Comments on: Cellphone Features Wishlist

By: wyn

wyn — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 21:22:00 +0000

You know what I want? GSM phones – note the plural. I want one beautiful, sleek size-matters phone for days when I carry a small purse and being accessible is what’s important. Then I want the option to pop out the SIM card and use it in a totally cool PDA-type phone like the Hiptop.
Alas, I think I can get ONE phone and while unlimited surfing sounds fabulous, I’m not sure I would take advantage of that enough given I’m never usually that far from a computer… and if I am, it’s actually with a sense of relief.
I will, however, go to Fido and play with one… ;)

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 17:55:00 +0000

It's somewhat orthogonal to your desires, but I'd like to suggest Fido's Hiptop.

Not only is this a pretty nifty device on its own, but it comes with the only affordable data plan in the country: $20/month for unlimited internet access. Throw that on top of a $20 100-daytime/1000-evening/wknd minutes plan (is that enough?) and you're talking $40/mo for the uberbloggerphone.

The key takeaway from what you want is that it has no Bluetooth. Just about everything else should be available. Here's one review of the device, here's another.

Of course, you may want to wait for the Hiptop 3, widely expected to release sometime between yesterday and September.

Among normal phones, I think the Sony Ericsson W600i and W810 have been getting very good reviews. A couple of my friends have the 600i and seem to like it.

I kick it old school with a Nokia 6101, and I sometimes feel that if I had my druthers, I'd just toss it all and go back to an original Nokia 6100, except they're huge.

By: wyn

wyn — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 13:15:00 +0000

No T-Mobile though we get the nice and glossy adverts with Catherine Zeta-Jones on cable channels. We have unsatisfactory mobile competition here. =(

By: NML

NML — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 12:04:00 +0000

Do you guys have T-Mobile out there? They have a lovely smart phone called the MDA Compact.

By: wyn

wyn — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 00:06:00 +0000

Telus, haha, it was consciously omitted. The reasons are a bit historical, dating back to Halifax days, that obnoxious Talk Halifax plan, sub-par reception in most areas (cf. Aliant), fees for everything, and horrific customer service stories.
However, why not look at their rates when looking at all the others? =)

I remember Aliant having roaming numbers (that my mother could NEVER figure out how to call) so imagine that Bell would, too.

The reason why I think I will end up with Rogers or Fido is they can be quite cut-rate and their phone selection is worlds ahead of Bell or Telus....

By: Karen

Karen — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 23:57:00 +0000

Why isn’t Telus in your list of options? I have been pretty happy with my Telus experience so far (a little less than two years into my contract). Plus, Telus gives you roaming numbers so people can reach you at a local number when you are in their town. Great for us travelling grad student types. ;) Last time I checked, Rogers didn’t have roaming numbers.

By: wyn

wyn — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 23:32:00 +0000

THB – A cell is my primary phone so I want bells & whistles. It makes the two years I have it watching all the neat new phones coming out not seem quite so bad. It was quite horrible with my current – a Kyocera that couldn’t do anything – phone.

Corey – I’m not sure I’m “renegade” enough to go off the beaten track of bringing an unlocked phone to a dealer. =P It’s not out of the question and I still have two months to shop around and watch the phones that each co. gets.

Mona – I *love* the Sony bar phones (and yours, too) and for them, I would make an exception. No more crappy/manual sliders and that’s for sure!

By: Mona

Mona — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 23:26:00 +0000

I got the Sony Ericsson w810 from Rogers. It’s to die for. But it’s a bar phone and so I guess it doesn’t go with your wanting a flip.

By: Corey

Corey — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 21:39:00 +0000

Why don’t you not bother to get a contract and buy an unlocked phone on ebay?

http://www.howardforums.com is a great website for wireless phone stuff by the way.

By: teahouse

teahouse — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 21:34:00 +0000

I have the most rudimentary phone in existence. No bells and whistles, no camera, no vibration, it has like 3 rings to choose from..I like it that way. I get overwhelmed with too much technology!