Looking for a good ATT Smart Phone

I

icedout297

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I'm switching over to ATT in a month and I'm interested in buying a smart phone.

Does anyone know any good smart phone options that I should be looking into?

I'm currently looking at the Blackberry Pearl, BlackJack, and iPhone...

I'd like a full qwerty (I know the Pearl doesn't have one) and a nice browser, as I'm getting the unlimited data plan.

Thank you all in advance.

Also does anyone know the Q4 smart phone line up for ATT? I heard something about the Pearl 2 / BlackJack 2
 
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The Tilt is the upgrade to the 8525. I haven't used it, I used a previous model, but HTC phones are usually always solid smart phones.
 
I've known several people that had the blackjack. None of them have it now. One said it was the worst recepetion he'd ever had, and actually switched his sim to one of those cheap prepaids until he could get another (said it got better signal than the blackjack)
 
Had an iphone when it launched and ended up getting rid of it. heres my gripes:

1.)You have to buy ringtones in an itunes type of service.
2.)Most phones nowadays have a "reminder" function for missed calls and messages, the iphone unfortunately doesn't.
3.)No 3G. Browsing using the edge network is slow,
4.)Messaging doesn't allow picture sending. You have to do it through the e-mail service.
5.)No video recording. This was my biggest problem.
 
[quote name='Vitality X']Had an iphone when it launched and ended up getting rid of it. heres my gripes:

1.)You have to buy ringtones in an itunes type of service.
2.)Most phones nowadays have a "reminder" function for missed calls and messages, the iphone unfortunately doesn't.
3.)No 3G. Browsing using the edge network is slow,
4.)Messaging doesn't allow picture sending. You have to do it through the e-mail service.
5.)No video recording. This was my biggest problem.[/quote]

Thank you very much for the info!

1. It doesn't bother me that much, as I don't care for "music tones" anyways.

2. The "reminder" function, what exactly is this? If I turn on my phone after I missed a few calls/texts will it notify me? Or will I actually have to go into calls and see that I missed some?

3. How slow is this? This is one of my main concerns as I will be using the browser a lot. If it has the best browser, but much slower... is it even worth it?

4. Not that big of a deal to me.

6. Ouch, that's also a problem.

Thank you for the info, and if you could answer a few of the questions, I'd appreciate it even more :)
 
[quote name='icedout297']Thank you very much for the info!

1. It doesn't bother me that much, as I don't care for "music tones" anyways.

2. The "reminder" function, what exactly is this? If I turn on my phone after I missed a few calls/texts will it notify me? Or will I actually have to go into calls and see that I missed some?

3. How slow is this? This is one of my main concerns as I will be using the browser a lot. If it has the best browser, but much slower... is it even worth it?

4. Not that big of a deal to me.

6. Ouch, that's also a problem.

Thank you for the info, and if you could answer a few of the questions, I'd appreciate it even more :)[/quote]

You could always get a free ATT phone, Then buy an iPhone at the apple store (it isn't subsidized anyway). Activate it through the software that is all around the net. (Note you don't have to unlock the phone if you are using a ATT SIM card) Just don't activate it through ATT. Then you can put all kinds of 3rd party apps on it. There is a voice recorder, to do list, instant messanger etc etc. I don't know what Vitality X is talking about. There is a reminder for missed calls and a red dot with the number of missed calls, text messages, and e-mails. This is what I do, and I like the iPhone much better with 3rd party apps.

Or you can wait until Feb when Apple officially released the SDK for developers to develop apps.
 
I would wait for the 3g or maybe 4g due to how slow it is to load a simple youtube vid about 10-15 seconds to get it playing while when it is on wi fi about 3 seconds.
 
[quote name='hbkdinobot']I don't know what Vitality X is talking about. There is a reminder for missed calls and a red dot with the number of missed calls, text messages, and e-mails. This is what I do, and I like the iPhone much better with 3rd party apps.
[/quote]
I got mines at launch so i'm not sure if theyve released a new update to include the feature or not. And i'm not talking about the red dot that appears with the missed calls, text messages, etc. What i'm referring to is the feature to have the phone continuously make a "beep" sound to remind you have missed something.
 
[quote name='icedout297']Thank you very much for the info!

1. It doesn't bother me that much, as I don't care for "music tones" anyways.

2. The "reminder" function, what exactly is this? If I turn on my phone after I missed a few calls/texts will it notify me? Or will I actually have to go into calls and see that I missed some?

3. How slow is this? This is one of my main concerns as I will be using the browser a lot. If it has the best browser, but much slower... is it even worth it?

4. Not that big of a deal to me.

6. Ouch, that's also a problem.

Thank you for the info, and if you could answer a few of the questions, I'd appreciate it even more :)[/quote]

Lets say you missed a call early in the day. You wouldn't know it until you checked the phone yourself. A Razr, for example, keeps making a "beeping" sound so that you know you have missed something. As for turning the phone OFF, i don't know for sure.

Personally i wouldn't recommended browsing with it. It's just not fast enough for the pages I visit.
 
[quote name='hbkdinobot']You could always get a free ATT phone, Then buy an iPhone at the apple store (it isn't subsidized anyway). Activate it through the software that is all around the net. (Note you don't have to unlock the phone if you are using a ATT SIM card) Just don't activate it through ATT. Then you can put all kinds of 3rd party apps on it. There is a voice recorder, to do list, instant messanger etc etc. I don't know what Vitality X is talking about. There is a reminder for missed calls and a red dot with the number of missed calls, text messages, and e-mails. This is what I do, and I like the iPhone much better with 3rd party apps.

Or you can wait until Feb when Apple officially released the SDK for developers to develop apps.[/quote]

That's a good idea. And therefore I'd always have a spare free phone if my iPhone broke, regardless.

Is there any drawback what-so-ever to doing this?
 
[quote name='icedout297']That's a good idea. And therefore I'd always have a spare free phone if my iPhone broke, regardless.

Is there any drawback what-so-ever to doing this?[/quote]
The only drawback that I notice is that you can't install the Official Apple firmware updates right when the come out. Apple has been trying to block all the 3rd party apps with every update. It usually takes a week for the hacker community to figure out how to get the 3rd party apps back on with the new update, and then you can install the Apple Update. (It asks you if you want to update or not) Usually the Apple Updates are mostly pointless anyway. One just came out tonight and it seems the only update is International Keyboard. I don't need it so I am in no hurry to update.

Also just make sure you get an unlimited data plan with your free phone. I use Media Max 200. If you buy a smart phone they try to charge you extra per month even though it is the same exact connection.
 
[quote name='hbkdinobot']The only drawback that I notice is that you can't install the Official Apple firmware updates right when the come out. Apple has been trying to block all the 3rd party apps with every update. It usually takes a week for the hacker community to figure out how to get the 3rd party apps back on with the new update, and then you can install the Apple Update. (It asks you if you want to update or not) Usually the Apple Updates are mostly pointless anyway. One just came out tonight and it seems the only update is International Keyboard. I don't need it so I am in no hurry to update.[/quote]

Ah ok, sounds good then. I was just worried that some features on the iPhone wouldn't work.

So you don't have to buy a 2-year contract with the phone? I always thought you did.
 
[quote name='hbkdinobot']The only drawback that I notice is that you can't install the Official Apple firmware updates right when the come out. Apple has been trying to block all the 3rd party apps with every update. It usually takes a week for the hacker community to figure out how to get the 3rd party apps back on with the new update, and then you can install the Apple Update. (It asks you if you want to update or not) Usually the Apple Updates are mostly pointless anyway. One just came out tonight and it seems the only update is International Keyboard. I don't need it so I am in no hurry to update.

Also just make sure you get an unlimited data plan with your free phone. I use Media Max 200. If you buy a smart phone they try to charge you extra per month even though it is the same exact connection.[/quote]
So with the Media Max 200... that would be the exact same unlimited data plan that's geared for smartphones?

What a rip. If I ended up going through the ATT store, and got a different smartphone, would they let me choose this option instead of the smartphone data plan?
 
[quote name='icedout297']So with the Media Max 200... that would be the exact same unlimited data plan that's geared for smartphones?

What a rip. If I ended up going through the ATT store, and got a different smartphone, would they let me choose this option instead of the smartphone data plan?[/quote]
Oh I forgot there is one feature that doesn't work... Visual Voicemail. I rarely have more than one voicemessage at a time so its useless to me. Other than that everything works.

You can just get an iphone 2 year contract and "jailbreak" it to get 3rd party apps. That is another option.

It is the same exact connection that all ATT data uses. If you buy a smart phone at the ATT store they will try to force you to get the smart phone data plan which is $10 more a month. They just charge more because they figure if you have a smart phone you will use more bandwith. You will see they have two different data plan sections. Data Plans and Smartphone Data Plans. They are exactly the same except for the price. Tricky I know.

I bought a smart phone on the internet store, and then added the Media Max plan online. I guess you can just not get any data plan and add it later online, unless they have figured out this loophole since I have done it. Also i'm not sure if it will work on a 3G phone since I haven't had a 3G phone yet.
 
My friend bought a Tilt just yesterday. He said it was pretty slick.

Though, when he called, reception wasn't very good. Dunno if that was his phone or not. I should know when I talk to him more.
 
Yeah. That's funny that you found the loophole. If I bought it in store, I'd pressure them into giving me the regular dataplan, if they said no then I'd just do it online or over the phone the next day.

Thank you guys. You have been very helpful.
 
[quote name='Rig']My friend bought a Tilt just yesterday. He said it was pretty slick.

Though, when he called, reception wasn't very good. Dunno if that was his phone or not. I should know when I talk to him more.[/quote]

Please update me! At another forum I visit, many people recommended the Tilt. I'm not sure about it though.
 
Hold out for a few more weeks...the Pearl II and blackjack II are coming to AT&T....the Pearl II will have wifi, but still no 3g support...
 
I have talked to my friend a few more times while he was using his Tilt, and quality was much better. I'm thinking the first time we talked was just bad signal.
 
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