Mobile Phone

I'm in the market for a cell phone, and I need some recommendations.  Here are the base requirements:

  • Voice communication
Really, that's it.  At the base level I just need a phone that I can be called at or place calls from.  However, there are a lot of features I would love to have:
  • Personal E-mail support (gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc.)
  • Work E-mail support (exchange-sync)
  • Instant Messaging support
  • Internet browsing
  • Full QWERTY keyboard
  • Candy-bar form factor (sliders are ok)
  • 802.11g/b support
Things I don't need:
  • SMS Texting
  • MMS Texting
  • Movies
  • Music 
  • Television
So of course the first thing that comes to mind is....iPhone!  The iPhone is a beautiful machine, but it is also very expensive.  Not only do you pay $200 for the phone with a contract, but you end up paying a very hefty monthly fee for voice and data.  I don't use my phone much now, and I'd like to keep the monthly fees to a minimum.  My wife is on a pay-as-you-go program and that works great.  A $20 card on that program will stretch out for a long time.  Finding a plan for $20 a month is nearly impossible too.  

One thought that I have rolling around in my head is to get a phone that can run Skype and then purchase a data only plan.  As an example, get a T-Mobile G1 (the Google phone) and their $40 per month unlimited data plan.  Then use Skype as my full time mobile number ($60 per year for unlimited calling).  That's still a little pricey, and also questionable about whether it would even work, but it definitely satisfies the geek in me.

The PEEK e-mail device really has my attention.  At $20 per month the price is very right, but that doesn't include voice.  Voice is definitely required, so another option would be to have two gadgets with me: a simple cell phone on a pay-as-you-go plan for voice, and a PEEK for e-mail access.  Then again, access to my personal e-mail isn't all that critical to me, and the PEEK doesn't offer any web browsing, instant messaging, or anything else compelling really that would make it a must have for me.

At the end of the day, what I'm probably going to need is just a simple, inexpensive cell phone that I can use on a pay as you go plan.  From my wife's experience I know you can put any phone on those plans, so that really opens the options.  I'd like to spend less than $100 on a phone.  Any suggestions or models out there that you like? Are there any inexpensive phones out there that have 802.11b/g support that aren't an iPhone?

2 comments:

Sam Danziger said...

If you want a phone that is just plain good at being a phone, I would suggest that you go with Nokia. In my experience, they're tops in signal strength and voice quality as well as being unlikely to break.

Christopher said...

http://www.myrateplan.com/wireless/ is a decent place to start if you're looking for who's cheap.

 
Jade Mason