zxello

So... I need to get a new phone and service, i can't decide between Cingular or Verizon (best around here). Anyone have any suggestions on which phones would be good? I'll be doing alot of texting and I like the multimedia aspect. Which service I get depends on which is cheaper and which phone I want more... so suggestions? links? thoughts?

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Bacchanal

I'm with Cingular, and I'm not at all impressed with their text messaging plans, though I suppose they may differ from place to place (I don't know, honestly). They have 50, 200, 1000, and 2500 messages/month plans. I'm on the 1000 messages/month plan, and that runs $9.99. The higher one runs $19.99, but on every plan, if you go over, they're 10 cents a piece, incoming or outgoing, which can get to be quite expensive if you over-do it. I've had bills that were $35 more than they should've been just because of text messages.

Their mutimedia messaging, I've not messed with, but I'm going to now.20 messages/month for $2.99 or 40 for $4.99. I don't know if you meant that or internet by "multimedia aspect", so...

As far as their wireless internet plans, I'm satisfied. I've never gone over on mine, and I have 3 MB/month, again, for $9.99. The main thing that sucks about that is buying ringtones. You can't preview them, and real music tones go for $2.49 a piece I think.

I don't know about phones. I have the black RAZR and love it, but it seems like other companies are getting them now as well, and color makes no difference, really. The phone has the best reception of any phone I've ever had, but the camera is seriously lacking (that may make no difference to you whatsoever though). Other than that, I'm extremely happy with the phone.

I know nothing about Verizon, so if someone with a Verizon plan chimes in about the good and bad, then I guess you'll have at least some information on both sides.

cyrnel

Verizon drives us insane with their billing fiascos. I think they operate on the infinite monkey data entry principle, or "drive customers crazy and they'll eventually stop complaining & just pay for mistaken extras." Their agents aren't impressive, and pay more attention to their scripts than the dialogue. Good coverage, but be careful. Avoid any shared plans as those seem to invite billing nightmares.

I've been pleasantly surprised by Sprint. I hated them in the SF bay area. (a couple years ago.) It was especially stressful managing our small company's plans. Coverage, support, you name it. Trying them again here in Oregon because of their data plan. So far I've made 8 calls to their support people at different times of the day. Call it the two week test. Each time it has seemed like I was calling a center in N. California, and agents who were strangely interested in talking tech. With my luck they use a special department for the first 14days until you can't cancel without penalty. Anyway, not much history yet but two bills in things are going smoothly. Samsung A900 phone is beautiful.

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There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195

snowy

My family uses Sprint and has for a very long time. One thing I've found is that their customer support varies widely from store to store. Generally, it's on the good side, not the bad, and I've got to give some love to the Sprint store in Clackamas for going the extra mile for me (the first time I went there, their computer system/store phone system was down, so they had to activate my new phone on their own cell phones) time after time. I like the choices on their plans and I love my phone:

It's so stylish and instead of a flip phone, it slides open

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cyrnel

We're not in Kansas anymore.

I just burned my last 2 hours fixing a Sprint billing error that resulted in them suspending our service. Business account, no warning, and payment is automatic. They have my charge account as well as business checking auto-deduct. What else can a guy do? My attempts to resolve things by phone were going nowhere. Bouncing between agents and supervisors, one knows plans but not billing, the next who knows the reverse, nobody really pulling things together and all assuming it's our fault. After an hour I called the dealer who was able to intervene and make things right.

Sprint somehow "lost" our data plan which put us over $500 for the month. The system just puked out a suspension without any review of usage or billing history. Marvelous. I asked them what else I can do to ensure this won't repeat in the future to which they responded I'm already doing it. Great confidence builder.

Billing departments... sigh... short of death or dismemberment the worst way to burn an already busy Friday.

/vent

__________________
There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195

Gatorade Frost

I just switched from Sprint to Cingular this weekend and we talked to the salesman for quitet a while about what phones to buy and he recommended motorola and nokia for their quality.



In regard to this specific phone, it's given me more headaches then any phone I've ever owned. In the beginning it was a pretty neat phone, slides out, etc. but within 2 months it stopped getting signal (and this went off and on until I finally changed plans - I'd have signal for a few days, lose it for a few weeks, get it again, etc.) and then finally in the last month before changing plans my 0 and up button stopped working and then a few days before my 7 button died on me. I would NOT recommend this phone or any LG phones. It's like buying buggy software the day it comes out.

The salesman recommended staying away from the sliding phones for a while because they have a lot of problems and they've yet to be worked out yet.

Personally when I switched to Cingular I bought the 2125 smart phone that runs on Windows Mobile. I do a ton of texting and you can save all of your texts up to how large of memory you have in there, it has really great predicitive texting. With the blue phone above you can't add words, and if your 0 goes out you're screwed since you can't cycle through words (i.e. of and me). Also, it has a lot of little perks like being able to watch movies on it, a good game supply, being able to store and view windows office files (word, excel, etc.) and being able to sync with outlook on your computer to have a roving calendar. It was expensive, but so far it seems to have been worth the money.

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I got in a fight one time with a really big guy, and he said, "I'm going to mop the floor with your face." I said, "You'll be sorry." He said, "Oh, yeah? Why?" I said, "Well, you won't be able to get into the corners very well."
Emo Philips

Cynthetiq

I'm of the opinion that ALL wireless carriers suck ass.

They have no culpability, no regulation, infinite loopholes to NOT provide you service.

from cingular.com



sprint.com


verizon.com


tmobile

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AquaFox

the multimedia aspect of phones really is something you'll get bored of.... i went and got a camera phone with internet and stuff from verizon, the limited aspects of memory and hte tedious task of entering URLs and saving them takes up alot of time.... you'll get bored of having the internet... the only good thing is that you can get weather and news reports on it, but verizons default news things suck... reading news just sucks on phones...

if you get a phone that has the ablity to use a data cable, to transfer photos for free, get the camera... butsome camera phones will notallow you to transfer pictures off your phone, without paying a dollar a picture.... soo it defeats the idea of even taking pictures, because a dollar a picture is a horrid deal for the crappy pictures you get... it's more cost effective to buy a real digital camera than to get a camera phone and transfer pictures from it weekly


i have verizon and the service is good, very few signal difficulties, but i'm also in a populated area...


just watchout on your plans, they will try and get as much cash as they can get from you as they can




if i were to make my own phone, i would make it like a minature thing, very tiny, and no extra stuff, just a apower button and a number pad

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...AquaFox...

cyrnel

Cyn, I recall late 90's a couple cell engineers in the bay area set up vans with receiving equipment for all the carriers, and analysis equipment to watch the receivers. They then logged miles, gradually generating "true" coverage maps, and published those maps to the web.

There were maps from north of S.F. down through Monterey, around Sacramento, Walnut Creek, etc. The contrast vs. what carriers provided suggested in their brochures was insane, and included coverage level so you could tell where signal was weak. In my area at least, it corresponded beautifully with where I experienced dropped calls or other reception difficulty.

The site vanished after six months or so, about the same time AT&T was being hit by the big DC/NY class action stuff. (Not necessarily related, I'm just remembering the timeframe.) I don't have verification but word was the guys responsible received a large 7-figure payout to make the maps go away.

Beyond the annoying nickle & diming and lack of performance, what annoys me most is how the cell companies already play the same control game the media monsters (RI/MPAA) are creating. Even if a feature is built into our purchased hardware or media, we're unable to use it without paying by the moment. (i.e. $1/picture upload, $2+ ringsounds(!), disabling bluetooth, etc.) This absolutely kills the creative uses people come up with from combined technologies. My own experience with trying new tech in combination and seeing solutions grow from nothing to critical mass tells me this type of "bit metering" has damped untold killer applications like so much technology pesticide.

Tech is better these days, but in a way I prefer the absolute freedom we enjoyed during the 80's. Before big, tech-clueless money began imposing controls.

__________________
There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195

MooseMan3000

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=102089

I explained several reasons I think Cingular is the best out there, but Verizon is a close second. Verizon wins out in coverage by a very small margin, but they don't have the features or the technology that Cingular does.

Get Cingular, get a Motorola SLVR (that phone is fucking HOT), get it over with. You'll be happy.

SLVR:

Candybar form factor (as in non flip). Super thin, hot looking phone.
iTunes integrated (if you don't like iTunes, wait a few months for the SLVR L6, which will integrate a non-iTunes mp3 player) with 512 MB storage for 100 songs.
512 MB storage can be used for things besides songs: ring tones, wallpapers, videos (I can have a full two hour video on my phone if it's encoded right. And it doesn't look that bad, either.), pictures, etc.
.3 megapixel camera (which is pretty typical, unless you go real high end on the phones), which also records video.
Bluteooth. Need I say more?
Can use normal heaphones or included microphone/stereo headset - automatically pauses mp3s when a call comes in so you can answer. You can resume music after the call.
It's a Motorola - they're some of the best phones in the industry.
$150 with new two year contract, $350 without.


If you don't want Cingular, look into the Sprint A920. Also a very cool phone - similar features to the SLVR, only it's a flip phone. It has a screen on the outside, as well as media controls on the outside, so you can control the music without opening it. Doesn't come with 512 MB storage, though - you need to upgrade your TransFlash card if you want that much.
$150 with new two year contract, $300 without.

Or - and this is one of my favorite phones ever - the Samsung A800. A full 2 megapixel camera (and one of the nicest looking 2 megapixel cameras I've ever seen. If I didn't know better, I'd swear it was 3), with a phone built in. It's the best slider phone I've ever seen to boot. Unlike most exisitng slider phones, which feel like the slide opening was an afterthought, this thing was DESIGNED to slide, and it feels SO GOOD when you do it. I can literally spend 30 minutes just opening and closing this phone. The camera is even Pict-Bridge enabled, which means with a similarly enabled printer, you can connect the camera via usb and print directly, without ever touching a computer. Also functions as an mp3 player, but like the A920, only comes with a 32 MB TransFlash card. This phone is $350 with a new two year contract, $500 without.

Esen

I would suggest getting a phone that you can use a memory card with, this way you can do extra downloading and such.

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What is everyone doing in my room?