what's a good cell phone

[Ryan_V]

My t-mobile contract is up soon and we are looking at upgrading phones. I'm looking at the Motorola Rizer and the Samsung Katalyst to name a couple. does anyone have any experience with these?? how about phones in general, is motorola the best??...samsung??? others??? how about a flip vs a slider?? I'm not looking for anything that will do everything but clean my house, but am looking for a phone with a few frills.

[DTro]

Originally Posted By: bunt2k

once you go Blackberry...

4400 is a great phone. Go BB though, its worth every penny of the extra ching. From what I have read of your posts, you will be in heaven as am I with the service of a smart phone

What's the big difference between blackberry smart phone and a smart phone like the voyager, feature-wise? AFAIK, it's just the suped up RIM email delivery service, basically instant always on email. And I think that only works with the more expensive $45 data plans, the cheaper $30 one doesn't even connect to the enterprise servers where that would be a useful feature. Am I off base?

You are right on Aanderud.

Verizon mandates a data plan with the BB phones. 24.99 for limited usage 29.99 for unlimited usage and 44.99 for a business account (coordinated with business server).

The biggest advantage is the “push” delivery of the email.

Not a real big advantage at all as with these new phones as the browser is “real” HTML and you can connect to web email pretty easily.

One thing to remember with the new phones is that you will need to switch to an Americas Choice plan. Basically Verizon had created new plans to split all Voice and Data into two categories.

I found out right away that the $15/mo VCast is almost a must if you do any kind of browsing. Without the service the charge is like 1.99/mb and that adds up VERY fast.

[LMITOUT]

I'm not up to speed on the Voyager, but with Black Berries there are numerious aftermarket applications that can be loaded. I like the ease of use with the navigation (trackball) and coordination between the various applications within the operating system. The customization of a Black Berry is endless.

I've used other "smart" phones/pda's in the past but like was said earlier, once you go Black Berry..... They have the stigma of being a business device, but they are quite a ways past that now and are really penetrating the consumer market in a big way. They have some new devices coming in the next year that are very nice, including one that may give the iPhone a run for it's money with a touch screen. It'll be tough to get a foothold in that iPhone market but maybe it will if given a chance.

They call them Crack Berries for a reason because if you use one you're hooked and can't put it down! Very versatile devices. I have the Curve 8330 and the speed is great for web browsing using Sprint's network. The larger screen makes it easier to surf and the keyboard is easy to type on, and although I didn't think my fat thumbs would work well, they do.

[Scott K]

The one disadvantage I have found with my LG was that I cant get my pop email to forward to my phone, just the yahoo/msn/gmail.. So this is the one advantage that the BB has over the LG, but then again you need the $45 bussiness plan to get them!

[LMITOUT]

Not sure who charges $45, but mine is $20 and is the same regardless if I had a BB or any other smart phone that you may use for data. So in other words, you could get the $50 plan for voice only and then add the $20 for data, text messaging, etc. Doesn't matter if it's a BB or not as the BIS plan is included in that $20 whether you use it or not.

The BES package is a different animal altogether and is required if you use a corporate email system with the BB. That costs quite a bit more and licenses/servers are required on top of the data plan itself.

[DTro]

Not sure who charges $45, but mine is $20 and is the same regardless if I had a BB or any other smart phone that you may use for data.

Well if you are with Verizon, you snuck one by them.

Here are the ONLY options:

1. You can do Pay-As-You-Go Data. It will charge you $15.36 per MB of data. (1.5 cents per KB). You don't want this plan, you will run your bill up to heaven at that rate. You can do Picture and Video messaging without being charged for the data under this plan, just be careful not to let any programs download or send data on their own.

2. 10 MB of data for $24.99. Chances are you will go over this limit. If you're absolutely certain you will be under 10MB and want to save $20 a month, by all means, go for it. Just don't say the angry guy on the internet phone geek message board didn't warn you. It's $5.12 a MB after the

limit.

3. 29.99 Unlimited. The service will enable "unlimited" data access, and is targeted at people that want to access email, web, and other data features on their Verizon Wireless handset. This is only available for those that need to access personal email, as no corporate Exchange access will be allowed under the new provisioning. That said, the price is right, with the new package starting at just $29.99 before any applicable service discounts.

3. $44.99 is for the corporate account. If you are getting you email through a corporate server, you need to choose this plan. It is also unlimited data.

5. Block all incoming data. You can't send pictures or videos or do anything data related. This takes a lot of fun out of the device, but it is still more safe than Pay As You Go. This would be my other suggested option if you can't afford the unlimited plan.

You need one of those plans, there is no way around it. They can be added to any America's Choice line

1. $79.99 gets unlimited data and 450 minutes. It's a $4.99 savings over the separate plans.

2.$109.99 for 1350 minutes and unlimited data. $14.99 savings.

3.$169.99 gets you 4000 minutes and unlimited data. $24.99 savings.

[BK19]

i have the rizr and love it

[LMITOUT]

I'm with Sprint and have one of their "everything" plans with voice, data, messaging, Sprint TV, etc.

The data plan from Sprint is required just like Verizon, but it costs no more for the BlackBerry than if you went with a different smart phone. They're treated the same.

[Sandmannd]

I have sprint as well Limit. $20 bucks and I get a cooporat discount of 20% through my company. They don't charge more for any data plan that I know of.

[zamboni]

Love my Motorokr.

[Matt C]

Correct with Verizon. I am on a business plan, and I pay the 40 something extra per month for unlimited data.

LMITOUT basically summed it up with the BB.

For me, not being at my work PC enough, getting work e-mails on my phone is very handy. I have the "crackberry" addiction. Add that to FM... its gets ugly

[PierBridge]

Sprint has the best price plan right now from what I have been hearing.

[lawdog]

I just today picked up a new blackberry curve from Alltel. Seems nice but there is a lot of learnin I need to do now...

[LMITOUT]

You'll love it!!!! Even being a gadget freak I was a bit in awe of the Curve when I first opened the box, but after spending some time with it checking out all the menus and options it became second nature in short time. Just like any new device, once you figure out the operating system and how it functions you'll really enjoy it.

You'll start to find a lot of mobile websites that you'll want to store in the browser bookmarks. A good app to load is the Google package which has gmail, google, and google maps (use the Curve as a GPS to find directions and routes). Different carriers have different options enabled or disabled on the individual models, so your Curve may not be GPS enabled. With Sprint picture mail is disabled, but there is a work around for that although not as quick and easy as typical picture mail would be.

Give a shout if you need any help.

Welcome to the addiction!

[Matt C]

Its like a new gps/fish finder in the boat, a new kicker on back, and 2 new rods 'n reels...You'll figure em out

[SkitterPopper]

Yeah it sure looks like Sprint prices are a bit lower.

All of this for $99.00

This plan includes:

Data: Web surfing, email, GPS Navigation, Sprint Music Premier, Sprint TV Premier, BlackBerry Internet Services (BIS)

Direct Connect: Direct Connect and Group Connect (for capable phones)

Messages: Text, pictures and video

Talk: Unlimited anytime minutes, domestic long distance and no roaming charges

[LMITOUT]

Yeah that's the unlimited everything plan. They have cheaper "everything" plans with less voice minutes but still have unlimited data.

[DTro]

I've justified the premium for Verizon for it's excellent customer service and coverage

[LMITOUT]

No problems with coverage here, not to mention I don't have that weird looking guy with the black glasses following me around all the time.

[PierBridge]

The new phone came today so far so good!

I have couple quick questions for the Voyager, LG VU owners I assume a case is mandatory? And I would image the choices are limited to what LG has that's probably just one case?

Also the battery is pretty thin to say the least I imagine it will be fine in Digital coverage but how about analog or roaming which eats up battery power?... Extended life battery upgrade maybe?

I haven't had time to play with it much yet but from the looks of it the speaker phone option doesn't work unless the phone is flipped open?

Thanks aanderud that's a great deal on the 8 gig card I'm definitely going to get that!

[Scott K]

Pier, I am assuming you got the Voyager, after a little research I see the Vu is different, it doesnt have the flip screen, just the touch screen on the front. But as far as the VU goes, if I am not playing with it much, the battery laste 2-3 days, if I am surfing the bat needs to get charged after 1-2 days. I would recommend a screen protector or a case. As far as analog, I thought they were doing away with that soon anyway?

[zamboni]

Sprint has the best price plan right now from what I have been hearing.

I lived in Kansas City (Sprints hometown) and had their service for awhile. I dropped about 30% of all calls I was on there. Pretty bad for a company HQ'ed there.

[Deitz Dittrich]

I recently got a Casio G'zOne, its quite a bit bigger and heavier than many of the other phones out there.. I got it because I am on the water a ton... in all conditions... this is water resistant down to like 5 feet.. I have had it in the rain, and had it fall into my livewell, no issues at all... So I am pleased.

[DTro]

Deitz is that the older one? There was a type V (massive size) then a smaller type S

Casio, just released a new one “Boulder”.

From everything I’ve read the Type V was the best and then it’s been downhill since.

The Boulder is really taking a beating from user reviews. People are returning them in droves. Sound quality is horrible and bugs/glitches galore.

They are basically indestructible though, so that is good

[Big Tom]

I don't care so much about the phone as I do coverage. Over the past 12 years I have tried them all. Given Verizon bought Quest's Network and Rural Cellular's, I haven't found anyone that has as good of overall coverage in Minnesota. LOW, Rainy, Birch by Babbitt and even up Hwy 6, I've had signal everywhere.

[PierBridge]

You really can't beat Verizon's coverage, granted the other providers are making huge improvements but for last Decade Verizon has been king.