Good Cell Phones

[bratch]

I've got a Siemens A56i that is absolute junk.  I'm wanting a new phone but don't want to sign another contract.  

What are phones you have had good experiences with?  Doesn't need to be too fancy just have good reception and not drop calls.

[Antibubba]

Who are you with?  I work for Sprint BTW, so I do have some bias   Do keep in mind that most of the cellular companies are experiencing higher than normal technical problems, because of Katrina.

[bratch]

I'm with Cingular but have had problems with these phones well before Katrina.

 This is my second Siemens(warranty issues) and both have been problems.  I was one of the unfortunate few who signed up in the short period Cingular carried the A56i.

[InfidelSerf]

I have a motorola V188  it works great and the USB port is handy to be able to back up the phone modify it and upload my homemade ringtones... btw you could just find a phone any phone that you want and then hack the simm card to get it to work with whichever carrier you wish.

[matis]

How does one do that, veloce851?

I'd sure like to be able to buy whatever phone I want -- without extending my contract.

matis

[garrettwc]

matis, Cingular will let you buy the phone the phones, without extending your contract. You will just pay $$$ for it. The fine print at the stores here say to add anywhere from $70 to $200 premium depending on how much you deviate from the standard two years.

I have heard good things about the V series phones from Motorola. I have never had a bad Nokia. Had a 5200 series before Cingular went to GSM and sim cards. Then I got a Motorola T-series, lots of goodies, but crappy receiption.

I just upgraded to the Nokia 6230 and this one is the shizzle. I'm getting 3-4 bars in places where I got no reception at all with the Motorola.  I highly recommend this phone.

[Paddy]

I've got a Nokia 6360 (probably discontinued, I bought it 'reconditioned') that works great.  There's almost nowhere in the county I can't get reception.

[TarpleyG]

I have always had good luck with Motorolas but went with an equally reliable Samsung last year.  Nokia as a second choice though.

Greg

[wmenorr67]

I have the cheap Sony Ericson from Cingular and am getting great reception even down here in NO.  There are several people down here with other carriers that are not getting the same.

[crt360]

I've also got the Cingular Sony-Ericsson (Z500a).  For a long time I had nothing but Alltel and Motorola phones and never had a problem with them, but I got a deal with Cingular that was much better.  My first Sony-Ericsson crapped out shortly after I got it, but they replaced it within 24 hrs and the new one has worked flawlessly.  I had some reception problems with Cingular when I first switched, but it seems to have improved significantly.  Alltel was great, but a little more expensive.  Cingular is pretty cheap and my experience with them has been above average.  I'd recommend either.  The Motorolas I used were fine.  The Sony-Ericsson I have now is fine - it has a lot of features for the price, and as long as you don't take pictures or play games on it the battery life is very good.

[triggertime]

I've had reliability issues and reception problems with Motorola, Samsung and Siemens.

Personally, I prefer Nokia. The 6230 is my favorite. Good phone, no problems.

[cfabe]

I have a motorola v600 on Cingular GSM. I would not reccomend. Reception is not great, and the phone has developed some problems. Most annoyingly both the earpiece speaker and the ringer speaker have developed poor connections and gotten real quiet. I fixed the earpiece, and I need to open it back up and see if i can fix the ringer. I miss a lot of calls because I don't hear it ring in my pocket.

[Waitone]

Hint.  Most cell phones are sold in conjunction with cell plans.  Plans run 12 to 24 months.  Cell phones available tend to be limited to one plan or another.  

Reality of the situation is cell phones don't have to last longer than 24 months and they don't.  Be careful of paying $200+ for a cell phone that the cell provider charges you for $49 with the purchase of a plan.