Verizon does suck. We've been customers for years and my dad is thinking about jumping ship because they just screwed us. If you look at the battery, it has a little hole with a white backing at the bottom. This is apparently a water damage sensor, that turns red if there's water damage. Unfortunately, it's broken - after about a year it turns red anyway from humidity. However, Verizon refused to replace a broken phone because this was red, despite the phone not actually having water damage, and despite us having the total coverage warranty plan, which covers practically everything. After spending hours on the phone and getting *lied* to repeatedly, he thinks we should switch carriers.

Cingular and a Sony-Ericsson phone. I've had both the T616 and T637 and they're great; small, light, and durable.

you are not alone

http://blog.forgottennewbies.com/item/22/

I am with you there. Camera phones are generally an insult to photography. Might as well just use an Apple Quicktake.

I agree and after enjoying a cordial relationship with a local business for over 10 years, last month I bought a new phone through Cingular�s website. My local store was selling only camera phones and two PDA phones.

The truth is these feature rich phones are being driven by the telcoes, not us because they encourage us to use our minutes and pay more money.

I thought you might've copied one of my blog posts...I am looking for the same damn thing. Probably a Sony Ericsson because Motorola's bluetooth is usually crippled. I really like the Z600 from SE, but I haven't bought into it yet.

I need a phone. Right now I'm looking at Verizon simply because a ton of my friends have VZN and I wanna get in on their 'IN' thing.

Steve - later on down the road, you'll be kicking yourself for choosing Verizon, when you discover their phone choice sucks and their customer service people *lie* to you (as I mentioned before - my dad caught them in 2 outright lies about what the warrantee would cover and why they wouldn't replace the phone).

Seriously, just go with someone else and get a plan that gives you enough minutes or free time (a.k.a. evenings and weekends) to chat with your friends.

I use a SonyEricsson T610 for about 1.5 years now. It's great -- it does have issues like not-so-easy-slippery-joystick control, but it's pretty small (and not too small to get lost in your palm), have Bluetooth and GPRS, works with iSync, and that's about all I need from a phone. I dont think I am switching unless this phone breaks (this is new for me, I usually change phones every year or so ;).

I have the Sony Ericsson T637. Overall I think it's nice (not great) and does what you want. Cingular (I'm in NYC) so far has been fine. I switched from Verizon, which I liked, but as others have said, the phone choice sucks. The T637 works seamlessly with the Mac, which is nice. But overall I found my old Motorola V60c more intuitive. There are some things about the T637 that annoy me, but overall it's fine.

Oh, you are not alone. I use Verizon, obviously, because they are by FAR the best carrier in the US, but their choice of phones is terrible. The problem is that you can choose either good service with poor phone selection, or the crappy coverage and service of all of the other providers. I'll live with poor phone selection. Verizon's coverage is so much better than any other cell company that using someone else is not even a consideration.

the motorola razr V3 looks like its going to be a small full featured phone...

http://www.motorola.com/mdirect/hellomoto/experience/v3/flash/default.shtml?cm_mmc_o=RElbfw*ZwkkBFBfB*PzpTw*eN%20

To second Jeremy, Overall as consumers, we get the shaft. If you choose cingular- you will get inadequte coverage and terrible call quality (i know from using the network in boston, houston, and so. california [although the OC is getting better for some reason-maybe the bitch more here]), but very nice phones. If you choose verizon- you get cruddy phones that are feature crippled, but the network is pretty solid. Sprint has awesome call quality, but the network is smaller and does have some coverage issues. T-Mobile is okay phones wise, but i do not know if they have a good network or not. Overall, all these carriers have poor customer service. It is a sad state of affairs. I remember the time I had Airtouch in San Diego (pre-verizon), and loved the service and support. Those days are pretty much over.

Me, I want a G4 and an 80-gig hard drive in my phone. Forget Mac Mini, I want a Mac MicroPhone; I'll plug it into whatever display and keyboard I can find wherever I happen to be.

I use the Siemens S56 (or S55). It has everything you want, and it works with iSync. I also use the Jabra BT200 headset with it. Check Verizon for service availabilty.

Cheers

The important thing is network coverage ... no matter how cool the phone is if you can't make a call when you want to, it's useless. Verizon has the best coverage and they know it which is why their phone selection sucks (they can choose phones with no criteria other than how much profit they can make) and why their customer service can be somewhat cavalier (though all the carriers suffer from this; it stems from the lack of number portability in the past and the 1 or 2 year contracts now).

My wife has had Verizon for years now with a very ordinary phone. But it just plain works! She can make and get calls virtually everywhere and we live in rural California (it also works when she travels). In contrast, I've always gone for cool phones (Treo, Sidekick, etc) and had to go with Cingular or T-Mobile to get them and 50% of the time I can't get a signal. I've finally seen the light and as soon as my current contract is up I'm switching my number to Verizon so I can actually use the damn phone as a phone :-) Of course, having decided coverage is the most important thing, you need to make sure that whichever carrier you end up using has decent coverage at both your work and home (borrow a friend's phone to test this).

I haven't switched phones because I feel the same way as you. If I want to take a picture, I'll use my camera.

I use a Motorola V66 with T-Mobile. The phone's over a year old, so it is a dinosaur by modern standards. however, it is compact, light, and easy to use. The only drawback is it does not have bluetooth.

I know it doesn't help that much, since I live in Japan, and our system isn't compatible with yours, but still... I have an NTT DoCoMo Foma P900i. It's pretty small, very stylish, and while it does have a lot of features, none of them get in the way. It also has bluetooth built in, and can surf the net (and even view SWF files), but I have been having difficulty getting the Bluetooth to connect to my laptop. Damn it.

As far as the remark about cameras in mobile phones being a waste, I will agree that they are nowhere near as nice as something like an EOS 300D or better, but the same thing can be said about many digital cameras in general when compared to higher end models by professional photographers. Now everyone thinks they're a photographer, just like everyone thinks they're a designer because they have Photoshop and Dreamweaver.

But in defence of mobile phone cameras, I can't express how handy the one in my phone has been. There have been countless times when I wanted to remember something, and it was made a great deal simpler by snapping a JPEG and emailing it directly to my main account to be viewed as soon as I got back in front of my computer. And it sure is a lot better than lugging my digital SLR with me everywhere I go. ^_____^

Good luck with your "ketai" search!

I agree... just give me a

light
flip
bluetooth

phone with nothing more--no cameras, no video, just simple elegance.

Apple and Motorolla, if you haven't heard by now, are working on a new phone... not sure when or what, but it should be what you are looking for...if Apple has its way with the design. It's not going to be feature-light like you desire, but I'm willing to bet that Apple will change your mind about phones.

Still I am in the same boat with you. I can't stand the crap features they shove into phones. Maybe I'm just getting old?

dear i want to bay phone in the company of sonyericsson (p910) so want the bill be to me and details of the avaliable as soon as posible

I agree. I won't a thin, attractive phone, clam-shell fashion, cause both my names start with A, and I hate getting calls from my friends pocket, purses, suitcases, etc., as they are running around town. But don't need a camera, or to play games, etc., etc. I want bluetooth, caller ID, call-waiting caller ID, a great address book, that can be used via bluetooth with my Address Book. But I also wish some phones weren't limited to a few vendors-what's up with that.

Ericsson t39M !!!

I want exactly what you want! I currently have a Kyocera 7135 "Smartphone", and it is bulky, has bad reception, and has terrible battery life.

I want a phone that is small (but not *too* small -- images of Zoolander's stamp sized mobile phone come to mind), has great battery life, great reception, and wireless synching with my contact and calendar information. I don't need to be able to input new info -- except with "beaming", maybe.

Is that too much to ask?

I want exactly the same thing and I can't understand why it doesn't exist. I ask for very little in a phone:

1) Easily functional and accessible as a phone (NOT a pda/camera/whatever the hinders the controls as a phone)

2) Small form factor preferably a flip phone

3) Bluetooth

These three things are so hard to find yet so simple. I currently have a SE T616 and it is about 95% there but it has it's little quirks that I don't like completely. I really wish apple would make a cell phone, they would do an awesome job and I'm sure make it stylish yet easy to use and feature full.

GO NOKIA BEST PHONES PERIOD - I WHEN FROM A TOP OF THE LINE SONY/ MOTOROLA/ TO THE NOKIA BEST MOST GLITCH FREE PHONES ON MARKET

Well..
Try out the SE K700i.
Allthou it has camera and so on is is fairly light and small. Has great bluetooth, much better than i have ever seen in a Nokia Phone and i have had quite a bit of them.
isync works perfect with the addresbook, calender.
The phone does not have a flip but is does have a automatic keypad lock so you wont have those pocketcalls everyone hates.

I'VE BEEN DIEING FOR A MOTOROLA V3 PHONE SENCE I WAS 10 PLEASE HELP ME TO GET ONE

Verizon sucks, my phone was just dropped in water for the third time all of them complete accidents, and im still in a two year contract so unless i want to pay 300 for a new one i have to wait, which is ridiculous wouldnt you think that they would want people to keep buying new phones???

The defect is in the stickers, however, this is a huge asset for the phone companies. The stickers do not indicate that the phone has water damage. They turn red due to normal moisture in the air. All of these companies are tricking customers into buying an insurance plan that is automatically voided under normal conditions. No phone sticker will last in your purse in the bathroom sink when you are taking a shower or when you have the humidifier on in the baby’s room. Humidity, not just water, turns the sticker red. These companies know this, but it is in your contract so that they don’t have to provide any service at all, period. Almost all of the phones that are returned for work have absolutely no water damage to them. This is a cheap way to void the contract on every phone.

To make a long story short, don’t buy this contract and expect to ever have your phone fixed even though it didn’t get wet. The contract does not say “if your phone has water damage,” it says, “if the sticker is red” otherwise they you would be liable for a lawsuit against them. If anybody knows of a case where the contract is otherwise, PLEASE, SUE THE F@(k out of them and tell us all about it on Fox News. Somebody needs to put these deceivers in their right place!

On the other side, I assume every company does this, so I would take some precautions. Primarily, I would place a tiny pice of plastic over the sticker that is slightly larger than the sticker and does not contain any adhesive (whick will cause the sticker to turn red. Then I would hold that in place with another layer - this time electrical tape, which will lock out moisture. Another solution is to just say your phone is lost. Hey, if they are deceiving us and saving millions of dollars doing it, don’t you deserve the right to do the same to them for the small cost (on their behalf) of your single phone?

BY THE WAY, if you really do drop your phone in water, TURN IT OFF IMMEDIATELY AND LEAVE IT OFF FOR THE NEXT FEW HOURS or the circuits will short and the phone (or some portion of it) will never work again! Corrosion occurs when metals and water mix. In addition, microbes will form and begin to grow around the circuitry. To stop this you should use alcohol (rubbing alcohol only!), which is the common way for cleaning computer circuit boards too. Alcohol will help the phone dry quicker too! I would do the following ONLY in this order AND IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE ISSUE OCCURS EVEN IF THE PHONE APPEARS TO BE WORKING (BEST) OR IF THE PHONE BEGINS TO STOP FUNCTIONING LONG AFTER THE TIME OF THE INCIDENT.

1. REMOVE THE BATTERY

2. EITHER TAKE THE PHONE APART AND CLEAN THE CIRCUITS (BOTH SIDES) WITH ALCOHOL AND A RAG, BEING CAREFUL NOT TO BREAK ANYTHING

OR

FILL A CUP WITH RUBBING ALCOHOL AND DIP THE PHONE IN IT

3. DO NOT TURN THE PHONE ON FOR ANY REASON UNTIL THE NEXT DAY. YOU MAY SPEED THIS UP BY PLACING IT IN THE SUN OR USE A BLOW DRYER AT A LONG ENOUGH DISTANCE TO KEEP IT FROM GETTING HOT BUT DON'T EVEN THINK OF PUTTING IT IN THE OVEN UNLESS YOU PLAN TO EAT IT!

4. REPLACE THE BATTERY AND TURN THE POWER ON.

IF YOU DON'T DO THIS, MICROBES WILL GROW ON THE CIRCUITRY (THEY LOVE THE HEAT) AND SOME FUNCTIONS OF THE PHONE MAY CEASE TO WORK.

NOTE THAT I LEARNED THIS THROUGH A+ EXAM GUIDES AS THE COMMON TECHNIQUE FOR FIXING BAD RAM STICKS ON COMPUTERS.