that price you'd love to renew your contract for 2 more years at the same rate plan. If you get any lip, you'd probably be better off taking whatever Sprint-priced phone has the best resale value for the lowest dollars out of pocket, and selling it to help pay for your own Touch Pro purchase from eBay. NIB Touch Pros are moving for $300-350, which isn't horrible.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 25, 2009 20:17
|
|
|
Carebear posted:I don't want to spend an absurd amount, though. Carebear posted:I would really rather stick with Verizon Carebear posted:I really want a phone where I can go online as easy as the iPhone. Wait a couple of weeks for the Palm Pre to drop on Sprint, and get the EPRP plan that everyone else here uses so you can pay $60/month for voice, unlimited 3G, and unlimited SMS.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 8, 2009 04:38
|
|
|
Joe Don Baker posted:You can get away with using the MediaMax Unlimited which is $15. Logic suggests that you'd need to buy a cheapo 3G phone, add the $15/month plan, acquire an iPhone from eBay or similar, jailbreak it, and stuff the SIM in. I just kinda figured that AT&T would sniff the iPhone's IMEI and stick the $30 plan on your bill. Any insight into this?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 8, 2009 22:28
|
|
|
The iPhone is a very good Exchange phone. You'll be fine, but you'll be paying a lot.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 27, 2009 02:47
|
|
|
Spatule posted:I'm in Europe, in a country where we get only unlocked (expensive) phones. Look at the Nokia N82 and/or N79. They're winners, if you don't have any operating system predispositions (Symbian lol).
|
|
#
¿
May 4, 2009 17:50
|
|
|
aunaturale posted:I have the option of picking up either a used Blackberry 7100 or an 8700 within my price range. Save $160-190 and get a used Curve 8320 or something, christ.
|
|
#
¿
May 14, 2009 05:35
|
|
|
AT&T doesn't carry the Storm, as it's a Verizon exclusive. Are you thinking of the Bold, maybe?
|
|
#
¿
May 21, 2009 00:11
|
|
|
While the Bold is nice, you should probably rule it out of your search since AT&T is getting a nicer BlackBerry this Friday. EDIT: hm, gently caress. No 3G on Curve 8900. The plot, she thickens.
|
|
#
¿
May 21, 2009 00:49
|
|
|
iPhone will be a much less unreasonable deal if AT&T ends up cutting the 3G data cost to $20/month for it, as is heavily rumored. That would drag the total line cost down to $50/month or $54/month (280 or 420 anytime minutes, respectively) including SMS and data as an evenly-cut percentage of a family/group plan, minus any employer discount you can slap on that bitch. $50/month isn't a cheap phone bill by any stretch, but it's no longer stratospherically high. Given the current state of iPhone hardware (3G, GPS) and the software ecosystem that's been cultivated (the games are p sweet), I could see people being able to justify it with a straight face -- relative to the rest of the market -- for the first time.
|
|
#
¿
May 21, 2009 10:29
|
|
|
The G1's a pretty horrible deal on T-Mobile, especially if they haven't bothered deploying 3G in your area yet. You'll be paying them +$25/month for EDGE data and a meager 400 SMS bundle just for the privilege of owning a G1. Your cheapest bet would be to scrape an iPhone 2G off of eBay and try following this advice to get T-Mobile's discontinued +$5.99/month data plan plopped onto your account. I did this briefly early last year and it worked alright, aside from T-Mobile's EDGE network being slow and erratic as hell (but it's EDGE, so what the gently caress do you expect, right?). Sorry to hear you're stuck with T-Mobile for the next 14 months. When you're finally out of contract, remember, go AT&T if you care about cool phones and go Sprint if you care about price and a bigger 3G footprint. EDIT: For anyone else mulling over a Googlephone... it's worth noting that it's actually cheaper to buy a T-Mobile G1 off of eBay and use it on AT&T's +$15/month (+$10/month if you're on a family plan) data plan if you're hosed into EDGE in your area anyway. And as of June 2, we'll have importable Googlephones (G1 and HTC Magic) thanks to Rogers in Canada that are compatible with AT&T's 3G network and with their $15/$10 data plans. Just wanted to make sure that I didn't come off sounding pro-Apple or anything. An iPhone 2G makes the most financial sense in your situation, but I'm personally pretty fond of what Google's doing with Android -- just not T-Mobile's mindblowing cocksuckery. kbar fucked around with this message at 06:31 on May 24, 2009 |
|
#
¿
May 24, 2009 06:22
|
|
|
Morby posted:Is it worth the extra money to get a factory unlocked iPhone? EDIT: Looks like iPhone 2G goes for about $215 on eBay. Get you some!
|
|
#
¿
May 24, 2009 07:06
|
|
|
T-Mobile's cheaper for voice minutes if that's all you're looking for, and a BlackBerry data plan with tethering can't be purchased for +$20/month anymore (and is also a better value under EPRP, as you mentioned). Then again if you're a BlackBerry customer in the first place, you've clearly got factors other than "getting the best deal" motivating your choices, which is also fine. AT&T sells a +$15/month or +$10/month 3G data option that works with unlocked phones. T-Mobile does not. AT&T wins for many people because of this. +$25/month for T-Mobile's data + 400 SMS plan in a market where UMTS isn't deployed is blind robbery, and you know that.
|
|
#
¿
May 24, 2009 13:20
|
|
|
Morby posted:But I still have to be careful not to do the firmware updates, right? Sorry I keep asking so many questions.
|
|
#
¿
May 24, 2009 13:25
|
|
|
BlindSite posted:Anyone have any experience with the LG Renoir I can get one of these for free when I upgrade on the contract I'm on and I'm looking for more than the usual reviews you find online that all sound the same. Is that what you're looking for in a phone? What country and carrier are you on? How much would it set you back to get the unapologetically-badass Samsung i8910 Omnia HD instead? It also packs an 8MP camera, but brings HD video recording to the table too -- along with a giant high-re OLED capacitive touchscreen and a legitimate OS in Symbian.
|
|
#
¿
May 28, 2009 13:01
|
|
|
That's pretty cute that they're still selling the Nokia N91 over four years later. A handful of crazed purists claim that it still offers the best audio fidelity of any phone on the market.  I don't necessarily want to oversell you on the importance of a smartphone, but people tend to end up unsatisfied with dumbphones purchases when a few months down the road they invariably want to install a program to do some specific task, or to "somehow" extend their device's functionality... only to discover that it's not possible because they bought a dumbphone. Is this going to be you? If you can confidently say that it won't be, then get the dumbphone with the good camera and be happy with your decision. Alternately for a good balance between smarts and camera quality (and to stick within your carrier's stock selection), look at the Nokia N85. Great 5MP camera with Zeiss optics and autofocus, legitimate OS, headphone jack, highly attractive (but low resolution) AMOLED screen. Do you have an aversion to getting an unlocked phone? You can always sell the free phone your carrier gives you to defray costs of an unlocked phone; that's the beauty of GSM/UMTS, and is what many people do. What are you actually looking for in a phone?
|
|
#
¿
May 28, 2009 13:24
|
|
|
Yeah I mean what the hell, I'm bored, I'll half-assedly tackle a few of these. Suprfli6, your "fits the bill" models are kinda all over the place. Are you looking for a touchscreen slabphone, or do you want physical keys? If you want physical keys, do you have a preference toward a thinner phone with a smaller screen and a keyboard or a thicker phone with a larger screen and slide-out keyboard? There's nothing but good things to say about the Nokia E71; it's the world's thinnest QWERTY-bar phone and packs a huge battery, an okay-ish 3.2 megapixel cam, GPS, a smartphone OS, and extraordinarily high customer satisfaction ratings. The screen is on the smaller and lower-rez end (same as a BlackBerry Curve's screen, for instance), so it won't be wonderful for web browsing, but it's not the worst thing in the world either. If you go this route, you want the unlocked/unbranded version of the phone, the E71-2. AT&T sells it as the E71x, but in addition to being loaded with lovely AT&T branding all throughout the OS, their version will cost you +$30/month to add a data plan to if you ever want to go that route down the line. The unlocked E71-2 will cost you about $320 from Amazon or Newegg, and if your family has a messaging bundle already, you'll have the option to add 3G data to it for +$10/month -- a great deal, and you can use special software written for Nokia's OS to tether the data connection to a laptop so long as you understand that it's technically a ToS violation -- though you'll never get caught if you keep the data consumption to basic e-mail/IM/web browsing and if you don't march into an AT&T store and tell them you're doing it. If you're interested in a touchscreen "slab" form factor and think you can handle a smaller screen, look at the unlocked version of the HTC Touch Diamond (approx. $380 from MobileCityOnline). It's compact, super high-rez, runs an OS that's more capable than (but less stable than) Nokia's OS, and it works with or without the +$10 data plan. Be cautioned that the larger-screened HTC Touch HD is available for import (approx $650) and is a much nicer phone (5MP camera, standard 3.5mm headphone jack, larger screen, newer HTC software installed by default), but the current version does not offer support for AT&T's 3G data network so you wouldn't have that flexibility if you became interested in slapping data on there at some point. If these phone prices seem high, don't worry too much; just get an iPhone 3G 8GB refurb with your contract renewal, sell it immediately to recover a pile of cash, drop the iPhone data plan from your account as soon as it's added, and spend that money to get something unlocked. When you buy poo poo from AT&T, you're screwing yourself out of adding reasonably-priced data down the line if that becomes a priority, and you're subjecting yourself to lovely carrier software on your phone at the same time. Avoid the Impression/Xenon/Rant/Vu, because those phones are all dogshit. Good luck! hey santa baby, you should definitely take a look at the Nokia N85, selling on Amazon for $280 shipped (after rebate) right now. Same advice as what I told the last guy: get an iPhone 3G 8GB refurb with your contract if you're up for AT&T renewal, drop the iPhone data immediately, and sell the phone on SA-Mart to recover cash. The N85 has a standard 3.5 headphone jack, an 8GB microSD card included in the box, decent music player software, and critically-praised audio fidelity from the headphone jack -- it will make a very good MP3 player for you. It also has GPS and a gorgeous (but not physically huge) OLED screen that sips battery. As long as you're not running the WiFi or GPS constantly you're going to get fabulous battery life for the phone, and if you are using those features just plan to recharge more frequently. The phone will work awesome in Europe, and yeah it's got a (quite excellent) camera on it that you can just consider a gratis inclusion since you're not shopping for one but it meets the rest of your criteria so nicely. Since the phone is not AT&T-branded, you can add 3G data to it for +$15/month if the mood ever strikes you. Good luck! ExtremeODD, I don't even know where to start with you. You're paying an obnoxiously high phone bill but can somehow only spare 60 bucks for the device itself, and you're using the most restrictive carrier for some reason instead of AT&T or T-Mobile (or Sprint if you need Verizon's "network" and just wanted to pay less for it). Maybe someone who's a bigger Verizon fan can help you out -- good luck. Munky_Magic, the N810 isn't a cellphone so you might have better luck in SH/SC. However, Nokia is building the N900 which is almost exactly the same device, only in cellphone form. If you're looking for convergence and love the N810, start there. If not, you're in the wrong forum. RoryGilmore, sounds like you already figured your situation out and there's not much that can be done to stop you. Setup an AT&T account with an iPhone (or wait until July 10 when the new iPhone is allegedly coming out so you don't sink a bunch of cash into outgoing tech), and call T-Mobile to bitch relentlessly about how your phone doesn't work for poo poo in your house and they should let you out of contract for free. There's a good chance that they won't do it because they're soul-sucking dickholes, but it's certainly worth a try. If they won't do it, pay the ETF and wash your hands of them. Beware that they're going to try to sell you on their special router that offloads your wireless traffic to your home internet connection when you're in your house, and then hands your phone off to the towers when you leave. It's pretty cool stuff and works with a few decent BlackBerrys, but a BlackBerry isn't an iPhone and there's really no reason to reward a carrier that couldn't take care of you or provide the phone you really wanted in the first place with more of your money. Be sure to see if your employer qualifies you for a monthly AT&T service discount. Good luck! kbar fucked around with this message at 21:58 on Jun 6, 2009 |
|
#
¿
Jun 6, 2009 21:48
|
|
|
Unlocked iPhones are expensive as poo poo and are traditionally bad investments, since folks at HowardForums are reporting that AT&T will "sniff" the unlocked iPhone on the account and force you onto the +$30/month data plan for them anyway. Unlocking an iPhone is extremely easy right now using QuickPwn (google it). You plug the poo poo in, run the software, and it performs a SIM unlock and a jailbreak all in one fell swoop. Your best bet from a value standpoint would be to get the $99 refurb iPhone 3G 8GB that AT&T is selling with contract. That way, you've invested very little money (a new one would cost $199+contract, and a new 16GB would cost $299+contract) for now, and you can sell it for a decent amount of money if you decide you'd like to get the new iPhone allegedly launching this summer. You would mainly want to do the jailbreak to the phone so that you can run cool unauthorized software (you can factory restore it in the event you need to take it in for warranty work), and you would want the phone SIM unlocked so that you can get a little more money out of it when you sell it (this allows T-Mobile customers or any other GSM customer in the world to use the phone easily with their carrier).
|
|
#
¿
Jun 6, 2009 22:07
|
|
|
Ah weird, so they are. We just ordered four of them yesterday, heh. My bad! 
|
|
#
¿
Jun 6, 2009 22:31
|
|
|
Esteemed Colleague, there is no better choice for you than picking up a second-hand iPhone 2G off of eBay/HoFo/SA-Mart. Expect to spend about $250-300, but that buys you access to the iPhone's App Store with the best application library in cellphones today, Wi-Fi capabilities, arguably the best web browser on a cellphone in pocket Safari, and the thing will play music for you too. Don't worry about whether or not it's unlocked, since you can unlock it yourself trivially using QuickPwn. You'll need to do this so that you can use your T-Mobile SIM card with it. Good luck! Rick, you're probably going to need to step it up to a smartphone or to a GSM carrier for that feature (unless a Verizon-lover that's intimately familiar with their dumbphones can comment here) which means stepping into the filthy jungle of Windows Mobile (think sluggish PDA with "phone.exe" installed). HTC Touch Pro is "approximately" your best bet here since it can run robust call management software like Spb Phone Suite with filtering capabilities and auto-vibrate/silent/normal profile switching. Tragically for you, Verizon's version of the Touch Pro is gimped at a hardware level (reduced amount of RAM) vs. Sprint's, their CDMA counterpart. Verzion carries some other lovely Windows Mobile phones, but really, a gimped version of the Touch Pro is a better choice than those. Unfortunately, I believe they're going to try to push a horrendously-priced data plan on you whether you like it or not. I hate to come off too crudely or Verizon-hatey about this, but I have to be honest here. If you guys want anything beyond "it makes calls" and/or optionally-overpriced PalmOS/Windows Mobile choices, you need to stop giving Verizon Wireless your money. I realize that it's not an option a lot of the time if your company has a business account with them, but if that's the case then all you can do is go to a Verizon store and have one of their associates walk you through their junk phones, and buy something with the understanding that you're getting a limited product so that your company can maintain their agreement with Verizon.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 7, 2009 17:01
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 3, 2024 13:08 |
|
|
Lobster Maneuver, you're going to have to change providers for what you're looking for, yeah. Based on the information you've given us I would say that Godzilla07's suggestion of a Palm Pre and Sprint EPRP is probably overkill -- unless of course you could convince your whole family to switch to an EPRP family plan and 4-5 Pres (or however many family members you have). Paying 1/4 or 1/5 the cost of an EPRP family plan will leave you with a very modest phone bill, and the full suite of services -- a decent amount of minutes, unlimited SMS, and unlimited 3G data for your new Pre. If you're actually willing to switch providers, have your family pull your last 3 or 4 Verizon Wireless bills and find out how many total minutes you are consuming on your line, on a monthly basis: anytime, mobile to mobile, nights and weekends, all of them. If it's fewer than 300 or so, T-Mobile To Go would make sense for you because it's contractless with no accecss fees, the minutes cost 10 cents apiece (slightly less if you find the refill cards on sale), texts cost 10c to send and 5c to receive, and you can use any cool unlocked cellphone on the planet. If T-Mo To Go fits your patterns, follow the iPhone advice I gave Esteemed Colleague in the post above this one. If T-Mo To Go does not fit your usage patterns, see if you can find a couple friends (or again, see if your family is willing to port to a new carrier) to split a T-Mobile or AT&T family plan setup with. Even though you said data isn't a priority, I'll always recommend AT&T since it gives you the flexibility to add data for +$15/+$10 per month (depending on whether or not you have a messaging bundle) at any point down the line. However if you do not need data and you're set on the iPhone, T-Mobile is a better choice because of their marginally lower voice and SMS charges and because they won't try to charge you a fat data package for bringing an iPhone to the party. Good luck!
|
|
#
¿
Jun 7, 2009 17:21
|
|