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).