So, I'm going to get a phone for Christmas, and I get to choose which. Yay. I'm on AT&T, and currently looking at the iPhone running iOS, the Samsung Fascinate (or whatever the AT&T Galaxy-S phone is) running Android and the Samsung Focus running Windows Phone 7.

I'm leaning towards the Samsung Focus; I have a Zune HD, and I think an OS built around that interface style is made of incredibly epic win. I greatly prefer the music-playing interface; I've had an iPod touch at one point, and the Zune one is more awesome. The Super AMOLED screen of the two Samsung phones, though not as bright/pixel-dense as the iPhone, has better color saturation and, with no backlighting, has perfect blacks, making it beautiful to use in the dark. And the WP7 interface is built to derive some bonus battery life with a solid black background and such. Microsoft also plans to, like Apple, release software updates without relying on AT&T (so, faster software updates than Android). Oh, and it'll be nice to be able to sync both my phone and zune HD using one piece of software.

However, the iPhone has a front-facing camera, an awesome screen (if not as awesome as a SAMOLED), and it's... well, you've seen it. It's small, light, thin, looks nice... The Apple app marketplace is also saturated with a ton of applications, and they're cheaper than they are on the WP7 Marketplace because there's more competition. However, it's Apple, it forces me to use iTunes, and the interface itself isn't that attractive; just a rather dull grid of apps. Android, on the other hand... no idea. I know that it has no hardware advantage, and that it's more flexible and has more applications than WP7 does. I'm hoping someone who has Android can elaborate how it works and if they recommend it, because I haven't tried it yet (though I will soon, probably not extensively).

So, yeah. .

2 things.

1). Apple sux.

2). Buy a shitty 30 dollar phone, or if you suck at texting, buy one with a keyboard. Not worth it to spend $400 or w/e when it'll break in a year. I've had my phone for over 4 years now, paid $100 with a 2 year contract, and in that time I have kept pristene care of it. I have dropped it twice, in the whole 4 years. And its still dying on me. Phones aren't built to last.

Get an android phone, windows sux and apple sux. Android is open source, google made it, it has a pretty large app store, and you can upgrade your phone to the newer versions for quite a while (which you can't with, say, an old iPhone to the iPhone 4 OS), you can customize the UI a fair bit.

Well, this is the most useless SEN has been on a tech topic yet.

Going with WP7 Samsung Focus. I went to an AT&T store today; WP7 was epicly smooth, much smoother than the Android competitors (though the Samsung's background pond was nice, it wasn't nice enough). Add to that little things like Netflix not being on Android (and probably never going to be on any currently solid handset) and subtract things like the lack of Skype support (at least, front-facing), I'd rather get it. Android's more flexible, but... doesn't look/feel as nice.

Spent $10 on a razer 3 years ago. Need a new phone (battery lasts 1 day). There's so many phones and so little details on phones I have no idea what to get.

Haha, I open up my phone to check on it, and now the screen is cracked. Time to get any of the free ones.

You elite pimp, you. What carrier?

I think all if not most carriers give you an upgrade every 2 years. I went 4 years before getting my upgrade :3

Went to the verizon store because waiting for 5 hours to talk to a real person on the phone is just plain ridiculous. Guy tells me that there's nothing free, I can't get any decent phone without a data plan, and I'm grandfathered into the old way of doing things, so no chance of getting a (good) phone without a data plan. A number of other phones (chocolate touch, alias) which are free online and have a decent camera are not compatible with my plan or require a data plan. The only thing he could recommend is wait until black friday when newer phones (which shouldn't require a data plan) will come out. I wouldn't mind paying $50 for a phone with a 2.0 MP camera, but I'm sure as hell not paying $15 a month extra for a phone.

I don't use my phone for anything but calling people, alarm clock, camera, and checking the time. That's it.

If I get a data plan, then I might as well switch to a pay as I go phone, since I wouldn't spend more than $25 a month. Right now it's $10 (among the family plan). I fucking hate change.

I think Sony ericson is a good phone brand if your looking for a good camera phone.

Technically. I forget why I'm saying technically but If I remember correctly it's because if you buy a phone that is considered an "upgrade" phone you have to pay an amount but you get a rebate so in a sense it's free. Also I was told that it's better to (depending on the store of course) that it's better to do this sort of thing online (upgrading) because of the wider selection of phones. The store I went to is always out of stock or something. meh.

I guess it's really more of deciding whether that 2.0 MP camera is worth it, seems to be whats holding you back. I didn't care for upgrading my phone and pretty much said "just give me what ever"

I have a Samsung Intensity II

My two cents: If you really, really and I mean really need a smartphone. Stick with Android.

Alternatively (and preferably) if all you're going to use a phone for is calling and texting, buy one of those instead.

The technology is advancing so rapidly the best bet is always to wait 4 to 6 months for the newest 'next best thing'. Problem with that is, there will always be a newer next best thing on the horizon. The advantage however, is that things get better and cheaper...

You just said awfully little in an awful lot of text, Cardinal.

Err... good luck, rockz. Check other providers? Get a phone without a camera and buy a camera?

so as to be a little helpful:
don't get an iPhone. I can't be certain if they're overpriced pieces of trash like apple's computers, but it's enough for me to not want to support such a company. Their hypocritical patent-open source lawsuits and programs are also enough to turn me away from them. I think you've already made your decision on the samsung, but that's what I would pick too (if I had a use for a smartphone, which I don't). The OLED looks sweet, and it's compatible with your zune. That means less shit to deal with. which is a very good thing. Anything to get away from iTunes on windows is a good thing too.

I'm on verizon currently, and since I don't have a real job (still), I'm bumming off of my parent's plan. You can't beat $10 a month, and a data plan would more than DOUBLE it. That means changing companies is far too difficult, and the current plan we have now (1000 minutes) is perfect, since we rarely go over, but frequently go over the 700 minutes. That plan is also old, and you can't get it anymore. The only people I talk to are people on verizon anyway; it charges zero minutes to talk to them. I must use something like 50 minutes a month, and 1-2 texts (I can't figure out how to turn it off again). The pie chart of my phone is literally 95% checking the time, 1% talking, 4% alarm clock.

The point of the camera phone is that you can take pictures on the fly without carrying around a camera. It's the same purpose of a smartphone (netbook+phone), except that it sucks compared to the real thing (lenses on phones suck, and thus deliver shitty quality and a netbook is much faster and more versatile than a smartphone). I wouldn't carry around a camera, but I would carry around a phone. Sometimes I carry around my netbook though, since it fits in my pocket.

I have a first gen iPhone, and it is a paperweight now. It started to get dead pixels a little over a year after I got it, but Apple wouldn't replace it because they had no official dead-pixel policy, and the warranty was over. I need a new phone, and I'm torn between the iPhone 4 and the Droid Incredible. I've played extensively with both and unfortunately I still prefer the iPhone 4. The drawback is that AT&T sucks ass, therefore I was going to get the Incredible and switch to Verizon. Of course just as I'm about to do this, I get word that Apple is already manufacturing a Verizon iPhone 4 that will go on sale early 2011. Go figure.

In your case, I know nothing of the Focus spec-wise, but I have played with the Windows Phone OS and I'm not a fan of it at all. Out of the 3 operating systems, Android is definitely my favorite. I just have yet to find an Android phone I'd want to get (other than the Droid Incredible).

lulzy. A friend of mine bought 3 iPhones in 1 year. Such a waste of money, but he plays with the damn thing like its his job.

Also, AT&T does suck ass. The only upside is I've never gone out of coverage, even when I was in china lol, except for inbetween some mountain ranges where the signal gets f'd up and isn't their fault anyway. Aside from that, they suck ass. I think its worth saying again that they suck ass. I pay 50 bucks a month for 450 minutes and 200 texts, luckily I have a shitton of rollover minutes and mostly use text messages. There's a new company called Cricket or something that offers like, unlimited service for 50 bucks a month, but their coverage sucks or I'd have switched already. There are some alternatives out there though.

I have a 1st gen iPod Touch, and I still sometimes use it to play games on. It rocks for that. I wouldn't knock Apple as a company - aside from iTunes being a bitch, they have a very comprehensive system for managing media (I prefer Zune because of how sleek and beautiful it is, relatively, but the Apple approach is more functional). The iPhone IS probably the best smartphone phone on the market right now - it goes up to 64GB, it's the thinnest, it has a top-notch back camera and a front camera, etc. I just dislike it because I've grown attached to Zune and because it looks somewhat dull, just a platform for launching apps + media player.

Devlin, my dad was looking at a phone recently on Verizon and in general liked the incredible, but he told me yesterday that it has a very low battery life (<1 day). I'd read up on that in reviews - sticking all the Incredible has into a thingimagig as small as it is probably took a serious toll on the battery life. If you don't like WP7, I'd go with AT&T iPhone 4, AT&T Samsung Captivate, Verizon Droid X or Verizon Samsung Fascinate.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Nov 18 2010, 3:56 am by Centreri.

Don't get a contract. There is probably a company near you that you can pay (or choose not to pay without any additional fees) each month. Buy a cheap phone and you can get unlimited calling for $30, or I get unlimited calling, text, internet for $40 a month. Never had an issue, and if I ever am short on cash I can just go a month without the phone without any penalties.