Why don't any smartphones have built in WiFi?

[Pastore]

If the treo 650 had built in wifi, I would eat that thing up. Until a phone pda adds wifi out of box, it's not worth it. What are your thoughts?

 

[kranky]

I think a phone makes a lousy computer.

 

[imported_Pablo]

Because if you can pick up WIFI, there's no incentive to subscribe to the cellphone company's internet plan!

 

[Qwest]

wifi would be nice.
still, wmp10 + sd card makes the phone worth it alone.

 

[777php]

samsung i730

 

[Pastore]

Originally posted by: 777php
samsung i730

That actually looks pretty nice, minus the 700 dollar price WITH PLAN, HOLY BALLS!

 

[rh71]

I was upset the 650 for VZW didn't come with EVDO (broadband) also... hence I didn't upgrade. Otherwise it would be an easy decision. I hear Sprint owns all the broadband towers (whatever that means)... so they may be first... hell, they have all the good phones first anyway.

 

[essasin]

I have treo 650 and have no complaints. It did not come with EVDO but EVDO is not even avaible in the bay area yet so its pointless. 1x is plrenty fast enough for me. Wi-fi is still flaky at best and it drains the crap out of the phones battery life and you can not have wi-fi and the phone on at the same time. The only places that have wi-fi signal is around my home and a few coffee shops, and in that case I would opt for a laptop instead. THe only advantage of wi-fi would be for placing calls over the net.

 

[NFS4]

Battery life?

 

[777php]

Originally posted by: essasin
I have treo 650 and have no complaints. It did not come with EVDO but EVDO is not even avaible in the bay area yet so its pointless. 1x is plrenty fast enough for me. Wi-fi is still flaky at best and it drains the crap out of the phones battery life and you can not have wi-fi and the phone on at the same time. The only places that have wi-fi signal is around my home and a few coffee shops, and in that case I would opt for a laptop instead. THe only advantage of wi-fi would be for placing calls over the net.

You may find this intersting then.

 

Originally posted by: Pablo
Because if you can pick up WIFI, there's no incentive to subscribe to the cellphone company's internet plan!

QFTT

 

[BCYL]

Originally posted by: Pablo
Because if you can pick up WIFI, there's no incentive to subscribe to the cellphone company's internet plan!

QFT

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

You can get SD cards with Wifi adapters on them

 

[Pastore]

Originally posted by: DLeRium
You can get SD cards with Wifi adapters on them

How much are they?

 

[Deeko]

Originally posted by: Pablo
Because if you can pick up WIFI, there's no incentive to subscribe to the cellphone company's internet plan!

Bingo. Not QFT.....QFT is the most retarded fad to this this board since AYB. But yea....they charge pissloads for those data plans.

 

[loup garou]

As stated, Samsung i730 (the price will come down). Also, you can add a WiFi SD card to most Windows Mobile smartphones that have SD slots (iPaq hw6510 comes to mind). Rumor is, we'll start seeing miniSD WiFi cards soon too. I'd stick with a data plan as well, even though there are hotspots and open personal networks all over NYC. Constant access to email, etc is important for me, at least. Even more so once Windows Mobile 5 smartphones and Exchange SP2 are out and push email is fully implemented for the platform.

 

[Pastore]

A data plan isn't worth it for me as I'd just use it in my home for chat and email and a little surfing. Another big one is wifi at work. Data plans are just waaaaay expensive.