New Phone

[LazerFazer]

Hi all,

 

I've always had a crappy phone, but lately I've decided that I need one with a bit more than simple calling and SMS features. I tried looking around on google and what not, but I have no idea what to search for at all. I would appreciate any help on the issue. Basically, I'm looking for a phone with basic calling, SMS, and internet access. The reason is, I'm not going to have much land-line based internet access over the next few years, and so I need a phone that can at least allow me to check my email and send out emails as well.

 

Again, Thanks in advance for the help

 

LazerFazer

[insane_alien]

most if not all recent phones (last 5 years) will have some sort of WAP access to the internet. if you get a data cable for your phone (about £10) then you can connect your computer/laptop to the internet via the phone.

[LazerFazer]

Thanks for the info, insane_alien.

 

I'm a bit new to this whole "internet from phone" thing. Is there any other way to access the internet on a mobile phone? From what I understand, with WAP, you need specially coded webpages. Is that true? And if so, is there any way to view 'normal' sites from a mobile phone? The reason I'm going through the trouble of getting internet on my mobile phone is because landline internet prices are so damn high, that it actually works out more affordable for me to get it on my mobile.

 

Thanks,

LF

[insane_alien]

well, WAP has been superceded by GPRS (just less than 56k speeds) which can view any web page and is pretty common in modern phones. a more up market and faster access is 3G i don't have a clue how fast it is as i only have GPRS.

[LazerFazer]

Thanks again insane_alien. So I guess GPRS is the way to go (at least for me). Now that I have that settled, is there a phone that I can buy that supports GPRS and will last at least 2 years, preferably 4? Also, my budget is around US$200, so thats a rather limiting factor, I would assume.

 

LF

[insane_alien]

GPRS capable phones should be reasonably low in price, try searching froogle or something. the phone should last 4 years regardless of the make. GPRS will be supported indefinately as of yet although it may be discontinued when 3G phones are more dominant and much lower in price.

[wh666-666]

Try something like a blackberry phone. These are really good phones or maybe a motorola pda phone (which ive got excess of by the way) and can say for the price motorola pda phones are quite good. Both these phones are 3g/bluetooth etc and perfect if always out and about

[Phi for All]

My Palm Treo 700w is pretty impressive. I haven't begun to utilize all it's features (I've had it for about a month). My company set it up to link with our Microsoft Exhange server. I'm not up to speed on all it can do but I like it so far.