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

[chadbag]

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 am sure there are. But they are in the minority. Repeat buyers of the iPhone are very huge. But your best bet is to play with one yourself. It may or may not be for you.

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

Even most of the new blackberrys are touch screen as far as I know. Even if they also have a keyboard, the interface is touchscreen I think. Can't compete against the iPhone with little fake joysticks and stuff anymore.

[SteyrAUG]

I have one. And you're right it's probably the worst strictly phone I've ever had. and I'm in your AO so my experience is far more relevant to your situation than someone's experience elsewhere.

That is inline with the experiences of the other local users I've talked to. And I need a reliable phone more than I need a mobile device. I'm starting to lean heavily towards a Blackberry.

My wife has one and uses it all over Broward with no problems.

[chadbag]

I have one. And you're right it's probably the worst strictly phone I've ever had. and I'm in your AO so my experience is far more relevant to your situation than someone's experience elsewhere.

Just interested in what your criteria is for "strictly phone" experience is. Not trying to defend the iPhone and am not going to argue against whatever you say. I am just interested in how you are judging it. I find the iPhone the BEST phone experience I have had. Infinitely easier and more intuitive to do "phone" things on than any Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Motorola, or other brand of phone I have ever had (and I have had a lot as I am somewhat of a phone junkie -- my kids play with my SE v800 and my Nokia N95 and a Samsung flip of some sort and a motorola candybar of some sort that I have lying around). For me "phone" things are making and answering calls, contacts (and calling them and caller Id with them), putting phone on mute or people on hold, adding calls into conference, etc. All things most of my old phones could do but I rarely bothered as they were too cumbersome and things that I do regularly now with the iPhone.

So I am just wondering what you mean by "strictly phone" . If the problem is the network I am not sure that is a phone problem. (and do you have a case on it and are you holding it so as to get signal attenuation? Just wondering)

I promise I won't try to argue about whatever you say.

[QuietShootr]

I was a hardcore Blackberry fan until a month ago. I got a 3GS on the $50 deal from AT&T. I spent the first two weeks pissed off at it because it wasn't as tweakable as the Blackberry. No tethering, no changing text tones, no profiles, etc, etc......then the jailbreak came out for the new OS, and I did it. Holy shit - I went crazy in the Cydia store, and now this thing will do whatever I want. I can turn it into a wireless hotspot with two screen taps, I can sniff networks, I can use music for alarms, and more.

If you're not willing to mess with it a little bit, ymmv - but IMO, a jailbroken iPhone is about the most versatile thing you can carry around with you. I have the KAC BulletFlight app on there, which is the shit for serious rifle shooting, I have the SureFire shot timer....

I'm converted. As long as you can jailbreak it.

[John_Wayne777]

My take on cell phones:

Smart phones are really cool devices with almost endless functionality. How much you can get out of them depends on how much you know about tech and like to tinker with stuff.

I'm not a fan of the iPhone because of the network issue. I've had to lend my phone to a bunch of iPhone users so they could make a call because their network sucked. The phones themselves were cool. I've had very good service from my android-based Motorolla Droid. (The first generation) It does a lot of things very well...but as an actual phone it is so-so. It's not as clear or as robust in getting a signal as my now ancient Samsung SPH-A600. That's the case with most of the smart phones I've tried. Perhaps it's partially my old fashioned nature (I did, after all, use my Samsung for almost six years) but I've yet to find a "smart" phone that is as good at being a phone as my old relatively dumb phone. Trouble is, the dumb phones I've tried lately suck as being phones too.

As an all around device, however, (essentially a PDA that makes phone calls and lets me text) I'm happy with what I get out of my Droid. It spends most of its life sitting on a cradle in my office or hooked to the charger in my Charger. In the Charger it hooks up to my in-dash Pioneer F90BT using bluetooth, which is nice because it makes for completely hands free use of the phone. At the office if I won't be a great distance from the phone I'll use one of those bluetooth headset things to answer calls. That may be a good option for your shop.

All the neat doo-dads on the phone sucks power like you wouldn't believe. Leaving it on the cradle/charger most of the time ensures that I have enough battery for use in an emergency and has the added benefit of saving cycles on the battery, prolonging its life.

The lovely thing about smart phones is that most of them have enormous untapped capability if you are tech-savvy enough to do some minor hacks. The Android phones are based on a unix core that you can get root access to. Do the wrong thing and you can brick your phone, but you can usually recover from that by re-installing the phone's OS. If any of that sounds like greek to you, I'd suggest skipping the hacker mods.

The Blackberries are much more limited than the Android phones or the iPhone because of the design of the phone and the lack of a large app development effort for them, but many people swear that some of the Blackberries are the best on-the-go email machines available. I say "some" because some of them are truly horrid and unreliable. My brother, for example, was issued a BB as was the rest of his team and every phone they had was tits up inside of two months.

I have yet to encounter a Windows based phone that I cared for in the slightest. Some people love them...I've hated every one I've used with a passion because relatively simple tasks (like syncing it to an email server) are often difficult and spotty in the reliability department.

Based on what I've seen from looking at cell phones bought both individually and as a mass purchase, the people who are really into Blackberries and who get a good one seem to love them. Hence the nickname "crackberry". I'd suggest looking carefully at reviews online for the specific Blackberry you are looking at to ensure you aren't getting one of the dogs.

The iPhone users are generally very happy with their phones, even when they are sheepishly forced to borrow yours to make a call because their network sucks. (No idea if the Verizon iPhones are better) They also tend to become very familiar with their phone since they essentially have to disassemble it when the battery starts to die on them or when they crack the glass on the front of it. They will cheerfully explain to you how fantastic the iPhone is while its guts are strewn about the desk as they try to perform these tasks.

Android users seem to be very happy with their phones. About 1/4 of them have them so heavily modified that I think they may actually be able to steer satellites in space with them...but most I know with the Android phones spend their time texting, doing email, and playing Angry Birds until they get a phone call. They are very easy to use for the majority of tasks and provide enough headroom to make even the biggest tech geek on the planet happy.

For your situation I would recommend a good Android phone (and there are tons of them to choose from) or one of the good Blackberries. It think those are going to be your best shot for cell phone happiness...but a smart phone will take some adjustment from you no matter which way you go.

...Just don't lose a smart phone. People put their whole life on those things because they can, and when they get lost or stolen it can be a real problem.

[ChicagoTex]

All AT&T iphones are capable of tethering via USB or Bluetooth (don't know about the Verizon ones).

[ChicagoTex]

I have yet to encounter a Windows based phone that I cared for in the slightest. Some people love them...I've hated every one I've used with a passion because relatively simple tasks (like syncing it to an email server) are often difficult and spotty in the reliability department.

Up until a couple months ago, I would absolutely agree. Win 7 Mobile is a very different story from 6.x and below, however.

They also tend to become very familiar with their [iPhone] since they essentially have to disassemble it when the battery starts to die on them or when they crack the glass on the front of it.

In fairness, cracking the glass on any phone is going to require some disassembly the manufacturer didn't intend end users to do.
As to the battery issue - I agree, the integrated battery is probably the biggest drawback of the design and looks to be something Apple has no intention of remedying since they charge their customers $100 to replace the battery if it dies after 1 year. On the plus side, the battery in my 3GS has held up far better than any other phone I've owned. I'll be at the 2 year mark with it in the beginning of may, and by now my other phones would only last half as long as they did when new at full charge - by contrast, my iPhone is about 80% of what it was when new. This is the first phone I've owned that seems to be viable for continued use past the 2 year mark.

[variablebinary]

Windows Phone 7 is a kick ass OS. Spend 5 minutes with it and Android comes off as a half baked college student project, despite Android 2.2 being far more mature

And a person would have to be utterly out their skull to buy an iphone4 on any carrier at this time. iPhone5 is just weeks from being unveiled. WEEKS. Pass on iPhone4.

Android is Android. Good OS, but the user experience is weak compared to Apple iOS and WP7. Palm's WebOS also provides a much nicer user experience.

And think twice about getting a phone that doesnt work with 4G (LTE/Wimax/HSPA). A 4G phone can do anything a 3G phone can do, so you lose nothing even if there is no 4G in your area. However, if there is 4G in your area, you'll be missing out big time.

It's like going from cable back to dial-up.

And I can't emphasize how impressive WP7 really is. It's a dream to use, but it is still missing some features that some might regard as deal breakers.

[variablebinary]

That is inline with the experiences of the other local users I've talked to. And I need a reliable phone more than I need a mobile device. I'm starting to lean heavily towards a Blackberry.

My wife has one and uses it all over Broward with no problems.

Blackberry sucks. There are no benefits to buying a blackberry device over Android/iOS/WP7

Hell, I would rather get a Palm/HP Pre3 with WebOS 2.0 over anything made by Blackberry.

[John_Wayne777]

All AT&T iphones are capable of tethering via USB or Bluetooth (don't know about the Verizon ones).

Tethering is really more of a function of whether or not the phone itself will support it. Android phones can be tethered on Verizon. Because of that, Verizon has a limit on data transfers per month presumably to keep people from using their cell phone as their 24/7 internet access for computers at home.