What are the phones to avoid in Alltel and Verizon's lineup?

[thecoolnessrune]

Hey guys, I've been on Alltel for two years now, and the time will be up next week. I dont know yet if I'm sticking to Alltel or jumping to Verizon.

So what I want to ask is what are phones to avoid on the two networks? Right now I have the Kyocera Strobe (K612B). I'm looking for the best in the lineups for:

Basic flip or bar phone.
Non-smart touchscreen phone (preferred with keyboard)
Best Smartphone.

I dont know yet if I'm doing data or going all the way down and just moving to a basic phone. So basically I'm looking for roughly 6 phone recommendations.

I dont want to come across as demanding, I'm reading phone reviews, but all of them seem to have some sort of problem and a few have outright buggy interfaces. But I haven't researched enough to know which ones are bad eggs and which ones are solid, which seems to be more of a problem with these newer touchscreen phones then their simpler sliding or flipping counterparts.

For Alltel, I was look at the LG Banter or Rhythm, though I dont know if there's any bad problems with them. For a touchscreen phone I was looking at the Samsung Delve. And for the smartphone I was looking at the Touch Pro or the Blackberry Pearl. Both of my Roommates have Touch Pros and one thinks his is fine, but complicated, and the other hates his, citing horrid battery life as the reason. Might be able to get his for cheap though and avoid the contract. The Blackberry Pearl looks nice, but I dont think I really want to get into the "Special Blackberry internet access OMG SO L33tZ0rS!"

For Verizon, I was looking at the Samsung Glyde for a basic phone, a LG Dare in non-smart touchscreen phone, and the Samsung Omnia or HTC Touch Pro in the smartphone area. Verizon has more expensive internet for Blackberry phones so I'd probably avoid them.

Lastly what is with the $30 a month cost to tether? What are they giving you to actually tether? Is it just software? Or are they removing a checker on your account that checks to see that you're surfing through the phone's web browser and not something else's?

Additionally, on phones that are non-smart or are smart, having wifi would be a HUGE plus to me.

Thank you


EDIT TO THIS:

As an update to this post, I'm now doing the Alltel route for another two years. For some reason I dont see the Voyager available from Alltel. In fact, the only one I do see is the Samsung Delve.

My gf who is currently in another state is also looking at another phone and is going to Alltel. She doesn't want a smart phone, just the basic bluetooth phone with a keyboard (touch or physical) for texting. She was curious about the LG Banter and honestly so am i. Especially since the Voyager doesn't look like its available on Alltel >_>

Anyone able to tell me about that?

 

[boomhower]

I can help you with a few. First, it really doesn't matter which you go with as they are both going to be one in the same in a couple months(in the vast majority of markets at any rate). Unless you local Alltel has a better contract right now it is essentially the same thing.

Tethering: As you can imagine this allows you to connect your phone to you notebook to connect to the web. How it works depends on the phone but it can be from it won't work without it to it just gives an allotment of minutes instead of going to KB. If you go with a Windows based smart phone their are programs to get around this.

I can also vouch for the Dare. I have a couple co-workers that love them.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Originally posted by: boomhower
I can help you with a few. First, it really doesn't matter which you go with as they are both going to be one in the same in a couple months(in the vast majority of markets at any rate). Unless you local Alltel has a better contract right now it is essentially the same thing.

Tethering: As you can imagine this allows you to connect your phone to you notebook to connect to the web. How it works depends on the phone but it can be from it won't work without it to it just gives an allotment of minutes instead of going to KB. If you go with a Windows based smart phone their are programs to get around this.

I can also vouch for the Dare. I have a couple co-workers that love them.

For my college zip code (31709), they said they will *not* be changing over the store. At 39819 (home area) Verizon already exists, and thus the ownership in that area will fall to another company that hasn't been decided (most likely US Cellular).

In either case, our areas will not be making the switch anytime soon, and so for the foreseeable future being on Alltel and Verizon *will* make a difference, as the mobile to mobile wont work across the two networks. Right now though Alltel has *far* cheaper plans for what i need (Verizon's packages all have way too many minutes that I dont want to pay for.)

Thank you for the recommendation on the Dare btw, and for your definition on Tethering.

 

[TheStu]

The dare is nice, except for the browser. And for the phones (smart or otherwise) that have large screens, you are probably going to want to surf the web on them at some point. The browser on the Dare (much like on most all Verizon phones) is a little weak. And by that I mean downright bad.

I had a WinMo 2K3 SE PocketPC a few years back, which I think had Mobile IE 5 and that actually wasn't too bad compared to the Dare's browser. It is slow, unresponsive, scrolling is horrible (you can't just flick. It is press, then flick), rendering is subpar... just all around a mess.

Also, i would advise avoiding the Storm for many of the same reasons. The blackberry is great at email and good as a phone. From my understanding, the Storm sucks at email (due to the weird onscreen keyboard) and is well, good as a phone.

 

[shortylickens]

Getting what you want with Wifi is going to be a real challenge.
As for phones to avoid: The UT Starcom Blitz. I had one and did a review for it a while back. Also had an LG Env2 which I think was a great phone. Now I have the LG Voyager and I love it. The only downside was battery life but I picked up a super battery for about 20 bucks and now it will last a whole week.

Based on what I read from your post, you want a smartphone that isnt a Blackberry right?

Well, that leaves you with even less to look at in Verizons lineup. Personally I think the modern Palm phones have crummy keyboards and a rotten interface. When the Palm Pre comes out that will all change but until then I'd avoid them.
That just leaves you with the Samsung Omnia and a couple other Samsungs not worth mentioning, a Motorola thats almost like a Blackberry clone, and the HTC Touch.
The Verizon version of the HTC Touch is supposed to be gimped in several ways, so unless you wanna research unlocking it on your own (and risk voiding Verizons Term of Service) you will want to avoid it.

http://www.verizonwireless.com...ceType=PDA/SmartPhones
I would just visit that list, then visit Phonescoop.com and infosyncworld.com and get reviews on the handful of phones you think you would like.
There really arent that many left for your needs.

For non smartphone I will recommend my beloved LG Voyager. Touchscreen on the outside and an equally large inside screen with full keypad. I also recommend the extended battery because the included one stinks.

For very basic flip or bar phone I always recommend a low-end Nokia. Any model in the 1000, 2000 or 3000 series is fine.
Nokia is nice because they are one of the few companies that make great low-end phones. The battery strength is excellent and the transceivers are always good. Other companies cant do that with their cheap models.

With Verizon that means either the 2605, (which costs 50 bucks for some insane reason) or the 6205 which is actually free right now. It also got great reviews.
I'd get the Dark Knight version since it looks nicer and just scrape off that stupid Batman logo if you dont like it.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

As an update to this post, I'm now doing the Alltel route for another two years. For some reason I dont see the Voyager available from Alltel. In fact, the only one I do see is the Samsung Delve.

My gf who is currently in another state is also looking at another phone and is going to Alltel. She doesn't want a smart phone, just the basic bluetooth phone with a keyboard (touch or physical) for texting. She was curious about the LG Banter and honestly so am i. Especially since the Voyager doesn't look like its available on Alltel >_>

Anyone able to tell me about that?

 

[boomhower]

The Voyager is a Verizon phone.

For Alltel the HTC Diamond and Treo Pro are a steal at $150, the Touch Pro at $200 is a good as well. The Motorola Hint looks interesting for a dumb phone. I hadn't looked at alltel in a while, they have some pretty nice stuff.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

I myself had seen the Hint in an Alltel store. It's very short and very fat. I wonder how well it works in windy conditions considering it doesn't get the microphone anywhere near the mouth. Think it's a better choice than the Banter though?

 

[boomhower]

I haven't had a phone that got anywhere close to my mouth in years. It really depends on the microphone in the phone. I have a Diamond now and it gets maybe a third of the way there.

Both of the two seem pretty similiar. The hint has EVDO where the other does not. Take a look at some reviews and see what some users think about them.