Cell Phones
 

Which do you have/had (carrier and phone).

How is it for;
'clearness':
service:
international calls:
working overseas:

Re: Cell Phones
 

had cingular(dont remember phone type); bad in NY/NJ (as of 2005-2006), good in boston, tx, seems to work well overseas

have verizon chocolate; the phone itself isnt very good, cant hear great out of it even w/ full bars. Plays music/ringtones really clearly, but hard to hear people. always seems to work bad inside (both in boston and tx) compared to friend's phones. cant call internationally, doesnt work overseas (barely works in canada).

Re: Cell Phones
 

very slightly off topic: virtually everyone i know has a cellphone, except for male math majors, of which almost none seem to have phones

Re: Cell Phones
 

Cingular (the new AT&T) Razr V3
Phone is good. Have been using it for almost 2 years.
Clearness: Sucks [censored] in SoCal. Alright in Vegas and SD
Service: Hm havent had to call the customer service yet.
International Calls: I use a phonecard to call my parents oversea. $20 gets you about 800~1000 minutes, depending on the quality. But my parents are learning how to use Skype nowadays so will probably abandon that soon
Oversea: When I was in China and Taiwan I just go to a store and plug in a sim card I borrowed from a friend (or you can go to the post office and buy one for cheap and recharge minutes). Phone works fine.

It's your plan that doesn't allow you to call internationally. Just get a phonecard that lets you type a local # or 800# and then call the country you wish to afterwards.

I've used about all the major brands of cellies there are. In my opinion, for simplicity go with Nokia. Their phones dont have a lot of garbage applications and are very easy to use with quick load time. Samsungs are known to be dysfunctional about a year or two in. Motorola lags when the application loads but I've gotten used to it. Sony is overpriced for its quality, like every other product in its line (except for maybe TV).

I don't have the use for a BlackBerry/Treo/Q or whatever and I would love to hear people's opinions for those.

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my life would be so much easier if cell phones were never invented.

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I hate phones. I've had this Nokia one for about 2 years. It is cheap, has good clearness. Service is good from Fido. Works fine in the US (outside canada). No problems with international calls.

Re: Cell Phones
 

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very slightly off topic: virtually everyone i know has a cellphone, except for male math majors, of which almost none seem to have phones

[/ QUOTE ]

Haha, so true. I think I was the only guy in my grad class that carried one.

Re: Cell Phones
 

I have Verizon. I am reminded of Churchill's quote: "Democracy is the worst form of government in the world. Except for all the others."

Re: Cell Phones
 

check out the lg 8700 it looks nice..

i have the blackberry pearl, a little annoying to type on but great for surfing the web and cingular's service has impressed me.

i also have verizon for personal use and am not as impressed with it's service as i am with cingular (and i use to hate on at&t and cingular)

Re: Cell Phones
 

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i have the blackberry pearl, a little annoying to type on but great for surfing the web and cingular's service has impressed me.

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I am obsessed with my Pearl. It's tiny, sleek, and I love the typing system. I do have pretty small hands, so I could see how a guy might not like the keys. I absolutely love the email function, the text is easy to read, and it has an app that consolidates all your messages into one folder. So any new texts, emails, Google Talks, etc go to the same place. Highly recommend this phone

Re: Cell Phones
 

[ QUOTE ]
very slightly off topic: virtually everyone i know has a cellphone, except for male math majors, of which almost none seem to have phones

[/ QUOTE ]

I just have trouble answering it. On that note I'm planning on ordering one of these two phones tomorrow:

LG VX8600
Samsung U740

1. Does any one have either of these?

2. Experience ordering a phone from Amazon?

Re: Cell Phones
 

Have a Motorola Rizr from T-Mobile, my wife has the Blackberry Pearl. She LOVES her Pearl, basically for the same reasons FFK outlined above. I like the Rizr - feels more solid than my old Razr. T-Mobile is good in Chicago (much better than the old AT&T) but the overall national coverage is not as good. Was fine in Vegas though.

Re: Cell Phones
 

I just got a pay as you go phone from t-mobile (lost my phone and didn't want to sign a contract before iphone comes out), and it seems pretty great if you need a temporary phone for whatever reason. 30 bucks for the phone + 30 minutes, 50 bucks for 430 minutes. of course I am probably paying a lot more per minute than if I signed a contract, but whatever. was in and out of the store in 10 minutes with a working phone.

Re: Cell Phones
 

I got the LG chocolate given the reviews on here, and am very disappointed in it:

- texting is hard due to the pressure you have to use on the buttons

- inability to make your own incoming message tones

- the camera blows

- battery life is terrible

- inability to play MP3s when you're doing anything else on the phone

- easy to scratch screen

- touch-tone screen is uncustomizable (making you inadvertently click on the internet option)

this phone puts me on life-tilt

Re: Cell Phones
 

Samsung Blackjack - Cingluar

good phone, the earpiece can get extremely loud which is clutch in certain situations

if you are in a 3G area, the internet and IM speed is fantastic, without it, its nothing special

battery life is decent, but it also comes with an extra battery so you can just pop in the new one if you are away from a charger for a long period of time

I had difficulty setting up my gmail acct in outlook and actually gave up after 100 tries, I decided to get rid of the dataplan, but the phone is still very versatile without it.

Overall I'd recommend it.

Re: Cell Phones
 

Ha! Everyone I know who has the LG chocolate hates that phone.

Anyway, I have Sprint -- have had it for about 6 years now, and I like them enough to have never switched.

signal: excellent, hardly any dropped calls, only a few places where I can't get service.

service: very good; most mobile customer service blows, but at least with Sprint I've never gone on tilt.

international: sucks, actually. They don't have a single plan that helps me make calls to Canada even. Canada!

working overseas: no idea, never taken my phone overseas.

Re: Cell Phones
 

[ QUOTE ]
Samsung Blackjack - Cingluar

good phone, the earpiece can get extremely loud which is clutch in certain situations

if you are in a 3G area, the internet and IM speed is fantastic, without it, its nothing special

battery life is decent, but it also comes with an extra battery so you can just pop in the new one if you are away from a charger for a long period of time

I had difficulty setting up my gmail acct in outlook and actually gave up after 100 tries, I decided to get rid of the dataplan, but the phone is still very versatile without it.

Overall I'd recommend it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I used to have this phone and recently switched to the crackberry. Overall I liked the blackjack and it is a well made phone, but imo the blackberries (esp the newer ones like the 8300 or 8830 or whatever) are markedly better. It used to be a closer choice, but now that blackberry has expanded its multimedia features they are the clear choice IMO.

Re: Cell Phones
 

[ QUOTE ]
very slightly off topic: virtually everyone i know has a cellphone, except for male math majors, of which almost none seem to have phones

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Redundant.

Re: Cell Phones
 

I have Sony Ericsson W300i and I love it, really a huge relief having a phone that doesn't suck after all my previous phones turned out to be spectacular failures (Samsungs mostly). Great sound quality, all the usual gimmicks, MP3 player that i never use etc. It's very small, very tough because of an egg-ish shape and has a huge battery life. It's only being offered by Cingular i think but I have some prehistoric grandfathered plan with T-Mobile where I pay like $20 a month and bought it unlocked on Amazon. Also no one on earth has this phone but me so it makes me feel special.

http://bargainoffers.com/Cell/Ericss...sson_w300i.jpg

Re: Cell Phones
 

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Ha! Everyone I know who has the LG chocolate hates that phone.

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I have the Chocolate and it's actually my favorite phone I've ever used (used 5-6 other phones), however most people I've talked to that have it don't like it. All the negatives I hear about it don't apply to me as I've either gotten used to or never use that feature.

Re: Cell Phones
 

I'm in the market for a new cellie. I have Verizon but not sure if I want to stay with them. My contract is up in August. I looked at Verizon's phones and I didn't care for them at all.

I want something small but something I can use to text message easy with. I hate TWord and it takes too damn long to hit number keys multiple times just for one stinking letter.

I was looking into a blackberry pearl, but Verizon makes you buy a data package with it and I don't want all that crap. There's free WAP's out there or I can create my own if need be. I don't need to pay $80 a month just so I can send emails from my phone.

EDIT :

I should take that back, it wasn't a Pearl that Verizon has, it's the 7130e.

Re: Cell Phones
 

I just got the Blackberry Curve with AT&T and I love it. I was a Verizon user and there are some trade-offs with the service in my area. The phone is great and has lots of very nice features. It's essentially a Pearl with a QWERTY keyboard, bigger screen, and 2MP camera. I recommend it for anyone not looking to spend $500 on an iphone.

Re: Cell Phones
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
very slightly off topic: virtually everyone i know has a cellphone, except for male math majors, of which almost none seem to have phones

[/ QUOTE ]

Redundant.

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I went to a liberal-arts college and it was about a 50-50 gender split in mathematics.

Back on-topic, I hear Virgin Mobile has the best customer-service record in the industry, so I'm looking into them once my Cingular contract expires.

Re: Cell Phones
 

http://www.mas34.net/wp-images/image...sson_W710i.jpg
My phone is similar to Dr. Savage's phone. ITs the Sony Ericsson 710i for Cingular. I really like the sporty design, plus it seems like no one earth has this phone. The MP3 works and sounds good, plus you can operate it with the phone closed. It also has a neat fitness application where it keeps track of how far and how long I run for, plus it also keeps track of how many steps I take in a day (although I don't really have much use for that information). Service has been good, but I have no international experience.

Re: Cell Phones
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
very slightly off topic: virtually everyone i know has a cellphone, except for male math majors, of which almost none seem to have phones

[/ QUOTE ]

I just have trouble answering it. On that note I'm planning on ordering one of these two phones tomorrow:

LG VX8600
Samsung U740

1. Does any one have either of these?

2. Experience ordering a phone from Amazon?

[/ QUOTE ]

Everyone I know who has the u740 loves it, the VX8600 gets a mixed reception.

Re: Cell Phones
 

I have a Sony Ericsson P900. I love it. It's pretty good, but it was pricey. Built like a freakin tank. I've had it for a while now so I'm looking for another phone.

I've got T-Mobile. Decent call quality in L.A. Very good in some places. I live in some hills so reception is so-so when I'm at home sometimes. Never tried international calls. Guess I'm not as popular as I thought I was.

Re: Cell Phones
 

I had a Chocolate that I got off CL for $60, used it for about a week before I put it on e-bay because it sucked so bad. Sold it for $120 and used the profits to buy a likely stolen u740 off CL for $100. I love the 740, the full keyboard makes texting a lot less unbearable.

Re: Cell Phones
 

Tom, get the Verizon Blackberry world edition. Phil and I just got it. I am very happy with it, AND it can be used as an internet connection thru USB. Also, great for a world traveler such as yoourself, as verizon claims it will work in most countrys.

Re: Cell Phones
 

Can you elaborate on that usb/internet thingy? Does this apply to the blackberry curve? I saw the curve today in a store and it looked tight. Wish it had wifi capability though, sigh.

Re: Cell Phones
 

Chocoloate is terrible, I returned it asap.

Durrr, I'd go with a high-end blackberry.

As far as international, make sure you get signed up with a plan that allows you to just pick up the carrier of the area you're in.

For instance, if you're in France, you'll make calls through Vodafone. I traveled throughout Europe and had great service everywhere. $1 a minute was pretty [censored], but for quick convenience it's worth it.

Re: Cell Phones
 

Which do you have/had (carrier and phone).

Currently have Nokia 6280 on Three.com.au

Previously had a bunch of phones - some cool, some not so cool.

How is it for;
'clearness': Fine.

service: The company's service is absolutely [censored] awful. Everytime I deal with them I want to punch a wall.

international calls: Fine. Sometimes when calling PartyPoker I get routed to a weird New Zealand number saying that the number can't be reached.

working overseas: Haven't tried it.

Re: Cell Phones
 

Have AT&Tingular service in Or (home loc) great. Much better than previous carrier, sprint. Used to get constant dropped calls w/ sprint and I can not remember the last with AT&T.

Current phone: Moto Razr. Had about 1.5 years. I hate this POS. It was great for about 6mo and then started to fall apart (I think the warranty was up about then LOL). The screen has gotten fuzzy. It has gotten progressively harder to hear people because the ear speaker sounds like an old am radio now. I will be in the middle of a call and the phone will just power off for no apparent reason. I hate this thing.

I am currently awaiting, on the edge of my seat, the release of the iphone. See we here in Portland are super lucky that our fine city has started, and is the process of finishing, installing city wide free wifi. Since the iphone is wifi ready no need for the expensive data plan. Plus I can not wait to go buy my 4th, good grief, ipod device.

Re: Cell Phones
 

Maybe. NoPo. Check on the service first! Rumor has it that the iPhone WiFi won't be enabled unless you sudscribe to one of those overpriced data plans. I am waiting, this is probably a deal killer for me if its true. I am going with a Sony Ericcson W810i as my backup phone selection if ATT cripples the iPhone or requires a stupidly expensive plan to buy one. No one will really know until next Friday though. So I am going to show up, and see what the deal is.

Re: Cell Phones
 

[ QUOTE ]
Maybe. NoPo. Check on the service first! Rumor has it that the iPhone WiFi won't be enabled unless you sudscribe to one of those overpriced data plans. I am waiting, this is probably a deal killer for me if its true. I am going with a Sony Ericcson W810i as my backup phone selection if ATT cripples the iPhone or requires a stupidly expensive plan to buy one. No one will really know until next Friday though. So I am going to show up, and see what the deal is.

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!!!!! There has to be a way to enable the wifi or else why even put in the phone right?!?!?! SOB this better not be true.