OK, cell phone geeks chime in...

I've had my current phone/plan for 2 years, and I'm eligible to get a new phone for "free."

Now, the one I have works great. No complaints whatsoever. The original battery lasted a year and a half, so it just got replaced 6 months ago. I figure if this one lasts as long as the first one did, it's got another year of use left on it.

I don't need any "more" phone than I currently have, which is just a basic speakerphone with text messaging, so I can be reached when not at home and talk hands-free in the car. No need for a camera, video, Bluetooth, web surfing, music downloads, or any other do-dads.

I'm looking at it like this:

a) I already have the $30.00 leather case and $30.00 car charger for the phone I have, which I would have to buy anew with a new phone. Maybe if I get a phone from the same maker I could re-use the charger, but the case wouldn't fit any of the current phone offerings, so that would have to be replaced for sure. And I'd probably have to pay shipping and an activation fee or something like that, too.

b) Battery's good. Phone works fine. Already have my friends numbers in the auto-dial... What do I need a new phone for?

But...

Would a new phone be "better" in some way or another than a 2-year-old one? Better antenna for better reception? Better sound quality because of better speaker technology?

Is there really any reason to go new when what I have works fine? I mean, it's "free," but there would be some cost involved, and I don't want to pay a penny if I'm really not going to be getting anything better than what I currently have for it.

Have at it! Thanks in advance!

FB

There are always lots of new features being added to phones, and if you're interested in these that would be a reason to switch. But if you just want useful phone service the only consideration I would have is the ability of your phone to work with different types of service. My understanding is that next year all analog cell phone service in thre US will be dropped, so in the unlikely event that you are on an analog-only (AMPS)phone you will have to change. Otherwise, there is something to be said for multi-band "world phones" that operate on GSM, TDSM or CDSM systems, automatically switching systems as you roam. It seems like these systems are constantly changing, and somebody here who is more familiar with cell systems could explain it better than me, but if you want a new phone I would make sure it has this capability.

I replaced a 2 year old phone with a new one a couple of months ago and the new one is much nicer. Of course, I changed carriers too, so that is part of the improvement. If you get a free upgrade I guess my opinion is it wouldn't hurt to take it. I got a LG VX8600 and it's been great (way better than any form of Razr, though similar size).

?? GSM, TDMA, CDMA, WCDMA.... what is this TDSM CDSM you speak of? Links?

Cingular/ATT/Suncom couple others = GSM
GSM = sim card holds the account info, easily change phones just pop the card in

Verizon/Sprint couple others = CDMA
CDMA = Phones ESID is linked to your account, by a new phone, call verizon get the phone linked to your account.

Edit: Ah maybe you mean this excertp from wiki

UMTS combines the W-CDMA, TD-CDMA, or TD-SCDMA air interfaces, GSM's Mobile Application Part (MAP) core, and the GSM family of speech codecs. In the most popular cellular mobile telephone variant of UMTS, W-CDMA is currently used. Note that other wireless standards use W-CDMA as their air interface, including

Here's my take on this. I work for a cell phone carrier and used to sell phones for a few years. Take it for what it's worth:

If you have no need for a new phone, meaning that your phone is not broken or otherwise does not perform as expected, or you need new gadgets, then you don't need a new phone.

Newer phones are NOT improved in terms of signal strenth or sound quality or overall quality, by the way (we're talking in the last two years, not 10 years ago). Receptiion and call quality depend SOLELY on the network, unless the phone itself is faulty, which is often the case when you see someone with the same carrier but with different phones get different reception in the same area. Phones are tested to make sure they are within certain technical parameters before going on the shelves. The only thing that's new are all the gadgets such as cameras, bluetooth, streming video (EVDO) and so forth.

In other words, if you are not using all that stuff on your phone, then why pay again and get locked into the conract and get no real benefit out of it? To get the new phone you'd need to sign another contract and personally, if the phone I had was fine then I'd keep it as is.

I like to keep my options as open as possible. Technology changes so much that in 6 months something completely new and actually usefull/productive to you may show up on the market, maybe even with a different carrier. In this case you are free to leave and go to another place and get more benefit or bang for your buck.

Here\'s a list with different types of carriers and the type of tech they use.

Beg pardon, I always get the initials for the systems wrong. It was my impression, however, that in the event you were roaming into an area that had no GSM coverage and the local cell company had a reciprocalarrangement with your carrier, that your multiband phone would automatically switch and continue to operate. This is the way my phone seems to work, particularly in really rural areas.

For me, this has made for a much more useful phone, since it can connect in areas outside my normal GSM coverage. I don't know what multiband phones will be like when AMPS goes away.

Thanks very much for that list of systems--I didn't know how many systems still had AMPS. One of the reasons I was thinking about this was the announcement awhile back that folks who had bought OnStar in their GM cars prior to 2003 (year might be wrong) would be pretty much SOL when AMPS went away--GM would not provide conversion kits.