Best Of The Newest Phones

Hi everyone:

I'm in the hunt for a new phone as my current one is just about two
years old (which is as long as I've been with Sprint). It's so old that
every time I close the flap on my Samsung N400, the phone shuts itself off.

I'm looking for a phone that...

* Isn't a flip phone (This is a MUST!!)
* Has Nextel Walkie-Talkie support
* PCS Vision
* Large Buttons (This is also MUST!!)
* Wireless Internet capability (i.e. Broadband)
* Comes with its own belt clip & cover (This is also a MUST!!)

NOT looking for a used phone. But am interested in reviews (pro and
con) on the latest phones so that I can make the right choice based on
other peoples' experience as well as my own needs.

Look forward to everyone's replies

Cheers for now

Pat Cook
Denver, Colorado

---

› See More: Best Of The Newest Phones

I don't think you can currently get a Sprint phone that has Nextel
walkie talkie support. You can get a Sprint phone that has sprint
walkie talkie support. Or a Nextel phone (but won't have Vision). In
the future there will be CDMA/IDEN combination phones.

Pat Cook wrote:
> * Isn't a flip phone (This is a MUST!!)
Personal perference...That's OK
> * Has Nextel Walkie-Talkie support
Nextel "like"...Most new Sprint phones have it.
Or true interoperbility with Nextel...Not available yet.
> * PCS Vision
The rules out a true Nextel phone.
> * Large Buttons (This is also MUST!!)
Large buttons or easy to use buttons? I've seen some Nokia and Motorola
phones with some pretty big (and not of uniform size) buttons that are
terrible to use.
> * Wireless Internet capability (i.e. Broadband)
I assume you mean teathered to a laptop.
Most Sprint phone can be used as a modem (Yeah, I know what the TOS
says), but figure on half the advertised 115K (?) advertised speed.
True broadband like as in 11 MBps or 54 MBps Wifi? Maybe next year.
> * Comes with its own belt clip & cover (This is also a MUST!!)
You can always go after-market.

Doesn't exist.
"Pat Cook" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hi everyone:
>
> I'm in the hunt for a new phone as my current one is just about two
> years old (which is as long as I've been with Sprint). It's so old that
> every time I close the flap on my Samsung N400, the phone shuts itself
off.
>
> I'm looking for a phone that...
>
> * Isn't a flip phone (This is a MUST!!)
> * Has Nextel Walkie-Talkie support
> * PCS Vision
> * Large Buttons (This is also MUST!!)
> * Wireless Internet capability (i.e. Broadband)
> * Comes with its own belt clip & cover (This is also a MUST!!)
>
> NOT looking for a used phone. But am interested in reviews (pro and
> con) on the latest phones so that I can make the right choice based on
> other peoples' experience as well as my own needs.
>
> Look forward to everyone's replies
>
> Cheers for now
>
> Pat Cook
> Denver, Colorado

Hi everyone:

DecTxCowboy wrote:
> Pat Cook wrote:
>> * Has Nextel Walkie-Talkie support
> Nextel "like"...Most new Sprint phones have it.
> Or true interoperbility with Nextel...Not available yet.

Yes I meant Nextel like.

>> * PCS Vision
> The rules out a true Nextel phone.

I doubt they even sell phones under the Nextel name now anyway, so I
don't think there is such a thing anymore unless you bought it before
the merger.

>> * Large Buttons (This is also MUST!!)
> Large buttons or easy to use buttons? I've seen some Nokia and Motorola
> phones with some pretty big (and not of uniform size) buttons that are
> terrible to use.

Naah. Just buttons that don't require a pointing device to use. My
N400 has an OK button with four arrows around it. I can't use that
button to surf the net with my phone (which can be done WITHOUT a laptop
I might add) with my big fingers. I need a phone that has like four
SEPERATE buttons for the arrows and another just for the OK feature (I
know there are a few Sprint phones with this or something similar out
there). They don't have to not be of uniform size.

>> * Wireless Internet capability (i.e. Broadband)
> I assume you mean teathered to a laptop.

Nope. See above.

> Most Sprint phone can be used as a modem (Yeah, I know what the TOS
> says), but figure on half the advertised 115K (?) advertised speed.
> True broadband like as in 11 MBps or 54 MBps Wifi? Maybe next year.

I don't even get 11 Mbps. here at home, so I'm not worried (Comcast caps
me at 4 Mbps. with my residential account).

>> * Comes with its own belt clip & cover (This is also a MUST!!)
> You can always go after-market.

Why do that when I can just look under ACCESSORIES when I make my purchase?

I'm afraid I'm a little stumped by your response Cowboy. Could you
please clarify?

Cheers for now

Pat Cook
Denver, Colorado

Pat Cook wrote:
> Why do that when I can just look under ACCESSORIES when I make my purchase?
>
> I'm afraid I'm a little stumped by your response Cowboy. Could you
> please clarify?

Sorry, I was assuming that whatever product you were looking at simply
didn't have the accessories you needed.

Sometimes after-market vendors may have something more suitable, i.e. a
belt clip that your belt slides though instead of clipping on to you
belt (a necessity if you work around cattle and horses) and with a
Velcro cover.

Or a yellow one if you wear a yellow suit like the Symantec anti-virus
guys wear in the commercials - ok, that's stretching common sense.

Good deal - you clarified what you are looking for...

>> Pat Cook wrote:
>>
>>> * Has Nextel Walkie-Talkie support

Any Sprint Ready-link phone will talk to another Ready-Link phone. you
covered there.

>>> * PCS Vision

That's easy to find in the phone description. No problem there.

>>> * Large Buttons (This is also MUST!!)

> Naah. Just buttons that don't require a pointing device to use. My
> N400 has an OK button with four arrows around it. I can't use that
> button to surf the net with my phone (which can be done WITHOUT a laptop
> I might add) with my big fingers. I need a phone that has like four
> SEPERATE buttons for the arrows and another just for the OK feature.

That's something you'll just have to find out with real hands on
experience at the store. Surfing the 'net to send email is a chore using
the telephone key format to compose text, my Blackberry's QWERTY
keyboard is great (even with gloves on). Surfing the 'net in general
from a handset is usually a disappointment - the screen is too small and
most sites simply don't render well enough to be useful. Of course the
sites that are optimized for handset viewing are all right.

>>> * Wireless Internet capability (i.e. Broadband)

Sorry...broadband to me means 20 MBps download speeds (Yes, my DSL does
that). Not counting 3G, you can expect 50 KBps to 115 KBps connection
speeds from you handset (when tethered to a laptop), but it will seem
like a dial up connection using the handset screen due to the slowness
of the phone's browser.

As for accessories, I covered that in a previous post a little bit ago.

DecTxCowboy wrote:
>>> Pat Cook wrote:
>>>> * Wireless Internet capability (i.e. Broadband)
>
> Sorry...broadband to me means 20 MBps download speeds (Yes, my DSL
> does that).

That's a rather unique definition of "broadband."

What is your uplink speed? (That's rhetorical, as I already know it
ain't 20 Mbps.) Assuming it's allowed by your ISP's TOS, you wouldn't
even be able to set up a Web/FTP server that meets your own definition
of "broadband," right?


> Not counting 3G, you can expect 50 KBps to 115 KBps
> connection speeds from you handset (when tethered to a laptop), but
> it will seem like a dial up connection using the handset screen due
> to the slowness of the phone's browser.
>

Yes, many handset browsers aren't speed-demons. But they have been
getting better, at least in my experience (and a 20 Mbps connection is
pointless).

BTW, "50 KBps" means 50 kilobytes-per-second. Capitalizing the "B" means
byte, not bit. I believe you meant 50 to 115 Kbps (if not, then you
meant 20 megabytes-per-second above, which is an even more absurd
definition of broadband).


--
Mike

Paul Miner wrote:
> Also, you said not counting 3G but then went on to list
> the typical speeds for a 3G connection....did you mean to say not
> counting EVDO?

Just commenting on 2.5G (or whatever Sprints calls it). 3G and EVDO not
deployed aruond here yet, so not commenting on that.

DecTxCowboy wrote:
> Sorry...broadband to me means 20 MBps download speeds (Yes, my DSL does
> that).

I'll make it simpler and just say "Meg"

T1 is 1.5 Meg up and down (symmetrical).
Typical DSL is 1.5 Meg down and .4 Meg up (asymmetrical).

Ok, are we on the same page now?
--------------------------------------------

I originally had Sprint's 3 Meg DSL and upgraded to 5 Meg a few months
ago. I'm only 1,000 feet from the C.O.

I now have four of the 5 Meg DSL lines bonded together for 20 Meg down
and 2.4 Meg up.

Test results from ONE of the DSL lines a few minutes ago - - -

Testing complete!
Your results are:

- Download speed: 5.049 Mbits/sec ( 95 times faster than a 56k modem )
- Upload speed: 612.000 Kbits/sec ( 18 times faster than a 56k modem )

Total monthly cost is under $200 a month. Commercial TOS allows full
FTP and HTTP servers and resell of bandwidth.

Now *THAT* is a BROADBAND connection by anyone's definition.

"DecTxCowboy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:yoZ%[email protected]...
> Paul Miner wrote:
>> Also, you said not counting 3G but then went on to list
>> the typical speeds for a 3G connection....did you mean to say not
>> counting EVDO?
>
> Just commenting on 2.5G (or whatever Sprints calls it). 3G and EVDO not
> deployed aruond here yet, so not commenting on that.

The Sprint coverage map shows what looks like DFW airport with EVDO.

In the meantime, I've used the Verizon EVDO in several areas of DFW; it's
nice, but Verizon data doesn't recognize OK, AR and half of NM. At $60/mon,
I would consider dropping Charter Cable modem as an ISP, maybe in combo with
DirectTV for video.

I just settled in with Vonage for long distance and international calling.
That's working better than expected.

Friends with Verizon fiber to the house are rethinking the entire packages
of communications.

On Sun, 02 Oct 2005 22:45:06 GMT, DecTxCowboy wrote:

> DecTxCowboy wrote:
>> Sorry...broadband to me means 20 MBps download speeds (Yes, my DSL does
>> that).
>
> I'll make it simpler and just say "Meg"
>
> T1 is 1.5 Meg up and down (symmetrical).
> Typical DSL is 1.5 Meg down and .4 Meg up (asymmetrical).
>
> Ok, are we on the same page now?
> --------------------------------------------
>
> I originally had Sprint's 3 Meg DSL and upgraded to 5 Meg a few months
> ago. I'm only 1,000 feet from the C.O.
>
> I now have four of the 5 Meg DSL lines bonded together for 20 Meg down
> and 2.4 Meg up.
>
> Test results from ONE of the DSL lines a few minutes ago - - -
>
> Testing complete!
> Your results are:
>
> - Download speed: 5.049 Mbits/sec ( 95 times faster than a 56k modem )
> - Upload speed: 612.000 Kbits/sec ( 18 times faster than a 56k modem )
>
> Total monthly cost is under $200 a month. Commercial TOS allows full
> FTP and HTTP servers and resell of bandwidth.
>
> Now *THAT* is a BROADBAND connection by anyone's definition.

Are you sure the 4 lines are bonded? It looks like you tested the bandwidth
of one line based on the results.

Brad H

>>DecTxCowboy wrote:
>>Test results from ONE of the DSL lines a few minutes ago - - -

Brad Houser wrote:
> Are you sure the 4 lines are bonded? It looks like you tested the bandwidth
> of one line based on the results.
>
> Brad H