New Cell Phone

[jimsowden]

I just got the Samsung e315 from Amazon with T-mobile service for -$75. I'm very happy with the phone and the coverage. The rebate is a little weird in that you have to go 2 months with a $40+ plan, but you can then change it (I plan to). It's worth it to get a free phone and pay $10 for the first 2 months. I just though anyone in the market would like to know. I was looking for a bluetooth phone that I could sync contacts and pictures to and from my mac, but the provider is more important.

Amazlink

 

[Pismo]

I really hate the trade-offs a person has to make when buying a phone or service. I have SprintPCS and the coverage in my area can be real sketchy sometimes. I think Sprints phones suck because they are CDMA. The Treo 650 is the only good phone they offer (and most expensive).

I have another year with Sprint before my agreement expires then I think I'll move on to another provider. Either these providers need to offer better phones with bluetooth or Apple needs to support more of them (iSync).

 

[clayj]

I really hate the trade-offs a person has to make when buying a phone or service. I have SprintPCS and the coverage in my area can be real sketchy sometimes. I think Sprints phones suck because they are CDMA. The Treo 650 is the only good phone they offer (and most expensive).

I have another year with Sprint before my agreement expires then I think I'll move on to another provider. Either these providers need to offer better phones with bluetooth or Apple needs to support more of them (iSync).

You may not know this, but Sprint offers (or they used to, at least) a 100% Satisfaction guarantee that you can use to your advantage... I used it to get out of my contract with Sprint, based on the simple fact that I could not stand on the street in front of the building where I live and get a signal. I told 'em, either build a tower across the street so I can get a signal, or let me out of the contract with no termination fees. They let me out.

 

[Pismo]

I didn't know that. I don't think I'd cancel my service anyway because the other providers in my area suck. There's Unicel and US Cellular in my area. Their plans and phones are pathetic and over priced.

Cingular/AT&T looks appealing but I don't think they have service in my area. I really love the new Moto Razr V3. Too bad is so expensive.

What is everyones opinions of T-Mobile, Cingular, Verizon, etc?

 

[pdpfilms]

I use unicel with one of those ****** oldschool motorola's. It works really well.... but i would LOVE a bluetooth mac compatible phone. I agree that it sucks you ahve to choose a provider to be able to use a certain phone. But i've been interested in cingular. Can anyone attest to their "nationwide" gma network? I've heard some iffy things about gma... and cingular. But with the new merger and all....???

(also, if they don't offer any products on their website for my zipcode, does that mean i wouldn't get coverage here?)

 

[bousozoku]

I really hate the trade-offs a person has to make when buying a phone or service. I have SprintPCS and the coverage in my area can be real sketchy sometimes. I think Sprints phones suck because they are CDMA. The Treo 650 is the only good phone they offer (and most expensive).
...

I don't know about that being the only good phone. I love my Sanyo PM-8200. It's not a bad successor to my Motorola StarTac of 4 years.

 

[AllieNeko]

" I think Sprints phones suck because they are CDMA. "

CDMA offers a lot of advantages over TDMA (the air interface used in GSM):

Better rural range (coding gain)
Better handling of urban multipath (contructive use vs. simple filtering attempts)
Higher capacity (less dropped calls)
Soft handoffs (less glitches when driving, less dropped calls)
Higher speed data support

Cingular is going CDMA (they're using W-CDMA which is the European CDMA standard designed to replace GSM; whereas Sprint and Verizon use Qualcomm (CDMA's inventor)'s proprietary CDMA2000 (1xRTT with 1xEVDO being rolled out over the course of the year) - but from a consumer's point of view, there's little difference - both offer the same features) very soon.

The only real disadvantage to CDMA is the increased size and power consumption/heat dissipation of the chipset (and W-CDMA will actually be a little worse than CDMA2000 with this). If you think there are no cool CDMA phones:

http://www.sktelecom.com/eng/services/june/index.html (this is the service information, search on google to see some of the phones - they're amazing. And probably won't be stateside for at least two years; but they are CDMA2000 1xEVDO)

http://www.vodafone-i.co.uk/live/3g_phones.html (these are W-CDMA handsets (because in Europe GSM is the mandated 2G standard and W-CDMA the mandated 3G standard - Vodafone WANTED to go CDMA2000 because of it's proprietary nature furthering their ability to provide revenue-based content and applications; and they did in the US - Vodafone owns half of Verizon Wireless) and therefore won't be available, ever, for Sprint's CDMA2000 network)

 

[JeffTL]

They're replacing GSM already? I just got it and am quite happy.

Anyhow, I (in Omaha NE) recently went to Cingular GSM (previously AT&T Wireless TDMA), with a Nokia 3120. Haven't been out of state with this phone yet, but the hardware is good and Cingular has pretty good service. I liked their store; though it wasn't quite an Apple store as far as customer experience is concerned, the staff were helpful and the phones were on good display.

The 3120 is a good GSM phone -- I like the speakerphone, and the lack of a camera is actually beneficial if you don't want to have people in the locker room think they are being photographed if you take out your telephone for some reason. I like my telephone to be a telephone; I have it ring like a Western Electric 5xx-series landline phone so I don't miss it.

As for coverage, in Omaha I don't have any trouble though I haven't tried it outside yet. The TDMA junker I had before from AT&T Wireless (now absorbed by Cingular) worked well in Omaha and Chicago, and would probably work okay on a good chunk of I-80 between. Not sure about anything else, but Cingular seems pretty good.

And it's likely to be here tomorrow, being an SBC (Southwestern Bell, though they're far beyond the Southwest now) - BellSouth joint venture.

 

[AllieNeko]

"They're replacing GSM already? I just got it and am quite happy."

GSM is the oldest technology currently in mainstream use (IS-136 (the old TDMA) and AMPS (analog) aren't exactly mainstream anymore (in fact, I'm shocked you still had an IS-136 phone and are a user on this forum - I'd think we were more techie than that ), though I know people who still have IS-136 and AMPS phones). Far older than both CDMA2000 and it's predecessor CDMAOne (IS-95). While GSM has been updated (with EDGE) to support simple packet data; they've reached the end of the road with the TDMA air interface; both with data speed and the need for the improved capacity of a CDMA air interface.

But don't worry - 50 million strong; Cingular will be supporting GSM for a LONG time to come! And early W-CDMA handsets will support GSM as well to provide coverage outside the W-CDMA footprint. Later W-CDMA handsets will more likely be interoperable with CDMA2000. It's very easy to do W-CDMA/CDMA2000 interoperability (compared to GSM/CDMA2000 interoperability).

For helpful staff; Verizon Wireless is probably the best. For coverage as well. Sprint is terrible for both, probably the worst for customer service.

P.S. - the reason GSM phones are smaller is because you don't need as much battery power or room for as much heat dissipation; because the chipset isn't nearly as powerful as a CDMA chipset. In fact, the difference is so strong that even when GSM was in the early deployment stage in Europe; most of the GSM supporters were laughing at Qualcomm and telling them that a portable CDMA handset would never be possible. Against that kind of challenge; I like to think my 3.7oz LG VX-4500 is actually pretty small