There is an iPhone thread which has turned into a combination iPhone and Smartphone thread. For all those who are in the market, I think there should be a separate smartphone in general thread to share our experiences and help in the make-up-your-mind arena.

 

As the number of smartphones has proliferated recently, and their quality has increased dramatically (along with their features) maybe it's the plan and the carrier which should be the thing that is the deciding factor.

 

I have a Blackberry 8320 from Cincinnati Bell. It's a workhorse of a phone. It has dropped calls but that is rare. It has good clarity of calls except talking on the headphones or Bluetooth gets complaints from the people I am calling. It takes pictures (very good ones), smeary video, surfs the net slowly and painfully, and the apps just stink. The battery lasts all day every day. I can't play music very well and the general desktop interface is a mess. BUT it was free. Free. Free. Free.

 

Wait, it wasn't really free, it had to come with a plan. I am using Cincinnati Bell and I have been pretty happy with them up to this year. They were polite and helpful whenever I asked a question. BUT you cannot call them and ask them anything. No. Not. You may not call The Phone Company!

 

All in all I think their prices are fair, no worse than anyone else. I do get coverage coast to coast (thanks to their love/hate affair with AT&T).

 

Are you happy with your smartphone? What's so good about it? How about your carrier?

So what do you guys think of the Blackberry Torch?

 

I'm not impressed  Nothing is groundbreaking nor is it even on par with the iphone 4 or HTC evo.

 

In addition, Blackberry apps are so far behind it's ridiculous.

 

The Samsung Captivate is a nice phone, although it doesn't have a flash.

I don't know what I think, until the tech reviewers tell me.

 

Looks like a nice enough phone, albeit late to the market. Given that a lot of BB users are corporate, and corporate IT departments have varying levels of security that block a lot of smartphone features, I don't know that a lot of the goodies the Torch can provide will be appealing to corporate amurrrica .

 

How popular are blackberries on the retail side?

I don't know what I think, until the tech reviewers tell me.

 

Looks like a nice enough phone, albeit late to the market. Given that a lot of BB users are corporate, and corporate IT departments have varying levels of security that block a lot of smartphone features, I don't know that a lot of the goodies the Torch can provide will be appealing to corporate amurrrica .

 

How popular are blackberries on the retail side?

 

blackberry's are still overall the most popular selling but losing market share to android phones.  To me this phone only brings them back into the park.  To me this phone looks like the Palm Pre

 

 

http://cnettv.cnet.com/rim-blackberry-torch/9742-1_53-50091168.html?tag=rightColumnArea2.0

 

http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/04/blackberry-torch-review/

 

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/2010-08-05-baig05_CV_N.htm

 

speaking of the Pre, it will be interesting to see what HP come out with next, now that it owns Palm.

My dad got a palm pre and will always get a palm because he's been using them now since they first came out and he'd go ape**** if he ever lost that format and lost his data.

 

I love my G1 (android).  I can't stand the touch screen only like with the iPhone or some of the other smartphones.  I like having an actual qwerty keyboard.  I think i'll replace this with the G1 Blaze when that comes out next year (i think it's next year).

Cincinnati Bell will be launching the Motorola Milestone XT720 tomorrow as the exclusive carrier of this Android phone. Here is a link to moto's website: http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/XW-EN/Consumer-Products-and-Services/Mobile-Phones/MOTO-XT720-XW-EN

 

I will be purchasing one.

Cincinnati Bell will be launching the Motorola Milestone XT720 tomorrow as the exclusive carrier of this Android phone. Here is a link to moto's website: http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/XW-EN/Consumer-Products-and-Services/Mobile-Phones/MOTO-XT720-XW-EN

 

I will be purchasing one.

Why does this tell me this phone is available in Europe?

It launched in Europe in December. CBW will be the exclusive US carrier starting tomorrow.

I have been using the Droid X for about 2 months now and I would def recommend it. It is the most powerful and responsive phone I have had to date. It is a little big but that feeling goes away after a while. Although the size makes it very easy to type on. And the vid cam and the HDMI output is awesome. I wish it had a front facing cam but I think that is more of a VZW decision at this point.

So what do you guys think of the Blackberry Torch?

 

The Samsung Captivate is a nice phone, although it doesn't have a flash.

 

The Torch is a good move for BB. They're making necessary changes which is better than making no changes at all. Their UI is still lagging imo. Screen-shots of v6 is too.

 

The Samsung Captivate/Vibrant/Galaxy's night-mode will blow any phone with a flash out of the water. Google it.

 

 

Cincinnati Bell will be launching the Motorola Milestone XT720 tomorrow as the exclusive carrier of this Android phone. Here is a link to moto's website: http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/XW-EN/Consumer-Products-and-Services/Mobile-Phones/MOTO-XT720-XW-EN

 

I will be purchasing one.

 

This is a HUGE move for CBW and a great one at that! Our local cellphone Co. makes national headlines every now and then with the phones it picks up ... good stuff!

 

They need to beef up their 3G though.

CBW's 3G network is faster than any other carrier in Cincinnati.

CBW's 3G network is faster than any other carrier in Cincinnati.

 

T-Mobile blows it and everyone else out of the water. Hell, it blows Zoomtown out of the water! lol

My dad got a palm pre and will always get a palm because he's been using them now since they first came out and he'd go ape**** if he ever lost that format and lost his data.

 

I love my G1 (android).  I can't stand the touch screen only like with the iPhone or some of the other smartphones.  I like having an actual qwerty keyboard.  I think i'll replace this with the G1 Blaze when that comes out next year (i think it's next year).

 

I'm also a big palm fan and its coming time for me to get a new phone--is Palm still making new devices or do any of the smart phones out there use the palm platform? I know they were bailed out by HP. I'd love to get a new palm and avoid phones that require microsoft outlook to manage data. all recommendations welcome!

Holy Cannoli!

 

I have a Blackberry Bold because my workplace uses Blackberrry Enterprise Server; I wasn't given a choice as between BB/Palm/Android/iPhone, though we're allowed any Blackberry we care to use.  I'm on T-Mobile, and UMA when there's a wireless network in range that I have the password to log onto.

 

I agree with Cincinnatus that the Blackberry UI lags its more innovative competitors.  The BlackBerry remains the buttoned-down smartphone of the business world.  Unfortunately, even its synchronization with Outlook leaves a few things to be desired.  I have friends with iPhones and I've gotten to try an Android phone (one of the T-Mobile ones, but I can't remember which), and both seemed a little bit more intuitive to use.

 

If we had completely free rein at my workplace, I'd probably get an Android of some kind.  I haven't tried the Blackberry Torch yet.  Others in the office have older Curves and Pearls, and I do like my Bold better than theirs, but that may simply be a function of age, not differences in model.

I finally got my new smartphone.It was a difficult choice, and there were a lot of nice possibilities. I actually liked the Cincinnati Bell Blaze. It looked and felt good in your hand, the price was very very reasonable. It was fast, the interface was good. The only problem was the touchscreen felt very plasticy indeed. That fact started to erode the "wow" factor quickly. If I am going to live with a phone for years, I want it to feel substantial.

 

Then there was the EVO. Wow. Real nice phone. Big, yes it is big. But the screen is big. It does all the things you want: movies, pictures, talk to your friends, talk to your enemies, get loads of apps from the Android app store. The color scheme was creative, too. I liked the salesman, he was on me a bit much but they want to sell the phones, right? There was a wait for it. Downside, that old devil battery drain. It would make good sense to carry a spare charged battery with you at all times, since you can pop out the batt and pop another one in. It was no cheaper than any other phone, and the carrier was making you pay a $10/mo premium just to have an EVO. Yes you can make it into a Wi Fi broadcast spot, the bad news is that will cost you $30/mo...you are tethering basically. Alas, EVO ended up getting fairly pricey, even if it is a great phone. And even though the screen is big, the colors are not very saturated.

 

The Torch felt great, nice substantial thing with a neat slide. Downside? It's a Blackberry. That is great if you never had a smartphone before, it's neat-o but the interface is clunky, it is limited in playing video (which it is not designed primarily for), the apps are somewhat limited and used to be real hard to figure out how to download and operate. Just not very intuitive. They may have changed that but... Other operating systems and apps are so good, if you like apps Android is a better deal. The Torch is beautiful though, and I think it's exclusive to AT&T.

I had to tell you guys this funny story about my dad and Verizon Wireless.

 

He was telling me about how he was due for a couple upgrades on his phone. He has his wife and my stepbrother on the plan. Instead of them calling my dad's number (the primary number for the account) to tell him he's due for a discount or whatever on phone upgrades, they called his stepson's number (age 15, and told him all about it). So his stepson is all of a sudden hounding him about getting the most expensive @ss phone for him, even though he does no chores at all, is lazy, blah blah blah. My dad then went to the Verizon Store because he was having issues with his phone anyway. He said, look, I don't appreciate you guys talking business with my 15 year old stepson; I think you guys are doing this on purpose knowing teenagers are going to hound their parents about getting these phones, blah blah blah, make sure you call MY number to talk about offers because it's my account. Then he mentions that the touchscreen doesn't work well at all on his Blackberry Storm, that the phone shuts off for no reason sometimes. So the guy behind the counter offers to give him a free new Blackberry Storm2 that is supposed to be much improved from the first Storm. My dad says that sounds great and since you did that for me, I'll buy one of your cases and you get something out of the deal too.

 

My dad takes the phone home and starts playing with it. He goes to the video section and there's a home-made porn video stored on it! Like 8 minutes long. Clearly the phone was refurbished but it should have been restored. My dad just thought it was funny but can you imagine if that phone ended up being sold to a minor or bible-thumper or something? That's insane. There's really no excuse for the phone to not be fully-restored when they're selling them in the stores.

I had to tell you guys this funny story about my dad and Verizon Wireless.

 

He was telling me about how he was due for a couple upgrades on his phone. He has his wife and my stepbrother on the plan. Instead of them calling my dad's number (the primary number for the account) to tell him he's due for a discount or whatever on phone upgrades, they called his stepson's number (age 15, and told him all about it). So his stepson is all of a sudden hounding him about getting the most expensive @ss phone for him, even though he does no chores at all, is lazy, blah blah blah. My dad then went to the Verizon Store because he was having issues with his phone anyway. He said, look, I don't appreciate you guys talking business with my 15 year old stepson; I think you guys are doing this on purpose knowing teenagers are going to hound their parents about getting these phones, blah blah blah, make sure you call MY number to talk about offers because it's my account. Then he mentions that the touchscreen doesn't work well at all on his Blackberry Storm, that the phone shuts off for no reason sometimes. So the guy behind the counter offers to give him a free new Blackberry Storm2 that is supposed to be much improved from the first Storm. My dad says that sounds great and since you did that for me, I'll buy one of your cases and you get something out of the deal too.

 

My dad takes the phone home and starts playing with it. He goes to the video section and there's a home-made porn video stored on it! Like 8 minutes long. Clearly the phone was refurbished but it should have been restored. My dad just thought it was funny but can you imagine if that phone ended up being sold to a minor or bible-thumper or something? That's insane. There's really no excuse for the phone to not be fully-restored when they're selling them in the stores.

 

You're Dad should take that phone back and make them work for a sale and get free service for years. 

 

That is truly unacceptable.

^seriously, that kind of screw up should be worth at least a brand new phone for everyone in the family and multiple years of free unlimited service. Or your dad can send it to whatever your equivalent of Carl Monday is. I'm sure the local 'investigative reporter' would love to air that during sweeps week.

^seriously, that kind of screw up should be worth at least a brand new phone for everyone in the family and multiple years of free unlimited service. Or your dad can send it to whatever your equivalent of Carl Monday is. I'm sure the local 'investigative reporter' would love to air that during sweeps week.

 

I would start with the Store Manager first.  If he doesn't fix this "customer service" embarrasement AKA Customer Service Goldmine in favor of the Customer, then take it to the Verizon Regional Rep and the media.

Yeah, I told him all that. My company actually has a contract with Verizon but we don't deal with their wireless phone service and I don't know what all they would offer him but I'm sure they would compensate him for it and be genuinely concerned. He just doesn't have time to deal with it now. He's always busy, all over the place. He's not the type of person to threaten to call the media; he has this crazy ability to kill people with kindness and make them like him and get things that way. Me personally, I'm vengeful.

 

I shouldn't down-talk Verizon Wireless but I know from working for Verizon, how important privacy is, regarding accounts. That's not just offensive to whoever received the refurbished phone. Imagine (if you were ever dumb enough to do it in the first place), finding out that a video you made, of that nature, wasn't scrubbed like the rest of your personal data - then passed on to another customer. It may not be the Verizon Store's fault if they rely on a 3rd party and ship their cell phones elsewhere to be refurbished. I can't imagine that sort of thing showing up too often, even when phones are sent in. You would probably have to be crazy to trade in a phone and not delete a video like that!

Holy Cannoli!

 

 

Your ping time is mediocre and when it's that low you're way more susceptible to lost packets compared to a REAL internet service.

 

Those tests on phones vary so much depending on where you are and when. With phones, I'm more worried about which one has the best coverage/reliability. If you're a speed junkie, get fiber or cable and hardwire it to a real computer. 3G/4G is overrated; it's simply for convenience. I prefer Wifi over 3G when it's available.

 

Much better to just screw around on the internet with a computer and service from a provider that guarantees extremely good bandwidth, as they can dedicate a certain amount to each customer's site.

That's not just offensive to whoever received the refurbished phone. Imagine (if you were ever dumb enough to do it in the first place), finding out that a video you made, of that nature, wasn't scrubbed like the rest of your personal data - then passed on to another customer who posted it on the internet. It may not be the Verizon Store's fault if they rely on a 3rd party and ship their cell phones elsewhere to be refurbished. I can't imagine that sort of thing showing up too often, even when phones are sent in. You would probably have to be crazy to trade in a phone and not delete a video like that!

 

I added to your thoughts.

 

I imagine that the phone was not working well enough to delete the memory when the person sent it back to Verizon for a replacement.  Glad to see your dad is good natured enough to handle that. Could you imagine if that ended up in the hands of a young minor?

 

Moral of the story: Always save your homemade porn on the SD card incase the phone craps out.

That's not just offensive to whoever received the refurbished phone. Imagine (if you were ever dumb enough to do it in the first place), finding out that a video you made, of that nature, wasn't scrubbed like the rest of your personal data - then passed on to another customer who posted it on the internet. It may not be the Verizon Store's fault if they rely on a 3rd party and ship their cell phones elsewhere to be refurbished. I can't imagine that sort of thing showing up too often, even when phones are sent in. You would probably have to be crazy to trade in a phone and not delete a video like that!

 

I added to your thoughts.

 

I imagine that the phone was not working well enough to delete the memory when the person sent it back to Verizon for a replacement.  Glad to see your dad is good natured enough to handle that. Could you imagine if that ended up in the hands of a young minor?

 

Moral of the story: Always save your homemade porn on the SD card incase the phone craps out.

 

Speaking from experience?  I would hate for you to end all over the internet like a Kim Kardashian, Grady Sizemore or Pam Anderson/Tommy Lee.

That's not just offensive to whoever received the refurbished phone. Imagine (if you were ever dumb enough to do it in the first place), finding out that a video you made, of that nature, wasn't scrubbed like the rest of your personal data - then passed on to another customer who posted it on the internet. It may not be the Verizon Store's fault if they rely on a 3rd party and ship their cell phones elsewhere to be refurbished. I can't imagine that sort of thing showing up too often, even when phones are sent in. You would probably have to be crazy to trade in a phone and not delete a video like that!

 

I added to your thoughts.

 

I imagine that the phone was not working well enough to delete the memory when the person sent it back to Verizon for a replacement.  Glad to see your dad is good natured enough to handle that. Could you imagine if that ended up in the hands of a young minor?

 

Moral of the story: Always save your homemade porn on the SD card incase the phone craps out.

 

Then put that SD card in a security deposit box/safe/ info on an encrypted disk and erase SD!

Speaking from experience?  I would hate for you to end all over the internet like a Kim Kardashian, Grady Sizemore or Pam Anderson/Tommy Lee.

 

Please, I don't like looking at myself in the mirror. Why would I want a video of that? Although if I could drive a boat  like Tommy Lee I might think twice about. That cracked me up when he started steering the boat "hands free".

Speaking from experience?  I would hate for you to end all over the internet like a Kim Kardashian, Grady Sizemore or Pam Anderson/Tommy Lee.

 

Please, I don't like looking at myself in the mirror. Why would I want a video of that? Although if I could drive a boat  like Tommy Lee I might think twice about. That cracked me up when he started steering the boat "hands free".

 

OMG, I threw up in my mouth a little bit!

Yeaaahhh umm... I told my dad about the whole Customer Service Goldmine thing... He laughed and said he didn't want to retaliate because the guy at the store was nice and did him a favor in the first place by upgrading his phone for free. Where was this 'nice guy' when I was growing up?

I have had the Droid Incredible for about two months and I love it.  Everything about it.  Well, except for the battery life...

Great device.

It official, the Iphone is coming to Verizon.

Remember when AT&T started claiming certain phones were "4G" even though they actually did not connect to the 4G cellular networks? That made the "4G" terminology totally useless which is why we now use "LTE" to refer to actual 4G phones and networks.

 

Well... they're doing it again with 5G. AT&T has started to display "5G" on some of their smartphones that connect to the 4G network and are not capable of connecting to actual 5G networks, which also do not exist in most of America at this point in time.

^Can someone in the know explain what is going on with the development of the 5G network by Chinese manufacturers?  I am hearing that it's a blatant attempt to spy on the world but I'm not sure if I was reading conspiracy theory stuff or legit speculation. 

If you go on YouTube and search for 5G it is 99% nonsense conspiracy theories about how the radio waves are toxic to human bodies or it's part of Agenda 21 somehow.

 

The big thing with 5G is that it will use smaller, less powerful antennas located closer together in order to deliver faster speeds. That's why you're seeing so many of those mini cellular antennas pop up in urban areas.

^Just had a guy ask me what I was looking at on my computer.  He immediately asked "don't those things cause cancer?"

4 hours ago, taestell said:

If you go on YouTube and search for 5G it is 99% nonsense conspiracy theories about how the radio waves are toxic to human bodies or it's part of Agenda 21 somehow.

 

The big thing with 5G is that it will use smaller, less powerful antennas located closer together in order to deliver faster speeds. That's why you're seeing so many of those mini cellular antennas pop up in urban areas.

 

Crappy internet and nearly nonexisitant cell phone service have been driving people from rural areas for a long time now, 5G or no.

Hey guys and gals, hoping for a little help here...

 

So, my current iPhone 8 is the property of my law firm, serviced by Verizon. When I started here, I gave away my previous phone. Nonetheless, I am now leaving my firm to join another firm. My last day here is this Friday, and my phone service will be disabled Friday when I leave, I will also have to turn in my phone. 

 

When I begin at my new firm on Monday, they will pick up my service with Verizon as well. 

 

I want to keep my phone number, as it has been mine since I was in 8th grade. Here is my plan:

 

1. Go to Verizon this week, pick up a new phone, and have them transfer my personal information over. 

 

2. Have my current firm release my phone number with Verizon.

 

3. Only use my new phone on wifi this weekend, as there is no service in those couple of days. 

 

Here is my concern - I do not want to lose my number, is there a way I can ensure my number stays attached to my new phone over the weekend? I don't mind not having service for the weekend, it may actually be cathartic, I just want to make sure my number remains. 

 

Thank you guys, all advice/suggestions would be appreciated.