Cell phone to buy for verizon service

[vrbaba]

My 2 yrs are over and my LG VX6100 has served me well till now. It has a broken hinge and can fall apart anytime, so I am deciding to renew the contract.

The things that I want are Tri-mode (digital+analog), bluetooth, external display (just the name/number is fine).

However, I would like it to be moddable, so I can put my own wallpapers, ringtones, picture transfers. etc. preferably through bluetooth. I havent been keeping in touch with the latest and greatest, so can anyone point me to some good forums or sites where people have successfully done that? I remember there was good-sized community for vx6000/6100.

EDIT: WRONG FORUM, Mods can you please move it to Off Topic?
EDIT: It was in FS/FT, didnt realize there is a Gadgets forum, but mods were on top of things

 

[Raduque]

Actually, this IS the right forum. Asking for recommendations on a cell phone belongs on the cell phone forum

If I were you, I would stay away from the LGs. Most of them are not very moddable. The Moto W315 is a nice tri-mode phone, but takes some work to hack. The RAZR and KRZR, on the other hand, you can completely flash them other to other carrier's software (Alltel, VIVO, Telus, Bell) and use them on VZW with all data features (txt, picture/video messaging, GIN downloads and VZ Nav with the exception of the Telus/Bell firmwares, as those are Java and the BREW software from Get it Now doesn't run on JAVA) intact. I myself use Alltel on my phone, and the things you can do with it over a stock Verizon KRZR is amazing. Full bluetooth, loading MP3s from a memory card as ringtones and more.

Edit: a lot of people don't care for the "popular" Motos as lots of people have them. They are extremely moddable, though.

 

[vrbaba]

Yes, its in the right forum now.

Looking around, I just realized that most of the new LG and Motorola phones are all digital, and iirc, verizon is slowly moving towards an all digital network. I like LGs because i have been pretty happy with them. And the last couple of phones Ive had have been pretty good to me. I was thinking about the Chocolate, but im not sure how easily can i hack the bluetooth to upload and download my stuff directly instead of paying through the verizon service (pics, ringtones, etc.)

I guess I might not really need a hack except just software that can access and write to the phone (like BitPim that works with my LG VX6100). But with the memory card slot, built in bluetooth, i think I would really need to flash the phone.

Also, the W315 doesnt have bluetooth. Although I dont care about having an mp3 player on the phone, i would like to make custom ringtones from my mp3 (doesnt have to be mp3 format as long as I can convert them)

 

[Raduque]

Verizon is slowly limiting or eliminating all the ways to add in ringtones from a non-vzw source on their phones. Newer versions of phones such as the Chocolate and VX8700 are locked out of BitPim. I mentioned the RAZR/KRZR, because if you're even somewhat technically inclined, you can just flash over to Alltel and you can do anything you want on the Alltel firmware.

 

[UNCjigga]

Originally posted by: Raduque
Verizon is slowly limiting or eliminating all the ways to add in ringtones from a non-vzw source on their phones. Newer versions of phones such as the Chocolate and VX8700 are locked out of BitPim. I mentioned the RAZR/KRZR, because if you're even somewhat technically inclined, you can just flash over to Alltel and you can do anything you want on the Alltel firmware.

Agreed. Unfortunately, if you want Verizon service and hackable/moddable you'll soon have to forget about all the BREW phones entirely. I would wait for the Pearl/Q9m (Q4) or pickup the BlackBerry 8830 or Moto Q now.

 

[vrbaba]

Hmmm... looks like i should switch to GSM. I am technically inclined and willing to flash the phones, but dont want the Razr or anything. The pearl is decent but i like some of the off-US market sony ericssons too. I guess I get what I pay for.

Also, dont off-market unlocked phones have no restrictions, right? so I can trasnfer images, ringtones, etc without any hassle?

 

[Imaginer]

Originally posted by: UNCjigga

Originally posted by: Raduque
Verizon is slowly limiting or eliminating all the ways to add in ringtones from a non-vzw source on their phones. Newer versions of phones such as the Chocolate and VX8700 are locked out of BitPim. I mentioned the RAZR/KRZR, because if you're even somewhat technically inclined, you can just flash over to Alltel and you can do anything you want on the Alltel firmware.

Agreed. Unfortunately, if you want Verizon service and hackable/moddable you'll soon have to forget about all the BREW phones entirely. I would wait for the Pearl/Q9m (Q4) or pickup the BlackBerry 8830 or Moto Q now.

Are they disabling the SPP profile in newer VX8500s? I can get my own custom sounds and wallpapers on my Chocolate fine but I am not certain about newer revisions.

 

[MadAmos]

I have the Verizon VX8700 and it works great with the latest version of Bitpm 1.0.0 and I have had no problem adding ringtones so far. There is a lot more info on howard forums.

 

[vrbaba]

Originally posted by: Imaginer

Originally posted by: UNCjigga

Originally posted by: Raduque
Verizon is slowly limiting or eliminating all the ways to add in ringtones from a non-vzw source on their phones. Newer versions of phones such as the Chocolate and VX8700 are locked out of BitPim. I mentioned the RAZR/KRZR, because if you're even somewhat technically inclined, you can just flash over to Alltel and you can do anything you want on the Alltel firmware.

Agreed. Unfortunately, if you want Verizon service and hackable/moddable you'll soon have to forget about all the BREW phones entirely. I would wait for the Pearl/Q9m (Q4) or pickup the BlackBerry 8830 or Moto Q now.

Are they disabling the SPP profile in newer VX8500s? I can get my own custom sounds and wallpapers on my Chocolate fine but I am not certain about newer revisions.

VX8500 is the first version of chocolate and is supported in BitPim, however, the newer one VX8550 is not (yet?). From what people are saying, it wont be? but maybe it just needs time for the bitpim developers to add the support in.