Recommendation for phone

[W. Stewart]

My contract is with Verizon, and my phone just died. I need a new one, but really don't know what capabilities these things do. Mostly I just use the thing as a phone, but I am texting more than I used to, so I know that I want a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. I have never had a smart phone, but guess I am going that direction for future capabilities.

The only 3 smart phones with QWERTY sliders available with Verizon are:
Droid 2 Global by Motorola
LG Ally
Palm Pre 2

Does anyone have any recommendations among these three? A friend (who's service is with AT&T) has a Blackberry Torch 9800 and really likes it. Is that worth changing service providers?

Wells

 

[jnmeade]

I'm with AT&T and have a Motorola Atrix. It is a touch screen but uses the swype technique and I find that faster than pushing the buttons I had on my old Fuse.

Other things about the Atrix I'm not so happy with, but the swype business I find I like, and I'm an old fashiioned kind of guy.

One can get in a lot of heated discussions over the the best providers. It's somewhat a local thing.

 

[PilotAlan]

The Droid Global is a darned good phone. Both a physical keyboard and Swype on the touchscreen. My Droid X has Swype, and it is by far the best keyboard for mobile devices (in my opinion).
It is easy to get used to, is incredibly fast, and remarkably accurate. Far faster than even the physical keyboard.

When I got the X, the Droid 2 wasn't available. If I was getting a phone now, that's probably the one I would get.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

My contract is with Verizon, and my phone just died. I need a new one, but really don't know what capabilities these things do. Mostly I just use the thing as a phone, but I am texting more than I used to, so I know that I want a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

iDon't know.

BTW, give the on-screen keyboards a chance - They can really reduce fat-fingering. The iPhone's autocorrect works very well for the most part, and doesn't get in your way the way some others do (you don't need to "pick a word" for example). They also increase the virtual size of the keys most likely to be hit next. For example, after typing a C, there's a pretty good chance the next letter will be an H, but very little chance it'll be a G. So, if you hit halfway between the G and the H, you'll always get an H. It's pretty slick - It took some getting used to for me (I'm a "go-back-and-delete-every-mistake-right-away" typist) but once I started just continuing and letting it do its thing, I managed to get really fast with the iPhone's on-screen keyboard - Way faster than I could ever be on the chiclet keys that are on the slide-out keyboards.

There were a TON of people saying after the iPhone's introduction that they'd never get a phone without a physical keyboard, blah blah blah. Ironically, a year or two later there was a lot of buzz around one of the Android phones that had both a physical keyboard and an on-screen keyboard... Some of those same people bought 'em and discovered they liked the on-screen keyboard a LOT better.

Besides, the iPhone has ForeFlight.

 

[SkyHog]

iDon't know.

BTW, give the on-screen keyboards a chance - They can really reduce fat-fingering. The iPhone's autocorrect works very well for the most part, and doesn't get in your way the way some others do (you don't need to "pick a word" for example). They also increase the virtual size of the keys most likely to be hit next. For example, after typing a C, there's a pretty good chance the next letter will be an H, but very little chance it'll be a G. So, if you hit halfway between the G and the H, you'll always get an H. It's pretty slick - It took some getting used to for me (I'm a "go-back-and-delete-every-mistake-right-away" typist) but once I started just continuing and letting it do its thing, I managed to get really fast with the iPhone's on-screen keyboard - Way faster than I could ever be on the chiclet keys that are on the slide-out keyboards.

There were a TON of people saying after the iPhone's introduction that they'd never get a phone without a physical keyboard, blah blah blah. Ironically, a year or two later there was a lot of buzz around one of the Android phones that had both a physical keyboard and an on-screen keyboard... Some of those same people bought 'em and discovered they liked the on-screen keyboard a LOT better.

Besides, the iPhone has ForeFlight.

I'm one of those that demanded a physical keyboard. I'm really glad I did. The iPhone I had a while back could not autocorrect most of the fatfingerings that I did (I remember telling my father once that "I'm gravy vegan" instead of my intended "I'm going later."

Android's onscreen keyboard is better at guessing my words, but I still fatfinger too much to be able to trust it or any onscreen keyboard short of a tablet keyboard that I can't possibly fatfinger.

It drives me bonkers that soon I probably won't be able to get a physical keyboard on any phone....I guess I'll just have to rely on http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com for internet popularity.

 

[Henning]

I have the HTC My Touch 4G through T-Mobile and I'm quite happy with it. If I choose, I can use the voice recognition (works surprisingly well) to text or whatever input.

 

[ScottM]

I have the HTC Evo on Sprint and an iPhone on AT&T and I love both but for different reasons. For Android based phones I had a Motorola Milestone (UMTS version of the Droid) and hated it!!! I still have it as a work phone for international travel because it is unlocked and can take anyone's SIM. But my main work phone changed to the HTC EVO and WOW! I am resold on Android. It does have a touch keyboard and I love it! The Milestone had both touch and a slide out. I hardly ever used the slide out one.

I also love my iPhone. It is where I keep a lot of my music and I have a nice car kit for it. I also just love the UI. It is still a better designed UI than any other phone I have ever used.

 

[gprellwitz]

I've got the original Droid, and find that I rarely use the hardware keyboard. I only use it when trying to position the cursor between two letters precisely. If it had the iOS feature of magnifying the cursor area when long pressing, I wouldn't even need it for that. I do find the autocorrection to work well; better than the iOS version. I haven't tried using Swype yet; I should do that.

I'd probably recommend against a BlackBerry. If you're looking for a smartphone, iOS and Android are the ways to go today. And I wouldn't use Foreflight as a reason to get an iPhone. As a reason to get an iPad, YES!

 

[flyingcheesehead]

And I wouldn't use Foreflight as a reason to get an iPhone. As a reason to get an iPad, YES!

Admittedly, now that I have the iPad I rarely use it on the iPhone. But before I had the iPad I used it on the iPhone all the time. Plus, one subscription covers both devices...

Also, since the iPad and ForeFlight is the way to go for EFB use, you might as well get a phone that can share apps with the iPad...

 

[W. Stewart]

Admittedly, now that I have the iPad I rarely use it on the iPhone. But before I had the iPad I used it on the iPhone all the time. Plus, one subscription covers both devices...

Also, since the iPad and ForeFlight is the way to go for EFB use, you might as well get a phone that can share apps with the iPad...

I have an iPAD for Foreflight, so I guess that the program on an iPhone would be nice to have as a backup if the iPAD dies. IF I decide on the iPhone, how capable of phone do I need for Foreflight (to store two versions of all sectionals/L-charts, and approach books for the eastern 1/2 of the country)? I assume that they come with varying capacities like the iPAD does? Until this evening I had not given much thought to the iPhone, as I thought I wanted a sliding physical keyboard, but it sounds like other people find a touch screen pad sufficient.

Wells

 

[flyingcheesehead]

I have an iPAD for Foreflight, so I guess that the program on an iPhone would be nice to have as a backup if the iPAD dies. IF I decide on the iPhone, how capable of phone do I need for Foreflight (to store two versions of all sectionals/L-charts, and approach books for the eastern 1/2 of the country)? I assume that they come with varying capacities like the iPAD does? Until this evening I had not given much thought to the iPhone, as I thought I wanted a sliding physical keyboard, but it sounds like other people find a touch screen pad sufficient.

Well, the full data set for the entire US including Alaska is about 7GB. If you only load the eastern ConUS, probably half that or less (Alaska alone is around 1GB). So, you should be able to get by just fine with the 16GB iPhone.

I usually go for the highest capacity possible - I figure I'll be happier with it for longer, and thus it'll last longer. Of course, I also have a huge music library (19GB by itself right now) and I like to have it all on my iPhone. So, YMMV.

 

[W. Stewart]

I went to the Verizon store and came away with a Samsung Fascinate. I am concerned about battery life, but otherwise this seems like a nice phone. The voice recognition typing is very nice (the saleslady said that the iPhone did not have this--is that correct?).

Comments? Will I regret not choosing the iPhone? (I think that the Verizon salespeople make more off the Droid phones, as she did not seem very interested in selling the Apple product).

Wells

 

[SkyHog]

I went to the Verizon store and came away with a Samsung Fascinate. I am concerned about battery life, but otherwise this seems like a nice phone. The voice recognition typing is very nice (the saleslady said that the iPhone did not have this--is that correct?).

Comments? Will I regret not choosing the iPhone? (I think that the Verizon salespeople make more off the Droid phones, as she did not seem very interested in selling the Apple product).

Wells

She probably didn't seem interested because the iPhone was poorly thought out for Verizon. Its only 3g, data is not unlimited, and it lacks a lot of the features that most basic Android devices have (You've found one of them already).

The iPhone has more apps (as you'll hear repeatedly by the Apple fans). Except for ForeFlight, I've yet to see an app that I can't get for Android for less money anyway, so I (and most Android users) are ok with that argument.

You made a good choice. Spend 2 years loving that device, and then see if you'll ever consider an iPhone again.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

I think that the Verizon salespeople make more off the Droid phones, as she did not seem very interested in selling the Apple product.

That may be, but I would also guess that Verizon people are still so used to the party line being "the iPhone sucks" because they couldn't get it and had to constantly tell people why they should buy something else, that they're having a hard time adjusting to selling iPhones. Not to mention, that when the iPhone was brand-new to Verizon, it was already about 9 months old for the rest of the world. So, maybe they'll be a little friendlier to them when the iPhone 5 comes out.