Cell Phone Recommendations

[Brains]

Going with Windows on a phone will *always* result in frustration. Add me to the curious of why WinMo? I have to develop for WM5/6 on Motorola (Symbol) MC9090's, and ... yeah, it's Windows ...

[David Whatley]

OK, she said she wanted to be able to do her business on the phone, and i didnt ask if she needed to run certain applications on it. I do know she wants to get her email, and doesnt care to surf the net much.
She doesnt abuse or drop her phone, it just wont ring sometimes, gives weird error messages and then wont get a network connection ie dial tone.
I'll see if I can find out some more and post back.

[Dobick]

From the sounds of it then -- it would sound like a blackberry would be more to her liking -- I hating texting on cell phones, and the blackberry curve makes it easy (even for a fat fingerered me to do) and they are easier and more intuitive to set up and reply on mail, and I never had a reliability problem with mine. I have been on ATT for quite some time, and for my area, they have absolutely the best and strongest coverage... not sure at all about verizon, so that may be the entirity of the problem. Sprint was decent in the past in the Dallas area, but that was 5 years ago?

[epoh]

I'm going to ditto the Touch Pro 2 recommendation. Sprint, T-Mo, AT&T and Verizon will all start selling them between now and the end of the year. Amazing little phone for doing actual business on - teleconfrence tools, possibly one of the best speakerphones we've seen on a cell yet, all the normal Outlook & exchange support you'd expect with windows mobile, a bigger touch screen than the iphone, and a 5-row qwerty keyboard. I can't wait to get mine!

[kenw]

actually her issues sound more like carrier issues than phone. Depending on where she is, different carriers have better/worse reputations. Where I live, almost everyone has and loves ATT, and hates Sprint. Where I work, just the opposite.

[KenJulio]

Well, based on the phone and error message it could be the network or the device. If she hasnt, make sure it's reported to VZW CS so they can help her with her issue with her current phone.

With that said, if it's a device issue, the blackberry Tour would be a good option if she likes the Verizon service. If she is wanting try another carrier to test her coverage, I would recommend Tmo and ATT, Sprint is ok, but their CS is one the worst.

Somethings I came across with my carrier test a few weeks ago.
T-mobile - good selection of devices, best prices around for text, data, and minutes. Only drawback for me is the reception I had where it would be needed most was borderline. 3G network is growing across the country for T-mo, it isnt the fastest, as ATT has the fastest network at this time. Device - G1

ATT - good selection of devices, pricing plans are high, CS is ok, coverage for me was not the greatest. The device I tried was the iphone 3gs

Verizon - prices on par with ATT, most reliable network and possibly the largest coverage. CS is one of the best, select of devices is usually a quarter behind the other carriers. Apple phone is of course rumored for 2010. VZW tends to lock down their phones with proprietary software and such. I stayed with VZW and purchased the BB Tour, does multimedia, email functionality is the best, battery life is pretty good compared to the iPhone and Blackberry Storm, BB Storm and Tour are world phones so they can be used internationally either by the provided SIM by VZW or having the phone unlocked by VZW to use other carrier SIMs.

Amy - I havent tried out the TP2 speakerphone, but the new Blackberry's are quite loud.