.

What kind of phone do you have, and why do you think it's the best, worse, or just ok ?

I have a Samsung R335C from Straightalk. Sabidoo and I have the same model phone and the same company. We get unlimited everything for only $45 per month. I am impressed with their service enough that I dumped my Verizon contract and switched. Now, even my wife has changed services, too.

It might not be the best, but Straightalk gives me what I want on a phone and for a price I feel that fits my budget.

Ha ! You sound like a commercial ! So that's one of those pay as you go phone things ?

Yes, it's pay as you go. Beats the batcrap out of being trapped in a contract. And like Alldat said, truly unlimited EVERYTHING for one low price.

Why anyone would want to spend for minutes, then more for text, then even more for data is a mystery to me. Then when you realize you don't like what you have...spend even MORE trying to get out of the silly contract.

Good point, but can you get a package like that with other phones (ie smartphones) ?

I am one of those that paid to get out of a contract. With all the features I have now, though, if I had to pay for it with Verizon, I will easily pay for that broken contract fee in just a couple of months. I have no regrets so far.

I'm lookin into that

I gots me an iPhone 4 on a Rogers family plan. Although there's only two other people here who are eligible for the Canadian company, it's good to know about.

- Unlimited texting
- 1 GB of data shared
- 500 minutes of weekday calling, unlimited evening + weekends
Maybe not the best deal but it's great.

I have a Samsung Rant with a Sprint grandfathered family plan. It isn't the best, but the phone was free and the plan is the cheapest available. I don't have texting, but make due with IM. I guess my though it that I hate to talk on the phone so why pay any more than I have to for my service.

I have a BlackBerry and really like it.
I love the qwerty keybord.
Now I can load my music on my phone.
My contract started in December 2010 and get's trough December 2010.
Maybe I will take an other blackBerry then.

thanks everyone. every little bit of info is helping me make a decision.

Quote:

that I hate to talk on the phone so why pay any more than I have to for my service

I heard that !

Thing is, my fav phone pooped out on me about 4 months ago. I adopted my son-in-laws 1st gen iPhone and like it quite a bit, but it doesn't do much (ie doesnt have video or MMS, speakers and jack are messed up, etc). SO, I've decided now that I'm an official empty-nester, I deserve me a nice phone. My wife's plan is up in Dec. and mine is up in March. My wife doesnt care about phones at all and loves her current phone (also doesnt want to learn a new one), so my deal is: I'm gonna grab a phone before Christmas off her plan for me. I just still cant figure out which one. I've been leaning towards an iPhone 4 or an HTC (my sister has one and it's pretty awesome).

I used to love the qwerty on my old phone, but now that ive got used to the iphones qwerty screen, i don't need to go back

I have some cheap LG - Verizon phone with a qwerty pad (my wife and daughter text me like mad) . It was pretty much the best "non-internet" service phone I could get. It would be nice to have a "smart phone" but I'm not paying another $30 a month for the service when I already have the interweb on my computer at home.

I don't have a cell phone. If/when I get one I will probably have to get an iphone as those are the only ones I know of that have an app called captel.

The only reason I even have a phone line at home is for internet. I don't hardly ever use the phone but when I do I can't understand much at all. I need to get a captel phone for here. Then again if/when I get an iphone with captel I won't need the one for home on the landline.

http://www.captel.com/

Yes,my hearing is that bad.

I saw the commercial for Captel - that is awesome ! That's where technology is actually doing something good for once (rather than just for entertainment).

My wife and I both have iPhone 4's. We both love them and their capabilities. I have limited data on my phone, but she has unlimited on hers. She grandfathered in from a Blackberry plan. AT&T does not have an ulimited data plan available any longer, only those who are grandfathered in can have it. I don't use the data plan a whole lot, because it picks up my Wi-Fi network when I am home, and generally if you are out in public you run across hotspots you can use for free. Even then, if we are away from Wi-Fi, we use my wife's data plan most of the time. So, my data plan gets used on a limited basis.



Our three kids each have a phone on our plan as well. We have the unlimited texting and unlimited cell-to-cell (any carrier) in our plan. The big thing I like about AT & T is the rollover minutes. We have like 5000 minutes rolled over because most of our extended family have the same company and all of our mobile-to-mobile calls to them have always been included for free. Now it is any mobile-to-mobile.



As for the company, we are limited to AT&T where we live. In the state of Illinois, there apparently is an old law that divided the state into segments. Your cell service provider was only allowed to have their towers in their segments. This was done to avoid a monopoly, and thus price gouging. As time has passed, the law has remained in effect, even though Verizon and AT&T have become the two major players in this area of the state. I live 3 blocks from the county line. That county line divides AT&T/Verizon territory. There are Verizon towers at the line, but they are directionally broadcasting to the county we do not live in. If you cross the county line, you can still make and receive calls, no matter which way you go, but coverage is extremely limited for the wrong county/carrier combinations. When people come to church, they have one of the two plans. You can always tell which one they have when you see them trying to make/receive calls or texts. Two people can be setting side by side. If one is AT&T, they have full signal strength and excellent service. If the other has Verizon, they have no signal and typically have to go outside to even have enough signal to get a text message.



Illinois is so messed up.



Anyhow, back on track. I love my iPhone 4.

NICE ! Thanks for that Tim ! I'm seriously leaning towards the iPhone 4 since I really dig this 1st gen I got. My daughter and son-in-law have the 4 and haven't had one prob with them, they love it.

Now I just gotta be patient until December 17th...

Jim,



I have switched all of my mail and calendar functions to Outlook. Everything is then synched thought iTunes. You simply install iTunes on your computer, set up the synch features as you want them, and when you connect your phone to your computer, it will transfer everything to your phone. I have mine set up so that if I add an appointment to my phone calendar, it updates my Outlook calendar on my computer.



Outlook is much harder to set up than the iPhone is, by far. Once you get it set up, the iTunes setup is a breeze. It will also synch wirelessly somehow, but I haven't figured that out yet. I changed some settings recently, and was I ever surprised. I made a list for Wal-Mart on my phone, on the Notes feature. Next thing I know, I am getting e-mails in Outlook for every update I made to the list, including when I was in the store. I would mark my list when I got an item in my cart, and when I got home there were e-mails from that updating. Somehow it would re-synch my note every few minutes, because I was not getting a 1:1 update:e-mail. I would get an e-mail with a few check marks, then get another e-mail with more checkmarks.



I wish I had all of the features figured out, but I do know that my wife went from a Blackberry to an iPhone and she was blown away by the ease of the transition. After she used the Blackberry for 2 years, she was still extremely limited on her ability to use the same features that the iPhone allowed her to use within a week. Keep in mind she is a computer programmer and pretty tech savvy to boot. She loved her Blackberry, but struggled to adequately maximize her use of it because of the learning curve. The iPhone was just incredibly intuitive.

You should be an iPhone rep !

I do appreciate the comparitive reviews though. My mind's pretty made up on this one.

If you're going for an iPhone, get the 4S. Wicked fast and better camera and more.