My brother’s niece biffed my Treo today, so I think I have to get a new one. I don’t use the email or the internet on it, but I like the idea of a good camera and video capture, good calendar/notifications, good reception, maybe a physical keyboard, maybe gps directions. Oh, a nice calculator would be really nice. I’ve noticed the Droid, the Omnia and Omnia II. These do all these things and lot more, so I wonder if I’m overpaying there. There are so many phones on the Verizon site that it’s hard to compare, because it only lets you compare three phones at a time.
Anyone got personal information and recommendations?
I can’t help you. The only thing I wanted beyond basic phone service was a decent calendar. To get that, I had to get a phone with a data plan ($30/month), so the cost of the phone was almost irrelevant. I got a Droid. It is just fantastic. Seamless syncing with Google Calendar gives me everything I wanted and more, but the rest of the functionality is spectacular.
And the screen is better than any screen I’ve ever dreamed about.
If you get a phone that can use wifi to get on the net, is it possible to turn that off? This would not be a phone that I would leave around kids if it can get on the web unfiltered.
I recently got a Droid, and I’m really, really enjoying it. I still have a few things to learn but I’m very happy with it.
As you apparently already know, it does require Verizon’s $30/month data plan. However, it does come with Google Maps, and VZ Navigator isn’t even available, so you’re saving the $10/month you might have spent on Navigator with another phone. I’ve used the Google Maps setup with built in GPS a few times, and it’s on par with a regular automotive GPS, except that it won’t work while you’re talking on the phone.
For a non-smartphone, I was very happy with my LG Dare. It’s all touch-screen, though. There’s another LG phone that has pretty much everything the Dare does, a slightly different price, but has a regular keyboard and is a little thicker…I just forget the name of it.
If you go into a real Verizon store (not some mall store that sells various phones), all the phones are working, you can try them out, the people are generally knowledgable, and pricing seems to be about the same as in the non-Verizon stores anyway.
I have the BB Storm and love it. I purchased Garmins solution for GPS. One time fee of about $100. No need for navigator. It is a VERY good GPS system. Just saying, I also have Google Maps, and it can rarely find me within about 4-5 miles. I wonder, I may not have it hooked up to the internal GPS, and it’s using cell towers.
I have spent all week trying to get the Calendar to work half as well as the Palm did out of the box. There is no functioning Task list. While I can get Tasks to work semi-adequately on Google, the Tasks do not sync with the Droid, so a) you need internet access to get to them (i.e., totally useless on cross-continental plane flights) and b) the Mobile version of the Task website does not even sync with the regular website version! I have added “Laundry” to the task list from the Droid twice and it keeps getting deleted. Is the Droid doing my laundry? I think not.
I wanted the Palm Pre. I knew in my heart it was the one for me. But I was seduced by the sexy robot voice, and the turn-by-turn GPS…
That’s the problem with Android. It was written by scatterbrained free spirits who like to eat free food, roller skate around the Google campus, and play with their dogs in the office and who would spontaneously combust if they ever had to be even slightly organized, and they can’t imagine how the efficient, organized people of the world operate.
Whew. That was quite a rant. I need to put the Droid down and walk away…