What cell phone/service do you have?

[ua549]

I need some advice on a new phone. Currently I have a Blackberry Curve which is paid for by my current employer. I will be moving to Atlanta and need to purchase my own phone. The company will reimburse me, but it has to work with MS Outlook. I'm also given $100/month for phone and data services.

Is the new iPhone a good choice? What other options are there? What's the best company at this point that has nice phones and a good data plan? Again, I will be in the Atlanta area so I'm not sure which companies are strong there.

I use a GSM phone (AT&T or T-mobile networks in USA) and never have an issue in Atlanta and surrounding areas. If you travel to EUR you need GSM since they don't have CDMA (Verizon, etc.) IMO the iPhone is overpriced unless you specifically want the media player functionality.

The best thing to do is talk to users in the area you'll be since coverage can be very spotty. My sister has Verizon and gets good reception at my house. My next door neighbor has to go outdoors to get a Verizon signal.

[ImaNihilist]

New iPhone 2.0 software is pretty good. Some really nice geolocation applications.

[proxops-pete]

New iPhone 2.0 software is pretty good. Some really nice geolocation applications.

Too bad the battery life is not too practical!

[mikeysg]

I'd gotten a Samsung Omnia a couple of weeks ago, it's similar to the iPhone but has a few added features. It has A2DP for one, something that's lacking in the iPhone IIRC, NavPhone function and a host of other features. Here's a link to the phone, I'll be back with some pics -
http://samsungomnia.com/
A short youtube intro of the phone -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGcatrxh2vA

I'm using the 16GB model, plus I can add a max of 8GB microSD card later for a total of 24GB for storage. It's certified to play DivX/Xvid/H.264/WMV/MP3.....DivX movies need not be compressed to smaller screen size for it to run. I'd ripped The Golden Compass at standard 640x480 and I was able to play it on this phone.

Edit - BTW, it's not Symbian 60 based, rather, it's a Windows Mobile 6.1 phone, so for those who don't like Windows Mobile, you won't like this. I find it somewhat harder to use simply becuz I've used Nokia's Symbian based phones for years now, so w/o question I'd find Windows Mobile based phones somewhat hard to use, but I'm getting there.......a little later than normal cuz I'm a slow learner.

[ImaNihilist]

Too bad the battery life is not too practical!

It's beyond not practical. It's HORRIBLE. 3.5-4hrs Internet/web app use. The problem is that once you kill that, you don't have a phone.

It will only be a truely epic phone for me if they can double battery life with the next model.

[PCJ]

Yeah, the whole thing of not having a phone kind of scares me. Nonetheless, I'll probably buy one once I'm in England. Somehow they managed to get better plans than America, even though England usually gets shafted when it comes to the price of everything.

[SaturnBeat]

Very happy with my new Nokia N95. The camera is a blast, but if I knew they'd release a 8GB model so soon I would have waited. The mp3 and the speakers are also totally amazing.

[Cyber]

Sanyo SCP-3200/extended battery/Sprint

[mikeysg]

Very happy with my new Nokia N95. The camera is a blast, but if I knew they'd release a 8GB model so soon I would have waited. The mp3 and the speakers are also totally amazing.

Yeah, the N95 is one awesome phone, I'd been using one since its launch till recently when I'd swapped it for a Samsung Omnia (i900). My friend just bought the N95 8GB model and he says it's one of the best phone he'd ever used.

[sams333]

I have a Nokia N82 with Verizon and planning to buy a HTC Touch Pro or Sony Ericsson Xperia X1. I chose my N82 because it is one of the best cameraphone in the world. Its 5MP carl-zeiss camera with autofocus and Xenon flash is amazing.

[vairox]

POS iphone/AT&T.... sprint coverage blows in my area and verizon costs too much, AT&T gives peace officer discounts so thats where I'm at... drops calls like braylon edwards drops passes.

[ImaNihilist]

POS iphone/AT&T.... sprint coverage blows in my area and verizon costs too much, AT&T gives peace officer discounts so thats where I'm at... drops calls like braylon edwards drops passes.

I never had a dropped call on AT&T after having them for like 5 years, until I got an iPhone... then it all changed.

[md1198p]

HTC Mogul with sprint 99 dollars everything plan.

The battery life goes quickly when using apps or media, but I just use a car charger and a USB charger at work on my PC to keep it full. The GPS works better than my older magellen unit, and Sprint TV is good for boring periods at work. I installed a 4 gig card and that's good enough for music and some videos and data storage. The 2 meg camera seems pretty good but I don't use it that often.

[Liger83]

Upgraded to a Blackberry 8310 Curve for AT&T Wireless from a Moto V3 razr w/ T-Mobile. Thank god T-Mobile got horrible service out in the East where I was stationed AT&T haven't had a problem even in multiple feet concrete barracks. T-Mobile is definitally a West Coast dominate provider ATM.

Love AT&T or Cingular or whatever else they decide to call themselves.

[Geforce255]

I've now had the new BlackBerry Storm for a week. I've gotta say that I LOVE this thing. It kicks the **** out of the iPhone. The screen on this is simply astounding. The 480 x 360 resolution demonstrates just how grainy the 320 X 240 iPhone resolution truly is.

The click screen is what really sets the storm apart. While I always wanted to like the iPhone, typing on it was a mess. The keys that enlarge when hoovered over were more frustrating in that you don't know if you hit them or not until the text displayed. The Storm takes care of this with a very satisfying "click" on every keystroke.

Media on the Storm is flawless. Video is gorgeous thanks to the utra-high definition screen. Music is good, though Verizon's Vcast service sucks. However, the 8gb micro-sd card make loading your own MP3's simple enough.

On the down side, there is a significant lag in many things - rotating the phone often leaves the screen lagging 4 to 5 seconds. Not a big deal, but it is annoying. Hopefully RIM will address this with a firmware update.

I also managed to crash the unit so hard that removing the battery was the only remedy. Of course this points out that unlike the iPhone, you CAN remove and replace the battery.

Why it's better than the iPhone;

Expandable memory. The Micro-SD format means that the 8gb card that comes with the unit can be upgraded to a 64 or 128gb card.

Removable battery. Having a spare charged battery for watching media on airplanes is basic - Apple screwed the pooch in that regard - Blackberry did it right.

Tactile Response - the click screen is simply brilliant - it makes the phone.

High Definition - the bright and bold screen shows the state of the art.