smart phones- I need suggestions!

I'm buying a phone for myself and I'm soo confused about what kind to get. It's about time I got a smart phone, but the problem is, I don't know which one is the best option. I'd love an iphone but I'm not with AT&T, in fact I am not on a contract, and I am buying the phone on ebay...it kind of sucks that I have to pay $200+ for the same phones they offer for free with a contract and I really don't want to spend too much more than that.

Here are ones I'm looking at
Motorolla cliq

Samsung behold 2

And then the big question is, is this a scam?? A smart phone that looks identical to the iphone for $30?? Okay, it's probably a scam but I just had to ask, and if anyone has any idea, what is the catch??

I'd really appreciate any advice.

I was kind of looking at the iphone knock offs today and I dont know that I would trust them... Not sure though. I have ATT and am actually looking into a used iphone at the moment or at least a smart phone! Gotta love all the options huh?
The Beau came home with a Droid X last night. While its an awesome phone (And I do mean AWESOME) its giant! Its like the size of a poptart.... and no I'm not kidding...
Instead of ebay you may want to try craigslist! I have found a bunch of nice used smart phones for sell on there, it just depends on the provider and I've also seen a lot of take over my contract kinda stuff. I am leaning towards an Iphone or an HTC Aria

i like my iPhone. i got an Apple-reconditioned one for $100 [new ones were $200] & then bought an extended warranty from Apple directly [ATT only offered a 30-day warranty].

I dont know anything about the two that you are looking at but at this current moment Id stay away from BlackBerrys. I LOVED my phone and then all of a sudden I was ending up with all these apps on my phone that I cant delete, half the time my track ball wont work and it randomly disconnects itself from the internet. Im going to smash the darn thing before I get a new phone next summer. I plan on going with a Droid phone next year, their internet is faster and there havent been as many problems with them as the BBs have been coming out with now. It seems like the quality in BB has gone so far downhill!

Dont forget to add your data package into your bill, Im not saying you dont already know about it but sometimes people forget that with a smart phone you are required by most companies to have a certain data package even on prepaid accounts. Mine is thru Verizon so its like $30 extra on my plan.

I have a Motorola Droid (typing on it right now!), and I love it. I don't know if it's one of your choices, but for regular smartphone users ( not techheads who want THE latest thing), it's a great phone.

Originally Posted by 3CatsN1Dog

I dont know anything about the two that you are looking at but at this current moment Id stay away from BlackBerrys. I LOVED my phone and then all of a sudden I was ending up with all these apps on my phone that I cant delete, half the time my track ball wont work and it randomly disconnects itself from the internet. Im going to smash the darn thing before I get a new phone next summer. I plan on going with a Droid phone next year, their internet is faster and there havent been as many problems with them as the BBs have been coming out with now. It seems like the quality in BB has gone so far downhill!

Dont forget to add your data package into your bill, Im not saying you dont already know about it but sometimes people forget that with a smart phone you are required by most companies to have a certain data package even on prepaid accounts. Mine is thru Verizon so its like $30 extra on my plan.

Click to expand...

I still <3 my BlackBerry, even though I'm awaiting a replacement in the mail today for my Tour. I had the same issue with my Pearl, which stopped working in January (unrelated). The little unread message icon WILL NOT go away! It randomly popped up one day and I cant get rid of it. Argh. So after the Verizon guy tried to sell me an ugly Droid X for 10 minutes before even finding out why I was there, they decided to send me a replacement. I LOVE my track ball and hate the new pad on the Curves. Haven't had any problems with it except that message icon, & it's been lagging a little on notifications lately, need to ask my Verizon friend what is up with that.

I may get an HTC phone once my new every 2 comes up [whenever that'll be]. The next upgrade date is in November but I'm going to let hubby use that one since he has a 3 year old Motorola flip phone (and I stole his last upgrade for the Tour). He loves it, he can smash it on the ground and put it back together and it works fine. But he says he may look into the Convoy or something.

I'm curious about blackberries: how good are they for internet browsing, I'd like to get on TCS, facebook, twitter etc..
I know blackberries are good for email but I need more than that which is why I've chosen to stay away from them...

I honestly still love my BB for the basic nessecities. Sometimes depending on which BB you get (Id stay away from the Curve and go with a Bold or Tour) the net is great. Mine isnt so hot on the phone even for something as basic as TCS or GRF another forum I get on. I have the version of the Curve that was the last one to have a trackball. I prefer the trackball to the ones without but basically everyone I know who has a Curve or has had one is having a lot of problems with them, especially internet service wise.

Ive heard a ton of good things about the Tour, Bold and the Storm2 (stay away from the Storm1). If you can, go to whoever you get cell service from (like the mall store or whereever) and talk to their tech people about which phone would work best for what you plan on using the phone for. They would be able to give you the best choices and you still wont have to buy the phone from them.

I am a texter, I probably use maybe 15 minutes of talking time each month thats about it but my texts (thank heavens for unlimited texting haha) Woooooooo they are thru the roof! I am not a huge touch screen fan, I used the Voyager for a little bit and didnt like it. Ive seen some of the new touch screens out there and they seem a lot better so I might go with a Droid Incredible next summer or whatever is the newer version by then. I use the tethering package with my internet so I can get high speed internet at home, its an extra 30 bucks but worth it. The only net I can get at my house is dial up, or HughesNet which is like 60 bucks a mth for the crappy speed let alone all the extras you have to pay for. No thanks Ill pay the extra 30 and still have my portable internet.

Anyhoo If I were you Id go talk to your providers tech people, they can really tell you whats up with the phones better than anyone else. Especially with the service you are getting, stuff like internet etc shouldnt vary between prepaid or a plan but some providers are sneaky about that whole 3G coverage stuff. I noticed that they is a huge difference between the BB I got and the new ones that came out. Supposidly mine is 3G, but I found out that if you have the 'real' 3G it will actually show up on your phone where it says the 1x, or EV, or EVDO. Sneaky little boogers so while my phone is technically a 3G phone it really isnt in their technical sneakyness ways.

Droid! Love my new Droid!!

Originally Posted by capt_jordi

The Beau came home with a Droid X last night. While its an awesome phone (And I do mean AWESOME) its giant! Its like the size of a poptart.... and no I'm not kidding...

Click to expand...

I have had the Droid X for just a few days. Too bad absolutely no instructions came with the device so I am just having fun figuring out everything for my self. My BIL has the i4 but he admits the Droid X is more fancy, and when Android 2.2 is available, it will be up to five times as fast according to the reviews. My contract was up with Verizon and they were supposed to get the i4 but decided on the Droid X as I did after I read all the comparisons on the net. For me, being giant is the big plus since I have giant hands.

Originally Posted by 3CatsN1Dog

Ive heard a ton of good things about the Tour, Bold and the Storm2 (stay away from the Storm1).

Click to expand...

Whats wrong with the storm? I have it (I took my husbands old phone because I hated mine) and there is nothing really wrong with it. It has a few little problems because the phone is getting old now (my husband bought it off a co-worker so I am its third owner) but overall it works great.

Gary LOVES LOVES LOVES his HTC Touch Pro 2. He wanted a larger screen BUT also wanted the real keyboard (not virtual keyboard). There are soooo many apps for it if there's stuff you need. He barely uses his computer anymore. The pixels on the camera don't sound like much (2 megapixels? 3? something like that), but the software running it is AMAZING and it takes the best pictures - better than our digital camera, in fact. The only drawback to that is there is no flash.

Originally Posted by 3CatsN1Dog

Ive heard a ton of good things about the Tour, Bold and the Storm2 (stay away from the Storm1).

Click to expand...

I heard you should stay away from the Storm2, that it is a pile of crap lol. My TL had one for a couple days before returning it with a quickness. Even the guy at Verizon I talked to when I got my Tour said he wanted to throw his Storm2 against the wall and go back to a Storm1.

I love my Tour, and love the trackball. My co worker has a new Curve with the track pad thing, and he's already having problems with his phone also. Another co worker has the Bold and really likes it.

I dont surf the internet much on my BB, just have the FB app and used to have a twitter app on it, and enjoy getting my emails to it and unlimited BlackBerry messaging! I ended up getting unlimited text also because I kept going over once my brother got a phone with unlimited text and my friend started texting me a lot as well. Hubby uses my phone to surf the internet if we're at my grandma's or some place without internet connections.

The skeezy SIL has the new Curve without the track ball and she is having problems with it already too. Something about the pad not working and you cant just clean it off you need a special wipe or whatever and then it wont work. I generally dont listen to anything regarding her except gossip but the basic jist is shes having problems with the 'track pad'.

I hate picking out phones. Its such a pain because not everyone uses their phone the same way. Like when I had FB, my phone wouldnt work. For some reason it NEVER connected to FB so when I deleted my acct I thought Ill just delete the app, NO CAN DO! Whatever it is with RIM and the auto updates there are apps that get added onto your phone that you cant delete. Ive tried everything, going into my manager, using my BB App World even going to the store and asking them to take it off. They cant be deleted, its stupid stuff Ill never use too like Skype, NFL Scores and a few others. I love BBM but noone that I talk to texting wise has a BB so I cant even use it It was so easy to text on that because instead of sending like 20 messages for a long conversation I only needed to send one. Thats another thing I dislike about BB, you cant send a couple page long texts so Ive had to resort to shorthand texting which I hate to say something and half the time I end up repeating myself because BF is shorthand illiterate! LOL!

I know that when I go for my new phone next summer Im going to be looking up TONS of reviews on the few that I narrow it down to and Im going to get the one with the fastest internet, it has to tether to the computer fast also. I want a full key pad whether its touch screen or not, lots of memory and the ability to upgrade to a 16gb card or have one included because I use my phone for tons of pictures and music so memory is important. If I can get a 16gb card I can give BF my 8gb card for his phone because I constantly have to transfer is 300+ pics once a month onto the computer.


Good luck getting a phone and hopefully it all works out and your extremely happy with what you get!!!!! Let us know what you choose!!!