Help buying a smart phone

[A Harris]

I'm looking for a smart phone, but unfortunately am fairly clueless about whatever is latest in electronics. I have a bad habit of walking into the nearest store when something finally breaks and buying whatever looks like a good deal. So please help me out, here is what I am looking for:

-Web access is most important. I need something that is easy to use and as fast as possible. Email capability is secondary as I will mostly be using it with webmail accounts.

-Verizon preferred, though I do also have an AT&T number I can use if absolutely necessary.

-I would prefer something with a useable digital camera onboard. Video is not important.

-Bluetooth

-Windows mobile preferred.

-GPS, and mapping capability would be nice, as would being able to use it to access the web with my laptop.

What do you recommend?

 

[Viktri]

what age bracket are you in: 20-25 or 26+ and how proficient are you with cellphones & software specifically?

 

[A Harris]

26+

I'm not into electronics as a hobby, but can learn to operate most anything if I take the time. As far as modifying phones/software, that is not something I would ever bother with.

 

[Viktri]

Do you have access to Asian phone market?
I don't know much about the North American/European myself b/c my friends only have Asian phones.

 

[thelion1856]

just get an iphone. its the best thing i ever did in this past month.

 

[aarghh]

Except for a *really* tight battery compartment cover, I like the Samsung Blackjack that I'm currently using with AT&T. In fact, I'm currently posting this using it tethered to my laptop while commuting on the light rail.

 

[skalogre]

Originally Posted by thelion1856

just get an iphone. its the best thing i ever did in this past month.
iphone != smartphone iphone == feature phone

 

[Baron]

I have an iphone, but I only got it because I was in mid-contract with ATT and the 4 GB version was much cheaper than a new Blackberry. It turns out that I like the iphone a lot - especially the web browser, the wifi and, soon, gmail with IMAP. However, as a productivity device, it lags. I don't send a lot of emails with my phone but, if I did, I'd much rather have a Blackberry Curve. Typing on the iphone is a pain, and email syncronization is kinda flaky.

 

[Piobaire]

Originally Posted by Viktri

what age bracket are you in: 20-25 or 26+....

So 26 is time for a grup phone?

 

[aybojs]

I'd tend to look outside of Verizon when looking for a phone with the intent of using any sort of special features; Verizon's MO is basically to cripple and disable many of the advertised features of its phones with the intent of forcing you to pay extra and go through their expensive services to use said features. It's been a while, but, for example, they would do things like make you unable to transfer music files to your phone (you'd have to buy mp3's through Get It Now) or disable GPS features so you would have to subscribe to their own mapping service.

I'm not a particular source of wisdom on smartphones (I did just get a Samsung Blackjack with AT&T, but I only wanted the QWERTY keyboard), but based on my experience, stay far away from Verizon if you want do anything besides just dial and recieve calls on your cell phone.

 

[Piobaire]

Originally Posted by aybojs

I'm not a particular source of wisdom on smartphones (I did just get a Samsung Blackjack with AT&T, but I only wanted the QWERTY keyboard), but based on my experience, stay far away from Verizon if you want do anything besides just dial and recieve calls on your cell phone.

Well you see, that's the rub for many of us. Verizon has the best coverage in many markets and really, what's the good of a cell phone if your house or office is one of the other guys "dead zones"?

 

[A Y]

I have a Treo 700p with Verizon that I'm very happy with, and I do use it for a lot more than just making calls, and I can load it with whatever software I want.

However, if web browsing is important to you, then the iPhone is pretty much the only game in town as other mobile web browsers tend to be painful for anything but the simplest sites. Even then, web browsing on any phone is a pretty poor experience compared to a desktop.

--Andre

 

[dah328]

The page below has a good list of current smartphones if you'd like a better idea of what's currently out there:

http://www.mobiletechreview.com/smartphone.htm

 

[A Harris]

Thanks for the tips so far. I have played around with a friend's iphone and like the interface, but it is way too slow for what I need it to do. The Blackjack also caught my eye, but no wifi killed that for me. I think I am going to go with the AT&T Tilt. I'm waiting for the local store to restock so I can look at them in person.

 

[poly800rock]

the tilt looks like a grown up sidekick.