<p>Yep. I own the most ghetto one on the market now (hand-me-down), and it dropped in a bucket of water and is gradually dying . . . </p>
<p>soo I'm looking for a new one!
I'm wondering if you guys have any good suggestions, I don't have very many specific preferences . . . I'd like a flip phone though, and one that can take pictures. Pretty typical on most phones nowadays. . .
Nothing too wide/bulky.</p>
<p>Price range right now is undetermined (love the parents) . . but lets keep it reasonable, nothing super-expensive-celebrity type . . </p>
<p>maybe join the rest of america and get a razr</p>
<p>depends on your phone plan/service too. t-mobile is a good plan with good phones. but nextels bother me. just dont get a chirping phone please, for everyone's sake</p>
<p>chirping phones? no no, it has to be able to have complete silence. I'd get slaughtered caught with it in a meeting or a lecture or something. </p>
<p>I played with the razr for a day, and I dunno . . .it's not as cool as the slvr, and even though it's thin, it compensates by kinda being too wide. I love the slvrs, but it's not flip .. and the flip phones protect the buttons/LCD screen from damage to an extent.</p>
<p>so far I know that cellular 1, cingular, ntelos, and sprint will provide for my area . . maybe T-mobile. I looked at T-mobile's website and they have nice phones, but maybe you could elaborate on which phone is the best if you know? </p>
<p>My relatively new Motorola E815 is pretty sick... really good reception... good battery life... nice big screen... camera... pretty much has all the standard stuff.</p>
<p>The RAZR is pretty sick... my brother has one. The battery life on those things is REALLY bad in comparison to other phones though (just not enough space for a good battery)</p>
<p>in terms of a razr, only get one if its on verizon, all the other ones are pretty much feature eqivalents of a 1995 era StarTac. </p>
<p>On Cingular I'd go with a Sony Z520a, they are small and feature-rich. And cheap. They take the same rez photos as the RAZR, have better battery life, more memory, and better reception. They are also way chaper and (IMO) better looking.</p>
<p>My friend also seems to like his Nokia 6101/2, it is pretty comperable it seems.</p>
<p>Of course, I have a Cingular 2125 and couldn't ba happier. But thats not flip and not cheap.</p>
<p>In terms of t-Mobile (if you're not adverse to a slider) the Samsung t809 is the place to be. it is slim, if not slimmer htan a RAZR and has actual features. It is pricey though, otherwise T-M also carries that Nokia 6101.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Go with Verizon for plans. In every city it's consistently been ranked #1.</p></li>
<li><p>I recommend LG for phones. They make phones with all the features of a Razor, yet they have better quality. Motorola was #1 in the 1990s but their latest phones just can't match LG's.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I use an LG without a camera but with a gargantuan speaker in it. When you refuse to have your hand against your head with a phone in it while driving like me, you can use it by putting it on your lap. Other speakers work well too, this one seems specialized. My mom has the camera model and she's pleased with it. I have no use for a camera (what's the point? digital cameras take better pics and aren't that big) so I went with the other one. LG's batteries are pretty good as far as life--if you don't use the phone that often like me, you can stretch it to about four or five days without a charge.</p>
<p>I have heard about quality issues with Razors--battery life, ease of breakage...get a case no matter what kind of phone you get.</p>
<p>If you're in your car a lot get a car charger. Mine recently broke, but it was very convenient. If your car is older, be careful--my 1988 Acura doesn't shut power off when the car is turned off so it will eat batteries over time.</p>
<p>yeah LG's are nice... my last phone was an LG and i liked it... I really dont think you can go that wrong with Motorola or LG as companies as long as you get their higher quality phones.</p>
<p>We have Razrs (= Motorola V3) and they are great. Also, note that Cingular and TMobile have satellites instead of towers, so you can use your phone abroad. I have gotten reception with cingular in places I could never get reception before. Their customer service is bad, though (like most other wireless companies).</p>
<p>find out what service works best in your area, then go to that provider's website and narrow down your list by doing a search of flip camera phones. that should help quite a bit.</p>
<p>I've gone through 2 razrs so far. Ever since they ramped up production, the quality seems to have plummeted way down. On the first one, the inside screen stopped working (the one you actually use...). The second one drained an entire battery in under 40 minutes standby (average with the first phone was 2 days). Third one is working fine after 2 months...so far.</p>
<p>On a brighter note, Motorola is very good with processing warranty claims ;).</p>
<p>We bought our four razrs a year ago, but I don't know when they were made. My D texted SOO much and dropped her phone into the sink (not wet), that some of her buttons stopped making good connections. But that might be a problem with any phone? The four we have now are quite reliable (knock on wood!)</p>
<p>There have been problems with razrs in terms of dust getting under the screen, and dirt getting packed into the keypad and getting moldy. Those are both covered by the year warrenty though... so if you experience either they'll send ya a replacment, manufacturer's error on both. </p>
<p>Warrenty claims are not made through Motorola, they are made through the Cingular or T-Mobile warrenty hotline, and sent via the respectful company, so you don't have to worry about Motorola at all.</p>
<p>Also, the satellite thing isn't true. GSM (what cingular and tmobile use) is a tower-based band of service, the coverage area is only as big as the tower's waves can reach. It may be true that data (GPRS or EDGE) use satellites, but no normal phones do not, otherwise you'd have reception Everywhere (think GPS navigation, DirecTV, etc), except where blocked from direct view of the sky.</p>
<p>Cingluar and Tmobile do tend to allow phones to get reception at any GSM (or for you legacy folks, digital) tower, and they end up paying the service provider who owns the tower. This used to be known as "roaming" This may be why you get good reception now.</p>
<p>Your next phone, I would suggest paying the few $ for the insurance that way, you just call the carier, pay abotu $35 and they send you out another phone over night (parent of child who phone has been in the washer/dryer, fell in the sink of soapy water, dropped on the ground if a phone can break, she can break id :) ).</p>
Warrenty claims are not made through Motorola, they are made through the Cingular or T-Mobile warrenty hotline, and sent via the respectful company, so you don't have to worry about Motorola at all.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I actually was forwarded directly to Motorola who handled the claim on behalf of Cingular. Either way, it was pretty seamless from my end.</p>
<p>I have a nokia 6101 from T-mobile.. battery life is insane( I went the entire spring break without charging it) and gets reception everywhere ive been except the ozark mountains down in Arkansas where no phones can get service no matter what provider</p>
<p>But I'm just not feeling the razr at all . . i heard a lot of problems with it too. my friend let me use it for like a day the 2nd day she got it, no problems. and then 2 weeks later she tells me that she has to get a new one because the screen is completely black (and she doesnt know why) . . .
And others have complained about it . . "moldy, keypad"?? I guess it's really popular because it's super thin, I don't really like it though.</p>
<p>I've been looking at <a href="http://www.mobiledia.com/reviews/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.mobiledia.com/reviews/index.html</a> and it has decent reviews on the more popular phones bought lately. Sony Ericsson Z520a looks really nice and has a lot of cool features, I just hope the battery compensates for all the "light effects", etc. I found
[quote]
Sony Ericsson rated the Z520's 900 mAh Li-Ion battery at an incredible 9.0 and 400 hours (16.7 days) of talk and standby times respectively. However, those are under optimal conditions.
[/quote]
so that sounds pretty darn good, much better than the motorola razr. also i know someone who recently got this phone and there haven't been any problems or anything, and it works really well. plus the special loop antennae at the top doesn't seem particularly annoying or bothersome.</p>
<p>Motorola</a> E815 looks really good and compares to the motorola v555/7 which is what I'm also interested in, it just seems that Verizon kinda limits the phone, based on the reviews. :(
And Verizon doesn't offer service to my area. </p>
<p>But yeah I guess I'll ask others around here interested in new phones, so far I think cingular and sprint offer the best service here. overseas service would be nice but not a requirement; now i use a 1-800 number if I have to call overseas.</p>