vB Easy Archive - Which Phone???

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Which Phone???
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Posted by: redleader

I’m posting this here because I really couldn’t find a good website that helps you pick a phone based on features. I couldn’t find such a tool on this site either. So basically I’ve got an old Nokia 6200 that is coming close to the end of its useful life. Its been dropped, kicked, stepped on, and thrown more times than I can count and amazingly, it still works fine (I’ve actually noticed this with all the other nokias I’ve ever had…very durable). Lately the screen has been flickering on and off and doing strange things, so I’m guessing I’ve punished it a little too much over the years. So both this, and the fact that I’m the laughing stock of my office for having such a prehistoric phone (they’re all young mid-20’s kids that have nothing but the latest in cell technology), has prompted me to look for a new phone. I figured, since I haven’t had a new phone in such a long time, I might as well go all out. Here are my requirements:

1. I’m partial to Nokia, but other brands will do if I can’t find a Nokia with the features I want.
2. Must be compatible with MS Outlook (so I can use it as my PDA and sync it with the outlook on my PC, which, btw, runs Vista!). I’m not sure if this takes me out of the cell phone market and into the “smart phone” market.
3. Must be function on all the latest frequencies, including the odd ball ”WCDMA 2100” found in Japan.
4. Size is an issue as I don’t’ want a big bulky blackberry sized phone.

I’ve looked around and it looks like features 2 & 3 are really hard to find in one phone.

Posted by: DubDub

Your item #3 will be the toughest to meet. I am not aware of any US phones that can do that right now.

And WM or BB smartphone can meet #2

Posted by: mrweiser

Nokia is a great first choice, but unfortunately they do not offer a phone with all of the WCDMA bands. Almost all of the current phones are able to sync with Outlook. The smartphones offer a few more options than the "dumbphones", but most will sync contacts, calendars, and tasks. The first one that comes to mind with all of your criteria is the Sony Ericsson K850i. You will read alot about bugs and problems with the phone, but 98% of those issues have been resolved. I own one and have none of the problems that I've read about. Somebody else may be able to offer more suggestions, but currently that is the only one that I know of. The Z750i also offers all of the WCDMA frequencies and is less expensive, but it is also missing alot of the features of the latter.

Posted by: redleader

Great suggestions so far. I did a little poking around on my own and found this one from Nokia:

http://www.nokiausa.com/A4686018

http://www.nokiausa.com/link?cid=EDITORIAL_217373

It seems like both of these offer my 3rd criteria, but I'm not sure if I understand all the specs correctly.

I should add though, that I'm a current AT&T customer and had planned on buying an unlocked "non-plan" unit and just putting in my current SIM chip. Not sure if that'll work. But pretty sure that AT&T doesn't offer any of these phones with any of their plans.

Posted by: DubDub

The problem with that is there will be NO support for it if you have issues getting set up or down the road. Not a big deal if you know what you are doing however.