[Canada] Contract up at the end of March what phone and what provider?

T

torrance M

New member
What is the best Canadian smartphone right now?

My 3-year contract with Telus is up at the end of March. In those three years I have used a BB 8703e, BB Pearl 8130 and now a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic (unlocked Rogers phone).

For the past month I have been thinking about switching to the iPhone but I won't do it if there isn't a significant OS update or a new model (with new OS) coming out in the next couple months. The way the iPhone is now (no multi-tasking or customizable home screen without jailbreaking) isn't what I want to get.

Other than that I'm not really sure what to decide on. Telus is launching the Moto Milestone before the end of this month and WIND has been talking about launching the Nexus One; I don't think I'd switch to WIND though with their network being so small and roaming would be on EDGE on Rogers.

I like the Palm Pre but would rather get the Pre Plus which isn't announced for Canada (yet).

Right now I guess I'll just have to keep waiting until something more attractive comes along unless anyone can suggest the best option that would be available by April.
 
Don't sign any contracts and go for a Blackberry 9700
with Bell. Super fast and solid os. However, if you want to do a lot of browsing, the Blackberry is no way close to an Iphone or Droid experience. You could go with the BB Storm 2, but it is on Telus and those BB dedicated sites are saying a Storm 3 may be out by August.
 
Sounds like you want a customizable touch-screen unit and you want to have good, fast connectivity.

I highly recommend purchasing an unlocked phone such as a Milestone or Nokia 5800 .. or perhaps wait for the S.E X10 and get it hooked up with a solid national GSM provider.

It may be a conflict of interest being a person who sells Fido products .. but I have been only doing so for 6 months whereas I have been a happy Fido user for over 2 years and am still happy.. and I definitely am a poweruser.

I have a stacked plan with data on an unlocked Nokia E72-2.
 
The contract would be to subsidize the cost of the phone. I don't want to spend $600 on a handset if I don't like it. Although I should see what kind of money I can get for my Nokia 5800 if I decide to sell it when I get my next phone.

Other than being able to switch carriers what would be the benefit of not signing a contract?
 
I currently am using an unlocked 5800 on Telus and the phone has too many quirks and issues for me. It has absolutely ALL of the features I want in a phone though but I still have to reset it quite a bit and have given up on using a couple of the home screen themes because they cause my phone to crash hard.

I would need my phone to have GPS, Bluetooth (A2DP), 3.5mm, decent camera, 8GB+ of storage (onboard or microSD) and a good messaging client for email.

I think I would have been happy with an E72, I always liked the E71 but hated the 2.5mm jack and I do like hardware keyboards over just touchscreen but thats not a deal breaker.

I'm looking forward to the Milestone right now; it seems like the only decent phone in Canada that isn't an iPhone.

I would like to know the various reasons for buying unlocked phones and going the month-to-month route. The only benefit I see is being able to jump carriers or drop features and billing plans at anytime.
 
Well .. the big benefit really is being able to use any phone you like and not worry about it being neutered by any carrier software or config etc.

Though the only real benefit beyond that is as you said, the freedom of not having a contract .. that alone is pretty huge I think.

With Fido you don't need to be on a term contract to add or drop features or make plan changes however. All customers with a post paid agreement be it a 2/3yr term or month to month plan have this freedom and it's extremely valuable considering just how much you can customize plans with Fido versus choosing from only a few semi-bundled plans from other providers and having much more limited options for add-ons.

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Here's my point of view. This is what I do and I'll tell you why.

I buy the phone that I want without even considering carriers. Having the handset I want is the most important thing to me as a person who very heavily relies on his cell phone and is a bit of an enthusiast as well. Some people really don't care and just want a phone. I am a person who knows what is out there and I want the best (for me).

After that, I stick it on the plan I want on the carrier I want.

I use Fido because it's cheap, extremely customer friendly, plans are flexible and it offers the service and coverage I need. Above that I get a LOT of value from per-second billing and not having extra fees every month.

I am yet to have a headache with this company. I couldn't sell a product I don't believe in.
 
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