Cell Phone, Revisited

Post by **Sylvus** » September 22, 2006, 11:47 am

Yeah so several months ago when I was looking at phones and determined to get the Verizon XV6700, it turned out that I had a contract through October with Nextel. I'm paying the last month today and getting a new phone, though I don't think I need anything as beefy as the XV6700 anymore.

Any recommendations? I do want to go with Verizon as my provider, and was currently looking at the V. I text a lot (even though I hate it), and I like that it has a QWERTY keyboard on it. Anyone have any experience with that phone or want to steer me in another direction? Also, is the VCAST stuff, or whatever it is, worth getting?

Psyloche · Post by **Psyloche** » September 22, 2006, 12:00 pm

Sylvus wrote:Yeah so several months ago when I was looking at phones and determined to get the Verizon XV6700, it turned out that I had a contract through October with Nextel. I'm paying the last month today and getting a new phone, though I don't think I need anything as beefy as the XV6700 anymore.

Any recommendations? I do want to go with Verizon as my provider, and was currently looking at the V. I text a lot (even though I hate it), and I like that it has a QWERTY keyboard on it. Anyone have any experience with that phone or want to steer me in another direction? Also, is the VCAST stuff, or whatever it is, worth getting?

VCast was fun for the free month I had, but I really didn't find it all that useful. Unless you're constantly on the go and can't sit down at a computer for the time you want to view anything online, VCast didn't seem like all that much of an advantage to me. Streaming videos on a small screen that I could probably find online viewing on a PC screen.

noel · Post by **noel** » September 22, 2006, 12:16 pm

I had 1 LG phone for a bit when my company had a contract with Verizon and from an ergonomic standpoint, it was the worst phone I ever had. It had these stupid side buttons that were impossible to avoid pressing during a call. Unfortunately, they controlled the volume on the conversation, so it was really annoying. I also did not like (at all) the menu system, or the contact manager in the phone.

I looked through Verizon's phone offerings and based on your interest I'd recommend getting the Blackberry 7130e. A couple of my friends have it and it's quite good, gives you a pseudo-QWERTY keyboard that uses predictive text, good Internet access, email access, the best contact manager on any phone available (according to a good friend who has every single phone out and is a self-proclaimed 'degenerate for cell phones'), and you can download google local (gives you everything you can get online + step-by-step driving directions which I use it all the time) and google talk. It's narrower than the higher end blackberries that have a full keyboard. The only disadvantage to the Crackberries is that they don't have a camera built in, and there seems to be fewer ringtones and other downloadable fluff stuff to personalize the phone with.

For a more feature-rich phone the XV6700 is a really nice phone that both of my brother-inlaws have. The phones basically have everything and they're windows based so that might appeal to you as well. The thing I saw that impressed me the most about the phone was when one of my brother-inlaws was streaming an online radio station in his car while driving down the road and it was crystal clear and sounded great. He uses Sprint's network so I'm not sure how it compares to Verizons but I'd imagine they were competitive. I've heard that the software applications on the Windows devices are a bit slower than the Blackberries, but I imagine you pay a price for greater compatibility.

Regarding the VCast 'content' I'd imagine having Internet access on your phone would make the Vcast 'content' a moot point. It'd probably be the equivalent of browsing AOL vs. browsing the 'net. Just my opinion, and I've not used Vcast, but I bet I'm right.

Leonaerd · Post by **Leonaerd** » September 22, 2006, 12:29 pm

I have an LG right now. It goes from a fully charged battery to one blinking blip in literally 10-15 minutes of conversation. If I'm on the phone with my mom, for instance, I have to have it charging during the conversation or it'll surely run out before she ceases yammering.

Post by **Sylvus** » September 22, 2006, 12:52 pm

God I hate this fucking company (Sprint/Nextel). I just called to verify when my contract is up, and apparently it's Oct. 22. So I asked if I could just pay my last month and switch to another provider and they're trying to tell me that if I do that and get my phone # switched before Oct. 22, I'll be hit with the $200 early termination fee. That sounds like BS to me, but I guess I might be stuck for another month.

Hoarmurath · Post by **Hoarmurath** » September 22, 2006, 1:18 pm

I'm a Verizon customer, and I had the V (LG VX9800) for almost 2 weeks. It's an alright phone, but it's a bit heavy and large. The keys are very easy to use, since there is more space to spread them out, so that's good. I'd say it's a great phone if you use text messaging often.

I returned mine and picked up a Motorola Q (which I love so far) but I didn't have any real problems or issues with the V phone. I just didn't find VCast all that compelling. For me, the problem is really that the services all cost just a little more than I want to pay for the amount of use I'd get out of them. For example, the VZNavigator feature is badass, but I wouldn't use it enough to justify the $10 per month cost.

Demags · Post by **Demags** » September 22, 2006, 2:32 pm

Fuck sprint/nextel, they are close to criminal in my book. I had sprint for two years and hated it, service sucked, customer service sucked, and they treat their existing customers like crap as far as a new phone is concerned.

I ended up switching to nextel and found it pretty good, unfortunately 2 months after that sprint bought them out, 3 months after that my service went to shit. Constant dropped calls, signal bar that went from full bars to no bars and back constantly, and of course the normal shit level of sprint service.

After almost 2 years of calling in to find the problem and going through network tickets and engineers I finally talked to a rep and she tells me " I just typed in your zip code and it says we dont have coverage in your area" They certainly could have told me this when I purchased the phone, not one month before my contract expires. And of course the coverage chart on their website doesnt show a lack of coverage in my area.

Go with verizon they are lousy for home phone but ive heard pretty much nothing bad about their mobil service.

Demags

Siji · Post by **Siji** » September 22, 2006, 6:06 pm

I wouldn't recommend anyone other than Cingular. I've had them for years and for signal, phone selection, customer service, they've been awesome.

Having just opened a Sprint account 2 days ago, I can already tell you that they suck, their phone selection sucks and the way they have all the phones crippled so you're almost forced to pay their way overpriced content if you want to customize your phone.

Clatis · Post by **Clatis** » September 22, 2006, 6:58 pm

Siji wrote:I wouldn't recommend anyone other than Cingular. I've had them for years and for signal, phone selection, customer service, they've been awesome.

Same, i just switched from Alltel to Cingular and I love the service. I got a Motorola PEBL and it's the best phone i've had. I highly reccamend looking into it.

Syenye · Post by **Syenye** » September 23, 2006, 1:28 pm

i've had cingular for about 4 years and i wouldn't switch providers. i hate having to deal with customer service at the stores, but the over the phone customer service is pretty decent. i switched over to the corporate plan earlier this year and compared to the other providers, it's like getting a beer and a backrub while they help me.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » September 25, 2006, 1:52 am

I have had sprint for the better part of 6-8 years I would say, with a little break where I had Verizon in between.

I guess it just depends on the area, because I have better service with sprint pretty much anywhere I have been in MN, and anywhere else I have been for that matter (when I go to NY I have full service constantly).

Nov 1 I will have had my phone for 2 years, so I am able to get $150 off of a new phone, so I am going to pick up a LG Fusic. I really liked what I saw of the phone in the store, and I haven't read any bad reviews on it yet.

I chose that phone because I was looking for something that I could put a memory card in and put some music on for my bus ride to work in the morning. I do not feel that I would use it enough to buy an IPod or something similar, so this will work out perfect for me.

Siji · Post by **Siji** » September 25, 2006, 9:00 am

Funkmasterr wrote:so I am going to pick up a LG Fusic. I really liked what I saw of the phone in the store, and I haven't read any bad reviews on it yet.

I chose that phone because I was looking for something that I could put a memory card in and put some music on for my bus ride to work in the morning. I do not feel that I would use it enough to buy an IPod or something similar, so this will work out perfect for me.

The fusic is what I got. Sprint's phone selection sucks terribly - probably worse than any other provider. Know up front that while it comes with a USB cable, it doesn't come with software or drivers. Know that while it comes with a memory card that you can copy music to, you can't copy ringtones to the phone - you have to download them to the phone (e.g. pay kb usage or buy a vision plus plan). It does not allow setting ringtones from the memory card and you can't copy songs from the memory card to the phone's memory. While that may not make a difference to you, for me it sucked balls. I've made dozens and dozens of ringtones and swapped them in and out of my Cingular phones over the years w/o any trouble. No Sprint phone allows that (to my knowledge). Also know that Sprint's stuff is expensive. $2.50 for a ringtone or song, $3.95+ for themes, $2.95 or more for 'screensavers', etc. Also be ready to enter each contact manually as there's no software that comes with the phone, or on Sprint's site that allows say, getting it from Outlook. Unless of course you sign up for Sprint's online backup service. Again, they nickel and dime you to death.

Other things about the Fusic I don't like:

The speaker phone stinks. Makes the whole phone buzz. (this is noted in almost every review of this phone I've seen)
Signal isn't as good as it was on my Nokia's.
People you're talking to can sound muddy.
The contact list allows multiple #'s and emails for a contact, but no address or birthday information.
While it comes with different face plates (blue, black, green, pink), the phone is white and only white.
It comes with NO full games. And the 2 or 3 demos it comes with stink.
It comes with NO decent ringtones.
It comes with 2 extra "themes" and they say "Preview" on both of them.
It's got I believe 3 color schemes. A whole 3!
While charging, the screen on the front stays on. Always. Even when done charging. It's enough to light a dark bedroom if you're charging while sleeping. As does the status light just above the screen. I haven't found a setting for that to change it either.

I guess for Sprint, it's not a bad phone, and probably the lesser of all their evils. But compared to what you can get at any other providers, it doesn't compare - nor does any other Sprint phone until you get to the universal Blackberries and such.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » September 25, 2006, 10:35 am

Interesting, thanks for the input.

One thing I will give you a heads up on - http://www.3gforfree.com

It works with most providers I think, but I don't think it works for Verizon. You can download rings / pictures / screensavers etc all for free. That's where I have downloaded all of my ringtones from since I have been with sprint.

Marbus · Post by **Marbus** » September 25, 2006, 12:10 pm

I have had Alltel for almost 10 years now having worked for them back in the 90s. Through out the years the services has gone up and down at times but latley been very good. I also have a Blackberry 8700C through Cingular for work and love it. They had a few issues during the switch over with AT&T but otherwise it's been great.

From my perspective GSM (Cingluar and TMobil) just works better than CDMA or PCS (Alltel /Verison and Sprint respectively). All of Europe is pretty much dedicated to GSM now meaning that if you do travel your phone will work. Often you can even purcahse a prepaid SIM card to use while you are there...

Anyway, I will say that my Alltel Razr has worked very well, it's one of the few digital only CDMA phone (can't switch to analog) and that actually seems to help for some reason with signal strength.

However call clarity still seems superior with GSM (Cingular).

I agree that most of the Cingluar stores, just like that Alltel stores aren't always the most helpful. However the people I have spoken with on the phone from Cingular have all been top notich.

Cingluar also just came out with a new self branded Smart Phone that a friend here jsut got, it's runing windows and has a ton of feature, seems sturdy etc... not sure the name of it but there aren't many Cingular branded phones so you could probably find it easly.

Marb

Syenye · Post by **Syenye** » September 25, 2006, 3:27 pm

the new cingular flip smart phone is really sexy. i've been trying to come up with an excuse to buy one, but my SLVR won't break as easily as my RAZR ><

Post by **Sylvus** » September 25, 2006, 3:49 pm

Thanks for the input on other providers, hopefully it'll be more helpful to others reading this message. I'm pretty well set on Verizon because of it's popularity among my friends (allowing me to talk to them for free) and because my company has a large corporate discount with them.

Any idea how easy it is to get mp3/ringtones and/or games onto the Verizon phones (The V or the XV6700) mentioned above? I prefer to be a do-it-yourselfer on that kind of stuff, I change my ringtones often and I would rather not pay for them at all. I currently use a couple hacks to get them onto my Nextel Motorola i860, I would assume that it can't be that hard to do it with other phones.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » September 25, 2006, 4:05 pm

I wonder why it is that the site I linked above works for tmobile / cingular / sprint but not for verizon.. Weird.

Siji · Post by **Siji** » September 25, 2006, 4:13 pm

3GForFree isn't actually free.. it's $7 a year. Not much, but not free. I'm guessing you'll also have to pay for the data airtime with your provider as well, for each download from them.

No substitute for being able to make your own and copy them right over..

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » September 25, 2006, 4:31 pm

I have never once paid for a ring from 3gforfree.com.. I have only used it from my phone so I am not sure about the full website.

VeeshanVault

Cell Phone, Revisited

Cell Phone, Revisited

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