Help a mobile phone idiot

In My Humble Opinion
1

My father wants to replace his mobile phone, possibly the phone AND the system. He currently uses Nextel and has a Motorola i730. He uses this phone heavily for business, but has trouble with both dropped calls and missed calls. When he isn’t on the phone he sets it to vibrate. He swears that the phone turns itself off or changes it’s own settings (he’s 71 today, so this may or may not be true – could as easily be that he doesn’t know how to work it properly).

He needs:

  1. A reliable system/network with good reception throughout Florida, particularly in the major metro areas.
  2. Good reception on the phone.
  3. Easy to use (I added this one).
  4. Holds many phone numbers.

He’d like:

  1. Something that can interface with his PDA (or could become a PDA?). He uses ACT software to manage his client list.

He should probably avoid:

  1. Anything too cutting edge or new, as he has trouble in a “feature rich” environment.
  2. Something that is super small or otherwise easy to lose.

Also, what else should he possibly consider as important factors?

2

For the first two options: Thinking about it, I can’t attest to the networks over in FL as I’m all the way over in WA state. #3 is more subjective, though…

Since you stipulate that you want something that can interface with a PDA, would it help if the device was a Windows Mobile-based Smartphone? I know that you asked for something not too new/feature rich, but given #5, this is what comes to mind. Basically, Smartphones run on Windows Mobile, and pretty much are a phone + PDA functionality. A quick search seems to indicate that your father could transfer the client list information over to the smartphone relatively easily with a third party app, although I’m not an expert by any means. Figure they can hold a lot of contacts.

Overall, in general, I would suggest taking a trip to the local mobile carrier store with your dad and asking him to give the floor models (not necessarily smartphones only) a go to see if they get along.

3

I have to admit, I get a bit squeamish about doing this. Mainly because the number of mobile carrier stores around here seemed to be outnumbered only by Starbucks. Are they all basically the same, or are some “unaffiliated”? Which kind of goes back to my Network question (where are the Florida folks when you need them?)

Thanks for answering, and I’ll check the smartphone option.

4

I’ve seen T-Mobile and Cingular stores out here for the most part. Although you can get phones from places like Best Buy that have phones associated with a bunch of different carriers, which is what I’m assuming you meant by unaffiliated (ie, less of an investment into pushing you toward a specific carrier). :confused:

Sorry I can’t be of more help with the question about reliable network areas in FL – it might help though if we had a more specific location for your father. My phone’s T-Mobile, right, and works great up here, but when I visited the Bay Area it was pretty much a brick. :frowning:

5

I’ve personally used AT&T (now part of Cingular but I was just AT&T), Sprint and T-Mobile (current carrier). My work also makes me use a Nextel phone as a chirper.

Of all of them so far my best experience is with T-Mobile. YMMV of course.

T-Mobile has a very detailed web site that specifies signal strength down to a neighborhood level. http://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/Default.asp

Cingular has maps that show coverage but are far less detailed. http://onlinestorez.cingular.com/cell-phone-service/maps/pop_mapfinder.jsp

I suppose if you look at others you will find maps as well. Note that while you will see many uncovered areas I was told by a Sprint guy (when I mentioned it) that they cover something like 98% of the population of the United States. I may have the exact percentage wrong but it was high and the point being you generally have to be in the boonies to get no signal.

Best thing you can do is ask people in the areas you visit most often what their experiences are. For instance in Chicago there is a notorious deadzone on Lake Shore Drive that I asked others about and found it wasn’t just me.

Here is a link to T-Mobile’s PDA lineup. http://www.t-mobile.com/products/default.asp?class=pda

Here is a link to Cingular phones: http://onlinestorez.cingular.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phones/cell-phones.jsp?q_categoryId=1717200031&q_addAnotherPhone=false

You will need to look into which support Act! (be very specific on that requirement to make sure).

That said if your dad has issues with hi-tech stuff a PDA/Cell phone combo is likely to drive him nuts. By definition those PDA phones are feature rich. Not to mention I have found from my parents their manual dexterity is not so good for mashing tiny keyboard buttons (not to mention eyesight squinting at small handheld screens).

I will say avoid the Motorola Razr. I have one and while it is sexy looking showing it to my parents I found it was not good for them at all. It’s flat design, non-raised keypad made it difficult for them to handle well.

Best idea is to visit a store (any store) and let him handle a few and see if one seems to work well. Often phones can be used with different providers so once you find a phone you like find out which cell companies support it (there are differences as Sprint uses a different broadcast technology than Cingular).

If your dad travels to other countries know that you need to get an international capable phone if he wants to use it there.