Is it time to go....

I-SIG

....smartphone?

Sprint now has the BlackBerry Curve 8530 instead of the 8330. The main thing is WiFi capability now. The Any Mobile Anytime is appealing too. The price is right $49.99, even for an upgrade and new 2-year deal.

OTOH, I'm not under a contract, and don't currently feel especially out of it by not having a smartphone. My current bill is under $50 after taxes and fees with unlimited text and certainly seems sufficient for the moment and paying $70 + taxes and fees isn't appealing though.

Switching carriers is not an option at this point due to family considerations.

Thanks for the thoughts and suggestions,

Wes

Rivrrat

The only reason I'd get a smart phone is to have a keyboard to text from. I hate trying to text from the standard touchtone pad, but on the other hand, I hate texting period.

Whenever I have to text I keep looking at the send button and wondering why I'm just not talking to the other person.

hoosier21

if the company was not paying for it, I would not pay a blackberry

BottomFeeder

I have a Blackberry & like it. I just like it for all the things it does - stores music, it's my day planner, email, texting, web etc. There are lots of smartphones out there now; what's important is for you to look at a bunch of them and determine what you really want. Once you know what you want, then you pick the right phone for you.

dorokusai

I had a Blackberry and hated it aside from the keyboard. I'm all about the Droid now and while I've never paid a phone bill in 15 years, dropping the BB split my bill in half. All that crap is completely unneccesary.

I-SIG

dorokusai wrote: »

I had a Blackberry and hated it aside from the keyboard. I'm all about the Droid now and while I've never paid a phone bill in 15 years, dropping the BB split my bill in half. All that crap is completely unneccesary.

The KISS principle (in this case doing nothing) certainly appeals to me, but all the Android phones on Sprint are out of my price range.

Wes

Jstas

dorokusai wrote: »

All that crap is completely unnecessary.

That depends on what you use it for. My Blackberry(s) have ssh clients so I can log in to my servers if need be. I also have all of my desktop productivity software like office programs as well as email, browsers and other software. I can't say I couldn't live without it but since my job has me tied to a desk otherwise, having the ability and functionality that I do on the Blackberry(s) allows me a certain amount of freedom to move about and do other things instead of having to log 16 hour days every day has been indispensable.

My personal Blackberry has all the similar functionality and I have software on it that allows me to use it as a cellular broadband connection which has come in handy at places like the dragstrip, fixing a friend's car or even jumping on to a network at work through the VPN when my aircard can't get a signal.

So when you say it's unnecessary, it honestly depends on who you are talking to.



As for the OP, I have the Everything plan from Sprint for my personal Blackberry. It's $99 a month and stays right around that price. NJ has retarded taxes and such that bump it up over $99 a month but it's not unreasonable. The service is good and I really can't complain. We use AT&T for work and there have been times where everyone at work is bitching about Blackberry access and my Sprint Blackberry is the only one with a connection.

I would go look at them before you make a decision. The Wi-Fi access is nice but I've had issues with my work phone constantly pinging the wi-fi network and it hurts my network performance.


Me, I'm waiting for Sprint to get some better options on the Android phones that are coming out or some options on versions that can use the new version of Windows Mobile. I was messing with it at the AT&T store and I really like the new version. Much simpler and intuitive to use and it doesn't need mobile specific apps anymore.

mmadden28

Jstas wrote: »

...As for the OP, I have the Everything plan from Sprint for my personal Blackberry. It's $99 a month and stays right around that price. NJ has retarded taxes and such that bump it up over $99 a month but it's not unreasonable....

I have a BB for my wife--I also have the Everything plan, but I only pay $70/mo. Now I'm also on the 400 minute plan, but with the Any Mobile Anytime (free), we barely even touch the 400 minutes. It's only ever used for LandLine calls.

If I had a BB for work (I used to), it would serve its purpose since its integrated into the Exchange Server for email/calendaring, but as far as personal use? everytime I borrow my wife's BB and try out the web browser I feel like throwing the thing in a recently used toilet. 3G super speeds? Bah. I spend more time waiting and only to get nothing in return.
I so want to try out one of the new Androids, but I'll be patient. I don't want another tech disappointment. I have little faith that any of the new mobile tech will satisfy me, so for now as long as my phone can dial a phone #, and receive calls, I'll settle for that.

I'll add that at times it does come in handy to stream TV or Disney shows for the kids when we're waiting for our meal at a restaurant. One of my favorite new apps on it is the FiOS DVR app that allows me to pregram my DVR to record a show and all that jazz-same interface as if I was on the TV.

Jstas

mmadden28 wrote: »

everytime I borrow my wife's BB and try out the web browser I feel like throwing the thing in a recently used toilet. 3G super speeds? Bah. I spend more time waiting and only to get nothing in return.

The Blackberry browser sucks. It's awful. I downloaded Opera and that works out awesome. It's fast, loads everything and it's easy to use. Much, much better than the Blackberry browser.

danger boy

what does a blackberry do over a smart phone of today? used to be Blackberrys had more features.. but not so sure now. both do the same things right???

mmadden28

Jstas wrote: »

The Blackberry browser sucks. It's awful. I downloaded Opera and that works out awesome. It's fast, loads everything and it's easy to use. Much, much better than the Blackberry browser.

Hmmm. I'll look into that. Thanks

obieone

I-SIG, I don't know if you're aware, but once you sign up for the data plan, you are STUCK with it, for the life of the contract. So, IF you got bored w/ it after a couple of months, or find you really couldn't utilize it, you wouldn't be able to just 'drop' that feature.

Just something to consider.

I-SIG

mmadden28 wrote: »

I have a BB for my wife--I also have the Everything plan, but I only pay $70/mo. Now I'm also on the 400 minute plan, but with the Any Mobile Anytime (free), we barely even touch the 400 minutes. It's only ever used for LandLine calls.

If I had a BB for work (I used to), it would serve its purpose since its integrated into the Exchange Server for email/calendaring, but as far as personal use? everytime I borrow my wife's BB and try out the web browser I feel like throwing the thing in a recently used toilet. 3G super speeds? Bah. I spend more time waiting and only to get nothing in return.
I so want to try out one of the new Androids, but I'll be patient. I don't want another tech disappointment. I have little faith that any of the new mobile tech will satisfy me, so for now as long as my phone can dial a phone #, and receive calls, I'll settle for that.

I'll add that at times it does come in handy to stream TV or Disney shows for the kids when we're waiting for our meal at a restaurant. One of my favorite new apps on it is the FiOS DVR app that allows me to pregram my DVR to record a show and all that jazz-same interface as if I was on the TV.

I'm mainly interested in messaging and such but want to have e-mail, IM, text, and other outlets in one place so if the browser isn't the greatest, I think I can handle that.

Wes

concealer404

I get infuriated enough with the technology that my current phone has. If i got a crackberry or a smart phone, i'd probably never post here again, and my girlfriend would come home to what looked like canned strawberries in syrup all over the kitchen counter.

I-SIG

obieone wrote: »

I-SIG, I don't know if you're aware, but once you sign up for the data plan, you are STUCK with it, for the life of the contract. So, IF you got bored w/ it after a couple of months, or find you really couldn't utilize it, you wouldn't be able to just 'drop' that feature.

Just something to consider.

Thanks for the heads up.

Wes

mmadden28

concealer404 wrote: »

I get infuriated enough with the technology that my current phone has. If i got a crackberry or a smart phone, i'd probably never post here again, and my girlfriend would come home to what looked like canned strawberries in syrup all over the kitchen counter.

Now if vBulletin or Club Polk had an applet for the board.....well, I'd be all over that.

mmadden28

I-SIG wrote: »

I'm mainly interested in messaging and such but want to have e-mail, IM, text, and other outlets in one place so if the browser isn't the greatest, I think I can handle that.

Wes

It does have a fairly easy (I guess) applet for Facebook. I only tried it out a few times and I didn't get p'ed off. I never tried any of the others. I'm just not a fan of the small KB (I think we have the 8830 or something--the Curve)

I guess the only real reason 'I' want an internet enabled phone would be so that I could check Club Polk here and there, or do price shopping when out at the stores, or just stuff like that. But its always a major PITA everytime I try to play.
I haven't tried the eBay applet yet.
Amazon has a nice little applet so far but its a little limited on the Gold Box deals-it only shows the daily deal and not the hourly ones.

As far as email goes--well that works fine on the BB.

I-SIG

Stopped by the Sprint store last night and played with some of the phones and it turns out I get to keep my discount, so the plan I want would only be 11 scheckles a month, not the 30 I was afraid of.

Anyway, I seemed to like the Samsung Moment running Android the best. Anyone else like or dislike this unit?

Thanks,
Wes

Sherardp

Blackberry 9000 here. Loving it every step of the way.

exalted512

I-SIG wrote: »

Stopped by the Sprint store last night and played with some of the phones and it turns out I get to keep my discount, so the plan I want would only be 11 scheckles a month, not the 30 I was afraid of.

Anyway, I seemed to like the Samsung Moment running Android the best. Anyone else like or dislike this unit?

Thanks,
Wes

Havent played with that phone, but I cannot say enough about Android phones....simply amazing.
-Cody

AsSiMiLaTeD

Yep, I can't wait until AT&T gets some decent Droid phone options or until the Nexus One gets full capability on AT&T.

Jstas

danger boy wrote: »

what does a blackberry do over a smart phone of today? used to be Blackberrys had more features.. but not so sure now. both do the same things right???

Blackberrys were the original "smart phone". I don't think they beat all of the other smart phones to market but they were the first to allow complete integration with the office productivity and communication systems. Because of that, they gained a good deal of support in the business world.

For personal use, they don't do anything special over what a Palm, Android, Windows Mobile or iPhone based phones will do. They are different look and feel as opposed to the others. The personal ones still get all the support the business models do so there are tons of apps.

However, the limiting factor is the OS. RIM is run only by Blackberrys and it's proprietary. It's fast and fairly efficient but unlike the iPhone with MacOS support, Windows Mobile phones with Microsoft support and the Android based phones with the might of Google behind it, RIM tends to be low on the support scale by those standards. Needless to say, developers tend to go with the more readily supported platforms to make the quick buck. The good thing is that even though the number of apps for the Blackberry isn't as great as what's out there for the iPhone, the stuff that is out there is usually of high enough quality to make it worth the time.

Blackberrys were the industry standard and popularity was so high that they were becoming a household name. Like when people refer to tissues as Kleenex or bleach as Clorox. Then the iPhone came along.

Jstas

I-SIG wrote: »

Stopped by the Sprint store last night and played with some of the phones and it turns out I get to keep my discount, so the plan I want would only be 11 scheckles a month, not the 30 I was afraid of.

Anyway, I seemed to like the Samsung Moment running Android the best. Anyone else like or dislike this unit?

Thanks,
Wes

I've never been a fan of Samsung phones. They seem flimsy and cheap and everyone I know who has owned one has found that even if they wanted to keep it after the contract period was up, they couldn't because it was falling apart.

But others have good experiences with them. I haven't really messed with any of them except on the display at stores but I usually don't have a desire to go past that point and step in to ownership for the above mentioned reasons.

bigaudiofanatic

I have a samsung phone I like it never had a problem with it.Also OP, I would get away from sprint and nextel just poor reception compared to "dare I say it" even at&t. I have been with verizon for over 6 years and love them. Just something to look into.

Jstas

bigaudiofanatic wrote: »

I have a samsung phone I like it never had a problem with it.Also OP, I would get away from sprint and nextel just poor reception compared to "dare I say it" even at&t. I have been with verizon for over 6 years and love them. Just something to look into.

Did you read his post at all? He said he's not changing carriers because of family considerations.

I-SIG wrote: »

Switching carriers is not an option at this point due to family considerations.

Wes

Why would you even suggest that when he already stated it wasn't an option?

Also, just because you live in East Bumblecluck, NJ and get bad reception doesn't mean I-SIG, who lives in Tuscon, AZ, a fairly large American city, will have similar reception issues.

BTW, I have Sprint and I have zero reception issues and I can't understand why others do. Even in areas where others with Sprint say they have a problem, I usually have full signal strength and a data connection. My Sprint reception is more reliable than the AT&T reception on the work phone.

bigaudiofanatic

Jstas wrote: »

Did you read his post at all? He said he's not changing carriers because of family considerations.



Why would you even suggest that when he already stated it wasn't an option?

Also, just because you live in East Bumblecluck, NJ and get bad reception doesn't mean I-SIG, who lives in Tuscon, AZ, a fairly large American city, will have similar reception issues.

BTW, I have Sprint and I have zero reception issues and I can't understand why others do. Even in areas where others with Sprint say they have a problem, I usually have full signal strength and a data connection. My Sprint reception is more reliable than the AT&T reception on the work phone.

Here you go



All I did was state that sprint is not one of the better providers. Even when I was in California people still said they were bad.

Demiurge

dorokusai wrote: »

I had a Blackberry and hated it aside from the keyboard. I'm all about the Droid now and while I've never paid a phone bill in 15 years, dropping the BB split my bill in half. All that crap is completely unneccesary.

When am I getting in on the family plan?

dorokusai

When you marry into my family or we start dating.

concealer404

Great karma, IN!

Demiurge

dorokusai wrote: »

When you marry into my family or we start dating.

Yeah, I'm IN.

I-SIG

Jstas wrote: »

I've never been a fan of Samsung phones. They seem flimsy and cheap and everyone I know who has owned one has found that even if they wanted to keep it after the contract period was up, they couldn't because it was falling apart.

But others have good experiences with them. I haven't really messed with any of them except on the display at stores but I usually don't have a desire to go past that point and step in to ownership for the above mentioned reasons.

Between the Palm Pixi, BB Curve 8530 and Sammy Moment, the Sammy was by leaps and bounds the beefiest of the bunch.

As a total noob to smart phones, as playing with them for a few minutes, it was so much easier to find and do things with the Droid OS than either the Pixi or BB. I sent myself text from the the different phones and I was never able to figure out how to delete my number out of the Pixi until I asked the sales guy. I figured it out in just a few taps on the screen with a Droid.

Wes