Best Cell Phone That Doesn't Suck...?

[Mark71]

no iPhone4. Avoid like AIDS

As someone who is looking to upgrade to the Verizon iPhone can you please tell me why? I am not very tech savvy and have not done my homework on the Verizon phone yet.

Thanks

[subzero]

Probably because a new iPhone will be out in a few months, and people who just bought a Verizon iPhone (particularly those who paid big money to get out of their ATT contracts) are going to be kicking themselves for buying at a bad time in the product release cycle.

I don't think it's that big a deal, personally. The 4 will still be a good phone when the 5 comes out.

VB is also a big 4G fan. Notice none of his picks are 3G phones.

OP: check out the Engagdet and CNet reviews for whatever hardware you think you might be interested in. I find they're pretty good at picking up on details that make a difference.

FWIW if I had to buy a phone right now, I'd go with an iPhone (preferably on Verizon) or a TMobile G2.

[Hmac]

AT&T works well in this rural vacation area. They have a reliable network with excellent 3G coverage. My wife's iPhone works great on that network, as does my iPad. But I'm locked into Verizon for cell phone because the buildings where I work are all wired for it and AT&T doesn't get any reception inside.

After years of suffering through a variety of Windows Mobile devices and more recently a series of extraordinarily sucky Blackberries, I switched to the iPhone 4. So far, that phone has exceeded my expectations both as a mobil device and as a phone. AT&T 's network has some advantages, but I'm confident in both Verizon and Apple that they will keep improving the system and equipment. Especially in this area, I see suspect that there will be more rapid network improvement with Verizon. When the iPhone 5 comes out in June, I'll sell the 4 and get the 5.

[ChicagoTex]

Sprint: Evo, Epic 4G

Verizon: Thunderbolt (no iPhone4. Avoid like AIDS)

AT&T: Atrix, or iPhone5 in summer

T-Mobile: HD7, Samsung Galaxy S 4G

A good friend of mine does end-user and business-level support for Verizon Wireless out of their corporate office in Greenville, SC and he tells me that he sees more hardware problems/failures with HTCs than any other brand they sell (though he says LGs are close). This corroborates well with a couple other friends of mine who had HTC Tilts with AT&T, both of whom had to replace their phones before even hitting the 1 1/2 year mark (one began dropping calls constantly and the battery suffered a sudden sharp decline of charge capability to the point where it was only good for 12 minutes of standby time, the other had the bottom half of the display go dead, neither were ever dropped or otherwise damaged).

Therefore I'd personally vote the Evo, Thunderbolt, and HD7 off that list.

I had two AT&T phones in this area before the iPhone. There are some areas where they all drop calls (like driving past the dump on the Turnpike). The iPhone drops calls for no reason, with no predictability. Others 'round here with the phones report the same issues. Unless we all bought on the same day and an entire truck of defective phones arrived locally all at once, it is not a lemon issue. Besides which I ordered mine direct and others bought theirs at the stores.

Fair enough. Do you know if non-iPhone smart users have dropped calls issues as well? I have a sneaking suspicion your local towers may be botching the data/voice juggle.

Your contributions highlight a valuable truth about wireless communication - namely, that it's largely a crapshoot and that there's nothing more valuable than the experiences of people in your area, on your (potential) network, with your new would-be phone.

[Smuckatelli]

Getting ready to dump my land line.

Check provider coverage first. Cellphone company X could provide the best coverage for your house but not where you spend most of your time each day.

Think about roaming charges for when you go out of a covered area.

Check with friends & co-workers, see if there is a company a higher percentage of them use. Some sevices wont charge for calls within thier 'system.'

[chadbag]

Check provider coverage first. Cellphone company X could provide the best coverage for your house but not where you spend most of your time each day.

Think about roaming charges for when you go out of a covered area.

In the modern world, roaming charges pretty much don't exist. I know with both the T-Mobile plan I had before I got the iPhone and with AT&T since, you can basically use it nationwide without roaming charges. AT&T (and I presume the other carriers) make deals with the smaller carriers that cover some parts of the country and AT&T includes it all with your basic phone. The one caveat is that the majority of your time needs to be spent in your home area. Ie, they won't sell you a phone in Dallas when you use the phone mostly in Orlando. This does not preclude lots of outside home area use.. It just means that if they spot a trend over a longer time that most of the use is outside the home area they may start to ask question.

I have never been charged roaming with AT&T even when using the phone on another carriers system inside the US. Same with T-Mobile before I switched.

---

with regards dropped calls:

At least on the iPhone you can tell if your phone dropped the call or if the other end dropped the call. If you dropped the call you will get a message on the phone about "Call Failed" and some buttons to push to try again etc. If the call failed on the other end, it will just hang up the same as if someone hung up the other end.

My brother has T-Mobile and in certain parts of his house like the basement the signal gets iffy and he drops. So I have lots of experience with the other end dropping and what happens.

I have gotten the call failed thing a small handful number of times only myself here in Utah on AT&T. I read that people in San Francisco and NYC and I experienced it myself at the SHOT Show a year ago in Las Vegas have problems with connections due to over saturated subscriptions in their areas.

My iPhone 4 seems to get slightly better reception than my iPhone 3GS did in some outlying areas but I have not really noticed any major differences. Maybe because of the way I hold it or now I have the bumper "case" on the iPhone 4 so I get less signal attenuation.

Check with friends & co-workers, see if there is a company a higher percentage of them use. Some sevices wont charge for calls within thier 'system.'

[chadbag]

If the iPhone 4 does what you need it to do, there is no reason to avoid the iPhone 4. It will not magically stop working in a few months when and if (mostly when, I don't doubt it will happen) a newer model phone is released.

However, Apple has a history of lunching a new model iPhone every summer. If you can wait until then to make your switch, or buy a used crap phone now for a few bucks and get on with AT&T or Verizon now so that you can upgrade to the new iPhone this summer, that would allow you to ride the next wave of phones. No one knows if the next upgrade is going to be a super major one or more minor like the 3G-3GS upgrade was. If it is minor, getting the iPhone 4 now will put you closer to upgrade time in 2012 for the next and probably 4G version of the iPhone, but if the iPhone 5 this summer is a big deal you would be waiting longer...

[Smuckatelli]

In the modern world, roaming charges pretty much don't exist. I know with both the T-Mobile plan I had before I got the iPhone and with AT&T since, you can basically use it nationwide without roaming charges. AT&T (and I presume the other carriers) make deals with the smaller carriers that cover some parts of the country and AT&T includes it all with your basic phone. The one caveat is that the majority of your time needs to be spent in your home area. Ie, they won't sell you a phone in Dallas when you use the phone mostly in Orlando. This does not preclude lots of outside home area use.. It just means that if they spot a trend over a longer time that most of the use is outside the home area they may start to ask question.

I have never been charged roaming with AT&T even when using the phone on another carriers system inside the US. Same with T-Mobile before I switched.

Roaming charges in Europe are a bear except if you have T-Mobile......

[chadbag]

Roaming charges in Europe are a bear except if you have T-Mobile......

I can believe that! Not only do you have a lot of carriers in what is really a small country area-wise compared to the US, you have lots of countries with different sets of carriers.

Luckily here in the US, the big nationwide carriers take care of the agreements and don't charge you to roam (in most cases -- it is possible that some small East BFE County Carrier somewhere in the middle of no where has not inked an agreement but I have yet to run into one including a few travels by car across the country on I80 and I40).

[SteyrAUG]

1. There are countless phones besides the iPhone that can surf the web well. I'd generally suggest you stick with Windows 7 Mobile or Android for alternatives though. You'll find a few here who like Blackberrys because they do a lot of emailing, but for web-surfing it's pretty weak.

2. Why do you think the iphone sucks as a cell phone? Mine's been infinitely better than any of the dozen or so phones I've owned in the past simply as a phone and I'm not aware of any other iphone owners who are particularly unhappy with their phone capabilities (they may, however, be unhappy with their network).

A lot of iphone owners I know hate their iphones, but as you mentioned it could be their networks. I'm just now learning about the various options.

I personally hate touch screens, so maybe a blackberry is my best option. I probably will email more than I surf.