My Cool Phone Requirements
I am getting close to selecting a new phone. Here’s a snapshot of my requirements.
R E Q U I R E D
BLUETOOTH I will not buy another non-Bluetooth phone.
VOICE DIALING My (inexpenive but great) Kyocera 414 has taught me the pleasures of voice dialing.
SPEAKER PHONE A few years ago I had speakerphone on a Kyocera Palm/phone hybrid. Terrific feature, now a requirement.
VERIZON, CDMA My company uses Verizon. I’ve had excellent coverage, and I lust after EV-DO,
EV-DO HIGH SPEED DATA I want a fast modem for my ThinkPad, anywhere there’s EV-DO coverage.
V E R Y - N I C E - T O - H A V E
CAMERA Must have megapixel or better resolution. Really no excuse for less than say 3 megapixels, but this generation I’ll reluctantly settle for less.
MEMORY CARD This is a twin wiith my camera requirement. I refuse to be forced to use the mobile carrier to upload my pictures. Yes, I may email a photo now and then, but I must have some form of easily removeable memory. I exclude ultra-tiny cards designed for maybe 50 or so insertion cycles. Give me a break. Note that I will die and go to heaven if my phone uses a tiny hard drive with say 6 megabytes or so. And why not?
QWERTY KEYBOARD I want a great hybrid phone/text device.
June 26th, 2005 at 11:23 am
Adding a MUST:
Must support Javascript. I used a Sidekick Color for over a year, as a second device (it was T-Mobile GSM, my work life is Verizon CDMA). One of the SK’s problems was lack of JavaScript. Bad ju-ju.
June 27th, 2005 at 3:19 am
No idea about the Verizon requirement but check out Smartphones (running MS software I know…). You can usually buy an add-on keyboard and they’ll do all you want and more.
June 30th, 2005 at 3:34 pm
So, if you’re soooo in love with Verizon, DEMAND that they let you use a your Bluetooth-equipped super phone as a wlreless modem. To date they have refused to enable that function on any device. Check out David Pogue’s NYT article at for more info.
BTW, no problems using my Bluetooth phone as a wireless modem on T-Mobile…from my Apple PowerBook, no less!
June 30th, 2005 at 4:46 pm
The David Pogue NYT article on carriers, wireless modems and smartphones is at http://tech2.nytimes.com/2005/06/30/technology/circuits/30pogu.html