Changing carriers; want barphone w/ bluetooth?

J

Jbjb

New member
Good afternoon,

I was with AT&T Wireless since 1998. I was quite happy with their service and the price/minutes was really good. In my area, ATTWS was bought out by Alltel. I was very unhappy with how things went down. To make a long story short, I am now with Alltel, but will be changing to another carrier very quickly.

My local options for carriers are: Cingular, Sprint/Nextel, T-Mobile, and US Cellular. I've pretty much narrowed my carrier choices to Cingular and T-Mobile. The majority of my friends and family are on Cingular, so there's always that mobile-mobile thing (2 year contract). A friend of mine works at T-Mobile, so I can get a pretty good deal through them (1 year contract).

My frustration with ALL of the carriers has been that no one carries a selection of bar phones that have bluetooth. Cingular used to have the Nokia 6230. That looks perfect for me; too bad it's not easily available. A recent replacement is the 6235, but they dropped bluetooth from it. Cingular does have the ROKR, but from what I gather, it's not all that and is pretty expensive.

Pretty much, I value good coverage, decent battery time, and a good form factor (I keep the phone in my front pocket with my wallet). The other stuff is just fluff. I have looked at a couple of non-bar phones that seem passable.

From Cingular, the Moto V557 and SE W600i are ok, but the 600 is spendy.

From T-Mobile, the Moto V360 seems to be ok.

Do I need to give up the dream of having a slenderish candy-bar phone that has bluetooth and is reasonably priced? Is there one out there that I'm missing?


Thoughts?
 
I have T-Mobile ... and IT IS THE BEST YO!!!!!!
I mean I've had crappy phones at first (Nokia 3595) but that was when I started out with them almost 3 years ago... After 1 year, contract ended but I continued my services **you don't need to recontract with them** and I changed my plan a couple of times while off contract... everything's cool... I get a bunch of bonuses like 50 Extra minutes and stuff like that

I definately opt for T-Mobile, if I'd wanna get a new phone (having that I just got an unlocked W600), I'd definately resign contract with them. Unlimited nights (after 8), Unlimited weekends, Unlimited in-network... I think that's pretty good.

I live in Troy, MIchigan --- T-Mobile isn't too popular here either - but still, a good deal is a good deal.

+ The 2 year contract from cingular can be a pain if you want to move -- and maybe you don't have coverage where you move -- also it may be of inconvenience at some point down the line if you want to change your phone...

Choose wisely I'm Pro TMOB
 
Hey STW, the first thing you need to do is quit thinking that you are stuck with the garbage the carriers are trying to sell. Pick a service contract that suits your needs and get the crappy free phone. Now Cingular and T-Mobile are both GSM carriers. If you go to places like Phonescoop (http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/index_all.php), GSM Arena (www.gsmarena.com) or Phone Arena (www.phonearena.com) you can research GSM phones. Phonescoop will even let you search by features (http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/finder.php). Once you find a phone you like, you can go to various places on the internet (I won't mention them here) and find out how much they cost. Be SURE to get an unlocked phone or you won't be able to use it unless it was originally sold through the carrier you select. Once you find a phone that you like in your range, buy it. You'll probably be really happy with it.

Personally, I have had a ROKR for the last 2-3 months. It has excellent RF performance and Bluetooth (that works well). The battery life is great, approaching that of the Sony Ericssons except the ROKR has better RF from what I've seen (I also have a W800i). On the downside ROKR is basically a retooled E398 with iTunes and a 100 song limit (thanks to Apple). If that limit bothers you, buy the E398 and use its MP3 player.

One final and critical note. If you find a great phone and it only works in the 900 and 1800 MHz bands, DON'T GET IT! It will not work in North America. T-Mobile requires 1900 MHz and Cingular works on both the 850 (800) and 1900 MHz bands. An 850/1800/1900 or quadband phone is best for your needs.

Good luck. Yell at me if you have questions or need additional information.

Hey SpiderSS, what's with the 3330? That dinosaur is a 900/1800 phone for Europe and Asia. My grip about the W600i (besides the creamsicle color) is that it only has 256MB internal memory and no memory card. That'll get old real quick.

Tango Uniform
 
Hey Tango and Spider. Thanks for the quick responses.

Tango, you're right, I thought I was stuck with the phones my local carriers offered. I'm not impressed by them. Believe me, I've been pouring over phonescoop, but didn't know about the other sites you listed. The problem is that I'd look on phonescoop, see a phone I wanted, only to find out I couldn't get it through carrier X, and then move on. Now I'm seeing that I can buy phones through other places.

You mention there are other places on the net where I can go find out how much a phone costs. Zip me a private message if you don't want to list your favorite sites here, please. Should I be able to find unlocked phones for around the same price as what a carrier would list it as with a rate plan?

Thanks for the mini-review of the ROKR. I do like the size of it...and if it has good RF and battery life... Maybe I need to consider it.
 
Haha Tango

I was putting it there for fun, I used it when I was traveling to Romania (Europe) Sweet phone nonetheless... I got it around 4 years ago when it just came out after the 3310 - I have a BIG highscore in Snake 2 don't wanna give the phone away.

And yes stw, you should consider the ROKR aswell it's a cool foneeee
 
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