dumbphones

[in_parentheses]

I have had a phone that pretty much stores numbers and makes phone calls for 8 years, but I long to have the internet in my pocket like all the cool kids. I am totally overwhelmed by all the smartphone options, though. Help me, Dr. LJ

Comments

[imminently]

I don't have a smart phone either, but word seems to be that the iPhone will be coming to Verizon in the fall. It may be worth waiting for. Otherwise I defer to others who actually have smart phones.

[marginaliana]

I have an LG enV (yes, it's a stupid spelling) with Verizon and I'm fairly fond of it. It has both general web access and their special web module things which are sort of app-like (weather, news headlines, email, etc). All of the web modules that I've used are pretty good. Also, on the general web access you can set favorites, so it's easy to get to sites you use all the time.

On the con side, I'm less than thrilled with the way the LJ mobile site works on it, to be honest - the text is small and you can't do anything super complicated - but if you just want to be able to do basic posting of entries it's fine.

I don't know how it goes with iTunes since I have a dedicated mp3 player that I use for all my music stuff and I don't use iTunes anyway. I do find that using the web access is heavy on the battery, but I'm kind of anal about keeping it charged up so I haven't had it run out or anything.

[chieur]

If the rumors are true, I'd suggest waiting for the iPhone on Verizon.

If they aren't, or you don't want to wait, I'd recommend a Motorola Droid. Android (Google's phone OS) is actually pretty great, and does some things that the iPhone doesn't (multitasking, syncing through the cloud rather than by a physical connection). See if you can get one to play with. But the physical keyboard, the screen, the processor, and the operating system make it to my mind the most compelling alternative to the iPhone out there. Android + good hardware = damn good smart phone.

That said, since my new university has a deal with AT&T, I'm probably going to get an iPhone once my T-Mobile contract is up in November.

[aatish]

I'll second the Droid as a really good option.

[froggoddess]

My Verizon friend loves his Droid. Damn, that's a funny sentence to type...