Cell phone

[Rockenreno]

Ok, so I've been thinking about getting a new cell for a while (plan is up and I have an old Nokia phone). I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions. If I rememeber correctly, some people *cough* Anand *cough* have some inner dealings with wireless companies and may be able to help me decipher the good from the bad.

Anyway, right now I have a 250 minute ($30/mo) plan which is enough for me, but I might be looking at going to a $40 plan and using my cell more next year. For the phone, I like the idea of a flip phone (tired of bar phones). My roomate just got a Motorolla V600 which is real nice, and he suggested I look at the Motorolla T721. I like the way the phone looks and it's not too expensive, but I've seen mixed reviews on it. I've also looked at Verizon (as opposed to AT&T) and the popular LG camera phone they have. It's battery life is only 150 minutes though and I'd have to go with a $40/mo plan.

As for plans, free long distance is essential, and I don't use more than 300 minutes in a month. I also go back and forth between Sacto and San Diego a fair deal, so I have to have good coverage there. I won't pay over $40/mo for a plan. Does anyone have any opinions/suggestions for me? Thanks!

[[Zero-S]]

I use tmobile, and am very happy. 600 minutes/month, free nights+weekends,300txt messages,t-zones w/wap included for 47.99 I believe. (I'm not using the cheapest plan either...I think thats 29 something/month, but is pretty limited)

And to make things better, I had my own phone so they weren't trying to push one of theirs on me.

[szh]

Over the past few years, I have come to the conclusion that Motorola handsets have gone down in quality a lot. Having owned four Star Tacs (various CDMA models) that broke, and now a number of people in my company have had poor experiences with the V60 and V720. So, please avoid them if you can.

Good handset vendors are Nokia, SonyEricsson and LG. Reasonable vendors are Samsung, Motorola and Audiovox. Fair vendors are the rest.

In terms of technology, this is a religion issue. Check out the coverage maps of the carriers and see which one serves you best. Remember to ask the provider if you can return the phone if it does not work where you want to use it.

Since I travel a lot, I can assure you that I am way unlikely to get a GSM phone right now, since coverage is not as good as CDMA (although that will change in the future). For example, none of the GSM carriers work well at my home and this is not so far outside San Jose that it would be a poor site! Plus CDMA has AMPS as a fallback (albeit not in some of the newer CDMA phones) and GSM does not.

A TDMA phone is not a good idea at all, since the major carriers for this technology (AT&T and Cingular) are abandoning it in the near future.

A few months ago, Consumer Reports ranked Verizon the best for coverage and service quality, etc. Do read that article for more info. Also, my personal tests show that CDMA services have better voice quality than the other services available today (certainly a lot better than TDMA and easily better than GSM.) That is, however, a function of handset quality as well. Fewer dropped calls too.

Your good national CDMA choices are: Verizon and Sprint. Other major ones are Alltel and US Cellular.

Good national GSM choices are: Cingular, AT&T, and T-Mobile. And there are many smaller Cellular One franchises who will treat you right.

Z

[240Knightrider]

haha, here is a good site. http://www.cellphonehacks.com or net cant remember

[Rockenreno]

anyone else have phone suggestions for me?

[rousie13]

The motorola V60 is the biggest POS I've ever owned. The anteana(sp?) breaks about once a month, the reception sucks, the battery life sucks, I can't wait until my plans up so I can get a new phone. ****in* POS

[240Knightrider]

My audiovox 8410 is the best phone ive owned, that and I broke it and they replaced it for free with a new one. Which kinda sucked cause I had to transfer all the other numbers to the new one.

[ilovedrifting]

STAY AWAY FROM SPRINT i have sprint and it sucks, I'm always out of area and i miss a lot of calls. don't go with sprint

[nametakennow]

Same for Cingular... jeez... it's getting better, but the service is so friggin splotchy around here it's not even funny (might have a little to do with how friggin tiny my phone is, and thus how small the antenna must be).

I've always heard good things about Sprint though... hmm...

Anyway, Verizon and TMobile seem to be the ones that have their **** together the most. Of all the people I know the ones who have those services seem to always have service, and pretty good if not great reception.

Phone specific... SonyEricsson or Nokia, hands down... they have the most money for R&D, which is key in technology businesses.

[Touchdown038]

I have Verizon, and they're pretty good, there's just one thing that pisses me off. Apparently there are no Verizon towers anywhere near my school (University of Idaho) so it uses nearest tower, which happens to be a Sprint tower. Which apparently means that text messaging and get it now don't wory, and I don't even get an alert when I get a voice mail.

I have the Audiovox 8600 flip phone, and I love it. The only problem with it is that both the screens get dust on the inside and once every 3 months or so I've had to go get it blown out.

[240Knightrider]

I have alltel and they have been great. I dont loose call or anything like that. The only time I dont really have a signal is at some parts of my school and Walmart.

[Jesda]

Mom pays. Dunno how many minutes I have, but you cant beat it.

[Rockenreno]

Mom pays. Dunno how many minutes I have, but you cant beat it.

Thanks for that insighful comment

[AZhitman]

I like Verizon, and i have a Audiovox 9500 that suits me well.

[dorifkin]

If you want to stay under $40 then I'd go with t-mobile. You can get 600 anytime and unlimited nights and wk/ends for $40..or get 300 for $30 and then add unlimited mobile to mobile for $7.

As far as the phone itself, i'd stay away from Motorola. The t721 or t720i is on its way out and the phone is really poorly designed. It's amazing how these phones got through tmobile and verizon's testing stages. The V600 has many of the unstable software problems that the t series have. Although its a very nice looking phone.

if you can fork out the cash then spring for the samsung sgh-e715, Sony ericsson z600 and there bar t610. these are great phones that are extremely easy to use and very high quality. And try Amazon.com, you can usually make money off there rebates.

[slw240sx]

1000 anytime, free longdistance, free nights and weekends. for 39.99. 600 text message all that crap . Tmobile , service aint bad and its getting bette. kinda echoy in parts of town

[Rockenreno]

And try Amazon.com, you can usually make money off there rebates.

Good idea.

Thanks for the help guys. I'm either going AT&T GSM or Verizon because those have the best service in my area. I guess no Motorola for me, they seem to have issues!:eek: