Cell Phone Recomendations

[BOB OLINGER]

We've been US Cellular customers for like 15+ yrs. Always had basic phone, currently flip tops. The new smart phones are tempting. The US Cellular store was pretty high on the Samsung Mesmerize yesterday. Anyone care to comment on this or other phones? Thanks.

[Dave Gaul]

Bob, I say it really depends on your wants & needs. Do you want a touch screen? Are you big on apps? Are you worried about ruggedness? Gonna use it for lots of email? Web browsing?

The Samsung Mesmerize has the Android OS, which is supposed to be pretty amazing, but only if you are going to take advantage of it, I mean, if you aren't going to use lots of apps, then it won't mean much to you.
Touch screens are cool, but not for me! LOML has mostly had Palm phones, and I hate the touch screens! Our kids have iTouch's, and I can stand messing with them! Touchscreen phones are generally sensitive and delicate in a sense.
I am on my third BlackBerry (Curve 3G) and I can't ever see me switching to anything else! I run a few apps for GPS, maps, weather, sports and a couple games. I use email alot, texting LOML & the LOML jr's. I web browse from time to time. My BB does everything I need it to, it even sync's with my Lotus Notes at work so all my Calendar & Address books are up to date with work stuff (Not many phones will sync with Lotus Notes, and it is a real life saver at times!)

So if you want touch screen & android os then the Samsung Mesmerize will probably be great, seems to have great reviews on cnet. I like to vist phonescoop for reviews on phones too.

[Neal Clayton]

blackberry convert here as well.

if you don't care to do anything other than phone, camera, text, and a couple of random apps every now and then on your phone, they're great.

i recently got a pearl 3g, which is a free phone from a few online third party dealers (like amazon) on ATT if you sign up for a new contract.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Bob,

Funny thing, we just got our first personal cell phones as we need them as we enter into retirement.

I have had a corporate cell phone it seems like forever. I had Palm devices in among these and eventually got back to a basic flip phone.

Last week we retired and since the wife will travel more than I and because of some special applications, we ended up with Samsung Droid phones. Yep! The salesman was good...he sold a cell phone to a deaf man.

The wife and I can text when separated.....and there is an application where my voicemail can convert audio voice mails to text messages.

We can also go on internet to change our reservations or look for alternative flights as we fly a lot in our retirement. Did I mention our daughter works for US Air and we fly cheaply.


Being able to access the Internet to look for alternative flights has it's advantage. If it wasn't for the text messaging and the ability convert audio voicemail to text messages, I don't know that I would have gotten one because of my deafness.

[Derek Gilmer]

I've got an iphone and like it quite a bit. It is high on the "it just works" side. Most of the UI is well planned, apps are plentiful and it has been pretty rugged. The main problem with advice you are getting is "if you will use such and such" than you should get a smart phone otherwise stick with what you have. If that was the case my wife would never get an iphone. She was happy with her flip phone that dialed numbers and texted. She said all the "web stuff" was pointless and over priced for her. After making her try my iphone for a month or so she came to love it. The ability to comparison shop for prices, send emails and get directions were a huge plus for her she never thought she'd like. Add onto it the apps, music and audiobooks and she makes great use of things she never thought she'd want.

With that said, my next phone will be an android based phone. Mainly because I program for a living and want to be able to dig into my phone and write all sorts of cool scripts and such. Androids allow that much better than iphones. The negatives of androids are:
1. If it is a cheap phone it probably won't get updates
2. Android updates are a pretty big deal, for speed and features.
3. A lot of cheap android phones have slower processors and aren't as quick feeling as an iphone 3gs or 4
4. Fewer apps than an iphone and less control over apps
5. User interface is by default a little clunky on some android phones
6. Different phone makers tweak the android interface so that android phones from motorolla can look quite a bit different than samsung, or att or lg or htc or whoever.
7. Battery life on some models is horrible.. like 16 hours of standby on a charge with all the default settings.

If you can try an android phone for a week or two I'd strongly suggest doing that before buying it. Make sure you are trying the phone you want not just an android. If you like it as is than you've got a great phone.

In summary, in general:
Iphone = really nice out of the box with lots of cool apps
Android = variable out of the box can be incredible if you don't mind fiddling with it

[Mike Cutler]

Just got an iPhone, Verizon, yesterday. It's definitely cool, but after using an LG Flip phone for 6 years it's pretty intimidating . It seems to be a very capable device.
I'll figure it out eventually.

[BOB OLINGER]

Hey Derek,

Thanks, sounds like my wife may be related to yours. She's not a computer person, but after hearing the sales pitch from the US Cellular guy yesterday, she has her interest turned up high.

bob

[BOB OLINGER]

Ken,

Thanks. Do you know what model you purchased?

bob

[Derek Gilmer]

Just got an iPhone, Verizon, yesterday. It's definitely cool, but after using an LG Flip phone for 6 years it's pretty intimidating . It seems to be a very capable device.
I'll figure it out eventually.

Get them to let you test it for a week or to if possible. The mesmerize looks like it has android 2.1 so not the cutting edge but it should have an update to go to 2.2 which is nice. The processor is a 1ghz so pretty fast there. If she likes the interface the mesmerize seems to get pretty good marks on the reviews I've seen.

If they don't want to let you test it, mention the iphone just came to verizon. Maybe that will motivate them to keep a customer :)

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Bob, we ended up with Sprint and bought the Samsung Epic 4G. You might want to do a little research at Cnet.com and some of the PC mags to get some reviews on the cellphones before you buy. I did.

The large corporation that employed me was with Sprint. After talking with local carriers, ATT, Verison, and all the associated Nextel, T-Mobile etc, the Sprint plans worked better for us. As we were paying for the phones we found out that employees and retires of that same corporation got 25% off the monthly service fees. My wife retired from a local school district and their discount was good but not 25%. Check those type of things out before you commit.

The phone has a lot of capabilites, far more than I will ever use. My wife who is not the most computer literate person is having a ball with it. Of course, the first appication I used it for was to access SMC just to see what it looked like. I was able to use it.

[Bryan Morgan]

We've been US Cellular customers for like 15+ yrs. Always had basic phone, currently flip tops. The new smart phones are tempting. The US Cellular store was pretty high on the Samsung Mesmerize yesterday. Anyone care to comment on this or other phones? Thanks.

It really depends on what you want the phone to do. The other major concern is the coverage of the carrier in your area. I'm always playing with these things as setting them up is part of my job. I like the EVO Shift as its a step up from my Moment. The original EVO was kind of cool, nice screen, but not pocketable for me. I'm not a fan of the on screen keyboards, I much prefer the slide out keyboards. I don't care for Blackberries at all. Our sales reps all had Blackberries and they've all ditched them for Android phones. If you aren't using a BES server or any Blackberry services they aren't very good. In spite of their popularity, they seem a few steps behind. The iPhone is what it is. A couple of our people love theirs, a few others hated them and swapped them for EVOs or whatever. I don't care for the iPhone though it does work well with corporate email systems. Android works well and if you can wade through all the porn collections and slider games there are some good apps for it. Sometimes you think you get a slick phone and the carrier basically drops support for it, like the Hero or Moment. Whatever you wind up with just realize it will be obsolete in a month. :)

[Tim Morton]

I think you are on the right track with the android phone....are you locked into US Cellular? The mesmerise, is the US Cellular version of the Verizon fascinate...a very nice phone, but already out of date. The next great version phone, and the one i hope to own soon will be the Droid Bionic...not sure what the US Cellular version of this phone will be, but it gets you up to 4G and gives you a core duo processor.

Ultimately i think you need to try the virtual keyboard....that could be the deal breaker for you...not everyone likes it. The iPhone5 is coming out soon, and that would be another option...if you would consider verizon or ATT.

[BOB OLINGER]

Thanks to all for their comments. One thing appears evident - by the time I get home with whatever I buy, it will be out of date!!!

Yes, I plan to stay with US Cellular. They have a current 2 for 1 on several touch screens until 2/17/11; likely trying to compete and hold customers in light of the I Phone at Verison starting today. I'd opt to play this out a little longer except the 2 for 1 is very tempting.

[Neal Clayton]

one thing, look at battery life estimates on the phones. with more gadgetry comes less battery life.

nothing annoys me more than having to charge a phone every day. the first two generations of iphones were terrible about that. supposedly the most recent one is better.

other smart phones suffer from the same issues.

if it doesn't advertise six hours of talk time and 3-5 days of standby time, i don't want it. because the actual battery life is about half of what they advertise, so if they're advertising 4 hours of talk time and 2 days standby, you're gonna have to charge it every night or wake up in the morning to a dead battery.

[John Lohmann]

If the Samsung Mesmerize is like the Samsung Captivate from AT&T, the GPS doesn't work well. It is very well documented on the Internet, other than that I like the phone. It will need to be charged daily.

[Bill Cunningham]

My kids got us a cell phone.. If we top it up every two months, the minutes roll over.. When it rolls over on the 19th, I will have over $400.00 of unused time on it.. If I don't re-new I lose the $400.00 in time.. They have me hooked.. What we need is a 900 number that charges $100.00 a call, and then reimburses you 80%. A guy could make money off seniors that need a cell, but don't use it..