HELP: What Kind of Cell/Data Phone Do You Reccommend?

[HAltschule]

Greetings and Happy Chase Season,

I was hoping that some of you could help me. I am looking to get a new cell phone and wanted to know if you had any reccommendations? I am using an old samsung that has the basics. I would like to upgrade to a new phone (i hear a lot out there about iphone, blackberry storm?) and wondered what you guys reccommend. My requirements are ease of use, a good texting keypad, a good internet browser system/email setup. I'd really like to be able to get doppler radar, run GRLevel3 and surf the internet when travelling. I currently have Verizon Wireless but am also checking on companies with good signal reliability.

If you could send me your reccomendations and stay-away-from opinions, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!!

 

[David Enstad]

I use the Blackberry Pearl through AT&T and have never had any problems with it yet. I even got good reception while deployed to Iraq. (To bad I paid an arm and a leg for the calls to the wife)

 

[HAltschule]

Yeah...but i'm sure the calls to the wife were well worth it at the time .

Thanks for the info on the BB.

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

I use the Blackberry Pearl through AT&T and have never had any problems with it yet. I even got good reception while deployed to Iraq. (To bad I paid an arm and a leg for the calls to the wife)

Probably beats using Iridium!

 

[Darren Addy]

(To bad I paid an arm and a leg for the calls to the wife)

Considering it was Iraq, I hope you mean that only metaphorically.

 

[David Enstad]

Considering it was Iraq, I hope you mean that only metaphorically.

lol. I still have all of my limbs. A little worse hearing then when I went there the first time though, and crazy happy that I won't have to go back there a 4th time!!! I missed my crazy weather and didn't aggree with getting blown up anymore

 

[Chris Allington]

So far this season we have been using a Blackberry Curve through Sprint and tethering it to the laptop for data. Haven't had any problems except briefly in the rolling hills of North Central Missouri on Wednesday.

 

[Marcus Hicks]

I use the Samsumg I760 and it works really well. I had a problem last season with the phone dropping the connection when a call came in, but that was fixed with a software update. This year it's working great.

 

[Mikey Gribble]

I have a blackberry storm. Browsing the internet on it is great because it has a full screen and it is easy to zoom in and out on things or to click on links.
I have Verizon as my provider. It looks to me like sprint/AT&T have the best coverage in the southern plains and then Verizon has the best coverage north of the Kansas border, so pick your poison. I'm going to solve that problem by hopefully getting an aircard through each provider next year (already have Verizon and got zero data coverage in western Oklahoma).
I don't think you are getting grlevel3 on any phones unless you are talking about tethering to a laptop. If you just want to use the internet on your phone as you radar tool you certainly could. There are a lot of radar sites that won't work on mobile devices though. Most won't if you want to videw local radar. Get a weather tap subscription though and go to their mobile home page. It's dirt cheap for a mont's service. You can get looping radar and velocity images there. You can also get satellite data. SPC mesoscale analysis page works OK with my blackberry. Basically there are some sites that are friendly with mobile devices and others that aren't. If you are going to use the phone for your radar source I would definitely go with the Blackberry storm if you get Verizon and if you go AT&T I woudl get the Blackberry Bold. I love that phone, but unfortunately my company uses verizon. If you are going to go mobile and try to chase with just the cell phone hit me up and I'll give you some links and a couple other services that will help tremendously.