Help me find a new phone! [ASK MR. NOOBIE]
QUESTION: I’m a US Cellular customer and will be changing my current phone this fall. I HATE IT and want to be sure I pick a good one this time. I have the Samsung SM Caliber touch phone. My husband has a Blackberry and I’m thinking of getting that instead. Could you give me any suggestions? I’d change phone companies too but, so far, I can’t find one that isn’t more expensive. We currently have a national family plan with internet & texting. – Nancy M.
ANSWER: I’m sorry to hear you hate your phone. Mobile phones are such an integral part of our lives these days, it’s a shame when you end up with (or get sold on) one you don’t like.
I’d be curious to know what specifically you don’t like about the Samsung Caliber. That would definitely help me suggest a better alternative. But I’ll try to offer some good suggestions even without this information.
You mentioned you would consider changing carriers so I would tackle that issue first since so many phones now are specific to their carriers. My personal favorite for reliability is Verizon Wireless. Based on what you said they may not be cheaper than your current plan with US Cellular so you might want to do a little comparison shopping on both of their plans first.
Verizon Wireless selection
If you end up going with Verizon Wireless I would recommend the HTC Droid Incredible 2, the Samsung Fascinate or the iPhone 4 if you only care about 3G access. If 4G is important to you, your only real choices at this point are the HTC Thunderbolt, the Samsung Droid Charge or the LG Revolution, all which have their pluses and minuses.
US Cellular selection
Unfortunately, I’m not as familiar with US Cellular’s selection of phones, but I did glance at their web site to see what is available. At first glance, I would filter the selection down to either an Android-based phone or a Blackberry. Right now, Android is the hottest selling line of phones, followed by the iPhone and then the Blackberry.
My own personal opinion is that I seem to like the HTC phones the best, with LG and Samsung being a close second. Although this won’t help narrow down your list much. So next I would compare processor speeds, how good the camera and video is and whether or not it has HDMI and/or MicroSD support. If only some (or none) of these are important to you then I would fall back to which one feels the best in your hand and seems the easiest to use.
If you decide to go the Blackberry route, it’s probably a toss-up between the Blackberry Bold and the Blackberry Curve but the Bold seems to be getting the better ratings/reviews.
Good luck and I hope you find a phone that you will be happy with for years to come.
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