Celluar phone

[danaeris]

What phone are you using?

What do you love about it?

What do you hate about it?



I'm thinking of ditching the convergence device racket. It just hasn't been working for me; I don't use it adequately to make it worth the price. But I'm also interested to hear about your convergence device/smartphone/treo/blackberry/hoohaw. If I decide to stick with all-in-ones, I'm not sure which one I want! I have a Treo 650 right now.

Comments

[geekosaur]

Having had several all-in-ones, I've come to the conclusion that one which actually did most of its functions tolerably well would be too big to fit in a pocket and would make you walk with a list if you clipped it on your belt. :/ On the other hand: Bluetooth-enabled phone on belt or clipped on backpack strap, iPod + Jabra a125s transmitter in pants pocket or clipped on the other backpack strap, Bluetooth-enabled Tungsten T3 in shirt or jacket pocket, Bluetooth stereo+phone headset.

(Bluetooth makes everything better?)

[danaeris.livejournal.com]

But, which bluetooth enabled phone are you using, and are you happy with it?

[geekosaur]

Sony-Ericsson W600i (there are newer models now), and it'd be fine if it weren't with AT&T (who screwed our department on the contract). Does lots of stuff but I don't use most of it except bluetooth and occasionally the FM radio.

[ex-sonjaaa.livejournal.com]

I have a very old Treo and love it. I mostly use it as a scheduler and for text messaging. I pay $10 a monh for Fido pay as you go.

[wiseacre.livejournal.com]

Motorola Razr (not Razr 2). Small, light, still feels quite solid after more than a year of use. Good phone overall. Motorola Phone Tools software (SEPARATE PURCHASE) lets you do stuff with it, including making your own ringtones from your MP3s and such. God for no cost with my plan.

Cons: Limited internal memory, no removable storage. Does not have vibrate and ring mode, which is my favourite mode. Cannot lock exteranal buttons on phone so they can accidentally get pressed in your pocket and change ringer volume or run down your battery by keeping display backlit. The buttons are a minor nuisance for me but a bigger problem for my wife.

[outcastspice.livejournal.com]

i have a Moto Q and i don't like it. i got it for the data features - email, google calendar sync, etc, but i dont use those features at all, so it's really just a waste of money. also, the sound clarity is nil, so it's frustrating to use as a phone. soon i'm going to Telus and find out if i can change, even though we're just ending the first year of the 3 year contract.

[rax.livejournal.com]

I have the Sidekick 3 (and have for a couple of years; before that I had the Sidekick 2). It has a number of good features --- an mp3 player, a reasonable phone, a surprisingly good speakerphone, a good AIM client, a calendar application I very much like... I personally think the killer feature is that everything I store on it is backed up on their remote servers and accessible from the web. Also if your phone breaks/gets stolen or you upgrade to the next Sidekick, all of your data shows up magically on the new phone. (Unfortunately this makes it very hard to leave.)

Issues I have with it that would make me consider not getting another one: No useful Bluetooth (you can basically only send vcards), no MMS (which I didn't care about three years ago but is starting to get annoying), mediocre camera, screen is kind of small for web browsing and can't do 80x24 SSH (though the LX might fix that?), extra software costs extra money.

It's a good phone for me, though I am considering punting it for one of the new Nokia things.

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

Now also owned by Microsoft (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/technology/12danger.html?_r=2&ref=technology&oref=slogin&oref=slogin) and therefore likely to get a serious overhaul. For better or worse...

[rax.livejournal.com]

Assuming they don't totally break it I'd still recommend it to people who have needs like mine, but I don't know much about Danaeris's cell phone needs :) Maybe they'll finally make one with wifi...

[geekosaur]

Microsoft is claiming they're not going to switch it to Windows Mobile. Supposedly.

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

"Will not", and "have no plans to" are very different statements, aren't they? Kind of like Sony saying "we have no plans to introduce a 160GB PS3 in Europe" to deny rumors to UK newspapers, when really meaning "we haven't figured out when or how many €s to charge for it."

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

Win: Love the crackberry. Keyboard is good, bundled applications make good use of the screen without that "ported" feeling. Syncs reliably. Backs up and restores reliably. On-device password protection is fairly good. Laptop tethering (using phone as modem) works better than might be expected, given a provider that supports it at all, and is *very* useful. (I have zero reason to fuss with hotel network provision anymore.) Most used features: Blackberry messaging, tethering, email, casual browsing (Opera Mini works very well on the device), the password vault, the Klondike Solitare game from Magmic. Oh yeah, it makes phone calls too. But I use that *way* less than the data plan.

Meh: "Supported" sync and tethering is only for Windows. Only "meh" because third-parties supply iSync plug-ins and *BLUETOOTH* tethering (instead of via USB) on OSX.

Lose: Haven't found a provider that does cross-border data plans in any affordable way. Probably less of a dealbreaker for me than you, but I can get North America-wide CALLING PLANS for a rate trivially more than US-only, but cross-border data is going to cost me $0.03 a kilobyte?

[danaeris.livejournal.com]

Which crackberry are you using? There are several models out, these days, muddying the waters, so to speak.

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

72x0 series. 7250 in my case, but the second-last number varies depending on tech; GSM ones are 7290 for example. It's got cheaper screen tech than some of the later ones, but trades it for being able to be read in good light without any backlight at all, which is really nice for battery life. The GSM ones show up on eBay and CL and the light all the time because woot.com dumped a TON of unlocked ones on the market over the past two years. I like mine enought that I've completely resisted the urge to upgrade even though my contract has been up for months. The Geek is using an 870x model, which is slightly nicer (does mp3 ringtones and speakerphone, prettier screen), but seems to chew up a charge in about 60% of the time.

[secretsoflife.livejournal.com]

the treo is in my mind the be-all and end-all of mobile devices. i'm using an HTC Dash now and I hate it.

[dicedork.livejournal.com]

Since the thing I love most about any cell phone is the off button, I'm probably not the person you want to be talking to.

Samsung U740

[iceblink.livejournal.com]

I have a Verizon Samsung U740 and I love it. It has a camera and the ear piece can move up to be like a regular phone or move sideways to become a QWERTY keyboard for text messages.

So far I don't hate it.

[photogeek-mtl.livejournal.com]

I've got a treo 650, and I'm pretty fond of it. I shelled out the $20 for the 3rd party bluetooth a2dp driver, and it works well enough as a phone, organizer and mp3 player... I've even watched video on it a bit when my archos was being repaired...

what aspects of the 650 are you unhappy with..?

[radven.livejournal.com]

The iPhone is one hell of an awesome all-in-one device.

I used to get paid to buy and pay with pretty much every single cool phone that existed. And right now, nothing out there would lure me away from my iPhone.