Samsung F700 - THIS is my next phone.

Both 2G and 3G CDMA work in North America (which includes Mexico) and parts of Asia, South America and the former Soviet Union. Most of the non-North America CDMA world uses 3G CDMA. If you travel with CDMA make sure your handset is a 3G model.

There are a few odd areas in Europe that have limited CDMA service such as Portugal and Ireland, though they are on the 450MHz band that is not available on North American handsets. They are really GSM dominant countries.

Bottom line is that over 200 countries use GSM versus 81 countries, mostly in Asia that use CDMA of various types. Not all are compatible. One example is Nextel IDEN that runs over CDMA is not compatible with any other CDMA network. Another example is PCS. There are also frequency differences. AFAIK there is no CDMA handset that can communicate on all the CDMA frequencies unlike international GSM handsets that can.

Handset rental is very expensive at ~$8 per day plus a one time $15 delivery charge. Set up charges and usage charges are on top of that. Typical minutes rates are $2.

By contrast roaming in the EU with my AT&T GSM handset costs $2 per minute. If I purchase a prepaid SIM for the handset, there are no roaming charges because I have a local number. The SIM costs about $15 and the usage charge is ~$0.10 per minute. Once the SIM is purchased it is yours for future use. It can be easily recharged with additional minutes as necessary. I keep SIM cards for each country I visit on a regular basis.

Verizon is pretty much terrible on Long Island, Cingular is excellent here and in NYC.

Nooo dude, don't go to the dark side now..!! Not you!!

Heh, samsung blows but that's a personal viewpoint only. I reckon people like you deserve a lot better.:cool:

EDIT: Here, I just saw this:

http://www.nokia.co.uk/link?cid=PLAIN_TEXT_118948

Just take a look at this slide:

http://nseries.com/nseries/index.htm...ducts,n95,demo

Aint that just beautiful... :) I can't deny it tho, the samsung looks really cool.

I know that I'm the biggest Nokia whore on this forum, but my main phone isn't even Nokia anymore. The E series just isn't comparable to my Blackberry. I still have an 8800 and a 6230i though.
The N95 looks nice, especially with the 2-way slider thing, but the full keybord and huge touchscreen on the Samsung are way too tempting. Also, I'd say Samsung is the best brand for phones after Nokia. I can't remember a phone from them that wasn't good.

You never tried my wife's Samsung. ;)

Sitting on the same sofa I'll get a 4 bars signal on my Moto V635 and she'll get a no service indicator on her Samsung. She isn't here and I don't recall the model or I'd post it. It is ~2 years old. Same as my V635.

You really seem to have bad luck with technology. Samsung, IBM, etc...

The first Samsung phone I used for a while was the SGH-V200, which was the first decent flip phone as far as I can remember. That was 3-4 years ago. The most recent ones I used were the x830 and the P310. Both amazed me in terms of quality. Especially the P310 which, even though it is one of the smallest phones on the market, was incredibly well-built and had more features than most non-smartphones.

Actually her Samsung phone had good ratings. I think it is the area I'm in has far too much RF energy floating around.

People are still having trouble with what used to be IBM notebooks. Leveno has recalled many of them for batteries catching fire if they are dropped or the corner is bumped.

Overall most of the technology products I buy last a long time - even the notebook hard drives last now that the CPUs run cooler. My C2D T7200 runs between 30°C and 40°C, whereas my P4 Mobile 2GHz ran between 60°C and 70°C. That's a big difference and the high temps definitely had an effect on hard drive longevity.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PCJ

I know that I'm the biggest Nokia whore on this forum, but my main phone isn't even Nokia anymore. The E series just isn't comparable to my Blackberry. I still have an 8800 and a 6230i though.
The N95 looks nice, especially with the 2-way slider thing, but the full keybord and huge touchscreen on the Samsung are way too tempting. Also, I'd say Samsung is the best brand for phones after Nokia. I can't remember a phone from them that wasn't good.

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Yay just read in the other thread that you had a Blackberry, didn't know that hehe. That itself is like top notch.

But who can stop just there eh?! :p

The thing that excited me about the N95 was the 5 megapixel camera, but the Samsung also has that. Technologically they offer pretty much the same stuff, but I agree, that keyboard and the way it slides from the side rather than the bottom, that's unique and damn pretty as well. + touchscreen = no need for menu buttons and all that crap.

I take my words back lol, it's a good choice.

E-Ten X500 is my next phone

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ua549

Handset rental is very expensive at ~$8 per day plus a one time $15 delivery charge. Set up charges and usage charges are on top of that. Typical minutes rates are $2.

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What country are you basing those numbers on?

I rented a phone in Japan while I was there. It was $56 for 14 days of rental (what is that, like $4/day or so) and had FREE incoming calls. There was no delivery charge. In country outgoing rates were around $.90/min, international calls around $1.50/min.

I also rented a phone for a week in Mexico when I was in an area that CDMA didn't work (about 2 years ago). It was $30 for the week rental, again, had free incoming calls, and was about $1.30/min to call the US. No delivery charge.

I don't know about European rental costs.

Try renting a phone for 1 or 2 days and have the phone delivered to you in the USA before you start the trip. When I was working I was never in a country for a week - 1 or 2 days max. All of my figures are from the EU.

Does Japan still have no GSM whatsoever? I'll be in Tokyo for a week in April and renting a phone is a huge pain :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PCJ

Does Japan still have no GSM whatsoever? I'll be in Tokyo for a week in April and renting a phone is a huge pain :(

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You can put your GSM SIM in a rented phone if you want and use your own plan.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PCJ

Does Japan still have no GSM whatsoever? I'll be in Tokyo for a week in April and renting a phone is a huge pain :(

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yes, GSM still works, but you need a quad band phone.

i did this with my samsung D600 in october last year.

OK, I have a quad band phone. Good :)