[godlessdustin]

With my job I get a discount from AT&T I believe it is 10%.And here in my town AT&T is going to be putting in a 3G network, whatever that is. So I feel like I need to upgrade from my prepaid stuff and get me a cool new phone with internet and music and a microwave oven and whatever else cool stuff they are putting on them these days. I mostly just wanna get on the internet while Im suposed to be working. I think the Iphones look cool but I keep hearing bad things. I also keep hearing good things about blackberrys. So ya'll tell me what you think the bestest, coolest, most badass phones are. Personal experience would be great. An Idea of prices would be great too.

 

[kevron2020]

Short Answer: It's faster, so that it can handle internet better.

Long Answer:
3G is the third generation of standards and technology, superseding 2.5G. It is based on the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) family of standards under the IMT-2000.[1]

3G networks enable network operators to offer users a wider range of more advanced services while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency. Services include wide-area wireless voice telephony, video calls, and broadband wireless data, all in a mobile environment. Additional features also include HSPA data transmission capabilities able to deliver speeds up to 14.4 Mbit/s on the downlink and 5.8 Mbit/s on the uplink.

Unlike IEEE 802.11 networks, which are commonly called Wi-Fi or WLAN networks, 3G networks are wide-area cellular telephone networks that evolved to incorporate high-speed Internet access and video telephony[2]. IEEE 802.11 networks are short range, high-bandwidth networks primarily developed for data.

No, I didn't type that out.. I stole it off the internet. I personally don't see the point in all the fansy stuff on phones... I used to have texting.. while it was nice, at times it was more of a pain than just talking to someone. Now internet and such, while you can do it, I have heard of problems with people trying to actually surf the net on their phone. (I don't have it so this is just from what I have been told by my friends that spend WAY to much money on their phone plan)

 

[edub]

With my job I get a discount from AT&T I believe it is 10%.And here in my town AT&T is going to be putting in a 3G network, whatever that is. So I feel like I need to upgrade from my prepaid stuff and get me a cool new phone with internet and music and a microwave oven and whatever else cool stuff they are putting on them these days. I mostly just wanna get on the internet while Im suposed to be working. I think the Iphones look cool but I keep hearing bad things. I also keep hearing good things about blackberrys. So ya'll tell me what you think the bestest, coolest, most badass phones are. Personal experience would be great. An Idea of prices would be great too.

3G is essentially a faster over-the-air internet. The iPhones are ok. My friend has one and already had to get 2 since the screens became non-responsive touch wise. I personally don't like Apple and their App store, so I would never get one. I currently have an HTC Touch Diamond that runs windows mobile 6.5. I love WM 6.5, it's a nice step up from WM 6.1.

Crackberrys are nice. I had a BB Pearl and really liked it. The internet browsing was decent but the screen was a little small for my taste. You can get the Pearl for free-$50 depending on the contract you sign. The BB 8300's are pretty nice as well, my sister has the BB Tour - which is the GSM/CDMA version of the phone which is really nice for traveling overseas.

If I was going for a touchscreen I would look at a phone running Windows Mobile, and if you went BB pretty much any of the BB phones ATT carries are decent (Pearl, Bold, Curve, etc...). I see ATT now has the HTC Pure, personally, that would be my choice. I have had really great luck with the HTC name brand. My Touch Diamond even has a built-in GPS receiver and WiFi.

 

[HiPoint45]

A little over a year ago I upgraded to a smartphone windows mobile standard (which means no touchscreen basically) I too don't think phones need to be fancy in fact I just ponied up for unlimited texting on all our phones because i find the daughter who is still at home is much more likely to text than call to let us know what she's doing. I do not pay the extra $ to Verizon for ANYTHING, which is one of the reasons I got the smartphone..not to do internet on it (again I won't pay the "data plan" charge) but because through a little surfing and downloaded I can get free ,with a capital FREE, games,apps etc and I just flashed it to the latest windows mobile 6.1 and the phone now has a notes app built in and does some other cool things so I'm quite happy with it. tThey have more bells and whistles than a standard cell and I don't use it for what it's intended for and probably never will unless verizon gets their head out of you know where and makes it reasonable for someone on a family plan to get internet etc instead of trying to charge me for every capability of the phone. That said I will always upgrade in the smartphone category from now on because of all I can do myself on the phone. For instance I have all the powder manufacturers pdf load data catalogs right on my phone,becase it has adobe mobile reader included, for easy reference when at the LGS. I don't know the brands AT&T carries but I think they have some HTC phones and they make mine so I recommend that brand cause it's been a good phone for me.

 

[godlessdustin]

Yeah I want something with GPS too.

 

[edub]

I don't know the brands AT&T carries but I think they have some HTC phones and they make mine so I recommend that brand cause it's been a good phone for me.

I agree.

I should mention my family uses Sprint and we have unlimited everything on our plan (Internet, texting, pic mail, e-mail, etc...) and for 3 phones and we shared 2000 minutes we pay $101.27 total each month. That's pretty good considering we used to pay $103 for 500 shared minutes and only 500 texts on two phones.

 

[edub]

Yeah I want something with GPS too.

Any modern phone has the GPS capability - you usually have to pay extra for it. It essentially works through triangulation.

Most HTC phones have a built-in receiver which you can use w/ third-party for free.

 

[HiPoint45]

Yeah I want something with GPS too.

Any modern phone has the GPS capability - you usually have to pay extra for it. It essentially works through triangulation.

Most HTC phones have a built-in receiver which you can use w/ third-party for free.

Except if you're on verizon (having an essential monoploy in most of my state I really have no other choice) they disabled the GPS so i would have to pay for thiers if I wanted it and even though my phone with other carriers had wi-fi built in, for the verizon release ,...nope..it's gone. Gad I wish verizon would just go to an unlimited everything I'd sign up for that in a hot minute..they just don't seem to get it..they try to nickle and dime ya and lose sales in the process. Anyway sorry for the slight thread hijack but I do recommend an HTC smartphone.

 

[edub]

^ That's why if your phone physically has the capability but it's locked, you flash your phone with software that unlocks it. I did that for my friend's alltel phone.

 

[HiPoint45]

Yeah if I really needed GPS I might, but I have yet to find a location I can't navigate to with an Atlas Flashing the phone makes me nervous, it fubar'd on the first 6.1 upgrade flash and i had to jump through some hoops to go back to a prev version and flash it again, I came close to having a useless piece of hardware so I'm not that keen on flashing it for something I wouldn't use anyway.

 

[Space]

WAIT!

Walmart just started it's own cell phone plan and cell phone companies will need to lower their prices real soon.

Unlimited voice,texting and data for $45/month with no contract. Backbone is hosted by Verizon.

http://www.huliq.com/1/87665/walmart-cell-phone-plans-prepaid-no-contracts

If you want a different vendor, may make sense to wait a bit. Rumors are that the other major carriers are going to drastically lower their prices soon.

 

[Raygam]

I have Sprint as a provider and I have the HTC Mogul. Its a few years old but I would recommend any of the HTC phones with windows mobile. I compress movies and can watch them on my phone (mostly I use that for the kids while waiting for a table or something, they can watch Ice Age and be content). I have music on it and use it as an MP3 player, there are lots of 3rd party GPS applications out there for street navigation (I use Iguidance myself), I also have an application called Beeline GPS that turns the phone in to a hand held GPS receiver. As for internet browsing I use Skyfire. It allows you to view web pages like a computer browser (most sites will direct you to a mobile version of their site) this gives you full access just like a PC. I love my phone, I like the qwerty keyboard, I like being able to see weather radar on the road, view and send email (plus attachments, the windows mobile phone have word, excel, powerpoint). The smartphones are a little bulkier but the tradeoff is worth it to me.

I haven't used a Iphone so I cant compare or comment on them.

 

[edub]

WAIT!

Walmart just started it's own cell phone plan and cell phone companies will need to lower their prices real soon.

Unlimited voice,texting and data for $45/month with no contract. Backbone is hosted by Verizon.

http://www.huliq.com/1/87665/walmart-cell-phone-plans-prepaid-no-contracts

If you want a different vendor, may make sense to wait a bit. Rumors are that the other major carriers are going to drastically lower their prices soon.

TracFone helped WM develop this plan. TracFone is crap. Also, they don't know the speed of the web service yet. If it's anything like Boost Mobile's web service, I would avoid it like the H1N1 Flu. Essentially, if it's not a 3G network, it'll be slow as hell.

 

[neothespian]

Speaking as someone who owns a Windows Phone and who had an iPhone, let me sum it up:

If you're of the mentality of a 14 year old, and like shiny things and "apps" that are little more than web based time wasters and don't really use your phone for work, you'll LOVE the iPhone, especially when daddy pays for it.

If you actually USE your phone for work, get a Windows or Blackberry phone.

The iPhone JUST got the ability to send picture messages....2 YEARS after it was released! The Moto RAZR could do that...in 2001.

You can only run one app at a time on an iPhone. A windows or blackberry phone allows you to switch apps at hand and run text messages, email programs, browse the web and run office apps all at the same time, and switching between them is pretty damned easy.

Also, the iPhone has yet to come out with a decent editor for windows office documents. Yet, windows mobile comes with an entire mobile office suite! And, with most 6.1 and nearly all 6.5 windows mobile phones, full-web browsing is automatic now And, with 6.5 you really don't have to compress any data files because they've improved the media player. Soon, I hear they may be pushing forth an upgrade to the Zune media player for their phones, and let me tell you: THAT would make a windows phone very nice.

Another thing is the camera: The iPhone uses a 1.3MP camera. To put that in perspective: The new HTC's coming out on almost every carrier have at LEAST a 3 to 5mp camera. One or two even have 8 to 10mp!!

And, the iPhone doesn't have removable memory, so you gotta use iTunes EVERY TIME to get stuff on or off your phone. And, it doesn't transfer files via bluetooth. Oh, and forget getting an extended life battery, because you cannot remove the battery on an iPhone!!!

There is also a HUGE explosion of phones coming out (about 12 this year!) with the Google "Android" OS. I've heard it's pretty good, and has alot of the same features as Windows Mobile, but I have yet to use it.

But, do your research online. Check out tech blogs like engadget.com and cnet.com for the newest of the new phones coming out. Because alot of times the cell phone stores only carry half of what the company REALLY offers in the store. So, you have to do your research because the perfect phone for you may have to be ordered, but it's soooo worth it to get the right device.

 

[neothespian]

WAIT!

Walmart just started it's own cell phone plan and cell phone companies will need to lower their prices real soon.

Unlimited voice,texting and data for $45/month with no contract. Backbone is hosted by Verizon.

http://www.huliq.com/1/87665/walmart-cell-phone-plans-prepaid-no-contracts

If you want a different vendor, may make sense to wait a bit. Rumors are that the other major carriers are going to drastically lower their prices soon.

TracFone helped WM develop this plan. TracFone is crap. Also, they don't know the speed of the web service yet. If it's anything like Boost Mobile's web service, I would avoid it like the H1N1 Flu. Essentially, if it's not a 3G network, it'll be slow as hell.

Companies liek TracFone, Boost, and MetroPCS/Cricket do NOT have their own network. They lease bandwith on towers owned by compaines like Verizon and AT&T. So, when their bandwidth is exceeded, that's when calls get dropped. ALL of the prepaid compaines function like this, so they don't have to put up cash to maintain their own network. In truth you're using either a Sprint, Verizon or AT&T cell network when you use a prepaid phone by any other name

 

[godlessdustin]

Thanks guys, keep the info coming.

 

[yunggunz87]

blackberry touch or I would go with the Iphone just for badassness level. I have a touchscreen I love it its no I phone but it still does everything I want it to holds lots of music has extra storage cards does internet watch movies Its a Samsung Delve.

 

[neothespian]

blackberry touch or I would go with the Iphone just for badassness level. I have a touchscreen I love it its no I phone but it still does everything I want it to holds lots of music has extra storage cards does internet watch movies Its a Samsung Delve.

The iPhone is actually very underpowered and not that badass. When it comes to processor speed, it actually is BELOW most smartphones. Also, if you get an iPhone, be ready to pay an extra 35 a month because they REQUIRE you to sign up for not only a data plan, but an "exclusive" iPhone data plan.

Seriously, check out some of AT&T's new Windows 6.5 phones coming out this month, and you'll be wondering why the iPhone is so great. It's slow, limiting... OH! And if you're planning on getting windows 7, I'd hold off on that iPhone. Rumors are that Apple is purposely dragging it's feet on 64 bit Windows OS patches. I STILL can't use an iPhone with my 64 bit laptop.

 

[yunggunz87]

blackberry touch or I would go with the Iphone just for badassness level. I have a touchscreen I love it its no I phone but it still does everything I want it to holds lots of music has extra storage cards does internet watch movies Its a Samsung Delve.

The iPhone is actually very underpowered and not that badass. When it comes to processor speed, it actually is BELOW most smartphones. Also, if you get an iPhone, be ready to pay an extra 35 a month because they REQUIRE you to sign up for not only a data plan, but an "exclusive" iPhone data plan.

Seriously, check out some of AT&T's new Windows 6.5 phones coming out this month, and you'll be wondering why the iPhone is so great. It's slow, limiting... OH! And if you're planning on getting windows 7, I'd hold off on that iPhone. Rumors are that Apple is purposely dragging it's feet on 64 bit Windows OS patches. I STILL can't use an iPhone with my 64 bit laptop.

damn didnt know all that. Ive played with my lil brothers a couple times it seemed cool but I personaly wouldnt buy one. Also Ive heard china is so far more advanced than we are with our communications tech. that they give the iphones away for free.

 

[wickedwd5000]

Yeah I want something with GPS too.

i just got a phone with gps. no fecking idea how to use it. LOL