Cell Phone Suggestions/Experiences?

Colleges & Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

<p>Hey all,</p>

<p>As part of Verizon Wireless' 2 year contract thingy, I am up for an upgrade on my cell and have been wondering what to get. I see two basic plans</p>

<p>1)My planned computer purchase for school is a Macbook Pro 15". I hope to use iCal to do all my scheduling because I am a digital, not paper person. I think it would be really useful if I could get that to sync with my phone. Now no smartphone can sync directly with iCal, but iCal can sync with google calendar, which can sync with windows mobile devices using something called goosync. My current top contender for a smart phone is the Samsung SCH-i760, as it has physical number buttons (something my current phone doesn't and it annoys me) for calling, WM6, and wifi. Most VZ phones are wifi crippled (grrr) and I refuse to shell out 50 a month for the dumbass data plan. Using wifi I hope that I can sync with google calendar relatively quickly, as well as check the shuttle etc etc Some of the blackberrys seemed good but VZ has the stupid policy of requiring the dataplan with a blackberry, no exceptions (Why VZ WHY!?!).</p>

<p>2)Get a smaller, more standard phone with a QWERTY keyboard (I can't T9, I never learned how but I like to text) like the enV2 or the Samsung Alias. Biggest advantage to this I can see is battery life. Smartphone battery life (as I can attest with my current phone) is not great and can be downright terrible sometimes. </p>

<p>So basically these are my questions:</p>

<p>1)To you as a college student, how important has having good battery life been?
2)How important is it to have wifi access and your schedule on your phone?
3)How important has size of the phone been? (Do most people carry backpacks everywhere, making size a null issue? etc)
4)Do you have any other suggestions/experiences that may help me?</p>

<p>I know this is a long and seemingly stupid post, but I am in a bit of a quandary.</p>

<p>Much thanks!</p>

2

<p>I don’t know anything about #1. Sorry :stuck_out_tongue: T9 looks really bizarre at first but it’s actually a lot simpler than it looks. I think it’s worth learning, though I now have QWERTY phone (Voyager - it’s really nice, I think) so it doesn’t matter.</p>

<ol>
<li> I barely use my cellphone out here. Usually only if I go off campus for a significant amount of time (like just now, I came back from Connecticut for part of my spring break). I sometimes use it to call friends from home. But most of my communication is done online rather than calling/texting. That said, you should have a somewhat decent battery life.</li>
<li>Barely use WiFi on my phone and don’t use my phone’s schedule at all. I find bidirection iCal and Google Calendar to be sufficient. Realize that people here are addicted to their computers ;).</li>
<li>I think people carry backpacks most of the time. If I go to a restaurant off campus I carry it in a purse and like it to be small.</li>
<li>Most of the people around me don’t use cellphones very often. We have email, instant message, facebook, etc. That said, people from other areas of campus should pipe in too :D.</li>
</ol>

3

<p>Thanks!! I hope to hear from a few people and pool their suggestions/knowledge in making the final decision.</p>

<p>If anyone else has any opinions, please share! Thank you!</p>

4

<p>i text constantly, don’t have QWERTY keyboard, and have never been bothered. don’t have internet or anything on my phone. i haven’t minded.</p>

<p>good battery life is nice because i often forget to plug it in.</p>