Help...I need to pick a new Verizon phone

[PaperQueen]

Hi everyone...and in advance, thanks for your help with this.

I'm at the end of my "new every two" and am absolutely perplexed about which phone to get. Jumping to ATT for an iPhone is out of the question. For as frustrating as it is to deal with Verizon and their propensity for disabling Mac-friendly features, their network has served me well for years. Just can't justify leaving.

What I need is a phone that can sync to my address book (and, if possible, my calender).

What I don't need is music (love my iPod)...definitely don't want a PDA combo.

Anyone...anyone...?

 

[bousozoku]

I switched phones last year and will probably switch again next year, but like you, my service provider (Sprint) has been too good to switch.

I was really considering a Motorola KRZR and now that the RAZR2 is out, that might be the one.

The LG Chocolate is interesting but I'm not sure about any Korean phones after having another one and finding how difficult it is to use.

 

[ErikCLDR]

Personally I would switch providers. Verizon although usually having good reception, they are the quintessential idea of capitalism gone bad, price gauging, taking advantage of consumers, and just pure cooperate evil. Verizon is the Big Oil Company of cell phone providers.

 

[yg17]

Personally I would switch providers. Verizon although usually having good reception, they are the quintessential idea of capitalism gone bad, price gauging, taking advantage of consumers, and just pure cooperate evil. Verizon is the Big Oil Company of cell phone providers.

Just like AT&T. Except AT&T fails at the good reception part.


If Verizon works for you, keep them (even though they are pretty damn evil). Gotta go where you have reception, even if it means giving them your money.

 

[PaperQueen]

Personally I would switch providers. Verizon although usually having good reception, they are the quintessential idea of capitalism gone bad, price gauging, taking advantage of consumers, and just pure cooperate evil. Verizon is the Big Oil Company of cell phone providers.

I appreciate your thoughts on Verizon; however, switching providers isn't part of my plan--I'm staying, having had really good service and ideal coverage for years.

What I really need is help finding the next phone, based on the selection they offer. My hope is to find someone who already has one of their phones, and has had success syncing the address book in particular. All the threads I find on MacRumors date back to 2006...lots of phones have come out since then, so hopefully....hopefully....someone reading this has some first hand experience to share?

Thanks!

 

[mkrishnan]

What do you like in terms of form factors? Do you plan on paying for data services? You're out of luck in terms of many of the LG, etc phones, but if you're willing to pay for data services, the Blackberry 8703e and 8830 are certainly nice. The 8830 even allows you to get on GSM networks outside the US.

Otherwise, there are several Nokia phones that work... Nokia is probably your best bet if you want a small phone (eg 6215) that can iSync...

 

[PaperQueen]

What I really need:
Ability to sync Address Book from MBP
On-screen text larger than a tse tse fly

What would be nice, but isn't necessary:
Ability to sync Calendar

What I don't need, at least for now:
Music function (I love my iPod too much)
Web access

What I definitely don’t want:
A PDA phone

Pretty sure that covers all the bases for now....

 

[mkrishnan]

You know, you'll get more help if you aren't rude to people trying to help you....

 

[PaperQueen]

You know, you'll get more help if you aren't rude to people trying to help you....

???

Sorry...I must have misunderstood your previous post asking what form factors I wanted. Thought you were asking for my response.

 

[bousozoku]

You know, you'll get more help if you aren't rude to people trying to help you....

Hmmm...are you talking about the response to switching providers?

I think it was clear from the first post that switching wasn't going to happen, yet someone decided to go there anyway.

 

[mkrishnan]

I was talking about the response to my post.

 

[Heb1228]

I'm with verizon right now and have had a RAZR for about a year and a half. I can sync Address Book over bluetooth and that has been a life saver.

I wouldn't get any other phone that verizon offers until I find one with the same ability. You can probably find a slightly used one on ebay and avoid selling your life away for two more years.

I don't think a new RAZR will sync over bluetooth out of the box, but it isn't difficult to get it to if you don't mind using Windows to flash the firmware. Its not too difficult, but I understand if you don't want to go through the trouble.

 

[Heb1228]

This thread and the forum site in general may be of some help to you:

The Official RAZR V3c and Mac Thread (iSync, DUN, BT, etc.)
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=780944

 

[ibook30]

This thread and the forum site in general may be of some help to you:

The Official RAZR V3c and Mac Thread (iSync, DUN, BT, etc.)
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=780944

Very nice! I appreciate the link- might even come in handy....

I didn't read the alll of the posts - but I wonder if that would work with the KRZR (bad name but a cool phone). IMO the KRZR is a slick phone with some good features - so that'd be my pick from the Verizon line up.
G'luck !

 

[FredAkbar]

I was talking about the response to my post.

I don't think his response was rude at all, it was very well-structured and informative. Maybe there was a misunderstanding?

PaperQueen, you didn't really get into form factors much, though; do you prefer candy-bar or flip, for example? Do you want/need a camera?

edit: by the way, I love my Verizon Razr (V3m). Bluetooth and USB file transfer are disabled, but oh well. Kind of pricey though, but you're getting $50 or $100 off with New Every Two so it might be worth it.

 

[BearMace123]

I switched phones last year and will probably switch again next year, but like you, my service provider (Sprint) has been too good to switch.

I was really considering a Motorola KRZR and now that the RAZR2 is out, that might be the one.

The LG Chocolate is interesting but I'm not sure about any Korean phones after having another one and finding how difficult it is to use.

My KRZR is the coolest phone i have ever had. But if you arent gonna get music on it then its not worth the 150$. Also, just for anyone who might get it and wants to put music on it, get a 1 gig memory card for it too, because without the mem. card it can only hold about 7 songs.

 

[zap2]

Just like AT&T. Except AT&T fails at the good reception part.


If Verizon works for you, keep them (even though they are pretty damn evil). Gotta go where you have reception, even if it means giving them your money.

You really don't like AT&T do you?

Personal I'd go KRZR...not sure how you can sync with a Mac, and Verizon has been know to crippled their phone. However, as far as the design goes, its very nice.

 

[mahashel]

I have a Verizon LG Chocolate (before they made the circular controller all silver), and it gets great reception. However, I noticed a huge drop in voice quality/clarity. Other people sound more muffled than my old flip phone (LG4600), and *my* voice is apparently impossible to hear. Thought that maybe it was just my phone, but my girlfriend has a different chocolate (hers is black, mine is red) with the exact same issue. I'm guessing it has something to do with mic placement or something. People simply cannot understand me when I call them on this phone (and no, I haven't suffered a sudden speech impediment).
If you end up with a chocolate, do yourself a favor and get a headset. Otherwise you'll end up repeating yourself over.. and over.. and over.. and over.. and over.. and over..

 

[BearMace123]

You really don't like AT&T do you?

Personal I'd go KRZR...not sure how you can sync with a Mac, and Verizon has been know to crippled their phone. However, as far as the design goes, its very nice.

I agree . The KRZR is definately an improvement over the Razer, or so I have heard. From what I hear the razer is very hard to hear people talk to you because of where the ear thing (the part you put up to your ear) is. But I cant be 100% sure of that.

 

[PaperQueen]

Just got home from a business trip and am glad to see the conversation has continued.

PaperQueen, you didn't really get into form factors much, though; do you prefer candy-bar or flip, for example? Do you want/need a camera?

To be honest, either shape would work; definitely want to keep the camera option (my current phone is an LG VX8100). Form isn’t as important to me as the list of must-haves and don’t-wants shown above. Although...I wouldn’t miss the “antenna stub” that constantly catches on things in my briefcase and purse....

edit: by the way, I love my Verizon Razr (V3m). Bluetooth and USB file transfer are disabled, but oh well. Kind of pricey though, but you're getting $50 or $100 off with New Every Two so it might be worth it.

I’m with you—with the $100 credit, the price tag isn’t such a big deal. Getting that address book (and maybe calender?) on board, though...that’s huge.

Do I understand that both the Bluetooth AND the USB options are disabled? Yikes. Is that the case with the KRZR too?

If so, how does one get their address book from their Mac into their phone? I’ve been hobbling along with my current phone that only has a sliver of the numbers necessary on it. Please don’t tell me I have to manually type in the 200-plus entries to transfer them over......ohhhh.....no one at the Verizon stores or in customer service seems to know anything if it’s a Mac-related question (well, other than trying to push Treos, which I don’t want).

 

[FredAkbar]

Do I understand that both the Bluetooth AND the USB options are disabled?

Well, I know that USB file transfer is disabled, not sure if that includes other things like address book. Maybe it's like the iPhone, where disk mode is disabled but you can still sync your contacts and stuff.

My friend knows how to hack the Razr to enable USB file transfer, as it's just a software restriction I guess. But he says the Bluetooth is disabled in the hardware and can't be hacked (not by him anyway). I don't know anything about the Krzr, sorry.

update: I did a Google search and found these tidbits:
"Well I just got a v3m, and a little miff'd about the Verizon hacks. I can easily, sync my contacts with iSync, via usb (tiger, dual g4/450). It fails doing calendar fails with a known error but I have a pda for that."
and
"i can sync contacts and calendar information, but i can't put music on my v3m with bluetooth."

So maybe it is just plain file transfer that is disabled, but not things like contacts.

edit: more good news:
"The KRZR has a Bluetooth 1.2 radio with good profile support (gone are the days of crippled Bluetooth on Verizon phones). It has hands-free, headset, serial port, DUN (dial-up networking) and object push for vcards and images (no other file transfer supported)."
--http://www.mobiletechreview.com/phones/MOTOKRZR-K1m.htm

 

[ErikCLDR]

Do I understand that both the Bluetooth AND the USB options are disabled? Yikes. Is that the case with the KRZR too?

Yes. That is why I said Verizon is evil. On almost all of their phones BT and USB file transfer is disabled so that they can make money so that if I want a picture off my phone I have to pay them to send it to my computer. I will now attempt to help you .

I can sync my RAZR V3c via BT, but it only syncs contacts, not calendar. On my original razr (one of the first out) I could actually use BT file exchange amazingly, not hacks needed. Then I had them update the firmware cause it constantly froze and that turned out making my phone not be able to exchange files, have an external LCD picture (it would auto use the inside screen background, so it was kinda stupid), and it was equally unreliable, freezing all the time. The screen died on that one and they gave me a new one. Eventually the battery melted, yes melted, on that one so they gave me a new one even though it was not under warranty, no questions asked.

I'm not a fan of the KRZR. It's skinnier than the RAZR but I don't find that I buying point. You get used the RAZR's strange shape very quickly. The KRZR's narrower size made them put a smaller LCD inside which I find very annoying. The RAZR can be hard to hear if you don't have your ear in the right place, but I cannot comment on the KRAZR.

I'm not a fan of the Chocolate, I think its too hard to text on.

Basically I say that I don't like Verizon because they disable BT file exchange which is just unethical (there should be a law!) and they put stupid OS's on their phones that suck. I actually think they did not test the Verizon OS on the V3c Razr before they sold it. Even though they have fixed it, it still breaks. Additionally, the OS is not intuitive at all.

Right now I like the Moto Q and the Treo's but I hear it's hard to use.

Anyone know if you can get a smartphone w/o a data/smart phone plan?

 

[jdechko]

I have the SLVR L7c (Verizon) and I can at least do bluetooth OBEX transfers for "user-created" content (pix & flix - not sure about music, but that's what your iPod is for). I was at Fry's with my son several months ago and took a picture on the iSight. I decided I wanted to keep the picture, so I paired the Mac and my phone and transferred the file over in about 2 minutes (2 min = setup time for both Mac and phone and the actual transfer). I'm pretty sure the Mac asked me if I wanted to sync the address book as well. The only downside is that the camera quality sucks (VGA). It would have been nice to have a 1.3MP camera at least...

Other than that, it's good call quality and I get great battery life.

As for BT functionality, check here (PDF Link).

 

[PaperQueen]

Have to admit, if push comes to shove, the single, one-and-only, can’t survive without it feature would be the ability to sync my contacts. If nothing else, I need to have that.

The SLVR looks cool....might take it for a test ride to see how it feels....the RAZR and KRAZR too....

That little voice in the back of my head keeps telling me to wait another month or so to see what Verizon rolls out for fourth quarter—the fact they’re advertising big savings on phones with no expiration date on the sale tells me someone is clearing the shelves for the holidays.

Now....if only I thought I could tough it out with my current bothersome phone. It’s frying batteries like mad, won’t hold a charge more than a couple of days...frustrating.

 

[FoxyKaye]

Is Verizon still selling the Moto e815? I got this a couple years ago, and even though it sports the typical Verizon Crippletooth, I've been able to BT sync Address Book and Calendar with no problem.'

I'm also up for "new every two" in the next month or so, and considering a KRZR because I like the form factor. And, it apparently will BT sync, though I'd want some evidence of it doing this before buying.

Hey, to the OP, do repost what you decide and how it works out of the box vs. any hacks that you have to apply, please.