i need a new phone.

[leah]

i know maybe this would be a better fit for tech support, but i think there's more traffic here (well, for as much traffic as there is in NT anyway hehe).

anyway, my contract is up at alltel and i would really like to get a new phone and/or plan. currently i have some early iteration of the motorola razr, and i love it dearly but it's kind of falling apart. i'll probably hold on to it, actually, just to use the alarm clock--best cell phone alarm clock EVER!! five different alarms, each with snooze.

but i digress. i have a pretty basic plan (500 anytime minutes, free mobile-to-mobile and nights/weekends, plus 1000 text messages) and my bill is $72.67 per month. i don't even come close to using all 500 minutes most months, but there are times i nudge the 1000-message limit.

since i'm such an avid texter, obviously, i'd really like to look into something with a QWERTY keyboard, but i'm not sure if that will involve getting a smartphone or if there's something decent and non-smartphoney. i'm also not sure if i really need internet capabilities, though i'm sure if they were available, i would use them.

my point:

PLAN: i need something with good texting allowances but very basic minutes. internet access would be cool but is not a requirement.

PHONE: i want a QWERTY keyboard, a solid alarm clock, and easy-to-use interface.

CARRIER: i'm with alltel now but would consider moving to another carrier if it was cheaper and offered me more.

HELP? thanks guys

[Ginzburgh]

LG VX11000 (EnV Touch) comes out soon:

http://www.mobilewhack.com/lg-vx11000-p ... env-touch/

I have the predecessor, the LG Voyager and I love it. I need flip open QWERTY keyboard with buttons as opposed to touch screen texting, which sucks in my opinion.

[Gypsiyee]

and my bill is $72.67 per month.

good golly.

I have t-mobile, and my contract is up and I keep telling myself I'm going to cancel it, but I don't want to cancel it until I get an iphone, which is not in the money-cards right now. My bill comes out to be about 45 a month, and my plan is even more basic - 300 anytime, 5000 nights and weekends or something like that. I hate t-mobile, and I hate my razr. I never want to see a razr again for as long as I live - worst phone I've ever owned.. no wonder it was free with my contract.

Jonathan, on the other hand, does have an iphone. With unlimited data (which is required to buy) 1000 texts, and 1000 anytime (more than ample for what he uses it for) it's only 75 a month. We get a 15% discount since I work with the DoD, but that just means we get the taxes and fees cut off.

I would check Verizon for you.. they just put some LG phone within your criteria buy one get one free or something like that out.. they seem to have the best deals. Only reason I was with T-mobile is because I didn't care and D-Wade made me laugh in his commercials. Only reason Jonathan has AT&T is because they had the iphone.

I sure miss US Cellular

[leah]

i was thinking of switching to verizon with a Connect plan and this: http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/stor ... oneId=3726 (it's an LG enV 2 if the link doesn't work) . . . but it still looks like about $75 per month.

[Lyion]

Verizon's site has a cool menu that will let you customize your plan. You can get a basic account with 500 texts for about 45 bucks.

http://www.verizonwireless.com

They have free phone deals most of the time, also. Do you play music, do you want a camera, too?

All phones can do base browsing now. Pocket PCs are also mini computers, and there are some really nice features for those. You don't need a data plan to use one.

Also, if you want to keep your plan, you can swap your phone out for a new one without a new contract. I've gone through three phones on my Verizon account, all you need is to change the ESN, which is the serial number on the back,

This is the plan that'd work for you. Another option is to stop by a Verizon or Sprint Kiosk and have them give you their best deals

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/stor ... &catId=808

[Dylan]

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/stor ... oneId=4686

I just picked one of these up like two days ago, it only comes in gray which kind of sucks but it is virtually impossible to "butt-dial" with it which is why I picked it over the enV.

Plus it folds out in two different ways, one way for texting and the other for calls.

[10sun]

I have unlimited texting w/ Verizon & 2000 anytime / unlimited nights & weekends.
I'm somewhere around $40 a month for my share (we came up with a formula where there is a base of $20 and the rest of the bill is split based upon your percentage of minutes used).
I'm not sure how keen you are on the idea of sharing a plan with say Mr. Boifriend and some family members, but it generally works out just fine... I say generally because one month my sister used something like 4000 minutes and yeah... that bill sucked. Without overages our bill is around $150 a month.

As far as phones go, choose that after you settle on your carrier because some phones don't work on some networks as I'm sure you are aware. For Verizon, I've got an Audiovox 6600 or something. It is a PocketPC, so it isn't some slim little thing that just slips into your skin tight jeans, but it has both an on-screen keyboard & a slide out qwerty keyboard that you can use in addition to a metric fuckton of features.

[leah]

agh it makes me mad that none of the links work i'd be OK with sharing a plan with mr. bf but he's currently on a plan with his mom and bro i think, so i'm not sure it'd be any more economical for him.

dylan what kind of phone did you link? i'd love to avoid butt-dialing . . .

[Harrison]

My phone does an assload of butt-dialing.

My girlfriend has had a lot of hilarious phone calls I was unaware of. Thankfully I'm not the type of man who has anything to hide.

[Tikker]

agh it makes me mad that none of the links work i'd be OK with sharing a plan with mr. bf but he's currently on a plan with his mom and bro i think, so i'm not sure it'd be any more economical for him.

dylan what kind of phone did you link? i'd love to avoid butt-dialing . . .

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/stor ... oneId=4686

samsung Alias 2

[Harrison]

I have the slightly dated Motorola Q.

WM5 and it does enough for me.

Plus it plays SNES like a charm.

[Jennay]

Leah, I have Verizon and am very happy with them. I had an LG Voyager (verizon's version of an iphone) but I killed it in an unfortunate gatorade incident. So I got a Blackberry Curve 8330 a few weeks ago and friggin' love this phone. To me its worth paying a bit more for a data plan. I guess it depends where you live though. In some places Verizon sucks and T-mobile is great. Some friends swear by AT&T. Its up to you

[Gidan]

I love my iPhone, granted I needed a phone with a full web client that support javascript as well as wifi and a VPN client.

[leah]

harrison, i was looking at the Q! i love motorolas. so you love it, eh?

jen, i think verizon would be really good here since verizon just bought alltel and there are tons of alltel towers in these parts hehe i'm not sure i'd know what to do with a blackberry though! i may not be fancy enough.

that alias thing was not at all what i was expecting. intriguing!

[Harrison]

Hindsight is 20/20.

I would have gotten a newer phone if I knew what I did now. But in all honesty it only lacks in the sense it doesn't play the games I want it to. This is most likely irrelevant to you.

Otherwise, the phone is great. A bit of a short battery life, but I'd imagine you'd not be far from a plug or vehicle for longer than 6 hours at a time.

I'm a huge nerd

It browses the web as well as I need it to. *shrug*

I can't complain too much.

[Darcler]

Leah, I have Verizon and am very happy with them. I had an LG Voyager (verizon's version of an iphone) but I killed it in an unfortunate gatorade incident. So I got a Blackberry Curve 8330 a few weeks ago and friggin' love this phone. To me its worth paying a bit more for a data plan. I guess it depends where you live though. In some places Verizon sucks and T-mobile is great. Some friends swear by AT&T. Its up to you

I have the step down from this phone. I lurve it. I'm not fancy either, leah, but I like the qwerty and stuffs. However, if you want to avoid butt dialing, avoid this phone.

Oh and I love AT&T. We've been with them for 4 years or something. Towers everywhere. Good plan prices etc.

[Jay]

I've owned Blackberrys for the past few years and I love em. Great for work and also gives you instant facebook and MySpace notifications if you're into that sort of thing. I wouldn't mind owning an iPhone but I'm not a fan of AT&T and I'm not sure if I could continue my professional life if I had YouTube access 24/7.

[Jennay]

What Jay said about the Blackberry. There's all sorts of free apps to put on your phone. I can do everything on it. Check my email, facebook, myspace, AIM, stocks, weather, traffic, free internet radio, watch Youtube videos, etc. For my phone book, it automatically pulls a picture of the person from Facebook and syncs it with their phone # so when someone calls me their picture comes up. I got a 4gb little micro sd chip for it so it also works as a camera, video camera, voice recorder and mp3 player. The sound quality is awesome too. And I'm not schmancy by all means lol.

[Jennay]

Oh, Jay.. the app for the youtube thing is called Xenozu or something like that. You can find it in the app world top downloads if you search for it. It won't say youtube.

[Xaiveir]

I have Verizon, and got the blackberry storm. Absolutely love it, comes highly recommended.

[brinstar]

get a phone that makes and receives calls

[Drem]

this thread makes me think about the dennis leary commercial for hulu and the conan o'brien commercial about television

[Tikker]

it's nice to have everything in 1 device

if I could have a phone, camera, pc, gps, and video game handheld all in 1, i'd be ecstatic

[Drem]

so you can share it on your bliggity blogs and your faceyspaces and your tweety pages with all your anti-bookworm boobytube friends

[leah]

sooo, i went down to alltel to look at the blackberry and the env in person and decided that the env had a much better keyboard for my giant fingers, so i went that way. i really like it so far! and the data plan i'm on (via verizon now) really isn't any more expensive than the plan i was on previously, so it's cool. plus i'm going to make jorsh get a family plan with me soon, so it'll be even cheaper. hooray!