Help deciding on next phone.

[leglez]

I am looking at buying a new phone pretty soon. Last nice phone I had was a HTC TyTn and I loved it. Right now I am stuck with a Razr V3. I am looking for something that is compatible with Pandora Radio, and has good battery life. I need something to listen to at work. I looked at ipods and such, but don't really want one. I want to get an actual phone that can act as an ipod. I heard good things about the iphone battery life. I need it to last at least 6 hours while playing music. The only thing I don't think I would like about the iphone is the keyboard, or lack of one. I do a lot of texting and I am not sure how I would like it. I have played with some friends ipod touches and an iphone or two at the store. Other than that I love it.

I also like the G1 since it has a keyboard, but it doesn't have a pandora app, and I heard battery life is terrible.

I am on T-Mobile if that matters. Anyone have any other suggestions?

 

[pm]

The iPhone's battery life is decent. Running Pandora over 3G or WiFi (apparently slightly better) for 6 hours straight is likely to be a stretch. You can definitely do the MP3 player for 6+ hours with plenty left over... but Pandora might be pushing it since that's a wireless datastream as well as processing. I wouldn't think that Pandora would work for more than 5 hours, but I've never tried. If it did work, you'd likely have not much battery left. You could bring a charger in...

As far as the G1, there's no Pandora - but there is Imeem instead which is apparently very similar. If you like texting, there's no replacement for a real keyboard. But that said, you do get used to the iPhone.. eventually.

If you wanted to stay on T-Mobile, there's the G1. Or you can get a hacked iPhone on Ebay. Or buy it unhacked and unlock it yourself. The nice thing about an iPhone on T-Mo is their voice/data plan for it is much cheaper than AT&T's or even T-Mo's G1. I'm paying $30 (voice) + $6 (data) = $36 (+ tax and such) for 300 day minutes + unlimited night and weekend + unlimited EDGE and I get a discount from my company that gets applied too.

But if you want Pandora and don't have Wifi at work, then if you live in an area with either AT&T's 3G or T-Mo's 3G (quite a bit more rare), then Pandora on either company's 3G should work well. You can stream Pandora over EDGE, but it pauses a fair bit and I wouldn't recommend it. On AT&T there's also the LG Shine CU720 and CU920 and RAZR2 V9 and V3xx. Several Sprint and Verizon phones support Pandora too (Mogul, TyTn, Instinct, etc).

 

[Pliablemoose]

I have both, (sitting in front of me ) I like pm's suggestion of a hacked iPhone on TMobile. I keep trying to like the G1, and keep going back to the iPhone (unlocked Gen 1, jailbroken)

Who's your current carrier?

I just changed my TMobile plan to the loyalty plan, unlimited minutes http://www.boygeniusreport.com...-available-nationwide/

 

[leglez]

I am with T-Mobile on a family plan. Don't plan on changing to AT&T, I planned on just purchasing an unlocked iphone. I am not really as worried about having pandora anymore, because I plan on just syncing my itunes with whichever device I get anyways. I just am more worried about having the ability to use the MP3 player for at least 6+ Hours. It would be on Edge mostly, but might go to 3G every once in a while, they just added 3G in Kansas City in December, not sure how far it reaches, I am like an hour from KC. Is there anyway to text in landscape mode on the iphone?

I guess by the $6 data you mean you are using the T-Zones internet or whatever it is called. Can you stream Youtube and stuff with that?

Are there any other android phones that can be used on t-mobile?

 

[musicetime101]

Iphone has nice battery life, you can consider getting it.

 

[leglez]

I was just looking on craigslist and saw there were unlocked blackberry storms. I was a huge fan of my blackberry pearl when I had it, infact it was probably my favorite phone to date. How does the storm hold up against the G1 and iPhone?

I just read a comparison of the G1 Iphone and Storm. I don't like the fact that you actually have the click the screen on the storm. So its out. I am really starting to consider an iphone. I have all apple computers at home, and it would be nice to be able to get mobileme and just keep emails and dates and everything synced.

I actually think I am picking up an iphone on Thursday. I found a 2G iphone on craigslist with a cracked screen, but everything still works. I am going to trade him a couple xbox 360 games for it and see if I can repair the screen. If everything works is it most likely the outer screen? Or would it be the LCD?

 

[vshah]

i have a g1, and on the music streaming issue, i have no issues listening to shoutcast streams on edge while driving. do note that on 2g (edge networks) phones with an active data connection (streaming music) will send voice calls directly to voicemail.

 

[James Bond]

Out of curiosity, why do you need to have 6+ hours straight of music? I normally just have mine plugged into my computer all day (USB) while it's playing music.

I have 5+ chargers. Some are just USB, some are USB+Wall, etc. That's one thing I love about the iPhone though, you can find and borrow chargers constantly since everyone and their mom has at least an iPod.

 

[Spineshank]

Am i losing it or were posts from this thread deleted?

 

[Krynj]

Even though I'm not a fan of the iPhone, I have to vote iPhone. I have a G1 right now, and although I really like it a lot, Android just doesn't feel like it's finished yet. The apps are kind of a let down at this point, though there are a couple good ones. And depending on which version of the G1 you get, the build quality doesn't seem too great. I've had mine (black one) since the end of December, and it squeaks and creaks quite a bit. I even did the creaky screen fix, and I'm noticing some creaking again. And if you text a lot, be prepared to delete message threads once a week, as lots of messages on the phone will slow it down incredibly. Same thing for additional software. Get some apps and games installed, and the phone goes even slower. I've noticed lately that if I push the home button to get to the home screen, there's about 2-3 seconds of lag before it switches. And sometimes the home screen icons will take an additional 5 seconds to load up, though that doesn't happen too often. I like the G1 for what it is, but right now it's by no means a serious smartphone. I think you'd be happier with an iPhone.

It'd be an alright phone if it could stay as snappy as my Blackberry Pearl did, even with thousands of stored messages on it. Android won't be a huge contender until at least version 2 or 3. I personally am considering selling my G1 and putting that money towards the retail cost of a Blackberry 8900.

 

[pm]

Originally posted by: Spineshank
Am i losing it or were posts from this thread deleted?

I'm the primary mod on this forum and I don't delete posts that aren't spam. And I haven't used my moderating abilities in quite a while.

So if there are posts missing, PM me details and I'll go ask the forum maintainers what's going on. But I know I didn't touch them.

And if you text a lot, be prepared to delete message threads once a week, as lots of messages on the phone will slow it down incredibly. Same thing for additional software. Get some apps and games installed, and the phone goes even slower. I've noticed lately that if I push the home button to get to the home screen, there's about 2-3 seconds of lag before it switches.

Early iPhone software releases did both of these. Too many text messages slowed things down a lot, as did a lot of contacts. And when the hackers were the only ones porting apps to the iphone too many of those slowed things down too. So there's hope - the iPhone guys fixed these problems and now everything is pretty snappy. I'd give the Android guys time.

 

[leglez]

Originally posted by: James Bond
Out of curiosity, why do you need to have 6+ hours straight of music? I normally just have mine plugged into my computer all day (USB) while it's playing music.

I have 5+ chargers. Some are just USB, some are USB+Wall, etc. That's one thing I love about the iPhone though, you can find and borrow chargers constantly since everyone and their mom has at least an iPod.

I work at a special needs school housing and don't really have a chance to sit down till the kids are in bed at night. I went ahead and got the iphone and it works perfect. Usually still have a quite a bit of battery life when I get home.

 

[Spineshank]

Originally posted by: pm

Originally posted by: Spineshank
Am i losing it or were posts from this thread deleted?

I'm the primary mod on this forum and I don't delete posts that aren't spam. And I haven't used my moderating abilities in quite a while.

So if there are posts missing, PM me details and I'll go ask the forum maintainers what's going on. But I know I didn't touch them.

And if you text a lot, be prepared to delete message threads once a week, as lots of messages on the phone will slow it down incredibly. Same thing for additional software. Get some apps and games installed, and the phone goes even slower. I've noticed lately that if I push the home button to get to the home screen, there's about 2-3 seconds of lag before it switches.

Early iPhone software releases did both of these. Too many text messages slowed things down a lot, as did a lot of contacts. And when the hackers were the only ones porting apps to the iphone too many of those slowed things down too. So there's hope - the iPhone guys fixed these problems and now everything is pretty snappy. I'd give the Android guys time.

I could have sworn this was the thread where someone had posted good G1 apps. Otherwise no biggie.

 

[boomhower]

Between the two I would go with the iPhone(and I hate Apple) but if T-Mobile has 3G in your area I would get the G1 as to the best of my knowledge Iphone's will not work on 3G on T-Mobile, they use difference frequencies.

 

[Deeko]

Originally posted by: FetusCakeMix
And if you text a lot, be prepared to delete message threads once a week, as lots of messages on the phone will slow it down incredibly. Same thing for additional software. Get some apps and games installed, and the phone goes even slower.

I text a lot and used to have that problem with the slow message application, but I feel its improved a lot with a later release. Or, just use ChompSMS from the Market - its free, has a nicer interface, and doesn't have any slowdown at all.

 

[gar655]

Unlocked Nokia E71. You can get your 6 hours of music, 3G with T-mobile, WiFi, bluetooth, AGPS, Google maps, Opera Mini etc...etc...etc...

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: gar655
Unlocked Nokia E71. You can get your 6 hours of music, 3G with T-mobile, WiFi, bluetooth, AGPS, Google maps, Opera Mini etc...etc...etc...

That's what I'm using, along with the Jabra BT3030 stereo headset. I can't help but be amused seeing all the people on the subway with their gay white earbuds and iphones/ipods, thinking they have something special...