Well, my new every two time period is up, so I have a $100 credit on any phone. These are the ones I've been looking at. Has anyone here owned them or have any other suggestions?

UTStarcom G\'zOne Type-V ($199 after credit) Kind of like the Xterra: everything you need, nothing you don't. Built to military specs. Would be awesome for offroading and summer camping/kayaking trips.



LG VX8600 ($30 after credit) Small and seems like it has a decent feature set / performance.


LG enV ($120 after credit) Something different. Would be great for texting / email.


This one is coming out soon, and looks cool too: Samsung SCH-U740

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I have this phone and I do love it, but the speakerphone sucks, and the headphone jack sucks (you have to jiggle it alot to get it to play on both ears)

I'm liking the looks of the first one, and the fact that it can be submerged and dropped. I don't like the fact that it's not Bluetooth and doesn't have a media player on it though.

I'm a fan of the Samsung phones' cameras. Ever consider the Samsung SCH-a990 ?


When my Razr dies, it's either going to be that one or the Q....I'm leaning more toward the Samsung though.

Personally I'm waiting for the RAZR Maxx Ve, which is supposed to be out within the next month or so. This phone is finally one from moto that has the features to compete with Verizon's other phones and also with the moto phones the GSM world has. 2MP camera, QVGA, and it sounds like they're actually loosening their grip on the BT profiles now. This one will have OBEX FTP enabled and also A2DP.

I've been hanging onto my e815 because they just don't have a better phone available yet. The RAZR and KRZR phones are essentially the same phone in a different package, except they have the crappy UI on those... I'm not willing to sacrifice my old UI phone just for the form factor.

The Maxx Ve though seems to be an upgrade all around, except of course the UI, but it looks like that's what you get if you want to stick with VZW.

My LG VX8600 has full root access with both BT & USB

Well, I ended up getting the VX8600, and love it so far! It's the perfect combo of size and features: If you've never had bluetooth before (like me), you're definitely missing out. It's awesome, and makes talking on the cellphone a lot easier when driving, doing yardwork, cooking dinner, etc. I also got a 2GB card and have it loaded w/ wallpapers & ringtones.

I highly recommend getting a program called BitPim: http://www.bitpim.org/ , it lets you download your contacts, text messages, images, ringers onto your computer. It also lets you upload/set ringtones you make so you don't have to use Verizon's "RipMeOffNow" overpriced service for ringtones.

Does that mean the VX8600 supports .mp3 ringtones?

Yep. You just have to use an audio editor to shorten it to 30sec, copy it onto the miniSD card, and use BitPim to add it to the phones list of authorized ringtones. I tried it both ways, and it works flawlessly.

Here are the tutorials I used:

Ringtones to VX8600 miniSD card

Ringtones to VX8600 Internal Memory 1

Ringtones to VX8600 Internal Memory 2

Any idea how to remove the Verizon tag from the small lcd that is displayed when the phone is open?

If you mean the logo on the outside lcd when open....I don't think that is removable. Free advertising for Verizon Wireless when the phone is open and I'm walking around talking on it. They should discount my bill for helping them advertise.

If you mean the banner on the inside lcd when open...That was one thing that really irritated me! No kidding it's Verizon Wireless, thanks for the redundancy Verizon!

Just go to "Menu" --> "Settings & Tools" --> "4. Display Settings" --> "1. Banner" --> "2. ERI Banner" --> set it to off

Nope, I did mean the Verizon Logo, ow well

You can CHANGE the ERI banner by doing a hex hack

1) Avoid any RAZR
2) You can do ANTYHING to just about any phone with the right set of tools , like BITPIM !
3) Avoid any RAZR

MGJ

The razr has a hack (seem edit) you can do and change it to whatever you want. You might research on some of the popular cellphone hacking sites (like howardforums.com, etc) to see if you have something similar

Watch out for the flips. The action on the flips is one of the first things to go.

Enh... I've had several flip phones going back years. Samsung sch-3500, LG VX4400 and moto 550i, RAZR (GSM) and now the e815... None have had a problem with the flips. With the exception of the cingular phones, I've had all my phones for more than a year.

Candy bar phones on the other hand, I've had the original Sprint phone, Some crappy Nokia and a moto V120, and had issues with phantom dialing and scratched screens.

Unless you submit them to abnormal use don't worry about a flip phone. If you're unusally hard on a phone you'll probably destroy anything short of a moto brick.

I broke down and bought this last night-

I'd have a hard time coming to terms that I'm talking on something that looks like a calculator!

I like the traditional phone feel of the flip phones.

I have same phone but in black, i bought a 2 gig memory card for it loaded some movies on it, this phone does it all.

On the contrary. Charging port failure or keypad connection failure is much more frequent. In the past few years the flip of the phone is actually one on the least problematic areas. Given that it's not physically damaged, ofcourse.

I got the black one too and I plan on getting a 4 gb mini SD card and a protective case off Ebay. I chose this for the Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer.