So my old RAZR is going the way of all flesh, and I need a new phone. Looking into smartphones such as blackberry, Moto Q, Treo. My phone is with Alltel, so I am really looking into the Moto Q and a data plan running $90 a month for unlimited data.

What are educated opinions on the best smartphones, what should I look for in each, etc.

5/9/2007 9:27:23 AM

I have a Nextel Blackberry and am paying an additional $40/month on top of my already ~$70/month service plan for the additional data service. I was able to get the phone for about $200 with a contract extension but the only rip-off I've had so far is that they don't include text messaging with the data package so I had to tack on an additional $5 a month for unlimited texting

I would make sure to look for Bluetooth (if you have it on your computer) so that way you can go cordless when you want to sync 'em.

The phone works pretty well - it just takes some getting used to the scroll bar if you go with a smart phone that isn't on a stylus format.

5/9/2007 9:44:26 AM

I have a treo 680 with the full data plan. Paying 100 bucks a month or so. I would not suggest you gettin a palm because they are more buggy then expected. I also had a razr and used a ipaq at the same time and hated having to carry, charge, and update two devices. I love having everything I need right there, but for me I wish I could have waited a bit longer for something better. But my previous phone was stolen and I told myself that my next phone would be a smartphone so there you go.

5/9/2007 10:01:40 AM

I've got a blackberry pearl, but no data plan. I tried it out for a month, but it wasn't really useful to me. The main thing for me is calendaring, which i sync with my laptop.

that and Brickbreaker.

5/9/2007 10:04:25 AM

^I've heard mixed reviews on the pearl; that it is smaller, but much more limited as to what it can do compared to the regular blackberry.

^^Thanks for the insight on the treo. The only benefit of that to me was the touchscreen, but I find that becoming too time consuming. I think I like the wheel better.

Does anyone have the Q or the Blackjack?

5/9/2007 10:53:02 AM

I have an Alltel PPC-6700 w/ data plan. The new data plans "SmartChoice" are wack -- they force you to pay for unlimited text/pix/etc. I got grandfathered in at the old rate of "my basic phone plan + $29 per month unlimited data."

I hate the phone. It's like 5 pounds, bulky, it's a brick. It locks up at least 2 times a day and needs a reset.

But there's nothing hotter than having internet everywhere I go -- I just connect it up to my Dell laptop and tether internet no matter where I'm at.

I haven't played around w/ others, but I'd avoid the 6700 as the 6800 should be hitting soon.

5/9/2007 11:17:26 AM

I had a treo 650 (and yes they're buggy as hell, I had always thought Palm was more stable..). Before switching my SIM over to it I got the unlimited media works package (which is basically unlimited internet and I believe an assload of text messages). So, when I switched the sim over all the unlimited internet stuff still worked fine and I didn't have to pay extra for their bullshit "PDA Connect" packages.

But, you're with alltel so nevermind.. I hadn't read that till just now haha

5/9/2007 12:30:35 PM

well the company I am with my help pay just for Cingular, in which case I would probably switch to them, where I would have a SIM card. I know with Alltel they do charge an extra $10 a month for tethered wireless internet to your laptop with the phone, although I don't know how they can program that.

5/9/2007 1:08:06 PM

they can't i don't think... cingular says the same thing about charging more for internet access from a smartphone vs a regular phone but so far it doesnt look like they can do shit about it

edit: Oh, when I called to add the internet access they wanted the IMEI off the phone, I guess to verify what kind of phone it was. So, just a heads up.

[Edited on May 9, 2007 at 1:17 PM. Reason : asdf]

5/9/2007 1:15:57 PM

i had a treo 650 with the unlimited media works package for the longest time and loved it - yeah, palm is sort of buggy, but you learn to live with it after a while, and you end up loving it.

i switched to a cingular 8525 (HTC TyTN) last month and i'm still getting used to it - although, i will say the HSDPA access is nice, I get broadband speeds with it.

but yeah. i pay $20/month for 200 text/mms messages and unlimited data. not bad on top of a $60 voice package.

and btw - if you go online and add the feature yourself, you can choose between Smartphone Connect (the needlessly more expensive plan) and the unlimited MEdia net - I've had MEdia net with all of my smartphones and haven't ever had a problem, and I use around 300-400MB a month, sometimes more.

they also don't seem to care if you tether over bluetooth, just as long as you don't do it excessively.

5/9/2007 3:56:48 PM

As far as I know, there's never a tether charge with Alltel if you buy the SmartChoice package.

I am not charged anything extra for tethering on my old plan, either.

5/9/2007 3:59:37 PM

Has anyone been able to compare actual service to know which one is best for what you paid? I also need something thats not so commercial: I just want the data connection, I don't want some wierd program that I have to go through to give it to me.

5/10/2007 8:13:26 AM

If you just want data, your best bet is to just pick up a data card & use it with your laptop.

5/10/2007 9:36:32 AM

Quote :

"cingular says the same thing about charging more for internet access from a smartphone vs a regular phone but so far it doesnt look like they can do shit about it"

Oh yes they can. The difference is that the unlimited data plan for the PDAs costs $40/month while all other phones cost $25/month. The salesman that sold me my 8125 set me up with the $25 plan by mistake. But after about 3 months of emailing and net surfing, Cingular caught on and CANCELLED my data plan WITHOUT telling me. Therefore, I was surfing the net with no data plan, and get charged $$$/Kb of net usage. If I had not of caught on quickly, my bill would have been outrageous. If you search the cell phone forums, you'll come across many similar stories where people ended up with $1200 cell phone bills because of this issue. I still to this day cannot believe there wasn't some lawsuit.

5/10/2007 4:26:02 PM

I have the Moto Q and the same plan youre talking about, initial web surfing is a little slow, but it picks up when it finally connects. I highly reccomend the extended battery for the Q though (got it a week after I bought the phone).

5/11/2007 9:05:52 AM

With the plan through Alltel, I saw online they had a $60 with 500 min, a different night&weekend time, no unlimited txting and no mycircle, but unlimited data still and it's $30 cheaper.

Of course my boss finally said the company will pay 1/3, so I'd only be paying $60 in the end with the bigger plan.
Where can I get this extended battery btw?

[Edited on May 11, 2007 at 2:02 PM. Reason : .]

5/11/2007 2:01:40 PM

I *HEART* my Blackberry 8800.

5/12/2007 9:58:44 AM

^I concur. I <3 Telenav

5/12/2007 10:08:17 AM

check any of those online cell phone accessory shops, or just get it at the store.

and get the bigger plan if works paying for it.

5/12/2007 7:35:26 PM

the Q sucks in comparison to the blackjack.

5/12/2007 7:43:28 PM

is that telenav nonsense worth it? I was about to buy a GPS unit.

5/12/2007 8:27:02 PM

^^I'm typically a motorola loyal fan. I do know that Samsungs are good, but Alltel doesn't carry it.

Can the Q do the GPS thing?

5/12/2007 10:40:38 PM

Well my company is only approving Cingular devices for compatibility reasons. Is the wireless transfer still good with them?

Btw, I will be getting the blackberry 8700c.

5/16/2007 8:25:10 AM

i just got a blackberry 8703e yesterday

5/16/2007 8:32:45 AM

^Yeah, I got that yesterday b/c IT told me to, and now they say i have to switch to Cingular if I want on the blackberry enterprise server. Apparently we get a discount though, so I am waiting to see if the deal will be comparable.

5/16/2007 1:11:26 PM

i had an 8700c and it was fine

eventually got a cingular 8125 so that i could use terminal services client

it's nice to be able to reboot a server at work without having to drive all the way in there if i'm out someplace in the car

5/16/2007 2:46:02 PM

cingular 8525 is better. i love my 3g. i get close to 700kbps everywhere around raleigh/durham/cary.

5/16/2007 3:11:22 PM

if your going to shell out that much for a data plan, you MUST get a 3g phone. otherwise you are basically wasting a lot of money.
I'm in STL right now, and just pulled 2megabit/s while doing 65 on the highway with HSDPA... shit's actually starting to get there in the US

5/16/2007 6:12:04 PM

Quote :

"^Yeah, I got that yesterday b/c IT told me to, and now they say i have to switch to Cingular if I want on the blackberry enterprise server. Apparently we get a discount though, so I am waiting to see if the deal will be comparable."

fyi -- with a BES it doesnt matter what carrier you have.

5/16/2007 10:26:04 PM

It doesn't, but to them it does - they won't set it up on a phone unless it's a Cingular phone.

^^What do you mean by 3g?

[Edited on May 17, 2007 at 10:20 AM. Reason : .]

5/17/2007 10:19:43 AM

3g is the newer infrastructure being deployed by cingular. It's already pretty much blanketed europe, the US is just slow to adopt.
It's cingular's high speed mobile, in competition with Sprint's EV-DO and whatever verizon has..
like I said, I was getting 2 megabit down yesterday in a moving vehicle... not too shabby

5/17/2007 11:46:09 AM