Cellphone buying tips?

[James]

I've been looking around at some of the local service providers (Fido, Telus, Rogers, Bell South) and having a glance at some of the cellphones out there. I think I may want to buy one, but am not sure that I'll be using it terribly much.

Any tips/suggestions about a) Providers b) Plans c) Cell phones?

[John]

If you don't need one for business don't get one. They are a pain in they ***.

[masm50]

Well obviously our plans are rather different here in the UK, but I've got a Sony-Ericsson W800i (Walkman phone), and it's great. 2megapixel camera, 512mb memory (can sync it with iTunes with the use of a nifty tool called iTunes Agent), and good earphones.

It also syncs with Outlook out of the box, which is useful for a basically non-business phone.

That's my recommendation anyway,

Tim

[KLB]

I was digging around about cell phones and stuff the other day and found a few good websites. The first is http://www.motomodders.net/ which is primarily about moding Motorola cell phones but posts frequently have good links to other web sites.

Another website I found that was really useful was http://www.phonescoop.com/

[Westech]

www.howardforums.com is another site with a ton of good info.

[Cutter]

If you don't plan on using it that much then may be you should go pre-paid. If you end up using it a bunch you'll get killed, but if not you will save a lot of money and won't get locked into some crazy 2 year plan.

[r2d2]

How many people (rough percentage) have 'cellphones' in the US/canada? Here in the UK I don't know anyone who doesnt have one - has been that way for a few years.

[chromate]

I was wondering the same thing. I just assumed it was a similar situation in the US.

I recently got the Sony-Ericsson W800i too. Very impressed with it. Doubt I'll need another phone for a long time now.

[r2d2]

Being so sparse, I thought coverage wasn't great in North America, and that was why they aren't used so much. In the UK you get decent signal almost everywhere.

[MarkB]

Is the W800i a smartphone? I'm yet to find the perfect phone for me - had a Nokia 6230 for a year or so (bought new), then got an Orange SPV300 from work (tho I use it with O2), and while i like it, it's camera is seriously wanting. Basically want something with a decent camera, good smartphone features, and has nice-sized keys. I don't ask for much :D

[KLB]

Being so sparse, I thought coverage wasn't great in North America, and that was why they aren't used so much. In the UK you get decent signal almost everywhere.
It all depends upon where you are. For the most part, where people live coverage is just fine. Yes parts of the U.S. is sparcely populated and obviously where people don't live there isn't very good coverage, but if people aren't there it really doesn't matter. New cell towers are constantly being built so even in rural areas, cell coverage is rapidly improving.

[r2d2]

Ok, cool. What kind of percentage of people would you say have a mobile? Do you know anyone (>10yr old, and <70) who doesnt have one?

[KLB]

I don't know what percentage of people have cell phones, but just about everyone I know has one. Well except for my grandma, I think she'd still be using a rotary phone if she could. Then again she also refused to get a clothes drier, dishwasher, microwave, etc.

For my wife and myself, we each have a cell phone and we have two land lines into our house (both VoIP).

[James]

About 80% of my friends do (but the others want to have one), but neither my parents, nor siblings have them.

Thanks for the links and advice guys. Any ideas on cheap (below $300 preferably) phones, and ways to get the cheapest plan/cards (I realize that I won't be able to get the same plan as most of you, but I'm sure there are some similar things in cross-national companies that may help get a bit better pricing than 15+ cents a minute)?

[KLB]

With any contract offered by cell phone companies you should be able to get really good cell phones for less than $150 and good cell phones for less than $100. I just picked up a Motorola Razr V3 for $90 when I signed a new two year contract with the cell phone provider I have been using (a regional provider). Since I still had at least a year left on my old contract it wasn't a big deal to me.

Some cell phone companies will give away pretty decent cell phones for free with the signing of a contract. What is most important is to look at what you do and do not get with your cell phone plan, how much overages cost and how well the plan will fit your real usage habits. Over a period of a couple of years, the cell phone itself can be the cheapest part of the equasion.