Phone thread: What phones are you using, and with what plans?

[Santilli]

Hi
I'm considering a Samsung Insprion, or , shudder, was looking at an iPhone.

What are you all using for phones, phone plans, and why?

My considerations are a larger screen then my current Samsung, and, I'm really debating going for the whole internet on my phone for 20 bucks extra deal.

Thanks

Greg

 

[Fushigi]

Palm Pre on Sprint. Corporate pool plan so I no longer see the bill but I was on the Simply Everything 450 minute plan (unlimited data & messaging) for $69.99 a month. webOS is good now and has a huge potential:

• It offers true multitasking on a Linux kernel.
• webOS Synergy integrates at a lot of levels:
  • Contacts automatically unifies Gmail, Exchange, Facebook, and LinkedIn contacts eliminating dupes. It may sound a little gimmicky but when I find someone I can, from a single place, choose to get a hold of them via any phone number, any email address, and any text address. Stepping beyond what the device knows, searching for a contact will look at my corporate Exchange user directory.
  • Calendar provides a single view of Google & Exchange calendars and adds Facebook events.
  • The email app lists all of your accounts. I access them individually and/or under a unified inbox. ActiveSync, IMAP, and POP are supported, giving folder access to Exchange & GMail. As with Contacts, Email can search the corporate directory to email users that aren't in my contact list.
  • Pandora integrates with GPS & the phone, automatically pausing when the GPS needs to say directions or when a call comes in and resuming when the GPS/phone is done.
  • Fandango automatically blocks the time off on your calendar if you use it to buy movie tickets.
• Touchstone. Not only does it give the Pre inductive charging, but the Pre's behavior changes when docked. If you answer a call, for instance, it knows you're on the 'stone so it uses speakerphone (if not using BT).
• Universal Search. Poorly named as it isn't universal just yet, you can just start typing and it will search most of the phone for something while also offering up the ability to search Google, Wikipedia, and other sites. It makes for a quick way to find contacts or to type a search term for Google. Or to find an app if you have a lot of them installed (apps can be internally tagged with search keywords as well).
• No client software. You device is backed up over the air each night to Palm so if it is lost, stolen, or fails and needs to be replaced you can restore all of your apps & settings over the air.
• Palm is actively updating it. The released version of webOS was 1.01. Since then we've gotten 1.02, 1.10, 1.20, and 1.2.1. I might have missed a minor update. There have been fixes and enhancements added. Updates are free and pushed to the device OTA (sort of like automatic Windows updates).
• Unlike the iPhone, the Pre will be one of the first mobile devices with Flash 10.1.
• Apps are written in HTML 5, Javascript, and CSS. The browser is webkit. Pretty much any web developer on earth can write apps for the Pre should they choose to. It also means porting apps to the Pre is easy.

The hardware has about everything you'd expect on a modern device: a physical keyboard, replaceable battery, GPS, WiFi, BlueTooth, 3MP camera w/flash, multitouch screen, accelerometer, microUSB, a hardware ringer switch to mute the device, and a natural-feeling, curved chassis that simply belongs in your hand. The major hardware omission would be a microSD card for expansion but so far that's not been an issue for me.


Personally, I wouldn't get an iPhone for several reasons:

• AT&T. They seem to delight in neglecting their network. Dropped calls are rampant for some. Roll out of not-so-new features like MMS is slow. They are expensive.
• No physical keyboard. This is a personal preference so I wouldn't expect others to agree with me.
• No user-swappable battery. Batteries fail and it's ludicrous to have to visit a service center a.k.a. Apple store or ship your phone somewhere to get a battery replaced. And it costs $79 when other phones like the Pre have user-replaceable batteries for around $40.
• Apple's capricious approval/denial and general exclusive lock on apps. The app store may have 85K apps in it and 4% of them may be worthwhile but vendor lock-in is never a good thing.

 

[Mercutio]

HTC 6800 on Sprint. I have the SERO plan, which is no longer available to the public, but I pay $35 a month for 500 talk minutes and unlimited data access.

AT&T's network is to the best of my ability to determine, god awful. I've heard other people say the same thing about Sprint and T-Mobile, though I'd be willing to bet that they're all pretty damned good along the West Coast of the US.

I will say one thing in favor of the iPhone: It has a real GPU, which means it has decent gaming capabilities. Which might be attractive to some users.

 

[MaxBurn]

I am a corporate whore so I have a Blackberry 8330 which is a curve derivative. I don't do much with it except for the email but I did spend the $9 on the last newegg shocker to get a 4gb memory card so I can use the camera and video recorder. My laptop just got re-imaged and they updated the verizon access manager to 7.0.8.3 and I haven't had much luck tethering that via bluetooth for full wireless internet access again but did work great before.

Service is verizon and I don't get the bill or plan details. All I know is my coverage is freaking great but in some foreign countries I don't get data service.

 

[Fushigi]

Even mainstream sites like cnet are dissing AT&T.

 

[MaxBurn]

I like the att service offering where if you have no service in your area/home you can buy from them for like $250 a device that will create a local signal for your phone, but you provide the broadband. Rather than they fix their service coverage. Article mentioned these things should be free and att compensate you rent money for the bandwidth in use. Can't make stuff like that up.

 

[ddrueding]

Did the math, and an iPhone would cost me $160/month. I don't have a number to compare that to, as I'm currently part of a corp plan.

 

[Mercutio]

I like the att service offering where if you have no service in your area/home you can buy from them for like $250 a device that will create a local signal for your phone, but you provide the broadband. Rather than they fix their service coverage. Article mentioned these things should be free and att compensate you rent money for the bandwidth in use. Can't make stuff like that up.

Yeah. My two main iPhone-using customers are pestering me about getting those things.

Those things range outside your house, though. You're effectively donating your internet bandwidth to any AT&T customers who happen to be nearby. That's more than a little galling to me, and I say that as a generally unapologetic 802.11-thief.

 

[MaxBurn]

What!!?? You can't even secure it for your use only?

 

[Fushigi]

No, it's like unsecured WiFi. BTW Sprint offers one as well. While it costs $100 + a monthly, people have been able to get either the upfront or the monthly waived in some cases.

Sprint also has the reverse device: Up to 5 WiFi devices can use MiFi which goes online using cellular data. But it is bandwidth limited to 5GB/month for $60/mo after the $100 for the device. Neat box, though. It's about the size of a cell phone.

 

[ddrueding]

I have a Nextel/Blackberry 8830. The only "smart" phone with push-to-talk. I would love to ditch it.

The MiFis are very cool, I have a stack of 25 on my desk right now.

 

[Chewy509]

I've got a Sony Ericsson K800i, with 3 Mobile (in Australia).

Had no issues with it... But then again I only use it as a phone, or occasionally as a camera (rated at 3.2MP) for spur of the moment shots.

 

[Santilli]

Hadn't realized the Palm Pre and Sprint package came in at a reasonable price.
AT&T, through Costco, offers data for 20 bucks a month, plus the phone. They kind of screw existing customers, not giving a big rebate on the phone, at least not as big as to switchers.

I think I'll check with Costco on the Sprint package, and, go look at the Pre.

One thing I could do is get the Samsung Inspirion, and, if I don't like the data package, cancel that, and, I'd still have the phone.

Still, there are a number of times I wish I had internet capable phone setups, since I use my calendar on Google, and, it would be nice to be able to access it while on the road.

That would be worth 20-30 bucks a month, I think...

 

[Santilli]

Pricing
Sprint AIRAVE Base Station - $99.99/each (requires activation at time of purchase and subscription to an AIRAVE plan. Excludes taxes.)
AIRAVE Enhanced Coverage Charge - $4.99/mo. (required per AIRAVE unit)**
Single Line Unlimited Calling Plan (optional) - $10/mo. per account**
Multi-Line (multiple phones sharing minutes on one account) Unlimited Calling Plan (optional) - $20/mo. per account**
¹Does not work with plans or services operating only on the Nextel Nationwide Network.
²Calls transfer dependent upon sufficient signal from the Sprint Network beyond the range of the AIRAVE Base Station.
**Monthly charges exclude taxes, Sprint Surcharges [incl. USF charge of up to 11.4% (varies quarterly), Administrative Charge (up to $1.99/line/mo.), Regulatory Charge ($0.20/line/mo.) & state/local fees by area]. Sprint Surcharges are not taxes or gov't-required charges and are subject to change. Details: sprint.com/taxesandfees.

Wonder if I could ditch our unlimited phone when they try and raise the rate, and be cost effective? Current fee is 25 a month, but, it's supposed to go to 50 sometime soon...

 

[Howell]

Even mainstream sites like cnet are dissing AT&T.

As always, expectation management is integral to sales.

 

[Tannin]

I bet that others here can already guess my answer.

A Nokia so old that it's hard to read the screen on it. The plan is the lowest monthly buy I can get - I might make or receive three calls a month on average. Sometimes eight or ten, more often none at all. I often wonder if I should turf it and save the monthly fee, but then I wonder if I could be botheresd with all the mucking about you have to do with recharging a pre-paid phone, andwind up doing nothing.

Funny that this thread should pop up today. Just yesterday, I gt a call from the phone company saying that my phone was ancient, did I want a new one, no charge? I said don't worry about it, the old one still works. Besides, the thing I really like about it is the battery life, almost a week without charging. I wouldn't want to go backwards.

 

[Fushigi]

As always, expectation management is integral to sales.

True, but who would buy if the sales pitch included "up to 20% dropped calls, or maybe more!"? Because that's what some people are reporting.

 

[Howell]

True, but who would buy if the sales pitch included "up to 20% dropped calls, or maybe more!"? Because that's what some people are reporting.

It depends on the customer.

Step1 : Know what you can deliver.
Step2 : Set expectations with the client appropriately with what you can deliver.
Step3 : Deliver what you said you said you would.

AT&T has apparently not followed through on one of these steps in certain markets. I don't seem to have any of these problems that others are reporting which leads me to believe it is a per market problem.

 

[Mercutio]

AT&T's network is staggeringly awful where I live, and it's been pointed out to me that AT&T's coverage basically stops west of Chicago and doesn't pick up again until Houston and Denver.

Essentially everyone I know who has an iPhone bought it to get a cheap iPod that they can also use as a mediocre cell phone.

 

[Handruin]

I use mine as an Internet and SMS device first, phone second, and an iPod third. I guess you guys get shitty coverage out central and west. It's certainly not perfect here, but I'm also not getting the 20-30% dropped calls that people claim all over the net.

 

[Handruin]

For what it's worth, my iPhone's transfer rate from my house using speedtest.net (under 3G) is 1729kbps down and 277kbps up with a 466ms ping (the ping is bad). That's more than enough to use the internet without complaint on a phone. What kind of transfer rates are you seeing from AT&T?

 

[sechs]

it's been pointed out to me that AT&T's coverage basically stops west of Chicago and doesn't pick up again until Houston and Denver.

You need to stay on the highway. Coverage is great on I-70 through Kansas....

 

[Adcadet]

iPhone with ATT with a 24% corporate discount. Also, the regular (non-enterprise) data plan gives me push Exchange email. I've had a single dropped call in the past year.

I'm getting ~2.4 mbps down and 1.7 up at home, similar at work.

I'm biggest complaint is battery life. Otherwise I'm very happy.

 

[Santilli]

"# No user-swappable battery. Batteries fail and it's ludicrous to have to visit a service center a.k.a. Apple store or ship your phone somewhere to get a battery replaced. And it costs $79 when other phones like the Pre have user-replaceable batteries for around $40.
# Apple's capricious approval/denial and general exclusive lock on apps. The app store may have 85K apps in it and 4% of them may be worthwhile but vendor lock-in is never a good thing."

These, along with the AT&T pricing on the iPhone, and my Apple experience, pretty much rule out the iPhone. It would pretty much have to be the second coming of a phone to get me to buy one. It seems that Apple's business practices remain the same, regardless of the platform.

I'm looking, and, thanks to youtube, I'm enjoying the phone reviews..
Great stuff.

 

[Fushigi]

My Pre & Sprint seem to be working fine here in Maui. :sunny:

 

[timwhit]

My Pre & Sprint seem to be working fine here in Maui. :sunny:

Jerk. It's 41 degrees here.

 

[ddrueding]

On the golf course all day yesterday working...low-50s with windchill.

 

[Fushigi]

Jerk. It's 41 degrees here.

Yeah, we know. We escaped Chicagoland just before the forecasted snow.

 

[LunarMist]

Like Tony, I want the cheapest possible plan. Are the pay as you use types any good?

 

[Mercutio]

Most of the burner cell phone plans have minutes that expire on some schedule, but they work if you don't need to use a phone that much.

 

[ddrueding]

Merc nailed it. If you don't talk much, the prepaid plans can be very cheap. My wife used them until we got together, cost her about $10/month (plus calling cards to Russia).

 

[Santilli]

Current usage:
Half way through the month:
257 of 450 used
Nights and weekends 116 of 5000
Rollover 0 of 2170.

This on a AT&% 450 Rollover.
Apparently the data plan is 15 a month.

The rollover works for me, since Verizon was the same cost, with no rollover, and some months I went over the 350, and, that's why I went to 450.

I have GPS, but it would be nice, and, my main interest would be using google calendar and gmail while in the field.

 

[Santilli]

Google phone from T mobile, anyone?

 

[Adcadet]

Who would have thought that it would be easier for me to check my mail on my cell phone than computer. My iPhone sits next to my computer, plugged into the charger, and beeps when it gets an email. It's usually quicker to use the iPhone.

I love my iPhone.

 

[LunarMist]

Most of the burner cell phone plans have minutes that expire on some schedule, but they work if you don't need to use a phone that much.

Yes, but which one? Are they all similar? It is so confusing.

 

[Pradeep]

No, it's like unsecured WiFi. BTW Sprint offers one as well. While it costs $100 + a monthly, people have been able to get either the upfront or the monthly waived in some cases.

Sprint also has the reverse device: Up to 5 WiFi devices can use MiFi which goes online using cellular data. But it is bandwidth limited to 5GB/month for $60/mo after the $100 for the device. Neat box, though. It's about the size of a cell phone.

From what I understand, the upcoming Blackberry Storm 2 may have MiFi functionality built-in. Mobile hotspot via your phone? Yes please.

On the other end of the market, Walmart now have their "Straight Talk" non contract packages, $30 per month for 1000 minutes + 1000 text messages, using the Verizon network. No rollover of minutes though.

$45 bumps you to unlimited minutes and unlimited data, the $30 plan only gives you 30MB.

 

[Fushigi]

From what I understand, the upcoming Blackberry Storm 2 may have MiFi functionality built-in. Mobile hotspot via your phone? Yes please.

Interesting. I wonder if the carrier (Verizon, I presume) will enable that feature. The carriers - all of them - like to have their strangleholds.

 

[Mercutio]

Mobile hotspot via your phone? Yes please.

WMwifirouter.
Windows Mobile has had this one covered for a while.

I really want my HTC HD2 now. Even if it does have a retarded non-stylus touchscreen.

 

[Santilli]

More price checks.

Costco will GIVE you a Blackberry. Only catch is you have to pay 30 a month, for 2 years, for the data plan, so, that's really 720 bucks for service and phone. I KNOW if I buy something like that, it will be half price within 6 months...

Friend paid 50 for a blackberry, doesn't use the data plan, but uses it as a phone. It's bigger then my samsung, has a smaller screen, and, the only plus is the text setup, which I don't use, pretty much ever.

May have to go to Walmart, and check out the 30 dollar plans...

Haven't been able to use any of these wonder phones, which makes me wonder what the sellers are hiding...

 

[Fushigi]

If you like the Pre conceptually but don't want to pay as much, the Pixi is coming out in a couple of weeks. A few things like WiFi have been stripped to make a lower-end unit. But on the plus side it's even thinner & lighter. THinner than the iPhone, even. Specs & announcement.