Cell Phones: Quo vadis?

[CountDeMoney]

OK, I decided I'm in the market for a cell phone/smartie phone.

Now, I don't have a personal cell phone, I've always been satisfied with work to provide me one.  After all, it's not like I need to be plugged in 100% of the time in my personal life; no wife, no kids, no soccer practice, shit like that.  You can usually get hold of me, because either I'm home, or I'm not.  If I don't answer, then I'm not home or I'm gaming, and my rotary phone doesn't have a long enough cord.  That's why I don't really need all the social networking shit on a phone, either:  I'm in the phone book.  And I already know everybody I need to know.  So it's always been a work thing.

But as the spectre of severance looms over me, I think it might behoove me to pick one up, if only for the sake of having a 2nd contact number for a prospective employer to call, in case I'm taking a dump or something.

So I'm trying to figure out which one I want.

I do so love my Crackberry, but Magic 8 Ball says Outlook Not So Good for RIM this year, and I fear bankruptcy will wreck them upon the shoals of the market.
I like the iPhone;  all the apps and shit would be fun.  Annoyingly hip and expensive, though.  And I'm partial to a real QWERTY keypad as opposed to touch-screens.
I also like Casio's line of mil-spec shit;  their stuff is fucking hardcore.
Stupid mergefail with T-Mobile and AT&T, blocking the Nokia market.
I can't really figure out the differences between all the other smartphones, they all look like.  Droid, Razr, Samsung, all those look the same, but I know they're different.  Kinda.

CNet's reviews give me a migraine.

What is everybody using on Languish these days?

[Josquius]

Androids are iPhones without the hipness and cost.
Keyboard ones though are rare.
As they are in most sorts of smart pphone.

I've an android. Its mostly rather OK. Crap battery life though.

[Monoriu]

I bought an ihpone 4S for the wife.  So I am using her old iphone 3GS. 

[katmai]

iPhone 4
Everybody in showbiz has one, very few that don't use Blackberrys still at least from my experiences.

[mongers]

Nokia C3-00:
http://shop.o2.co.uk/mobile_phone/pay_and_go/features/Nokia/C3-00%20Black

and one of these, Nokia 100:
http://www.prepaymania.co.uk/mobilephone/nokia-100-o2-pay-as-you-go-mobile-phone-black.html
it has a torch, a radio and alarm clock on it, I think these are intended for the emerging markets as the user manual is entirely in pictograms !

I am a cheap ass, but there's no point carry expensive phones with me as they just get destroyed whilst out and about.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Skip the iPhones. They are for commies and hipsters.  Get an Android.  Get a Bionic.

[Josquius]

£2.50!

[mongers]

£2.50!

Actually it cost me -62p as I bought it through some cashback site and I had to top up my sim anyway. 

As it turns out it's a surprisingly well built and robust phone, battery lasts for weeks.

[Caliga]

I have a Blackberry Bold 9780 on T-Mobile for work, and a Motorola Atrix 4G on AT&T for personal.

[Syt]

I am a cheap ass, but there's no point carry expensive phones with me as they just get destroyed whilst out and about.

You may want to consider the Samsung Xcover.

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/reviews/smartphones/2012/02/03/samsung-galaxy-extreme-xcover-s5690-40094975/

[Lucidor]

Mongers speaks the truth. Many times I wish I'd had a button phone. My old stand-in one that I take for hikes is getting old and loses battery. A phone for speaking with people doesn't have to have an octocore 1 GHz processor.

[Lucidor]

Can't you just hang on to the old Blackberry and get a new SIM? Most places would forget you had an old phone if it's so old they can't issue it to someone without them complaining.

[mongers]

I am a cheap ass, but there's no point carry expensive phones with me as they just get destroyed whilst out and about.

You may want to consider the Samsung Xcover.
...

But it fails here:

The Galaxy Extreme's 1,500mAh battery ought to be able to keep the handset going for a full day, but disappointingly we often needed to recharge it half-way through the day. If you're keen on music or GPS use you'll almost certainly need to find a source of mains power before the day is over.

When I'm out in the wilds I just need a phone for calls, and the cheap one has a battery life of 35 days on standby or 7.5 hours of talktime, which suits me fine.

[mongers]

Mongers speaks the truth. Many times I wish I'd had a button phone. My old stand-in one that I take for hikes is getting old and loses battery. A phone for speaking with people doesn't have to have an octocore 1 GHz processor.

You should look into getting some form of nokia, as they seem to do a whole range of cheap phones that fit the bill, some are even quad-band and/or have dual-sim slots.

[11B4V]

Dont own a c-phone. Cant help ya.