New phone advice?

[dougo]

It's been two years since I bought a T-Mobile G1, and my contract is almost up. Should I get a G2, a Nexus S, or something else? I'm pretty attached to the physical keyboard on my G1, but I'm actually leaning toward a Nexus S, just because it's newer and shinier and I am somewhat fascinated by the idea of Near-field communication (not that I have a good use in mind... non-networked multiplayer games, maybe?). Does anyone have a good reason to prefer one over the other, or to prefer some other option? I'm pretty sure I'm sticking with Android, though. I'm also probably going to stick with a T-Mobile contract rather than get an unlocked phone—it wasn't too hard to stick with this phone for two years, so I think I should be able to survive another two-year commitment. But is there something on the horizon that will make me regret it? Or, is there some other carrier that I would much rather be on? I've had pretty good experiences with T-Mobile, though I don't have anything to compare it to. I am slightly wary about the advertised "4G speeds" rather than actual 4G, but is it worth switching to Sprint for that?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

CES is next week. I'm waiting and see what they announce there. Things like dual core CPUs, more phones with 802.1n, and better cameras are around the corner, I think. Also better/more keyboarded phones, too.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

Not sure I can wait a whole week :)

[kazmat.livejournal.com]

Hm, apparently I posted as anonymous before. Dumb browser. Anyway, I have a treo 700p, so I feel your pain. I desperately want a new phone, but I'm waiting to see if there's anything good coming down the pike. As other's commented, I really did like swype when I fiddled around with the Epic 4G (Samsung Galaxy S for Sprint) in the store, but I think I still want a keyboard because I hope to be able to use this device to do sysadminly tasks.

You might want to keep an eye on http://www.andro-phones.com/ for rumors, leaked pictures, announcements, etc.

How do you like T-Mobile? How's their coverage, and what's their unlimited data plan like? I would love to go with a GSM phone so I could pop the sim out and use it as I see fit, but I'm worried that I'd get no coverage in a lot of places.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

Like I said, I don't have anything to compare it to, but T-Mobile coverage has seemed pretty good to me. The only places I haven't been able to get 3G are out at Walden Pond, and in some of my friends' apartments (which is somewhat annoying, but they usually have wireless that I can use so no biggie). But, I spend most of my time in Cambervillington, so it might be spottier out in the exurbs. (Though it was fine in Billerica too.)

For a long time I had a $60/mo plan that was 300 phone minutes and unlimited data. I switched to unlimited minutes for a couple months when I had a client who liked long phone meetings, and that was $93. Now I'm back to 500 minutes, for $71 (they don't seem to offer the 300 minutes plan anymore).

[mattsnaps.livejournal.com]

With Swype, I can type way faster on my N1 than I ever could on my physical-keyboard messaging-oriented Nokia E71.

[kodi]

Some of the older Danger Hiptops had keyboards that were better than Swype, but I have a Moto Droid, and the only reason I slide out the physical keyboard now is when I'm trying to select text. My next phone will most likely not have a physical keyboard, and it was an absolute must-have until I tried Swype.

[jdarnold.livejournal.com]

Like you, my G1 contract was up so I started the search. And, like you, I thought I needed a physical keyboard, so the G2 was most intriguing. I came across this video "dogfight" between the Nexus S, G2 and the MyTouch 4G:

http://ow.ly/3tbBo

I decided to go with the MyTouch 4G, as it is a screamer, has a front facing camera (I'm working on Android video conferencing software) and $100 cheaper than the Nexus & $40 cheaper than the G2 ($99 at BestBuy). Got it yesterday and I'm in love. It's really fast, the Swype typing on the onscreen keyboard is amazingly painless and fast, and the 4G speeds are sweet. There's also a bunch of other cool touches, like DLNA broadcasting, T-Mobile TV, and more. Really loving it so far and not missing the physical keyboard at all.