All Knowledge is Contained on my Friendslist

[mamadeb]

I am going to upgrade my phone - a very basic Samsung (no camera, frex.) I've had it for four or so years and I'm entitled to all discounts and rebates on T-Mobile.

I don't care about music, and we're having a hard time figuring out what T-Mobile will charge for G3, but I wouldn't mind a camera. I'm willing to spend some money to get the new phone. I am not in the market for a smartphone yet - I'm still in love with my PDA.

Suggestions? What sort of phones do you have?

Comments

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

I have had excellent luck with LG phones. I'm finishing up my second two-year contract with my second LG phone (currently a VX8300) and it has served me without fault.

[gingicat]

While my Motorola RAZR has a camera that's more usable than the previous Samsung phone, it still doesn't come up to my standards and gets confused by bright light and overcompensates for low light. So I only use it for emergencies. I've seen some good pictures come off of iPhones, but otherwise all the cellphone pictures I've seen are pretty grainy due to all of the digitization attempting to replace real optics.

When I chose the phone, I did a tradeoff between price and usability of the controls. On mine, the buttons are well separated and it's hard to confuse them, unlike the weird little joystick on my husband's phone which seems to have a mind of its own.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

But you like the Razr? Because that's high on my list. I've never seen a good cellphone photo - I'd just like it for convenience.

Ease of controls is key.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, T-Mobile doesn't offer an LG. And at this point, we've decided to not change services.

[gingicat]

I do like it, yes. Heck, the controls are good enough that I can play Tetris on the phone and get to Level 15!

[ataniell93.livejournal.com]

I loved my Razr and sort of wish I'd got another instead of the W490 I got when it died; it was a little easier to use, though the W490 has a better camera.

OTOH, if I could get anything at all I wanted from T-Mobile, I would probably get the Samsung with the touchscreen or the Blackberry flip.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I'm not willing to spend that much money for a phone yet. Not until my Tungsten-C dies.

But RAZR is looking better and better.

[ckd]

I like my Sony Ericsson W710, though I bought it elsewhere and just put a T-Mobile SIM in; I wanted to have an unlocked quad-band GSM phone that didn't have vendor-specific firmware.

T-Mobile has the Sony Ericsson TM506, which I haven't seen, as a web special (free, or $160 with a $160 "web only discount"). It's probably worth a look.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Thank you. That's another one on the short list. What is the benefit of quad band GSM?

[guendalina.livejournal.com]

i have had a lot of luck with Kyocera phones. I've had three kyocera so far, and would buy them again in an instant--i find them to be some of the most durable phones with the longest battery life. Easy to use (My mom has one, too, and it's her favorite phone ever). don't know if T-mobile has any kyocera, but if they do, i'd give them a serious look. They tend to be basic phones--cameras and text messaging yes, but other more elaborate things, no. But they're a great basic phone.

[triestine.livejournal.com]

Mr Triestine swears by his new Xperia. Me, I've been a Nokia girl since I learned of mobile phones because they do what they're told and they're indestructible. I dropped my current one in a bucket of water, dropped it on concrete countless times (yes I'm clumsy) and it works like a charm.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

No Kyocera, I'm afraid.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I've been looking at Nokia phones, but Cnet keeps saying they have cheesy keypads.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

I don't know from many of the T-Mobile phones; we're with AT&T and have Moto q9h (Global) WinMo smartphones. (We probably should have gone with touchscreens of some sort, because the ebook readers for touchscreen phones are far superior, and we read LOTS on our phones.)

I will recommend Wirefly (http://www.wirefly.com) for good deals on phones (it's associated with, or a subsidiary of, Ben's Bargains (http://bensbargains.net) -- I misremember the precise relationship). Their prices are generally better than those at the company's store.

[ckd]

Better coverage internationally. The idea is to be able to buy a prepaid SIM card when traveling (hence the unlocked), without having to worry about which providers use which frequency bands (hence the quad-band).

The TM506 is a tri-band phone; it has the US 850 and 1900 MHz bands plus the international 1800 MHz band. The W710 adds the 900 MHz band as well. Looking at this map of GSM frequency bands [7.5MB PDF], there are only a few countries (mostly in Africa or the Arabian peninsula, plus China/Mongolia/Kazakhstan) which only have GSM 900; with those exceptions, the TM506 should work pretty much anywhere.

[zsero.livejournal.com]

Someone else on my friendslist recently went through the shopping-for-a-phone routine. Perhaps you can profit from her effort. This (http://tikiwanderer.livejournal.com/281717.html) is what she ended up with, but if you're interested you can go back through her LJ (http://tikiwanderer.livejournal.com) to see what went into that decision.