Dear Samsung Blackjack,

[blueeyedbyrd]

You have aggravated me to no end. If I tilt my head 1/4" in the wrong direction my signal fades and I end up sounding like a retard "hello??? can you hear me?? dammit! hello? stupid phone...." You do not allow me to copy and paste, and the letter key's are so small I misspell every text message I send. Blackjack, your a sorry excuse for a BlackBerry, and I feel I have only been left with 2 options. Since Cingular will only replace my phone with the same phone, I can either 1) Send you on an eternal swim in the Susquehanna River or 2) sell you on ebay. Though option 1 sounds like the most fulfilling and fun, it's quite unfortunate that you may have to grace your presence on a new owner because I need some cash. Of course this could be chalked up to the fact that I live in the woods, however my hubby has a Blackberry and has great signal here in the house...and everywhere else for that matter.

So.....now that I've got that out of my system....I'm going to be getting a new phone after Christmas. Does anyone have an Apple iphone, Blackberry 8820, or Treo 750 that can attest to it's signal strength off the beaten path? Or any other good words about the above phones?

[D-FENS]

Signal strength is a really tough thing to estimate. it varies between devices, protocols and of course your location.

I support too many phones for my liking. Everyone I know with a BlackJack has had to have it replaced several times, most just get rid of it.

The iPhone has pretty good quality as far as sound quality. I can't comment on whether it will pick up your signal or not though. I would suggest against a Treo of any sort. Palm OS sucks, Windows Mobile OS sucks even worse. I really hate Palms.

We have a bunch of people using the Blackberry 8800/8820 (8820 is CDMA and 8800 is GSM). If you have ATT, you'd need to look at the 8800. They're pretty neat devices. The only real problems I encounter with them are syncing with Oracle Calendar. I doubt this would be a concern for you.

I'd say the Blackberry is a good choice and the iPhone is good choice but try before you buy. If possible, borrow a friends. You'll want to make sure you have EDGE access where you live and/or travel. Also, consider holding out until January. A new iPhone with 3G support is expected to be announced.

If you don't read or understand any of this, just remember TREO's suck. Really, they do. The interface is shitty and about 5 years behind the times. Granted, it'll do what you need it to, but it will suck while doing it.

ETA: T-Mobile has new Blackberry's that can hop on to Wireless Access Points(WAP). Not only is this generally better for web-srufing than EDGE but you can also make calls on open WAP's. Something to consider if you have perpetually poor service at home.

Also, are you and your husband using different carriers or are you both on ATT?

[PA Highlander]

Another option would be the Cingular (AT&T) 8525, that's what I have for a work phone and email device. Seems to work fairly well ... miles better than the Treo 750 I had previously.

[Longshot]

We have the Blackberry 8830 World Edition through verizon, there are very very few spots that I don't get signal, We have been very very happy with the Blackberry. We used to deal with nextel and after getting tired of the crapy signal every where we went, we switched. We could get constant dropped calls and no signal in our house with the nextel, but with the blackberry its strong and consistant. Even when I am in a spot that show's next to no signal, most of the time I can still flawlesly make phone calls without breaking up. In addition the battery life has been fantastic.

[blueeyedbyrd]

Also, are you and your husband using different carriers or are you both on ATT?

We're both on the same account w/ ATT. He has a BB 8700c. I "upgraded" from my RAZR back in June to the blackjack. Never had signal issues with the RAZR, just wanted a new phone.....well, it was a bad decision obviously.

Thanks for all the input, guess the Treo is out. I had a Treo with Sprint a few years ago, but when we bought our house I found out that I'm 1 mile from Sprint's tower, therefore all calls made from here were roaming and I ended up with $400 phone bills, not cool.

I don't know anyone around here w/ an iphone to test out. So I dunno, guess we'll see what happens.

[PisnNapalm]

I got an LG eNV this past summer. It about the best phone I've ever had. I enjoy it alot.

[P-11 shooter]

joe smith is a cell phone salesman. He can tell you everything you could ever need to know about any phone.

[lildobe]

If you are looking for an all-around good smartphone, then look to the Nokia E90 Communicator.

I've owned Nokia Communicators since the first model, the 9000, back in 1996. Since then I've owned 4 Nokia smartphones since then including a 9000il, a 9210, a 9500 and my current E90.

It is Symbian OS based and includes a robust web browser, MS Office compatible applications for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations, as well as a PDF reader, the ability to print to IR and Bluetooth equipped printers, the ability to connect to Bluetooth Keyboards and many MANY more features.

There is also hundreds of 3rd party applications available for it.

For Net connectivity it supports GPRS Edge, as well as 3G HSPDA AND it also has an 802.11b/g transceiver built in, so it can connect to any standard WiFi network.

I, personally, cannot say enough about this phone.

[blueeyedbyrd]

If you are looking for an all-around good smartphone, then look to the Nokia E90 Communicator.

It's interesting but at a price tag of $1100 It's a little out of my budget at this point in time.

p-11, Joe Smith PM'd me a little while ago and gave me some good information and recommendations.

[Atomic Dog]

joe smith is a cell phone salesman. He can tell you everything you could ever need to know about any phone.

Don't worry, got it covered via PM....


ETA: Nokia makes some AMAZING devices. I personally have never had a bad Nokia.