June 07, 2006

Curious George: Cellphone City My "Mo-Bile" is on the fritz. Help me pick a new one!

Basically I want it small but with a decent web browser. And I want to hook it to me computer with USB to transfer files and ringtones and no mucky-muck. Thoughts? Recommendations? Lovely anecdotes?

  • Don't ask me. I'm still on rotary. Nice black one beside the bed, nice cream one on the kitchen wall. Both set to maximum ring. Pisses off the neighbours. "Cell phone? Why would I have a cell phone? I have staff..."
  • No clue.
  • Hubby had one of those nifty gadgets with the teeny-weeny keypad so that you can text people easily. Problem being, you hit one key, you hit many. Did someone say they had a staff infection?
  • i dig my treo 650... they should be fairly cheap, especialy with a new plan thru Amazon.com, now that the 700 is out.
  • "Can you hear me now?"
  • I go with feature-freeness now, but in my old job I had a Blackberry that came in handy when I was sitting in a fast food joint at lunch. The only added feature my current cellphone has is a faint smell of bananas. Of course, that could just be because I keep it in my back pocket...
  • My cell doesn't have a phone, but there's one in the visitors' room.
  • I have a Sony W600i, and I think it's fantastic. Does all that, and file transfers work in $not_windows. I'd recommend one to anyone.
  • WHAT? NO. WHAT?? I CAN'T HEAR A THING. NO. I'M ON THE TRAIN. NO. WHAT? SORRY, CAN'T HEAR YOU. WHAT? [...]
  • "256 MB of memory, a megapixel camera with flash and video capture, Bluetooth, and speakerphone. Other features include EDGE high-speed data, FM radio, voice dialing, and extra buttons for landscape-mode gaming." Cool, thanks for the actual recommendation WorLord. *glares at rest of MonkeyFilter* Spread out, ya chuckleheads! *smack* Why I oughta!
  • "256 MB of memory, a megapixel camera with flash and video capture, Bluetooth, and speakerphone. Other features include EDGE high-speed data, FM radio, voice dialing, and extra buttons for landscape-mode gaming." FM? No AM? Pfft.
  • Yep. You can't beat rotary phones for comfort and style. Beige wall unit in the basement, and nice avacado green table ones in the living room and study. Push-button phones are for wimps! Well, and Ms. Fimbuvetr, who insists on having one cordless touch-tone phone in the house. Bah. At least I won the no-call answer debate. I Love my Answering Machine. (Anyone got a link for an MP3 of that song?)
  • I got a Motorola Razr for Mother's Day and have been enjoying it. Before today I wouldn't have recommended it to anyone else, since I'm just using the phone and not all the bells & whistles. I am clueless as to what it can do but apparently it's a lot. But this morning the phone fell about 3 feet off a table onto a hard tile floor. Of course it broke open and the battery came out. I got a sick feeling that it wouldn't work, but when I put it all back together, it powered up like usual. Big thumbs up, in my book. I never would have guessed a phone that lightweight was that sturdy.
  • was i just pissing in the wind, PeteBest?
  • With the rotary you can get the modem attachment.
  • i've found nokias to be quite user-friendly. i'm not a big phone person though.
  • If you absolutely MUST have a cell phone, at least get the handheld attachment. (Still not yet available in Batphone red.)
  • Cap'n, they don't put AM in anything anymore. It's teh suck. L.S.Kayso, yes you qualify (although technicaly the Treo is a bit bigger than small, but extra points for effort). Johnny, tell 'em what he's won!
  • Phones available in NZ aren't necessarily available in the US, but I have a Motorola C651. I only ever buy phones that are suitable for global roaming, which this one has, but it also has WAP/web browsing (which I don't use) and connects via mini-USB cable. The additional bonuses are colour screen, camera (low-res but still useful occasionally) and polyphonic ringtones, which is a novelty for me.
  • PS you slackers, try to be helpful in your comments, eh? Eh?
  • gawd, why start now, 'bashi?
  • Better ridiculously late than never?
  • Much as i hate to advocate particular brands - nokia - large keys and rfeliable xonnection - hell my mobiile got runover by a RAM350 and boat trailer on the other side of the workd - in 24 hours i had a new LCD (Despite the model phone not being sold there - and if u r curious Thunder Bay in Ontario) and the rest of the phone still works - hate to be brand loyal but still impressed
  • and to hell with dyslexic fingers!
  • dillsexic
  • Nokia 6620 - Smart phone Bluetooth / Speaker phone / camera / voice recorder / MP3 Player / movie player / calendar & contact managment / etc. A cell phone with PDA functionality. Each morning I synch my 6620 with my Lotus Notes to keep up to date on my day's meetings. I have a 1 GB memory card that holds my MP3 and text versions of almost all of Alexander Dumas works translated to English. There are more recent models, but fat phones need love too. I am a strong supporter of Noika cell phones - I've rarely had any issues with the four different Nokia models I've used. Not to fond of their BT headsets, though.
  • The only piece of advice I can give you is to avoid the lower/middle end phones (especially by Motorola) that have moving parts (flip phones, slide phones, phones that open to reveal a keyboard). I got this advice from a customer service guy after my bottom-of-the-line Motorola flip phone died twice in under a year. He said that high end phones were reliable, but "intro level" phones with this feature begin to break down every time you open/slide them -- there are only so many "flips" built into the product.
  • In terms of user interface, Nokia is absolutely the way to go. Motorola specifically is horribly counter-intuitive and difficult to use, although allegedly they've got a bit better recently so YMMV. I can't recommend any specific models, as I'm very happy with my old Nokia makes-phonecalls-and-that's-it brick.