[quote name='Tybalt Flux']Last novice question- how much do those usually go for? If they're a little too expensive, I might just skip out. Too cheap as it is :x.[/QUOTE]
W/ a 2-year contract, you can get a smartphone for as low as $50 after discounts and rebates. Maybe even free. If you weren't already a subscriber, Amazon runs tremendous discounts on phones, but they require totally new plan sign-ups.
When going for a smartphone, consider how much you'll be using the internet. There's plenty of apps you can get that don't use internet access at all, but I personally used my smartphones (N-Gage QD, Dash, G1) for a lot of on-the-go price comparison and CAG reading. Apps don't have to be downloaded OTA (over the air) through your cell phone connection/data plan, so don't worry on missing out on installing new programs and such. You can find on the internet (yes, legitimately) and install them through your computer.
Data plans add another $25+ to your monthly bill, but there have been and are ways to get internet access with the cheap $8 dataplan. T-Mobile often patches the hole sooner or later, and you may or may not be fortunate to live in an area where they are slow to perform the update. You can Google for more information about "t-mobile cheap internet." YMMV. I was riding it for quite a long time until they patched up the hole in the Orlando area and decided I couldn't live without mobile internet, so I shelled out for the legit plan.
The G1 is lacking in polish in some areas regarding phone functionality, but the official updates and downloadable apps make it better all the time. There's plenty of future potential, but it's definitely a computer in your pocket that makes calls rather than a phone with computer functionality. Its biggest downfall for me is that you can (currently) only install applications to the internal memory, and you can run out of space fast if you like to have a lot of apps. Some apps can read data from the SD slot, but that still doesn't fix this flaw.
I upgraded from the Dash which is a mid-level, Blackberry-style Windows Mobile phone. It's a bit lower spec than many of the touchscreen WinMo phones, so it's a tad bit slower and with less RAM. This only really becomes a concern if you do a lot of multitasking, and you may need to constantly go into the Task Manager to manually shut down apps and free up memory. It can be a bit finnicky when running apps from the memory card (especially when running apps at boot-up that can cause the thing to just hang). Maybe this is why Android doesn't allow apps to run from the SD card? I had two Dashes w/ two different memory cards (the most recent a 2gb Class 6 Kingston), so I think it wasn't just a single faulty unit regarding that problem.
If you care about using your phone as a modem for your laptop when travelling, I'd avoid the G1 for now unless you care to get your hands dirty. Windows Mobile has the option built in, and I'm sure Blackberry and Palm have easy solutions as well.
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