Cell phones!

[clare]

Yeah, I'd be surprised if they really didn't make it anymore. I can still get batteries for my 10 year old Nokia. I don't know if you have those weird little mobile phone stalls in shopping malls that sell various accessories for phones. That's where I get mine...

[morgan]

So hey, my two year contract finished back in February, and I really want to get an upgrade because a) my current phone keeps turning itself off when I get text messages, and then I don't know that I got the message until hours later when I check the time or something and notice, hey, my phone's off!, and b) it's getting more and more difficult to charge it -- that is, I'll put the charger in and I have to fiddle around with it for two or three minutes before it actually starts charging, and even then it's prone to stopping at the slightest movement. Annoying.

So, these are the upgrade options that I'm looking at -- I don't want to get anything fancy that requires me to have a $20-30/month data plan, because that shit is expensive and all I need, really, is a phone. One day I will get a "smart" phone but right now I'm not ready to delve into it. I don't want the internet at my fingertips at any given moment.


Samsung a777


LG CF360


Nokia 2330 -- this one seems like it would work well for me from the reviews


Nokia 6350


Sony Ericsson C905a


Samsung Rugby (a837) -- The reviews for this one are hilarious. "I AM IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY. I CAN DESTROY ANY PHONE IN A MONTH OR SO. I WATCHED THE PROMO ON THIS PHONE AND I DID EVERYTHING THEY DID, DUG IT UP WITH A BACK HOE, RAN IT OVE WITH A 1 TON TRUCK, DROPPED IT OFF A 30 FT BUILDING." What the heck? ""I've had this phone for over a year now. its been dopped on concrete, kicked, drop kicked, thrown, dunked in water, fallen in a lake, fallen out of my car, run over by a tractor, Doused in brake cleaner, sat on, stepped on, and generaly abused." Okay, so I get that the main redeeming feature of this phone seems to be its durability, which isn't a huge surprise given that it looks like it's from around 1998.

Have any comments about any of these??

All of that said, the AT&T site SUCKS. Keeps booting me out after 15 minutes of "inactivity," and the main upgrade page takes about five million hours to load. Also it's made Firefox crash. Awesome. Good job, AT&T! Way to come into the modern world.

[Chet]

I think I just ordered a blackberry curve.

Did I do a good thing?

[Thermofusion]

All of that said, the AT&T site SUCKS.

QFMFT

[Ashley]

Today I'm going to get a new phone - not related to my battery beginning to die though.  I have a Newfoundland number, and am on a share plan with my mother and my brother, with free mobile to mobile.  So its free for me to call my mommy from here.  Last month we had problems with long distance charges, and I badly need a Toronto number.  I tried to change the number but they wouldn't let me because the plan we have isn't offered in Ontario.  (Bell in Newfoundland was Aliant until bell bought them, now they're Bell Aliant and have different plans).

My friend got a HTC Dream back in November, and then some noise happened about emergency calling and gps and my friend was all in the know about it and complained, so they gave him a HTC Magic and a new sim card.  So he's giving me the HTC Dream and the sim card for free, we're hoping I'll be able to use it without being forced into a contract or a data plan.  So then I'll have a super fucking cool phone for Toronto, and a loyal and tough and durable phone for St John's.  Which is cool because I'm still in Newfoundland for like 2 months out of the year.



I'm so fucking excited and hope it works out.

[Ashley]

With two phones I can pretend I'm having an affair!

[Greg Nog]

I still have the HTC Dream/G1, and still quite like it!  I do wish I had a slightly more powerful browser and less-blurry camera in it, but eh, it's holding up.

[elpollodiablo]

Why can't they just slap that keyboard on an iPhone, darn it

[Thermofusion]

That would compromise the artistic vision

[Maaik]

So I'm contemplating getting like a refurbished iPhone or something.  my job's gotten way more scheduling-intensive over the past month and I need something that I can sync to my Outlook or Google calendar to and then the fiddly shit with email and facebook and twitter and all that crap.

I'm with Miles that I'd prefer a tactile keyboard--the few times I've tried the iPhone's shitty touchpad, my calloused fingers can't make that shit work at all.  That Dream thing looks pretty cool--or should I get a Blackberry?  I have no fucking clue.  LEARN ME SOME SMRTPHNS.

[YojimboMonkey]

You want this beautiful sumbitch right here, the HTC Touch Pro 2



That is what I have and it is a great phone.  Expensive as fuck (though I imagine it must have gone down some since I got it) but it does everything you need and about 80 things you don't even know you need yet

[Good Intentions]

But it runs Windows Mobile...

[YojimboMonkey]

True, but it also runs an HTC overlay on top of Windows Mobile that makes Windows Mobile pretty.

And it has enough hardware power to make Windows Mobile not always a slow buggy pain in the ass.

plus it's just so pretty i mean look at the thing


but anyway, built in Exchange support, and for me a bonus is built-in remote desktop, which for a lot of people would mean they could connect to their computer at home from their phone and I don't know, do whatever, but for me means 9 times out of 10 when I get an alert from work I can fix everything from my phone without ever getting up off the bar stool.

[Maaik]

I'm with AT&T--will it work with my carrier?

[coldforge]

Y'all should get a Palm. The WebOS is pretty swanky.

[Thermofusion]

I've never owned a Windows Mobile phone...is it really that bad? 'Cause that's a gorgeous-looking phone up there, Jim.

I wouldn't mind seeing a basic breakdown of pluses and minuses w/r/t various phone OS platforms. I'm still fixated on getting a phone that runs Android, but I gotta say it's gonna be hard to give up the S60-running phone I've got now. I mean I can have email, internet, IM, music, my address book, Wiki, and a half dozen other apps all open at the same time and the switch from app to app is still instantaneous. What it lacks in flashiness (it's pretty dated looking) it makes up in raw speed and stability.

[YojimboMonkey]

I'm with AT&T--will it work with my carrier?

They call it the Tilt 2 I guess

I've never owned a Windows Mobile phone...is it really that bad? 'Cause that's a gorgeous-looking phone up there, Jim.

I'd be lying if I said I never experienced any lag in doing non-phone stuff; it happens occasionally.  Sometimes there'll be a brief delay when I'm closing an app, stuff like that.  But mostly it runs pretty smooth.

I'm not sure how easy it'd be to get an impartial head-to-head breakdown of phone platforms, since everybody seems to have a favorite and pretty much relentlessly slams every other OS. 

[Maaik]

Oh hey, I'm on a Mac at home, would the Windows OS just not jibe with it or does it ever even have to touch my computer?  I mean, I guess it could just wirelessly access my Google Calendar, no reason to plug it in unless I'm putting actual files on the thing.

[YojimboMonkey]

I don't know, if you're a Mac person I'm surprised you're even considering a Windows phone.  Even though it is really pretty

[Maaik]

I don't know that I'm really a Mac person.  I have a Mac and I like using it.  I work on a PC here at the station and it ain't bad.

Oh man, the HTC Tilt's got a built-in FM radio.  That's pretty cool.

This one's in consideration.  I'm open to more suggestions--basically, I don't know shit about smartphones, but I kind of need one, so.

[donblood]

but anyway, built in Exchange support, and for me a bonus is built-in remote desktop, which for a lot of people would mean they could connect to their computer at home from their phone and I don't know, do whatever, but for me means 9 times out of 10 when I get an alert from work I can fix everything from my phone without ever getting up off the bar stool.

That's super hot.  Do you have a VPN client for it?  Or is it like a jump box setup?  (If this is a security breach either PM me or don't answer at all)

[elpollodiablo]

Myke, for the money you're really not gonna do much better than the 3G.  The soft keyboard ain't perfect, but you do adjust to it quickly--I'm typing on it right now, in fact!
There's a reason this phone is so ubiquitous. It just kicks ass. Also like any other Apple product, the warranty is awesome. My 3G recently got pretty badly scratched up by a certain lady I live with, and I took it to the Apple store and got it swapped for a new one because there were a few flecks of dust under the screen. You pay a premium for Apple stuff (though the 3G is only a hundo on contract), but they really take care of you over the life of the warranty.

[elpollodiablo]

Y'all should get a Palm. The WebOS is pretty swanky.

Or this. The Pre is a really beautiful, well-made phone as far as I can tell. The screen is gorgeous, and you can really fly on that tiny keyboard once you get the hang of it. Not on AT&T though. 

[Maaik]

Yeah, I ain't switchin to Verizon, sorry.  Nothing against the company--I just wanna make this transition to a new phone at least a little easier by sticking with my carrier, seein how tMO's on the plan too.

[Greg Nog]

I'm still holding out for a phone that has a good physical keyboard, the Android OS, and a Snapdragon processor.

Both the Samsung Galaxy S Pro and the LG Aloha are rumored to be something like the above specs!  Woo!