Which Cell Phone Would You Pick
It is time that I look for a new cell phone. My current phone, Motorola Razr, has lasted me roughly two years and it is time to upgrade.
Why would I need to upgrade?
Well that answers are simple. When I am talking with someone on it the internal speaker vibrates against the case so it is hard to hear the other people. The buttons are sounding funny when you press them and don’t always respond properly. Signal quality is now crap. I can be standing in one spot and get ‘No Service’ whereas someone on the same network as me gets 5 bars of signal strength! Even someone with the newer Razrs get better signal than I do with my first generation Razr.
What is it I am looking for in a new cell phone?
I love the flip phones. They ensure I don’t ‘sit dial’ people or any other weird thing that could happen if you forget to lock the screen. They internal screen is also protected so it won’t get scratched up as easily as the non-flip phones.
SMS. That’s right, I love text messaging and without it, life isn’t complete! Though I am sure every phone nowadays offers some sort of SMS feature. For those who are unaware of the acronym of SMS it stands for Short Message System.
Better Contact Management. I want to be able to put my contacts in categories (friends, work, family etc) and be able to group and browse between the categories easily. Similar to the way MSN Messenger works would be good.
My next phone must be able to fit in my pocket similar to the way my current Razr fits into my pocket. I don’t like bulky gadgets.
The phones I am looking at.
Motorola Razr2 v9
The new flagship flip phone from Motorola. The Razr2 is slightly larger than its predecessor (Razr v3 etc) but offers a thinner design, a larger internal screen as well as a larger external screen, and more. Unfortunately at a price tag of over $500 it is currently out of my reach of what I would like to spend on a phone
HTC Touch
I’ve read where people think this small, Windows Mobile 6 based, touch screen cell phone is competing with the Apple iPhone but I think it is in a league of its own. Sporting a nice small, thin form factor and being able to handle Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g), not to mention its sophisticated Touch Screen, the HTC Touch might be the phone to get. Did I mention it runs Windows Mobile 6 Pro? That means I could load MSN Messenger on it, which would be a bonus. Granted I never liked the rates of data plans offered by any of the local wireless providers (Rogers, Telus, Bell etc). Unfortunately I do not know anyone with this phone so I have not yet to see it in action.
Blackberry Pearl 8100
Now I use a BlackBerry 7250 at work which allows me to read my work email so I’m pretty used to the way BlackBerry’s are set up. The BlackBerry Pearl 8100 seems to be a fairly popular cell phone among people and still offers the features I would like in a phone: SMS, QWERTY keyboard, etc. Though not being a flip phone the screen has the chance of being scratched up which to me is a pain. I can also download the latest offer from RIM Technologies for the BlackBerry and that’s their Facebook application which would allow me to stay with facecrack and get my hourly fixes when I’m not sitting in front of a computer.
So there it is. The only 3 phones on the market that I would like but cannot decide on which one I should look into purchasing. Though if anyone out there might know a way of obtaining one of these phones for ‘review’ purposes I would gladly accept one!
Have you used any of the above mentioned phones? Do you have a friend that has used any of the above phones and might be able to provide a bit more insight into my decision?
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I have to be the one to ask - Why not just get an iPhone? I absolutely love mine and have never really had any problems with it. I came from a Razr v3m and a Treo 650 to the iPhone and it was a easy switch.
I do have a friend who has a Blackberry Pearl who swears by it and would never get rid of it - I do have to say it has a much better mail client than the iPhone.
Is the iPhone available for Canadians now? Without having to get it unlocked and dealing with the updates that bugger up unlocked iPhones? Also the voice mail option wasn’t working in Canada either.
I’ve seen a couple of them up here, but talking to their owners they were unlocked versions.
One of our new programmers got back from vacation to his home country,China. He was showing me his new phone, the HTC touch, he bought there. And I want one! This thing rocks.
Hey Tyler,
My father has the pearl, and he is not totally a fan of it yet. He says that it’s a great phone, calendar, organizer, etc, and great for *reading* emails. He is not a fan of writing emails on it with the 2 letters per key setup.
One other phone that you may be interested in is the Moto Q…come by my desk tomorrow if you want to take a look at one.
I’ve seen the MotoQ though the above phones will cost me at least $450 and I just don’t want to spend that sort of money on a phone right now.
I’ve been looking at getting an iPhone for several months. To get one off craigslist your looking at around ~$600. If you drive down to seattle (which is what im planning to do soon) and buy it there, it will cost you $399, plus GST if you declare it when bringing it back over the border.
Unlocking it isnt too hard, theres a lot of good tutorials and a good community at modmyifone.com.
As far as I know, its not available in Canada “officially”
Forget the iphone it’s overrated - the nokia n95 is way better. However, from that list i’d go with the HTC Touch.
Yeah, Bill you’r right Nokia 95 is damn good I’ve used it.
Cheers!
Site looks great! Ive bought the last few days ago and Im delighted! Regards!
I would like to go for iphone. but that is not in the list. .
at the same time these are also looking great