My 2-year-old Motorola RAZR will be eligible to retire Oct. 20th. It's time to start the research on the replacement.


Priorities (in order):

1) Must fit in pocket (cannot be too thick)
2) Calendar and planning functions; would be nice if synced via cellular network to a Microsoft Exchange account.
3) Quick/easy to type with
4) Internet Browser
5) Cost (<$60 per month service contract; perfer phone to be <$200 up front, negotiable though )
6) Email


Typing speed is critically important; I can type about 20 wpm on my RAZR with T9 enabled.

Lots of smart folks here with experience in this department.

All input welcome!! Blackberry, HTC, G1, etc???

I like my iPhone

I agree it best fits the bill; but I dont think I can afford the $100 per month charges.

Not sure on how much you talk, but my bill is not $100 per month.
I have 2 iphones and 1 blackjack. My phone had the international dialing and receiving package. My daughters Blackjack has unlimited texting and I pay $140.

< 400 minutes. 3000 or so texts per month.

!!!
100/day ?!?

Fast and efficient communication! That is why being able to type fast is ubber critical !

good spellin too

has everyone but me already switched to QWERTY keyboards on their phones?

Have you looked at the new G phone?

Yes! Looking for more price information!

And???? I have never seen one in person. So waiting with anticipation on your preview.

Mark

I assume you're talking about the Google/Tmobile G1 phone? It's not out until early Nov.

Iphone Costs:

450 minutes per month: $69.99 + $20.00 unlimited texting: $89.99 + tax.

Out of my price range at that rate.

I like my Moto Q9C from Sprint.

I pay $99 / month for the "Simply Everything" plan. Voice, text, e-mail, internet, GPS, and Sprint TV - all unlimited.

I've had the Q for about 9 months and haven't had one issue. Operates on Windows Mobile 6, veiws and edits word, excel, and powerpoint files, and will view only PDF's.
Syncs with Outlook or an Exchange Account.

Keith: I can Simply 400 or something to that effect from Sprint for $60 per month. Unlimited everything, 400 minutes.

Thought about the new HTC Touch Diamond or the HTC Touch Pro suppose to be coming out soon. Both operate WM6. Worried about typing on the Diamond. Pro might be too thick. Initial cost sucks too. $350 range.

Nervous about WM 6 though. How is your battery life? Crash? Is the email pushed or does the phone go get it?

I think I can get a T-mobile G1 for $65 per month!! 300 minutes but I think I can make that work.

Anyone have a Blackberry? How does the internet browser work?

I care very little about being able to open word documents. I need a CAPABLE browser though. 95% of the things I need are internet based applications. I want a phone capable of viewing these. Thoughts??? How is the wind-blows mobile IE browser? Does the Wind-blows mobile phone sync to an Apple computer? Anyone know?

Thanks for all of the input, please keep it coming. It is very helpful!

I haven't had any operating system issues, works great.
Sprint ships the Moto Q as "Q9-C" it is standard with the extended life battery. I am on my phone all day, thousands of minutes per month. I check and send e-mails 5-10 times a day, use excel a lot, and occaisionally jump on the net for something. I charge my phone every night and never ran out of battery power during the day.

Hmmm, e-amil pushed or does the phone get it...... Not sure of the difference. I use sbcglobal.net and Outlook, when I get an e-mail on the phone it leaves it on the server. There is an option when setting up the e-mail if you would like to have it deleted from server or not.

Couple Links
Sprint Users.com There are phone specific forums here

Moto Q9C Page


No WiFi built in though, you can get an SD card though.

Both the Diamond and Touch Pro should be nice phones. Your choice boils down to thinner but virtual keyboard vs. thicker with a real keyboard. I'd take either over a way too locked down iphone. I don't need Big Brother deciding for me whether I can have an app on my phone or not.

Whether your email gets pushed to the phone depends on what kind of mail server you have. If you have Exchange, then WM6 will do push out of the box.

I'm quite happy with my Palm Centro. Zero bling factor, but it is intuitive to use, works very efficiently, and you can find software to make it do just about anything a smartphone is capable of doing.

Missing Sync will allow a WM phone to sync with a Mac.

Safari is the best currently available mobile browser. Pocket IE and Blazer (Palm OS browser) work, but aren't in the same league. Opera (available on WM phones) is a work in process and shows a lot of promise.

Is Safari available on WM phones?

No, iphone only. Pocket IE and Opera are your two primary choices on WM (I think there are some obscure other browsers out there as well).

Thank you for your expertise! Very Very Veryyyyy helpful!

One other thing about WM is that it is very clunky to use out of the box. Doing things takes way too many steps that are usually far from intuitive. There are third party software shells like SPB that can improve that greatly, although HTC products like the Diamond/Touch Pro already have a better interface built in.

Good luck. There are a lot of nice phones out there right now, and the speed with which new ones are coming out is astounding. Phones are "old" after 3-4 months these days.

Because of that, if you want to go cheap, I've had good luck buying year old phones on ebay from people trading up to the latest phone, and avoiding the need to sign a two year contract with a cell phone company.

You bring up a very good point. I have yet to find anything that serves my purpose well. I'm not crazy about sinking a bunch of money into something that's not optimal.

I like the Instinct except it has 0 calendar qualities and a crappy browser. Perfect size, like the interface.

I love the iPhone, not bothered by them doing the app screening, but, not going to pay $95 per month!

Don't like the Blackberries or Palm OS. I like form and thats something these phones don't have. Touchscreens are great.

I hate the Pocket IE on the WM phones I have tried.

Looks like I might go into a holding pattern until something better rolls around. I need to find a store that has a function Diamond on display. The local Sprint store didn't have the phone powered. WTF?

I also might get a basic flip phone and pick up an iPod Touch for calendar/internet. If i'm on campus, I have WiFi access in most places.

My 2nd gen Nano is about dead anyway, so will be getting another iPod at some point near future anyway.

Thoughts on this approach?

I'm a big fan of one device personally. You only need one set of chargers/adaptors/cases etc. and don't have to haul two things around in your pocket. I'm about to buy my first ipod, but it's going to be strictly for use on the boat.

If you don't need a real keyboard, then the Diamond might be a good fit. It is still pretty new. I bet Sprint stores will have functional units soon. The Touch Flo interface HTC puts on their phones is pretty slick and really dresses up WM.

FWIW, unlike the Blackberry OS, Palm OS is touchscreen, and still has the best PIM function out there IMO, but if you want something that looks new and has a lot of flash, it isn't the OS for you.

It'd be nice to have access to internet even when i'm not around wireless. But, I doubt the new phone replaces my ipod, unless it's an iPhone. Still have to use two devices. I do walk around 5 miles per day around campus; thank you iPod!

I'll look for a Sprint store with a Diamond on display the next time i'm in KC. However, I tried an HTC Touch a couple months ago in a store. Yuck. That thing was impossible to type on!

Thank you for your input. The Palm OS is not flashy, but maybe I need to give it another look.

It's worth a look anyway. It is an OS that was originally designed 10 years ago, and it looks like it (think Win 3.1 look and feel). However, the people who designed it were really, really good at the human interface part of the equation, and it is a very user-friend OS to use. There are some really cool apps out there for it even though the OS is somewhat of an antique. I use Kinoma daily. It is a media program that connects to a server with links to thousands of radio stations/podcasts and allows you to stream them anywhere you have a data connection. I'm always finding something new and interesting to listen to. Every time I go on the boat, I consult Tide Tool for local tides, when I want to watch something on TV on the go, I open up Slingbox, when I'm on a plane, I catch up on Top Gear via video I've ripped to my storage card and watch on TCPMP, if I need to view or edit Office documents, I can do it with Docs to Go etc. etc. It is amazing how many things you can do with a phone these days.

My biggest beef with it is that it doesn't allow multitasking other than having music play in the background with the included .mp3 client (Ptunes) while you do other things. I find myself wanting to check email or look at something on the web while listening to a podcast on Kinoma, which isn't possible.