My wife and I are looking at getting a couple of smartphones. I've never really done any research on them, so I'm looking for some advice on good phones and service providers.

I don't need anything fancy in a phone. Basically something that I can use for phone calls and internet. A few things that would be nice are GPS and a camera, but they aren't a necessity.

Anything specific I should be looking for or looking to avoid in a phone or phone plan?

My wife and I are looking at getting a couple of smartphones. I've never really done any research on them, so I'm looking for some advice on good phones and service providers.

I don't need anything fancy in a phone. Basically something that I can use for phone calls and internet. A few things that would be nice are GPS and a camera, but they aren't a necessity.

Anything specific I should be looking for or looking to avoid in a phone or phone plan?

I believe the new iphone is going to be released this year, and from what I've seen it looks pretty sick. Might be worth waiting for...Otherwise I would look into android phones.

Yep, the android has an 8 MP camera on it, pretty good!

i have a htc droid eris from verizon and i love it. i used to get a new phone every two months and i have never loved a phone this much.

i run a cell phone store here in Michigan.

befor you think about what phone you want, i would suggest figureing out what company you are intrested in going with.

coverage is not really an issue with either ATT or Verizon. its personal prefrence now a days. what i would do at this point would figure out who most of ur friends and family use and go from there. that way if most ur friends and fam have Verizon then it would be a smarter choice to go with Verizon because of FREE mobile to mobile. and if they have ATT then the same reason.

each company has there own perks if you choose them.

with Verizon you get Unlimited Texting to ANY verizon phone and then you can save $30ish from getting an Unlimited texting plan

with ATT you get Rollover minutes witch is very sweet incase one month you use ur phone more then you useual and the rollover mins can save ur ass from .45Cent overage per min.

then there is t-mobile witch is a good company there still newer to the buisness then ATT and Verizon so there coverage isent all that great but still good enough. with t-mobile there really isent any special perks anymore but you save $15-$20 a month. they are a little cheaper then the verizon and Att

i wouldent really suggest anyone else like SPRINT because there coverage is horrible but then again it depends on ur area,

you can go to each carriers website and they all have COVERAGE CHECK links on there site so you can also see who works best in your area

after you figure out what company you want to be with then figure out ur phone. probobly going to be an ANDROID phone since they are flooding the market ATM.

i hope that helped with the search. let me know if i can do anything to help you out

oh yeah and ATT and VERIZON are the only companys who offer an Employee discount. depending on where you work of corse

Thanks for the help so far. I live in a small town and we recently (finally) got a tower in town. Coverage was horrible before that. I do know that AT@T is on the tower, but I'm not sure who else is. Right now I have a Tracfone and get full strength everywhere in town.

Do the minutes on phone plans count towards internet surfing? I'm not too concerned about the minutes for talking because we don't really make that many phone calls. Years ago we had Cingular and were actually losing minutes because we had so many rollover minutes built up. The most use would probably be internet, as I'd use it every day on break while I'm at work.

I've read a lot of good things about the Andriod. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to do some shopping and get to play around with a few phones.

Edit: I work for Wal-Mart Distribution and I just found out that I can get discounts from all the major providers.

Edited May 14, 201015 yr by Dan208

Thanks for the help so far. I live in a small town and we recently (finally) got a tower in town. Coverage was horrible before that. I do know that AT@T is on the tower, but I'm not sure who else is. Right now I have a Tracfone and get full strength everywhere in town.

Do the minutes on phone plans count towards internet surfing? I'm not too concerned about the minutes for talking because we don't really make that many phone calls. Years ago we had Cingular and were actually losing minutes because we had so many rollover minutes built up. The most use would probably be internet, as I'd use it every day on break while I'm at work.

I've read a lot of good things about the Andriod. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to do some shopping and get to play around with a few phones.

no DATA does not count towards ur mins. whatever company you go with make sure you read over the contract when you get home. this company is allllllll about commision and Sales reps will ALWAYS tack on FREE features for the first month and you wont realize it so it will add up on ur the second month

here is what I require in a phone. It took me a lot of phones to fine this out, so hold a lot in your hand, and if you know someone who has one, test drive it when you see them.

#1 I need touch screen.

#2 I need a keyboard(not on screen only).

#3 Must have GPS and some direction finding software that is free

#4 Must be relatively sturdy

#5 Must not be an iphone

from there it gets muddy now. The motorola droid phone looks pretty amazing... but I'm a huge WinMob fan. I also love HTC products. I have the touch pro 2 now in fact and it's amazing and I haven't even put on any custom software yet.

The trick is to find what you want and then stick with it. Lots of people love BB, but to me it's only good for buisness. my wife however LOVES hers. Different strokes.

no DATA does not count towards ur mins

Thanks. I just got done reading about minutes vs data. So far it looks like T-Mobile might have the better deals, but I'm not going to jump into anything right away. Right now T-Mobile has a web special going on that looks about perfect, but I'll do a little more research first: Unsupported Browser

#3 Must have GPS and some direction finding software that is free

For me this is more of a perk than a requirement. It would be neat to have though.

I personally LOVE my iPhone 3GS. The warranty is what makes me happy, a few things have gone wrong with my phone yes, but Apple has ALWAYS replaced it free of charge.

And I have had no issues with AT&T.

Check out the G1 with Tmobile. Real web browsing, GPS, Navigation, apps. Great phone touch screen with a keyboard also. Its sturdy to I have one.

i like t mo...

but i hate touch screens, but the behold was alright. the tmo tap was ok. the G1 is a fair phone but they have alot of problems imo,.. the iphone is nice.. but i love a blackberry 8220.. its my choice of phone every time

I got a chance to play around with a few phones today. I really like the touch screen. It seemed a lot easier for me to navigate as opposed to a keyboard.

if your getting a t-mo phone get a nexus one or the HD2 even though i hate windows mobile

if your getting a t-mo phone get a nexus one or the HD2 even though i hate windows mobile

Thanks. I've had the HD2 recommended to be by a few other people.

i like t mo...

but i hate touch screens, but the behold was alright. the tmo tap was ok. the G1 is a fair phone but they have alot of problems imo,.. the iphone is nice.. but i love a blackberry 8220.. its my choice of phone every time

My G1 has never given me any issues. A lot of issues spawn from user error and noobs loading up a bazillion apps on the phone and killing all the memory.

plus this summer all android phones that arent up to date will be getting the 2.1 firmware to make them faster. that includes the g1

After doing some more looking around, it looks like AT&T is going to be my best bet (at least in this area).

I'm really liking the Motorola Backflip, but there's a few others that I like also. It's kind of like subs. Can't decide and keep flip flopping back and forth.

If you are going AT&T check out the online store. I got a refurb 8gb iPhone for 50 bucks. Same warranty as a new one. You have to go to an apple store to get repairs. I've dropped mine a couple times and they fixed it both times for free. You have to get the unlimited data plan from AT&T with iPhone.

I believe that is in honest best interest for the customer. I'm at the end of my billing cycle and I just hit 1gb of data. It's super easy to use up a lot of data with the iPhone.

I've been very happy with AT&T. I've used all major carriers except verizon and have incurred serious overage fees by everyone except AT&T.

The iPhone comes standard with google maps which has an excellent gps built in. It gives public transit and walking directions as well as driving. The camera is really good but doesn't have a flash

My bill is right at 76 a month.

I get a small discount but doesn't make a big dif. I am signed up for 450 min and 1500 text.

I never go over and use my phone way too much. Posting this from it right now. Lol

As far as operating systems go in todays market android and the iPhone OS are the best for someone not using it strictly for business. Android is much younger but it is still very good, some would say better than the iPhone OS, plus some companies like HTC have put a "skin" on the UI that makes it very smooth and easy to use. If you are a mac user and you have a large itunes library the iPhone will be a good choice because the whole syncing system is nearly flawless. Apple is expected to launch the new iPhone on june 7th and its been leaked enough to show that it is quite the beautiful device http://www.iphoneworld.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/iphone-4g-photo.jpg those are leaked photos of it. for att i personally would go iPhone because their android lineup is not exactly flourishing but if you can find one that suits your taste go for it. The other thing about android is that its a tech nerds dream but is not quite as intuitive and user friendly as an iPhone. Because you are new to the smartphone game I would definitely go iPhone just because no matter what people say it is a great device and its insanely easy to sync and use, if u can sync an iPod you can sync an iPhone.

P.S. if it is a genuine smartphone then it will have a GPS system.

Edited May 25, 201015 yr by Spanky33

plus this summer all android phones that arent up to date will be getting the 2.1 firmware to make them faster. that includes the g1

Pretty sure the G1 is going to be stuck on 1.6 unless you can confirm this 2.1 story.

plus this summer all android phones that arent up to date will be getting the 2.1 firmware to make them faster. that includes the g1

I have read that it is impossible for some Android based phones to run 2.1 due to their hardware being out of date. or something of that sort.

Some

Android still pwns. You can put it on a 1st gen iPhone if you want a REAL operating system

Some

Android still pwns. You can put it on a 1st gen iPhone if you want a REAL operating system

Actually you can put it on an iPhone 3g aswell just not the 3gs. the guides for the 3g should be out by now. and yes android is a great operating system but it needs to be customized to a certain degree in order to bring out its potential where as the iPhone OS is barely customizable and therefor its at its full potential minus apps and such. plus the new OS will mend some of the problems the original did i.e. multitasking. im not saying the iPhone is better but i think for someone who is clearly not inparticualarly tech savy the iPhone is a better choice,

Some

Android still pwns. You can put it on a 1st gen iPhone if you want a REAL operating system

Actually you can put it on an iPhone 3g aswell just not the 3gs. the guides for the 3g should be out by now. and yes android is a great operating system but it needs to be customized to a certain degree in order to bring out its potential where as the iPhone OS is barely customizable and therefor its at its full potential minus apps and such. plus the new OS will mend some of the problems the original did i.e. multitasking. im not saying the iPhone is better but i think for someone who is clearly not inparticualarly tech savy the iPhone is a better choice,

I agree there.