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Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 7:11 am Post subject: in search of a new cell phone

Here's the deal. The phone I currently have the battery is not keeping the charge for as long as it once did. This is also the second battery the phone has had with similar result (after a year and a half or so). My 2 year contract is up so i do not have to worry about any fees associated with replacing the phone. I do plan on staying with verizon as my carrier.

Couple of requirements i have ar as follows:

cannot be a small phone (currently have a lg envy) thinking a blackberry or iphone for size.

a smart phone. tired of theses phones just being phones.

a phone with a sim card. tired of having to goto the store and have them change the phone over for me instead of being able to do it myself.

has to have a decent qwerty keyboard. the blackberry phones are a bit cramp for my hands. the lg phone listed above is what i am thinking for a keyboard.

suggestions

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 7:31 am Post subject:

a quick search would reveal I've been a Palm man most of my mobile phoning life.

Out of the gate, the Palm Pro was nice, but in the end (11 months) I'd never buy it again. Compare that to the 3 or 4 Treo 300-600's I owned.

I'll go for the Pre, once it's GSM/T-Mobile friendly.

Currently using a T-Mobile/HTC Dash. Nice enough for now. Keys are rubbery instead of hard plastic... weird to touch from what I'm used to. Non-touch screen.. also weird since I've been touch screening for well over 6 years now.

T-mobile is GSM and the only carrier I've been using for many years. All GSM phones I've used for5 or 6 years now have allowed SIM swapping. I do it regularly.

I don't like flip/slide/twist phones. The more moving parts the more there is to break. Plus I've yet to hold a slide phone that didn't irritate me when using/trying to use. Wife has a Sidekick and I abhor it.

I'm a large/x-large in glove size. the treos all have small QWERTY pads that i've never had an issue typing on. the DASH is small too. I can type fine but the rubber buttons have a bit more give to them than the hard plastsic keys for the treo.

I'm not recommending anything Palm right now (sprint will bankrupt this year,) just stating "cramped" blackberry type keypads are not all that bad to use, even with XL hand size.

Before "picking" a phone I'd lock down a carrier first. If removeable SIM is a must, and that feature is only available on GSM, that cuts phone options down a bit. The Envy you linked is CDMA, which is mostly non-SIM.

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 7:59 am Post subject:

Just the other day, I was eyeing up this:

http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/US-EN/Consumer-Product-and-Services/Mobile-Phones/ci.Motorola-CLIQ-US-EN.alt

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 8:45 am Post subject:

Olive wrote:
a quick search would reveal I've been a Palm man most of my mobile phoning life.

Out of the gate, the Palm Pro was nice, but in the end (11 months) I'd never buy it again. Compare that to the 3 or 4 Treo 300-600's I owned.

I'll go for the Pre, once it's GSM/T-Mobile friendly.

Currently using a T-Mobile/HTC Dash. Nice enough for now. Keys are rubbery instead of hard plastic... weird to touch from what I'm used to. Non-touch screen.. also weird since I've been touch screening for well over 6 years now.

T-mobile is GSM and the only carrier I've been using for many years. All GSM phones I've used for5 or 6 years now have allowed SIM swapping. I do it regularly.

I don't like flip/slide/twist phones. The more moving parts the more there is to break. Plus I've yet to hold a slide phone that didn't irritate me when using/trying to use. Wife has a Sidekick and I abhor it.

I'm a large/x-large in glove size. the treos all have small QWERTY pads that i've never had an issue typing on. the DASH is small too. I can type fine but the rubber buttons have a bit more give to them than the hard plastsic keys for the treo.

I'm not recommending anything Palm right now (sprint will bankrupt this year,) just stating "cramped" blackberry type keypads are not all that bad to use, even with XL hand size.

Before "picking" a phone I'd lock down a carrier first. If removeable SIM is a must, and that feature is only available on GSM, that cuts phone options down a bit. The Envy you linked is CDMA, which is mostly non-SIM.

As I stated I am staying with verizon wireless as my carrier. Verizon has started offering gsm phones and is now an option i'd like to go with. The phone i had linked is the one i want to replace (bought prior to verizon offering gsm phones / me knowing about them)

Thanks for the information Olive / cmtg!

Guide Dog Joined: 08 Nov 2003 Posts: 9204 Location: MN

the taz man wrote:
Olive wrote:
a quick search would reveal I've been a Palm man most of my mobile phoning life.

Out of the gate, the Palm Pro was nice, but in the end (11 months) I'd never buy it again. Compare that to the 3 or 4 Treo 300-600's I owned.

I'll go for the Pre, once it's GSM/T-Mobile friendly.

Currently using a T-Mobile/HTC Dash. Nice enough for now. Keys are rubbery instead of hard plastic... weird to touch from what I'm used to. Non-touch screen.. also weird since I've been touch screening for well over 6 years now.

T-mobile is GSM and the only carrier I've been using for many years. All GSM phones I've used for5 or 6 years now have allowed SIM swapping. I do it regularly.

I don't like flip/slide/twist phones. The more moving parts the more there is to break. Plus I've yet to hold a slide phone that didn't irritate me when using/trying to use. Wife has a Sidekick and I abhor it.

I'm a large/x-large in glove size. the treos all have small QWERTY pads that i've never had an issue typing on. the DASH is small too. I can type fine but the rubber buttons have a bit more give to them than the hard plastsic keys for the treo.

I'm not recommending anything Palm right now (sprint will bankrupt this year,) just stating "cramped" blackberry type keypads are not all that bad to use, even with XL hand size.

Before "picking" a phone I'd lock down a carrier first. If removeable SIM is a must, and that feature is only available on GSM, that cuts phone options down a bit. The Envy you linked is CDMA, which is mostly non-SIM.

As I stated I am staying with verizon wireless as my carrier. Verizon has started offering gsm phones and is now an option i'd like to go with. The phone i had linked is the one i want to replace (bought prior to verizon offering gsm phones / me knowing about them)

Thanks for the information Olive / cmtg!

Phones that support GSM sure... But their also still have a CDMA antenna in them, and will still need to be switched over in the store, or over the phone.

Palm Pre is coming to Verizon at some point (exclusive contract with sprint is set to end some time this winter)

I doubt sprint will be going bankrupt, though palm would do well to diversify any how.

I like my palm pro still, but it needs the extended battery to be useful.

I wouldn't recomend the samsung saga until they get windows mobile 6.5 on there (verizon isn't going to do any patches for it until then it sounds like, and it needs the patches verizon isn't releasing.)

I'd say hold out for the pre (and the pro is available on vzw, but I think you need to go through an alltell store or some such non-sense.

the taz man wrote:
Here's the deal. The phone I currently have the battery is not keeping the charge for as long as it once did. This is also the second battery the phone has had with similar result (after a year and a half or so). My 2 year contract is up so i do not have to worry about any fees associated with replacing the phone. I do plan on staying with verizon as my carrier.

Couple of requirements i have ar as follows:

cannot be a small phone (currently have a lg envy) thinking a blackberry or iphone for size.

a smart phone. tired of theses phones just being phones.

a phone with a sim card. tired of having to goto the store and have them change the phone over for me instead of being able to do it myself.

has to have a decent qwerty keyboard. the blackberry phones are a bit cramp for my hands. the lg phone listed above is what i am thinking for a keyboard.

suggestions

I picked up a Blackberry Curve 8320 last November from T-Mobile and love it. I normally get two days worth of battery life out of the standard battery with low-medium usage (E-mails are pushed constantly, I just don't use the phone/voice part allot)

It does however have it's downsides:

1st - You can only install so many apps at once before running out of memory. I have about 20 apps on my phone and am at my capacity, most of the apps are small/basic things. So if your an app person definitely check into this. As a note, only internal/on-board memory is supported for apps, add-on flash cards are not supported yet and are only good for storing pictures, music video's and etc...

2nd - My model doesn't have GPS...next time I pick one up I will make sure it has this functionality. Apps that utilize Location Services can return results based on your specific area

3rd - Some basic functionality you find in other phones is not present in the blackberry core OS, although you can find apps to enhance this functionality. I.E. If you like your phone to ring and vibrate at the same time, or to autolock your screen after X mins. of inactivity, you will need an add-on app.

4th - The trackball occasionally needs a cleaning/replacement. In my model this is pretty easy to accomplish, and the trackballs only cost $2 or so. You may want to look to see if this can be accomplished in the newer models as they don't appear to have the removable bezel that mine does.

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 10:50 am Post subject:

I just recently upgraded to a Blackberry Tour. All in all, I'm really happy with it. The keyboard is a bit of a love/hate thing though. It seems nicer than the curve when looking at it, because the keys are bigger, but when typing, I kind of miss the space between the keys that the curve had. Even still, with my fat, stubby fingers, I have no problems typing reasonably quickly on the Tour.

It is a GSM / CDMA capable phone. It has twice the memory of the Curve, which is nice. It has integrated GPS, which is also nice. It's kind of expensive though. It's also still a trackball device, with no touchscreen.

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 12:58 pm Post subject:

Olive wrote:
T-mobile is GSM and the only carrier I've been using for many years.

T-Mobile is my carrier as well. I switched from AT&T last year when I realized that T-Mobile could save me a significant amount of money. The data network isn't so great, but they are making some significant improvements in that area.

As far as the features that save me money:

@Home (IIRC) - If your phone is UMA capable, you can use any wireless hotspot to make/receive calls. As long as the call originates on the wireless/hotspot network, the call does not count towards your plan minutes. I pay $10 a month for this feature for my entire family plan and was able to drop to a lower plan due to the reduced minutes I was using.

Family Plan Text Messaging - For $20 a month I get unlimited text/SMS messaging across my entire account. Definitely better than the $5 for 250 messages I had on my 3 at&t phones previously.

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 7:09 am Post subject:

Sounds like a LG NV2 might be something you would deal with - changeover/backup your contacts, ringtones online with Verizon, not break the bank. Has basic plan with texting and coverage under $60 for US National and of course has web browsing for more. 2.0 pixel camera. QWERTY keyboard. (my favorite). Wink

EEps · Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 10:40 am Post subject:

Olive wrote:
sprint will bankrupt this year

Um...what?! Blush Smile

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 12:09 pm Post subject:

BamZipPow wrote:
Olive wrote:
sprint will bankrupt this year

Um...what?!

Sprint is dead. The only thing that got them hot was Nextel. When Motorola exclusivity contract ran out, Sprint/Nextel lost their edge. Out-dated ugly featureless phones for so long lost them even more market share.

Everyone and their mother sells RIM, so no need to rush to Sprint to get the latest and greatest from them.

Palm, while I love them, were extremely late to the "next-gen" smartphone dance. Pre is not going to help Sprint gain any significant market share.

Watch Pre sales jump once they break away from Sprint.

Maybe I should have said "next twelve months" till Sprint is bought out... not "this year." But still...

Fat lady just left dressing room. Heading towards stage.

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 12:16 pm Post subject:

[quote="anglachel"][quote="the taz man"]

Olive wrote:

I like my palm pro still, but it needs the extended battery to be useful.

Screen scratched within the first month then the coating kind of flaked off making portions unusable. Comare that to the Treo 6's I've used that have scratched, but were still 100% usable.

Had to pull the battery out every few weeks due to something, somewhere, locking up. I think I had to reset my 600's once or twice over their life.

The USB wafer wore out last week or whatever. Could not sync nor charge.

Worst Palm product I ever used. Did not replace with another, as I did many times with 600's.

Guide Dog Joined: 08 Nov 2003 Posts: 9204 Location: MN

Olive wrote:
anglachel wrote:

I like my palm pro still, but it needs the extended battery to be useful.

Screen scratched within the first month then the coating kind of flaked off making portions unusable. Comare that to the Treo 6's I've used that have scratched, but were still 100% usable.

Had to pull the battery out every few weeks due to something, somewhere, locking up. I think I had to reset my 600's once or twice over their life.

The USB wafer wore out last week or whatever. Could not sync nor charge.

Worst Palm product I ever used. Did not replace with another, as I did many times with 600's.

Replaced many times is the first thing you said about the 600 that matched what I know about them... I supported a few thousand field reps with Treo 600's 650's, 700's, 680's. 700Wx's, and 750's over the course of the years...

We've replaced fewer treo pro's in the last year then what we did in a month for the treo 600 and 650's... the batteries at least lasted more then a few hours...

after the treo 700wx and 750's we switched to samsung saga and epix, and the treo 800w, the samsungs were spotty at best, and our field hated them (I liked my saga, but out side of a evdo area the signal wasn't that great...)
So we switched to the Treo pro, and it has been the only phone that our field hasn't bitched about non-stop for the entire time it's been in their hands... though we did deploy them with the extra large extended batteries. and there are several software patches that we've been pushing down to them also... I don't recall what they fix.

Guide Dog Joined: 08 Nov 2003 Posts: 9204 Location: MN

Olive wrote:
BamZipPow wrote:
Olive wrote:
sprint will bankrupt this year

Um...what?!

Sprint is dead. The only thing that got them hot was Nextel. When Motorola exclusivity contract ran out, Sprint/Nextel lost their edge. Out-dated ugly featureless phones for so long lost them even more market share.

Everyone and their mother sells RIM, so no need to rush to Sprint to get the latest and greatest from them.

Palm, while I love them, were extremely late to the "next-gen" smartphone dance. Pre is not going to help Sprint gain any significant market share.

Watch Pre sales jump once they break away from Sprint.

Maybe I should have said "next twelve months" till Sprint is bought out... not "this year." But still...

Fat lady just left dressing room. Heading towards stage.

if sprint can escape their name they might do well... They should have taken the nextel name. The pre is a good start for them, alas, Palm's exclusive contract with them for the pre (which is wicked slick) runs out end of the year, and it sounds like verizon already has their eyes on it.

the cheap "everything plan" they started offering is a bit of a desperate move, but they are pushing their way into a spot amongst the carriers... but they got to get their quickly, and force Verizon and ATT to drop their prices to match...
I don't think the end of sprint is a definite... but it is a possibility that some one will buy them out... (particularly if it is a good way to ensure that prices for cell phones stay high.)

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 6:00 pm Post subject:

anglachel wrote:
Olive wrote:
anglachel wrote:

I like my palm pro still, but it needs the extended battery to be useful.

Worst Palm product I ever used. Did not replace with another, as I did many times with 600's.

Replaced many times is the first thing you said about the 600 that matched what I know about them

We've replaced fewer treo pro's in the last year then what we did in a month for the treo 600 and 650's

Well as with any "review," someone's trash is another person's treasure.

I got my Pro a year ago. Almost 12 months to the day it was rendered useless.

In packing up for the move, I found my "old phone" box. Two "palmOne" branded 650's , One "Sprint/Handspring" 600 and one "palmOne" 600.

I know I got the 650 at release. First one took a swim with me in Lake Michigan. Second one was dropped so many times the left side of the keypad needed a little more convincing when typing than the right. All in all though, still works, even after 3 or 4 years of use.

650 was still the best phone I've owned ever.

I will say this about the Pro though... the RDP client on Windows Mobile was FAR better than the one I used on palmOS.