Which is the most important part for you to choose a cellphone?

I guess I'd go with how well it acquires and maintains a signal. WIthout that, it's not even a phone.

 

When I had T-Mobile, it had to be an UMA enabled phone so I could have service at home through my wi-fi, and make calls. Now that I have AT&T and their Microcell, it just needed to be a 3G enabled phone (and I also had to have a data plan on my plan).... so basically, most important feature was to have service!

 

signal strengh, durability, simplicity and reliability. thats why i got a startac based phone

 

StarTAC, now that's a blast from the past! Just wanted to say that I appreciated this funny joke. You can keep your cassette player, however. I never liked them, and never thought that their convenience outweighed their terrible sound quality, except in the extremely high-end recorder/players (e.g. Nakamichi). Now that even average quality mp3 or AAC digital files surpass anything that cassettes did in their heyday, they are justly relegated to the museum of technology.

Here's a review of the Timeport from 2001:

Phones: Motorola Timeport P8767


SW

 

Just found this thread, so apologies for the late entry. And, over the years, my answer to that has varied.

When I first started using cellphones, I wasn't a heavy user. So, call quality & signal strength were utmost. As my usage grew, battery life took priority, but voice quality & signal strength were still close behind. And they're still part of the equation. But, recently, many of the people I communicate with have started leaning heavily on data communications -- texting, email, BBM, GoogleTalk, Facebook, Twitter, etc. As a result, my phone selection priorities have also changed somewhat. Data capabilities & signal strength is number two, voice quality & signal strength right behind it. Mixed somewhere in there are the tools to manage those things. But number one is still battery life. All the other things, all the bells & whistles, are useless if you have a dead phone.

 

Right now, I have no idea which phone I want.. I currently have a Nokia 5310 XpressMusic phone with T-Mobile and my contract expires in February..

I do know I want a smartphone (to finally upgrade from having a Caveman phone, lol) and I DON'T want to be with AT&T cos they don't have unlimited web anymore, which I guess rules out the iPhone.. So far, I see the Android phones are popular..

Being that I'm technologically dumb, does anyone have any suggestions? I'd be appreciative of any advice..

 

To me the most important part is if it functions as a phone, I loved my BB Bold with AT&T. But when I bought my house, come spring time the phone was a paperweight. So all the other features were rendered useless if it cannot maintain a signal or hold a call.

 

If I had to choose one I would pick the coverage which is more determined by the carrier but varies in the different models that they carry.

 

I think, most important parts, the keyboard.

 

For my its the screen size, textability, batterylife, and then all the bells and whistles.