New Phone: The considerations
July 21st, 2009I am looking forward to spending some of my hard-earned money on a new phone. I got into the smartphone world with a 1st Gen iPhone 8GB that was given to me by a friend when he upgraded to an iPhone 3G. It is beat up, has some screen sunspots, and overall looks like crap. At the time though, the software worked great and I was hooked.
I am on T-Mobile, so I was spoiled. When I jailbroke and unlocked my nice beat up iPhone, I used my old ‘T-Zones” data package which gave me unlimited data for $6 per month. It was slower than normal EDGE (it ran through some sort of compression proxy) but it worked. High speed was achieved by using my WiFi.
Unfortunately,one fateful day my iPhone was handicapped. Some old glitch or something (details are sketchy) popped up and rendered most of my iPhone’s communication system. My WiFi failed (showing just the simple scanning icon while puking lots of errors into the log)and it would not receive phone calls if the phone was ‘alseep’ (commonly achieved by turning off the screen). This is quite a hindrance to my mobile productivity so I spend some time searching for a fix. It was around this time that I happened to be able to use a BlackBerry 8800. Awesome smartphone, though its required data package was a hefty $25/month. I learned to enjoy the true-push e-mail, the keyboard and the powerful multitasking. Another fateful day came and made that phone useless.
While it was performing a operating system upgrade, the phone froze and disconnected via USB. It refused to boot or even show life except for the little red LED, which now just blinks twice. Back to the iPhone it seems.
After an extended amount of time without any phone (surviving by bumming phone time off people and using the awesome-ness of Google Voice) I finally restored my iPhone to a working order (of sorts). It sill does all the issues it has been doing, but at least it works.
I will be starting work soon and will be paid for some work I have done recently, so I have decided to look in earnest for a new phone.
My Requirements:
- T-Mobile: I am too happy with their customer service and cheapness to move.
- Smartphone (DUH)
My Preferences:
- Touchscreen is a great thing, if not a great keyboard
- Music abilities
- WiFi (T-Mobile does have its drawbacks, but I am happy to use my blazing fast net)
- Open Bluetooth (tether?!?!)
- Cheap
- Recent and powerful!
My possible phones are:
- T-Mobile MyTouch 3G (HTC Magic / Google Ion) : Cost: $199
- Backberry Curve 8900: Cost: $149
- T-Mobile G1 (HTC Dream): Cost: $149
- T-Mobile Dash 3G: Cost: $169
- T-Mobile Shadow: Cost: $149
- T-Mobile Sidekick LX: Cost: $199
- Samsung Memoir: Cost: $199
- Samsung Behold: Cost: $79 (Open Box)
- Samsung Highlight: Cost: $149
The Samsung phone are out because of the OS. I doubt their OS even has native Twitter and Facebook apps.
The Shadow and Dash 3G are Windows Mobile phones, and operating system I quite dislike. Though I could tolerate them if necessary.
Sidekick just ain’t my style.
The G1 is already an older phone and not exactly ‘cutting edge’. Its slow, looks funky but has a nice physical keyboard. Modding potential is also great.
Blackberry Curve: New BB. I do love the BB OS and the type of doing things, but the allure of the next phone is just to great, even to save the $50
The MyTouch 3G looks great. Though it lacks some things I like (physical keyboard, dedicated headphone jack) the Android OS is a big draw. I use almost all of Google’s applications and having a phone centred around this sounds like a big plus. It also has good Google Voice integration
Other phones have been suggested, such as the iPhone 3G(S), other HTC phones, or even waiting a little bit longer for a new phone to come out (like the HTC Hero). I would wait, but I have been waiting for quite some time for a ‘new’ phone. There is always a good reason to wait but at some point I just need to commit.
iPhones are all well and good. The one I use is plenty fast, has lots of good games, and is an awesome music phone. Problem is I hate iTunes. And with the iPhone I am suck with iTunes. There are also no background running of apps. Push notifications are great too, but not a complete replacement. The iPhone does not have a true GMail app and its Google Voice integration is nonexistant. Its just an app. Everything is just an app. I would also lose many of the ‘homebrew’-style apps that the Android Market is full of.
That is to say nothing of the issues I would face while using it unlocked on T-Mobile. I would much prefer to use a native and correct phone for my network. If I moved to AT&T, I would be greeted with not only higher costs, but the issues at face most iPhones: non-functioning voicemail, spotty service and 3G, lack of tether…
Nah, the MyTouch 3G (HTC Magic) looks like its the best option. What say you? Any suggestions?