[...] to my helpful readers, I’ve got a new cellphone: a Sprint Mogul. I adore it! Leaving aside the phone bit, it allows [...]

My lead choice right now is a Sprint Mogul through SERO. I love the slide keyboard. I tried a Treo, but the little buttons didn’t work for me. (And since the only people I’ve seen recommend it online said “but you can’t text one-handed while you’re driving with a Mogul”, I’m not thinking I need that particular Treo “feature”.)

I’m a little concerned that the coverage maps show Good, not Best, in my neighborhood, though. And I’m not sure whether KC still needs his phone. Still some decisions to be made. Again, thank you all for the valuable sharing of your experience.

I still use an unlocked Treo 650 with T-Mobile. You have to enter a proxy to get on the web with it, but only once…I think you can find the info on treocentral.com. And T-Mobile has a nice secret: a very cheap unlimited data plan for $6/month. It’s supposedly “slower” than their full plan, but no one can really explain how much or why. It’s old-fashioned GSM GPRS — not 3G or anything — but for light websurfing and email, it works great. (You have to poke around a little on their website to find the plan.)

The Treo also works with a fold-out keyboard, which makes it a nice little writing machine when I don’t feel like carrying a laptop around.

My wife uses a Virgin Mobile pay-as-you go phone, which I think is on the Sprint network. She’s had no problems with it, but she rarely uses it.

Ask around, see what companies get good service where you are. Me and James have Verizon, but it’s really expensive. But we get the best overall service from them in our area.

Good luck on finding a phone. And it was great seeing you in Baltimore.

I tried checking Helio, after seeing an ad spread in a magazine a few days ago, but their promo site was so flashy and hip that I couldn’t find any of the concrete information I was seeking. :) I’ll look again.

* You might also look into the Helio Ocean. I’ve read great things about it… Helio re-sells Sprint’s network, so you get EVDO and a pretty impressive phone.

Anyone have an opinion on Virgin Mobile?

I switched to the Sprint SERO plan which is mad cheap. You need the email of an employee to join SERO, but with some minor googling, I found a non-employee email in a magazine article which worked fine. I got the Treo 755p which is great, but you can actually sit and watch the battery indicator lose power. Go back a model number or two if you can.

I used the iphone in store. I’m not sure how anyone can comfortably type on it.

Of the 3 services I’ve had, T-Mobile, Sprint and Cingular, T-Mobile had the best customer service, for what it’s worth.

http://www.sprint.com/sero

500 minutes, free nights (7pm) and weekends, unlimited data, unlimited text messaging for $30 a month

If you buy a generation or two behind (I’m on a 650 now), they’re pretty affordable.

Also, I really like having a GSM phone. If something happens to my phone (an issue pre-Treo for me), I can just take out the card and drop it into an old backup. I go to Europe once or twice a year, so I can also pick up a local SIM there and get pay-as-you-go service.

In terms of speed of data transmission, you will do better with the CDMA2000/EVDO phones (Sprint, Verizon) than with UMTS/HSDPA (or its predecessor GSM/EDGE) phones (T-Mobile, AT&T), at least in big cities. I’ve heard Sprint has less-than-ideal coverage, but don’t have any firsthand experience on this.

If I was going to buy another GSM phone besides the iPhone though, I would get a T-Mobile Dash. Most stable Windows Mobile phone I’ve seen, you can run Skype on it (kinda moot with T-Mobiles new VoIP service), it has Wi-Fi, etc.

As far as CDMA phones, I guess a Treo is always a nice choice, WM preferably. I like Sprint better than Verizon because they don’t tend to cripple phones like Verizon does. Both run EVDO rev 1a in most major metropolitan areas, and that will leave GSM 3G/EDGE in the dust as far as speed. Sprint is spotty in some areas though, and their customer service can be frustrating if you have any major issues.

Hope this helps.

Pricewise, you probably want T-Mobile and the MDA.