Martha has acknowledged that I have had my current phone (Nokia 3650) for quite a while now (without breaking and/or losing it), and has officially agreed that I should get a new one.
So I thought I’d open it up for suggestions. I’ll start by saying that I like everything about my current phone other than the camera quality and the circle dialing pad, which has gotten annoying because I want to be able to dial without looking. There are several features on my current phone that will be prerequisites in any new model for consideration:
- The ability to use a real internet connection. By this I mean a real TCP/IP connection directly to the internet (not through special phone company proxy servers) wherein my phone gets an IP address and can I can browse directly using a real web browser (like Opera for Symbian, which I’m currently using) - not WAP or any of that crap. This also means being able to get email directly (not by proxy like the Blackberry devices), as well as being able to run any custom software that I write myself to use the internet connection. To do this on T-Mobile I have to explicitly say that I want the “VPN” service, rather than just the regular “T-Mobile Internet” service, which is kind of like the Compuserve/AOL of the old days, where you’re not really on the internet, you’re just connecting to selected services through their special gateway. I would prefer this service to be fast as well, but having a real connection is more important.
- Speaking of custom software, it needs to have an OS that supports custom user designed applications, like Symbian does with J2ME/MIDP,
although it could be anything as long as you can write the apps on your computer and put them on your own phone (not just pick from what’s available on their site). - Bluetooth - specifically allowing for file transfer to/from my other devices as well as unrestricted sharing the internet connection (described above) with other devices (PDA, laptop, etc.)
- Contact and calendar syncing
One thing I definitely don’t need is a full PDA-type device, because I already have a good PDA. I also don’t care about ringtones or games whatsoever. I may think of some other criteria later and update this post at that time.
Any ideas?
8 Comments
Yeah good luck. I’m just looking for a phone that does real internet, has a querty keyboard, bluetooth and is small; can’t find it.
You could get a Treo 700w or what for the motorola Q.
If you don’t want a PDA then go with the Sony symbians, Joel has one but they are very pricey.
What are you looking at now?
I don’t want a treo or motorola q because I already have a PDA that is better than either of those.
So far the only thing that seems to have everything I want is the Samsung t809, although I need to call T-Mobile and talk to someone who can confirm that none of the features I care about (like using the network connection from paired devices) are disabled.
Everything I’ve read about it doesn’t mention this specifically; the only complaints I’ve seen about it are people whining about the disabling of using your own mp3s for ringtones in order to force you to get ringtones from them; which is dumb because there is a way around it and because I don’t care about ringtones.
Also, it supports Edge, which will hopefully come to this area before the phone becomes obsolete.
I know I read that but they were suggestions and why would you count them out just because they are PDA’s too? If they are good phones and they do what you want then you should choose one.
That samsung looks cool and I didn’t know T-mobile has edge, I thought it was Cingular/ATT that had it? oh well. You probably will have all the cripples, it’s standard carrier shizzle. Just buy an unlocked phone.
I’ll check it out when you get it.
I know you were just suggesting; I don’t think they’re bad neccessarily, I just don’t want to get another PDA if I don’t need one. If there weren’t other phones that met my needs, I might consider them, but didn’t you say that your treo was locked from sharing the internet connection? Hopefully that is just a Cingular policy. My current one is not blocked, so hopefully T-Mobile doesn’t do that as a policy.
Yes, my Treo was originally crippled by cingular but I unlocked it, you know that post that some dumb asses don’t fully read and screw up their phones, yeah that’s how I did it.
Ya, I don’t want to have to do something that’s not supported by the provider.
BTW, I was reading those recent comments on your unlocking article; what are these people smoking? First, they need to take the time to read and follow the directions, and second they need to realize that doing something like that is not going to be supported so they are screwed if they mess it up.
Might want to wait for the 802.11 phone,
http://cellphones.engadget.com/2006/01/04/samsungs-t709-wifi-slider/
Yes, that looks very good. I already decided to wait on the phone replacement anyway, so maybe this is another good reason to do so.