Made my new phone decision: Read on to see what it is

As some of the more astute readers of Morning Paper have no doubt noticed, I've been facilitating quite a bit about which phone I was going to get to replace my unlocked T-Mobile Dash that I've been using on AT&T. It's been a difficult choice but yesterday, I purchased my new phone and sold off the Dash.

The first phone that inspired gadget lust was the iPaq 910c/914c. When HP announced their new phone device and then some pictures leaked of one in the wild, I was ready to bite. The rumor of the phone being offered on AT&T did nothing but fuel the fire.

I had already looked at the BlackJack but couldn't get used to the idea of a phone even smaller than the one I already had. Many people seem to be enamored with getting the smallest possible phone but I am not one of them.

(No, the iPhone was never in the running.)

And then along come RIM and the Blackberry. I looked long and hard at first the Curve thinking of jumping carriers to go with T-Mobile since Amazon was offering the Curve for a ridiculously low fee with a new contract. No one was making this easier for me.

Then I had one of those conversations with AT&T about canceling my service and ran smack into the dreaded Early Termination Fee. Switching carriers was out of the question since the phone that looked like a bargain suddenly was not when factoring in the ETF.

Okay, at least AT&T had the Curve and I talked AT&T down to a good deal on the Curve with a data plan to keep me from leaving. It wasn't as good as Amazon was offering but it was good.

I had been following the whole Blackberry scene and just like our Editor and others have said, they were looking pretty good.

But the Curve is even smaller than the Dash, I couldn't live with that. The 8800 was better and I was thisclose to getting one.

And then Motorola released the Q9m on Verizon. Things were suddenly different. I got the chance to play with the device at a local Verizon store and the choice was no longer defacto victory to Blackberry. It wasn't just the form factor of the Q9 which is similar to the 8800 series anyway. It was something more instinctual for me.

I realized I liked the Blackberry, but not enough to switch from Windows Mobile. Looking around at some of the choices I saw with Blackberry applications, I knew I would miss the choice of customization that is available for Windows Mobile.  Having spent far too long in the Symbian S60 world, I didn't trust going to an OS that I didn't feel 100% confident would offer the same level of options that I had become accustomed to with WinMo 6.

So, search over. Last night I made a visit to the local AT&T store and came out with a brand new Motorola Q9h. Being in an all Windows environment works better for me, as I'm sure being in an all Apple or Linux or whatever environment works for others.

RIM will continue to cause me to keep an eye on them, but for now, I am still a very happy Windows Mobile 6 owner.

And I'm lovin' my Q!

Comments

[GoodThings2Life]

Glad to see that someone else puts as much thought into picking a phone that works for THEM rather than just picking a phone on looks or because "it's cool." Definitely sounds like you made the right choice for your needs.

[Contributing Writer, Aaron J. Walker]

Thanks for the comment GoodThings2Life.

It was a tough decision because of the quality of the offerings made by RIM. But I knew I needed a productive piece of hardware that I could get to do what I wanted it to do the way I wanted. One of the primary reasons the iPhone was never in contention as a serious thought to replace my Dash.

Blackberries, on the other hand, are coming on strong, but I didn't feel there was enough there in terms of customization yet to make me jump ship.

Besides, as I have been following the Smartphone Round Robin, I had to agree with one of the bloggers about making sure you are happy with the "eco system" you are in.

I'm very happy with an all Windows environment and even more so that it extends all the way to my phone of choice.

I can't say it enough, Windows works for me in the way I want/need to work.