Open Thread: What Mobile Phone Do You Use?
Blackberry is selling its popular Pearl smartphone in red and Sony introduced its W660i Walkman music phone this week, available in rose red or the more staid black. Those are some nice-looking phones — but color’s not usually the main thing that matters in a phone. You’ll want to carefully consider which mobile OS might be for you, of course, and decide whether your phone needs a high IQ.
Beyond that, there are many factors to think about: do you need a phone that fits in your pocket? What style works for you, flip or candy bar or PDA-esque? Do you need to take reasonably high resolution photos? Do you want music with your phone calls? Do you need Bluetooth, Wi Fi, and/or EVDO capabilities? What about fancy features like push-to-talk or voice-activated dialing?
Share here what mobile phone you’ve chosen, how you like it, and what you’d do differently if you were buying a phone right now.
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Well for work I have a company issued i305 Nextel. It’s thick as a brick and useless in terms of features, call quality and reliability. I swapped the SIM to a clamshell i530 just so I could carry something less clunky. The only reason I “need” it is for the PTT capability so I can “radio” other members of the company.
In addition to this I’ve been carrying my personal phone, a Cingular branded Moto RAZR V3XX. I bought it for the 3g, bluetooth and the camera. Most of the time I forward my calls to this phone. What I really need for my job is one device that has a quality camera to take pictures of jobsites. Internet access so I can use google maps, gmail and the occasional blog post. I’d prefer a device with a QWERTY keyboard, but would settle on a regular phone keypad. Above all else I need good network coverage. The biggest problem I have is that we’re like many construction companies that have all their eggs in the Nextel/Sprint basket because of the PTT capability.
Motorola RAZR – pre-3G … synch contacts and calendar, but no email (too much spam, and I DON’T want to see it 24×7) – will eventually get 3G for net access.
I’ve had my Blackberry Pearl for 6 months and would buy it again if I were looking for a new phone today. The SureType keypad works about 95% as well as full QWERTY, and I like having an integrated camera. It’s definitely an improvement overall compared with my old-style Blackberry. I recently ditched Blackberry’s email client for the Gmail mobile app though.
My wife just got a LG chocolate (pink!), which she loves but I think the keyboard and controls are hard to use. Camera on it is great, and the speakerphone is pretty good. The voice commands seem to work ok, unless you use a lot of non-english names. I’m still on my motorola v710. I love the outside screen, but the camera is weak and the phone is a little bulky. The motorola interface is annoying, but the keypad is really nice. I’m glad to continue to try to avoid the blackberry and other more advanced smartphones, since I already spend enough time in front of the computer – I just want good quality calls, easy text/pic messaging, and good battery life.
I have a Nokia 6101. It’s my favorite “dumb” phone so far. I went with the $6/month data plan that lets me access the internet through T-Mobile’s built in browser, and that’s good enough for things like checking soccer scores and getting the address of a restaurant when I forgot to write it down. I like that it’s a comfortable size for my hand and not too expensive.
Samsumg Blackjack
Serves my needs. The form factor and 3G did it for me. Plus the phone quality is excellent.
I have a samsung sgh-c417 on cingular. Not my first choice but my SE z520a went through the wash and i needed something cheap fast. It has bluetooth but will only talk to a headset, which is lame.
Not sure what my next phone would be. I haven’t palyed with a perl, but it does look nice.
LG CU320 here, and while i quite like it (despite it’s size) i don’t believe it’s sold any longer.
I’m still getting by just fine with my T-Mobile Sidekick II. I funnel all my email through Gmail, so it filters out spam. The web browser works well, I’ve got AIM.
I recently ditched my windows mobile brick for a samsung d820, aka t809, and I’m loving it. RSS reader, simple email client, good signal and call quality – don’t need to carry a half-ass computer (aka t-mobile MDA) around when i already spend 12 hours a day sitting at a computer!