See the official news release.
Regardless of your profession, you will discover family, friends, and random strangers calling you up to ask for help. If you’re a doctor, your great aunt will be calling to inquire about that weird rash she has. If you’re an investment planner, you’re cousin Joe will hit you up at the family reunion about the next hot stock to buy. You’re a mechanic? Some random guy at the next party you go to will undoubtedly have some “small issue” that he’s sure you can help him with. And God help you if you happen to work for Microsoft because your proud mother will have everyone of your 40 cousins calling when their computer inevitably crashes (I speak from experience on this one).
And if you fix cell phones for a living, you will frequently get asked: “What cell phone should I buy?”
Three years ago that was a very simple question to answer because there was one cell phone that stood head-and-shoulders above all the rest: The iPhone. But a lot has happened over the past few years and the market is now flooded with fantastic smartphones. The iPhone is of course still near the top of the list but so are all the Samsung Galaxy S phones, the MyTouch 4G, HTC G2, Droid Incredible, Droid X, Motorola Atrix, and a host of other phones. The list of highly capable iPhone competitors grows weekly and you really can’t go wrong with any of them.
So what is my answer to the question of what cell phone to buy? Don’t worry about the phone, figure out which carrier best suits your needs. Once you’ve found the carrier with the coverage and pricing you like, then take a look at their top-tier phones. You pretty much can’t go wrong at that point. The following is a short list of the phones I’d recommend right now.
- AT&T: iPhone 4, Samsung Captivate, or the Motorola Atrix.
- Verizon: iPhone 4, Motorola Droid X, HTC Droid Incredible
- T-Mobile: MyTouch 4G, Samsung Vibrant, HTC G2
- Sprint: HTC Evo, HTC Evo Shift, Samsung Epic 4G
- US Cellular: Samsung Mesmerize, HTC Desire
- Cricket: Sanyo Zio
Again, this list is for today. New phones are coming out constantly so a month from now the list of phones may change completely but I can guarantee you the phones will only get better, so the fundamental process of picking a phone will remain the same: Select a carrier, then pick a phone.
Like this article says, I figured out what carrier worked best for me before I decided on the phone. I was sick of my old carrier billing me up the wa-zu for minutes I barely used so I switched to tracfone. My phone now is nothing fancy but it was affordable. And I only pay for the minutes I use. It’s been a great way for me to cut back on my bills.