3G or Edge for smartphone

R

Road Hammer

New member
I am interested in the Cingular 8525 but would rather pay T-Mobile rates. T-Mo has some decent phones and more coming out (BB 8320) that only use edge but have wifi.

How much better will 3G or 3.5 be? Watching video would be nice but not essential. When T-Mo gets 3G I wonder if their rates will go up. For 3G phones at least.

I would like the 8525 or the Blackberry 8320 but is a fast connection important? Is it just for video? I don't think I need to be able to call and download at the same time. I think I would mostly cruise the internet and do email.

But it seems dumb to buy a new phone that will just have dial up speed. I would never go back to dial up on my computer.

Please help me in my ignorance. I will continue to search, as well.

I live in Washington,DC and am meagerly connected with a BB 7230

Thanks
 
3G is supposedly faster, but remember speed on a handheld isn't all that it is cracked up to be. It is very dependent upon your connection, the processor and available memory. It is nothing at all like broadband on your PC. In addition 3G eats battery power, especially if you are going in and out of coverage.

I had a Blackjack for awhile and it would go in and out of 3G often. I really couldn't tell that much difference. Can't see where email would really be affected all that much. Obviously surfing would be a bit faster, and video over the air if you use it for that. Other than that, no big deal IMHO.
 
Since you did mention the Cingular 8525.... You would definitely see a difference in speeds due to HSDPA (3.5G) and the processor being 400mhz and 128MB of built-in flash memory. which means pages will load a lot faster than all of T-mobile phones. Now if you are thinking of getting the RIM 8320 for T-Mo then that all changes because even with my 8700c for Cingular, I notice little different in loading the pages. When it comes to tethering on the other hand, you will see a bit of a difference. Honestly, if you are going to get the BB 8320, is it really that much of a burden to pay 10$ more per month of Data? Also depending on who you work for, you may actually get a discount with cingular. If you have a work/school email address, go to www.cingular.com and hit the business tab and on the right side, type your email address. If you don't have one, go into a store for them to look that up for you.
 
I looked at the rates for T-Mo with my current blackberry 7230 and Cingular for the 8525 - the 8525 would cost me about $35 more per month! (Although Cingular did have a number of data plans that I didn't totally understand) That is a lot of money for me just to have pages load faster. I wouldn't mind watching video on my phone but not for that price. I don't think I need to talk and type at the same time, and tethering and large downloads don't seem necessary at this time - on my phone.

24 months x $35 additional charges = more than I care to spend on a cell phone. I know other people will feel differently.

I think the Dash on T-Mo costs about $10 more per month than my blackberry currently costs for service. So, maybe the new 8320 whenever it comes would only be $25 per month cheaper than cingular 8525 service, but that is still enough to keep me in T-Mobile's camp.

I will look into the discounts, thanks for the tip. And thanks for all the responses so far!
 
Yes, but it exists and is coming on T-Mo sometime between May and fall. I haven't been able to tell yet how fast the processor is from those that have the prerelease models, but the camera seems very good for a phone and wifi is a plus.
 
I'm curious on how you go to the number. Are you including voice and/or messaging packages? I know it will cost more per month, but with the discount, it can actually bring it down 5-10$ and maybe even more. Also T-mobile are starting to disable phones from getting Opera. I guess since there rates are so low and speed so slow (even go edge standards), they really don't expect people to actually use it.
 
I just went to the Cingular site and chose 1000 minutes and unlimited data (which I have now with T-Mo) and got the $100 figure - with tax would be about $105. My current T-Mo bill is $72 per month with 1000 minutes, unlimited weekends and evenings and unlimited data (at GPRS speed, yes).

I did not qualify for a discount - I work for a small non-profit.
 
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