Ok. Time has come to retire this old Nokia. I'm gonna move up to a smartphone of some kind, and I need some help with this decision. I know a lot of you folks have phones that rival Supercomputers of 10 years ago, and some of you are deeply entrenched in the ways, plans and devices of the cellular phone industry.

I'm month-to-month on AT&T right now, so I can switch carriers if needed. What I need as far as phones go is a basic, BASIC smart phone. I'd like one with a full querty keyboard if possible, bluetooth, micro-SD (or something similar) expansion, and the ability to act as an MP3 player. I know that's not a very "unique" set of requirements. The thing has to be tough too. Brad's little princess Pre broke after a couple weeks. I don't need anything like that.

What I don't want is to have to subscribe to a data plan, and I don't want to pay much for this thing. I'd like to get it used in great shape or refurb'ed if possible.

What I'm mostly looking for is insight, rather than to BUY a phone immediately--altho I'm not opposed to buying one if it suits my needs.

Discuss.

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2008 Honda CBR1000RR
Them that don't know him won't like him, and them that do sometimes won't know how to take him.
-Ed/Patsy Bruce

No data plan and smartphone are pretty much contradictory unfortunately. You can get one with no data plan but you will easily spend more than the $30 for the plan in one month if you pay for Kb / use (some even stick you with a $1 per use fee + whatever data you use). $30 seems to be the going rate for unlimited data for all the carriers.

Durable is not really a problem as long as you don't mind getting a case. Otterbox makes cases for just about any phone. Water-resistent-proof-ish and they bounce

HTC is probably the way to go if you want a slide out keyboard. I had an HTC with a full keyboard that I really liked and the phone was really solid. I was certain I would hate the iPhone keyboard but I will never go back to buttons now that I have used the on screen keyboard. So far, the iPhone has been the most durable phone I have had since the Nextel i550

Remember those?

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I'm never really comfortable, or completely awake, around people who are unacquainted with the invigorating joys of mild panic ~ Peter Egan

LG ENV 3 or a an ENV2

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/stor ... oneId=4786

My wife has an ENV2, it is bulletproof, she has dropped it into water troughs, dropped from 10 ft up, stepped on it, left it in the rain, and the damn thing keeps working. No need for Data plan, it is a texting machine, all your other requirements.

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Riding my way to sanity!

As jwlex said if you are going to use a smart phone for any type of browsing then it would be cheaper to just get the data plan. The one exception are the phones with Wifi and just use browsing when you are in wifi range. The only wifi phones I know of are the iphone, nexus one ( which you can buy out right ) , and the upcoming HTC Supersonic. I am sure there are alot more wifi phones out there, but those are the 3 I know about.

The one way to get a smart phone with out the data plan is to buy an unlocked phone and add it to your plan. This will cost alot more for the phone, the unlocked iphone goes for around $850 and the unlocked nexus one is $529.

I am waiting for the Supersonic, it is suppose to be on Sprints 4g network and sprint's plan seems like a better deal to me, 450 minutes, unlimited text / data / e-mail for $69/month

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2008 Suzuki Hayabusa
2010 Kawasaki Z1000

Maybe look at the touch pro 2 *Tilt 2*

HTC makes the best Windows Mobile, But also i know Androids new stuff is super fast.

I would wait for the Android Milstone. Which is AT&T's version of the droid.

It was also rated top gadget of the year, over the iPhone.

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www.kytwisted.com

iphone, I fought the thought of having to pay a data package(for months I just couldn't justife the data package), got it hated it untill I jailbroke it, best phone I have ever had

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pink taco rider since 1908

i have the LG ENV touch with verizon.

full keyboard AND touch QWERTY keys, mp3, bluetooth, mini sd (which is the one smaller than micro but it always comes with an expansion chip), no data plan required, internet capable via the 3G network, access to webmail. you can have your workplace IT set it up for outlook but the mailbox isn't all that big, i've heard. i'm hourly so there's no way i am going to get it delivered to my phone anyway. but i can access all my outlook express accounts by web using the phone.

it does not have wifi access but so far i haven't had a problem with that. my crackberry had wifi and honestly, 3G has run much better for me every time.

i get unlimited text, picture, data, nights and weekends, and i pay about $70 a month, but that is with a 15% UK discount. in order to get unlimited data you have to subscribe to a certain set of calling plans, but it is not a separate data plan.

i'm not advocating my phone but so far i'm pretty happy with it. most of my students have the LG ENV phones with the slide out keyboard, mine flips open and has the extra screen on the inside. you'e welcome to "tour" it when you see me again.

EDIT: it's stood up pretty well. i carry it around in huge purses and backpacks, i've dropped it and sent it across the floor a few times. the screen seems to be pretty tough. i'm hard on my phones, but i think it takes more to kill them than average wear and tear.

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the jen

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

I'm not interested in the data plan, simply because I don't want to use the phone to browse as much as I want it to get to my gmail so I can send and receive emails. My office blocks gmail, and any other external email service, so I just need a way to get at it. That's why I want the querty keyboard.

How is Verizon's coverage these days? Years ago, our secretary had Verizon and she said their coverage was terrible. Plus there's those convincing Map commercials going on between AT&T and Verizon right now. I'm pretty easily swayed by a clever ad campaign. Anyone have it and have any insight about it?

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2008 Honda CBR1000RR
Them that don't know him won't like him, and them that do sometimes won't know how to take him.
-Ed/Patsy Bruce

i've always had verizon. i have lost signal in only 3 places: deal's gap, the middle of cave run lake (in a boat), and the BLM backwoods in central montana.

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the jen

What you want is a feature phone, not a smart phone. You can't even buy a smart phone without a data plan on most carriers, as in they won't even sell it to you without that. This rules out anything that is an iThing, Android, Windows Mobile, WebOS (Palm Pre/Pixi) or Blackberry.

Feature phones, or 3G Multimedia Phones as Verizon calls them, are phones that don't "just make calls" but also aren't quite smart phones. In general they are phones geared toward texters but may also have an HTML browser, but not much else, and definitely no App For That market/catalog/store. Also what you will quickly find is that the trend is to require a basic data plan even on feature phones. Maybe 250 MB for $14.99 a month. Or a mobile web plan for $5 a month, or some sort of $ per MB Or something similar. I haven't kept up with it lately but you aren't going to get away without paying something in order to be able to access data, however limited it may be.

These aren't endorsements, just information on the type of phones I think you are wanting
These are all on Verizon, I am not as familiar with other carrier's phones, but I am sure they carry some variation of most of these
LG ENV 3 or ENV Touch, Samsung Rogue, LG Chocolate Touch, Motorola Rival

And whoever told you Verizon has bad coverage may live in a cave, because that is one of the few places Verizon doesn't have service. They have the best network in America by far and its not even close. I have traveled all over the US with a Verizon phone over the last 10 years and it is drop dead reliable. I would feel guilty recommending any other carrier if you want a reliable cell phone everywhere you go.

Edit: removal of personal attacks on people I don't know, even though they hate Verizon

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2003 SV650 naked

My cell phone history is pretty mundane..

I've had verizon and cingular/at&t. They're about the same to me. Verizon may have improved their coverage since I switched to AT&T about 4 years ago. I liked Verizon's customer service better but I liked AT&T's selection of smart phones better.

for smart phones, I started with an HTC 8125 and then moved to 8525 (Tilt) and I liked them okay. They were fairly durable (I've never dropped a phone in the water... and there's my jinx). The 8525 started chipping down little plastic trim pieces after it was a year old.. The phones functioned well and I enjoyed the tactile feedback of the keys, BUT the keys were tiny. (probably smaller than the iphone keyboard). I didn't like the touchscreen interface a whole lot. It fed off pressure and not capacitance.
I've had to iPhones. The first was an 8g first gen and it was great. It was durable and I had no issues.
Now I've got a 16g 3gs and it's also great and I've had no issues with durability. I have it in a leather clip case. I WOULD recommend the otterbox for any phone you choose if you tend to be hard on phones... I paid 200 bux for my iphone and I'm WELL aware of where it is at all times. I spend about $100 a month for a decent talk/text and unlimited data plan. I with with a pretty high talk plan because it's my primary phone. I only have a green line at home for my DSL.
Coverage on my iPhone is really good EXCEPT when I'm on the edge of 3g coverage... in that 'fringe' area where it doesn't know whether it wants to be on edge or 3g, my internet almost freezes... if I'm traveling, that's no huge deal but if I'm at the studio or the shop or at someone's house and I'm trying to navigate/surf/research/whatever, it's maddening. I'm hoping there's a fix for that soon... it didn't use to be this bad...

that's my .02

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"It makes me sad that women will never know the joys of Urinal Cakes."

It sounds to me like you need a texting phone that has basic internet access.

At least with att the problem is basically the iphone. There isn't enough tower capacity to handle the usage so they just overload. It keeps getting worse too.

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Life's short. Eat more bacon.

I say cricket 25 a month unlimited talk and text

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pink taco rider since 1908

Good price but coverage is yet to exist

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www.kytwisted.com

Yeah, I went and talked to a Cricket sales guy just to see what was up with the service. It's been a year ago, but I wasn't impressed enough to switch from my regular AT&T service for it.

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2008 Honda CBR1000RR
Them that don't know him won't like him, and them that do sometimes won't know how to take him.
-Ed/Patsy Bruce

I guess my question is: If you can already access your Gmail from your current Nokia and you don't want to pay for a smartphone data plan.... why do you want a smartphone?

If it aint broke..

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I'm never really comfortable, or completely awake, around people who are unacquainted with the invigorating joys of mild panic ~ Peter Egan

StraightTalk (by Tracfone) sold at Wal-Mart is the best deal I have found.

+ $45 for 30 days (prepaid) for unlimited talk / text / data
+ Supposedly uses Verizon's network
+ No Contract

- Phone selection / price

http://www.straighttalk.com/ServicePlans

-Doug

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Sometimes sh** does not work out the way you planned it.

I don't know when the last time was that you wrote an email using T9 or multi-click on a numeric-only key pad.... Let me remind you tho, it sucks.

After brad's response, I guess I'm looking for a 3G Multimedia phone. Really I'm mostly after the qwerty keyboard.

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2008 Honda CBR1000RR
Them that don't know him won't like him, and them that do sometimes won't know how to take him.
-Ed/Patsy Bruce

http://cgi.ebay.com/Nokia-Surge-AT-T-S6 ... 45f0d01441

And stay with ATT you would rather be month to month than in a lame contract.

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Riding my way to sanity!

Yup. Forgot about that. Carry on.

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I'm never really comfortable, or completely awake, around people who are unacquainted with the invigorating joys of mild panic ~ Peter Egan

Since your aim is mostly email instead of web browsing i would highly suggest a blackberry bold 2 or blackberry tour.

Either way your going to have to get a data plan with a smart phone unless you buy it with/out the contract or cancel the data plan after a month.

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www.kytwisted.com

Ended up getting an LG Neon in black. No data plan. It's a GoPhone with my regular SIM in it, just like the last 3 or 4 phones I've had. The querty keyboard isn't as easy as I would have expected, but the browser is more robust than on my previous phone.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions!

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2008 Honda CBR1000RR
Them that don't know him won't like him, and them that do sometimes won't know how to take him.
-Ed/Patsy Bruce