Help!Need to upgrade phone to PDA...

[LillylooHoo]

Hi! I've been researching my options since July. Currently on a 2yr contract with Verizon that ends 8/05. I get 1500 minutes per month for $100+tax=$120 usually. My billing cycle rolls over on the 16th so I want to decrease my minutes to the AC-1000 plan for $80/mo and I'm due to upgrade my phone for free or get $100 towards my upgrade. I've talked to VZ tech serv and CS at length and been into their store. What I REALLY WANTED TO DO was go with a different carrier (but that would cost $175 to break my contract) plus GSM service is not the best if i ended up travelling across country and having to drive. When you look at the maps for GSM coverage (or is that GMS?whatever...) there are soooooo many areas in the US that have NO coverage. I don't travel alot but if I did, I at least need phone service!!! Since I initially wanted a PDA (maybe an ipaq1935 ) with an HP dig camera attachment, then I wanted a cell phone that was Blue Tooth capable (for the PDA and my laptop). So then I looked for a phone that had BT (so digital) and analog and then a carrier that had digital and analog. That way I could get mobile windows2003 for the ipaq which I heard is alot nicer than the 2002 version, plus update the RAM, etc if needed.

Verizon doesn't offer anything with BT. Plus when you look at all the coverage maps, they have the best coverage in the US. So it seems that I should stay with them, plus I don't really have $175 to throw away! If I stay with Verizon, then it looks like my only option is the samsung i700. I visited my VZ store last week and they said that that model was going on sale at the first of the year (because it has windows 2002 on it) so it would be a couple hundred dollars off. I can add unlimited internet service to my account (in addition to my phone minutes but it doesn't use my phone minutes) for $45/month so that would put me up to $130/mo + tax .

Now that I've bored you with all of my history... here's my final question: should I go ahead and get the Samsung i700 with mobile windows 2002 when it goes on sale from $600 down to $400? or should I wait till the newest version comes out with mobile window 2003 and pay at least $600 (not sure what they are going to ask for it or when it will come out?)

I've never had a PDA but need one desperately. Any thoughts, comments, advice would be appreciated!

LillylooHoo

[GoodmanR]

I would doubt that a 2004 build for pocket pc phone edition would be any better than the 2003 build. They also probably wont come out with a 2004 build on a verizon phoen for quite some time.

I think your plan of sticking with Verizon makes a lot of sense. While GSM coverage is definitely improving, its footprint still is not as large. Keep in mind though, that the Verizon PDA phones arent AMPS enabled, so youll only get digital coverage, which has a smaller footprint, still larger than GSM though.

By the first of next year some additional PDA phone options should be avalible to Verizon customers. Verizon is expected to bow to demands that it sell the treo600 which is really a nice phone as well as possible release some 1xEV-DO integrated devices as they launch it nationally, which will give faster data rates.

[LillylooHoo]

Hi, and thanks for your reply.

You don't think that mobile windows 2003 is better than 2002? have you had experience with both? The VZ store guy told me that the new samsung upgrade of the i700 would have windows 2003. I'll have to look up what AMPS means again, I've seen that on many of the websites (phonescoop,etc) that I've been on and have spent alot of time in the glossary section trying to educate myself.

From what I can see, the future may be GSM, but in the US it's not now. And I hate to spend that kind of $$ then travel off the main GSM route and not even be able to make an emergency call!

Forgive my ignorance but what does this: [possible release some 1xEV-DO ] mean? I've seen treo600 too so I can too that up.

So your final thought, get the i700 with the old software when it goes on sale at first of year? or get the upgrade with newer software, several hundred $ $$ more at first of year?????

thanks again

[Buickman]

I'll translate for Goodman. AMPS= analog celular, 1xEV-DO= next generation high speed service. And also, not to start another CDMA/GSM war, but the future is not GSM. Both standards will eventually be very good. All the info we have seen here indicates that CDMA does have faster data rates, but they are both good technologies.

[Gman]

Walter Mossberg wrote a review of the Samsung Windows based phones this week.

Wall Street Journal Personal Technology

In it he did not like the Windows version as much as the Palm version offered by Sprint. I use and i500 and like it alot.

Gman

[LillylooHoo]

thanks for the reference. I think I'm pretty much stuck with the i700 windows version because of my verizon contract till 2005. When I visited the VZ store the guy told me I could not use the i700 as a modem for my laptop, but I found a post today on pdaPhoneHome that gave instructions on how to set it up. So now i know it can be done which is good. also read a review by Janak Parekh http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/art...d,20748&start=0
that gave me a tremendous amount of information about the i700. Excellent review BTW.

Now I just need to decide if I'm going to wait and hope that it does go on sale (like the VZ guy told me, approx $200 off) right after xmas;
Or should I get it now... that would be my xmas!!!!;
Or wait till first of year and see what comes out next and what will that $$$?

Thanks for your input.

LillylooHoo

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