Need recommendation for non-smart AT&T cell phone

[courtjester123]

I recently moved my wife's service to AT&T. Their phone selection (those not requiring a data plan) was pretty poor. She picked out a Pantech Pursuit and after a few days realized how crappy it was. I took it back and got her a Samsung Flight 2, which she dislikes even more.

Can anyone recommend a good cell phone I can get her for use on AT&T - needs full QWERTY keyboard and has got to be good for texting. She doesn't need a touch screen. Their non-smartphones are clunky and quirky. Text messaging is painful - nice to have a full keyboard but just to give an example, the Samsung phone will not dispay a TXT message conversation in a "thread" format.

I was willing to pay more for a better phone, but I was told all the smartphones REQUIRED a data plan.

I feel like it would be worth just buying a new/used phone and moving the SIM card over.

Any help would be really appreciated.

 

[Radeon962]

Only two that seem to get somewhat reasonable reviews are:

* Pantech Laser
* Samsung Evergreen

 

[vshah]

buy a used blackberry perhaps?

 

[kaerflog]

The only way to get a decent smartphone without a data plan is to get a foreign phone.
Like an unlocked T-mobile phone and just stick your sim card in there.
That way ATT doesn't recognize the phone and make you get a data plan.
You can find a Vibrant for $250 on craigslist if you look hard enough.

 

[Rayb]

If you don't mind an older ulnocked nokia phone without skimping on quality and not paying a bundle for it.

 

[Christobevii3]

I use a nokia N8 with the $10 media net data. Someone is selling a month old one on the something awful forums if she can do touch screen qwerty.