Johnny Buys A Cellphone

JohnnyCache

My cell contract is up. I want a new cellphone.

It should have lots of bells and whistles. It should be pretty durable. It should be compatible with Verizon cell service. I would prefer a trimode (analog capable) phone as I am sometimes in the middle of nowhere. As long as it isn't one of those diamond-crusted things versace makes for the hilton girls, I'm willing to lay out some money. Battery life is a priority, as is a good camera, and it really, really should be as tough as possible. I prefer a clamshell phone that hides the keys, but I would entertain tales of other form factors. I would like it to have more gadgets then phones belonging to my friends.

Rants? Raves? Suggestions?

lsahdjf

I have a Samsung A990 and its easily one of the best phones ive seen and used around. This is only the second phone i've ever owned myself but compared to everyone else's cellphones, i have a much better camera, battery life, sound quality, and software features...

It's not tri-band though, it only supports digital.

milehigh

I've been extremely happy with my LG VX9900, which Verizon provides. It's a candy bar design and has overwhelming amount of stuff, GPS, MP3, nice camera for a phone plus it opens up to a beautiful screen and a decent sized QWERTY, which is great if you do a lot of texting. Yeah, this is the EnV. I didn't realize what it was called when I bought it, and I do feel like a tool owning a phone called the Env (damn you Verizon). However the battery life has made all my Razor owning friends jealous, I use my phone quite a bit but only have to put it on the charger every 3-4 days, also I've dropped it twice from 3 or so feet onto hard surfaces twice since owning it and it still looks great. I'd definitely recommend it from my experiences, but it is a newer phone so keep that in mind.

ben0207

Sony Erriccson K800i.

Every feature a man could want, 3.2MP camera and coated in a thin layer of rubber, making it even Ben-when-drunk-proof.

I've checked (was looking to upgrade), and it is still quite comfortably the best phone on the market at the moment.

Mai-Kero

How good would a Motorola Razr V3t be? It seems to be the cheapest way to go, and I just want something cheap(free is good, which this phone is) to start out with. The only problem is, the contract has to last two years.

TxdoHawk

My general recommendation is to go on Verizon's web page, narrow down what you potentially want, and then hunt for reviews. Not just professional reviews though, look at user opinions as well, because they are a great indicator of phone flaws that often pop up between the immaculate review unit and the mass-produced phone you actually get. Cnet is great for this, in my experience.

You'll find somebody who has a beef with every phone, but you don't care about one bad review. Manufacturing one-off defects happen. What you are looking for is lots of people complaining about the same major flaw. Something like this is a major red flag, and should probably encourage you to move on to a different phone.

ben0207

The Razr is a piece of shit.

Outdated shit at that.

JohnnyCache

Mai-Kero wrote: »

How good would a Motorola Razr V3t be? It seems to be the cheapest way to go, and I just want something cheap(free is good, which this phone is) to start out with. The only problem is, the contract has to last two years.

I seriously say spend some money, dude. Think about it - if you pay an extra 50 bucks or even 100 that is 2-4 bucks a month, one big mac forgone, to not be dissatisfied with something you use each and every day.

I like that erricson. I also like the Env, from what I've seen of it...I wonder, does the GPS work when it's out of service? That could actually be a lifesaver for me.

lsahdjf

ben0207 wrote: »

Sony Erriccson K800i.

Every feature a man could want, 3.2MP camera and coated in a thin layer of rubber, making it even Ben-when-drunk-proof.

I've checked (was looking to upgrade), and it is still quite comfortably the best phone on the market at the moment.

i may be wrong but i don't think that phone works with verizon. I'm pretty sure the lg 9900 and samsung a990 are the top dogs for verizon right now.

JohnnyCache

yeah...good luck finding a simple list of supported phones on verizon's website.

Feral

JohnnyCache wrote: »

yeah...good luck finding a simple list of supported phones on verizon's website.

Any unlocked CDMA dual-band/tri-band phone will work with Verizon.

BTW, I really wanted a tri-band phone too but they're moving away from them so I broke down and got a Motorola e815 based on a review on Howardforums that mentioned that it's radio sensitivity was top-tier. I love it. I can make calls from places my old VX4400 couldn't even pick up an analog signal. This was 18 months ago though so there may be something better.

Blake T

ben0207 wrote: »

Sony Erriccson K800i.

Every feature a man could want, 3.2MP camera and coated in a thin layer of rubber, making it even Ben-when-drunk-proof.

I've checked (was looking to upgrade), and it is still quite comfortably the best phone on the market at the moment.

While mind doesn't no fancy rubbercoating I do like it. Sleek. Stylish and can do anything. With hands down the best phone camera available.

The only critiscm is that since it has a real Xeon flash, it can't double as a flash light in awkward places oh and the flash comes on automatically not when you want it to which does really annoy me.

ben0207

Yeah, I find the flash tends to bleach everything a bit too much, so usually I try with it off.

And check the battery case and keys. The area round the screen is plastic, but the rest is rubberised.

reddog

I love my sony ericsson w810i. I have cingular though so I don't know if it'll work with Verizon. It's just an all around great phone. It does have a lot of bells and whistles though: MP3 Player, FM Radio, Camera, etc but it's not expensive and well worth all of it.

JohnnyCache

I'm looking pretty hard at the EnV phone - will the media player on it play things from my computer or are you restricted to the Verizon V-Cast service? I think that's the kicker for me as I have no desire to pay for mp3s I already own and I don't know how good the v-cast coverage is here.

Also, I'm pretty much a stranger to bluetooth - is this something that is awesome? Google would seem to say yes...

Jimmy King

reddog wrote: »

I love my sony ericsson w810i. I have cingular though so I don't know if it'll work with Verizon. It's just an all around great phone. It does have a lot of bells and whistles though: MP3 Player, FM Radio, Camera, etc but it's not expensive and well worth all of it.

Depends. One that works with Cingular will not work with Verizon as Cingular is GSM. Some phones are made in both GSM and CDMA models, though.

redimpulse

I used to have a Moto E815 and absolutely loved it. Recently I upgraded to a Samsung SCH-A930 and am thoroughly enjoying this phone.

I'm not sure about the EnV, but the A930 has a MicroSD slot. I've transferred music, ringtones, pictures, whatever from my PC to the phone using this card and everything has worked. It is an incredibly versatile phone with great range and is GPS Nav capable.

Immolation

Feral wrote: »

JohnnyCache wrote: »

yeah...good luck finding a simple list of supported phones on verizon's website.

Any unlocked CDMA dual-band/tri-band phone will work with Verizon.

Unlocked phones purchased on the secondary market are usually quite expensive, though, compared w/ paying $200 tops for a with-contract phone from a provider.



Looking at Verizon's page, I'd go w/ the Samsungs...either the 740 or the 990. I have the Samsung SGH-D807 and it's awesome...1GB microSD chip, an actual usable camera, and fantastic interface software, FAR superior to Motorola's clunky interface. Samsung also has some really sweet software that you can download from their site to do things like link your phone w/ Outlook, manage the files on the microSD chip, create your own ringtones from MP3s, etc.

JohnnyCache

I really want to get a lot out of this one by hooking it to the computer and such. I'm really sick of carrying such a wifty gizmo and not using it for something besides calls.

Kealoha

The Sony Ericsson K800i looks really, really nice. I want one of those. It's usable with Cingular, I think, but it's not listed on their website. What is the best way to go about buying a phone if you don't get it through your provider?

redimpulse

Good luck hooking a Verizon phone to a PC and actually doing something with it. Verizon's phones are so locked up it's pretty hard to do.

milehigh

Ya, the EnV is pretty locked up feature wise, the media player is easy to use if you get the data cable (actually if you use a MicroSD card it's even easier) but ya, the media player will play MP3s that you transfer to the phone via MicroSD or data cable, the player is decent for what it is, and considering you can get 2GB MicroSD cards it's actually proved to be fairly versatile.