desh | Cell phone geekery

Hey, any phone geeks out there? I've just started getting into this Engadget Mobile / Phonescoop universe, and y'all have got some neat stuff.

So. I kind of want a 3G flip-style smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard. This doesn't yet exist in this country. (And let's ignore for a second that if it did, it would probably cost like $500 even with a new contract, which I wouldn't be likely to spend.)

In fact, I can't even get 3 of these 4 features at once, I don't think. I know of a QWERTY smartphone, a QWERTY flip-phone (Blackberry-capable but not a true smartphone), a flip smartphone, and a 3G flip-phone. But that's it.

So I think I dislike non-flip phones enough to not get one, given these choices. But which of those latter three phones should I get? Or are they all disappointing enough that I should hold out for more? If I wait a couple of months, will I be more likely to find more 3G choices?

Too bad the Samsung SGH-i610 probably isn't going to exist in the US. It'd be just about the perfect phone for me.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

There are no flip phones with true qwerty keypads. The closest you can get are flip phones with "sure type" keyboards (basically 2 letters on each key and it does predictive text). I think the reason for this is, a full qwerty keypad is big, and people who want flip phones are concerned with size, so no one would buy a flip phone with a qwerty keyboard (just my guess).

In terms of which phone to get. It all depends on what carrier you want, and if you want high speed data. If you want high speed data on cingular, hold out. If you don't care about high speed , and want cingular, then I would go with the htc startrek. I have heard nothing but good things about it. I even want the phone (just wish it had high speed data).

Dan has the Q, so you can ask him about that phone. Does your company have a blackberry server? If not then you don't really wanna bother with blackberry enabled phones, the HTC startrek is pretty kick ass from what I can tell, and the 3g flip phone...MEH. Soon they will be all over the place, so I would wait for one that has the features you want.

Yeah, sorry, when I said QWERTY, I was also counting suretype. I remember you telling me about suretype awhile ago, and I tried playing around with it in a store, and I like it a lot.

Yeah, the startrek is really starting to tempt me. I just don't know if I'd rather have suretype and blackberry without true smartphone capabilities, or a real smartphone with a regular numpad for a keyboard. The latter sounds really annoying.

Why don't I want a Blackberry if my company doesn't have a Blackberry server? I thought Blackberrys just work over IMAP? Explain more, please.

I should really just wait until high speed is a bit more widespread. I agree with your assessment of the extant 3G flip phone. (I mean, I like it and I'd get it, but it's not so nifty and I'm in the market for nifty right now.)

Blackberry is true push email, meaning you don't have to do anything and your mail automatically arrives on your phone as it arrives to the server. Blackberry will also sync your contacts on your phone as they change on the server.
If your company does not have a blackberry server, I think there is a personal blackberry thing, where you run a small program on your desktop, and it pushes your email to you. Cingular and Sprint both provide you with functions like this for free (and I think verizon does also).
With any smartphone, you can just schedule your phone to retreive mail every X amount of time. For most people this is fine.
I also thought using a numpad to type text would be annoying, but I have an audiovox smt 5600 (candybar smartphone) and the predictive text is amazing. You get used to it incredibly quickly, and can tap out messages lickity split in no time. You can also teach it new words, which is also awesome.

In conclusion, if you don't care about high speed data, then I would highly recommend the htc star trek, especially since it is only $150 from cingular with a contract.

Cell phone geekery

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