Many of you know, I have been looking at getting and Iphone as soon as the people over at #iphone-dev manage to get it unlocked so I can use it with t-mobile. But the truth is, I’m more just looking for a phone that allows me to do the following (easily):
- Get my Email
- Surf the Web
- Surf the Web on my laptop (via bluetooth)
- Sync my calendar
- Maybe play *some* music
- Maybe play some video.
Even if I got the iphone, I still would be missing the “Surf the web on my laptop” until someone built a custom app to allow a pc to connect to the iphone as a modem. So all that said, I’ve been looking around at the alternatives.
Currently, I’m with T-mobile… And my options seem very very limited. Blackberry is their leading business type mobile device, and they have a line of “sidekicks” that I just don’t think cut it. Their data network also isn’t quite up to par. I will give them credit though for having very solid phone coverage (at least for me). I’ve also enjoyed their rates.
But now that I really want data, I have to asked myself if it’s time to switch. And so far, I’ve been leaning heavily towards verizon…
I have always thought of sprint as having the best data network, and I believe that for the longest time they have. Verizon though has stepped it up at least here in the twin cities. They have a network technology here called evdo, which yesterday when I ran my laptop over Palm Treo 700w, I was able to get pings in the 300’s and download speeds close to 2Mbit. I could almost play world of warcraft with lag like that.
So the question is: do I make the switch to another company. I’ve been with tmobile since it was known as voicestream. I’ve got my entire family on the plan. My girlfriend is with tmobile. Everything when it comes to voice calls says I should stay with tmobile. Just a question of data…
Maybe tmobile will step up their data plans here in the near future.
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NOOOOOOO! I would say not to switch to Verizon. They cripple their phones because they think their users can't handle their phone's advanced features.
If you want a good data network that has the speed of Verizon's, I would suggest Sprint. They data network coverage is excellent, and on my phone I was able to get download speeds just a hair over 2 Mbit/sec. (their networks are both CDMA, so it makes sense that speeds would be about the same).
Supposedly in the next few years T-Mobile and Cingular (well now AT&T) will be rolling out higher speed GSM networks (some 3G data spec – UMTS?), but we'll have to see how that goes.
In your list of things you want, you forgot "make phone calls"
Making phone calls is important… but that's assumed if I'm buying a phone :-). And yes.. Sprint would still be on my list if they have evdo.