Cellphone How To

My new favorite Cell Phone: Touch HTC. Read my review and why I think it's currently one of the best around for the money!

Awhile back I got asked what my favorite cell phone on the market today was. I got to thinking about it because mine was a little outdated (a year old and outdated - can you believe it?), I've been using the Sanyo M1 for awhile now. I really like that phone, it was one of the first with 1GB of internal memory standard, but now it just seems like your ordinary flip phone now - even though is has all kinds of multimedia capabilities.

I went back to my original criteria for buying a cell phone, which has been of course updated over time now that new technology is available.:

Cell Phone Purchase Check List

• Never Overpay (buy bleeding edge or brand new). This usually means sticking to $250 or less.
• Never Underpay (buy free or sub $100 phones). IMHO - quality is much cheaper.
• Make sure it has the features you want for the next 2 years. This would usually include:
1. Quality Camera
2. Bluetooth (stereo if using as mp3 player)
3. Removable microSD card slot
4. Web and Wifi Access
5. Phone as Modem
6. Adequately sized screen for your type of usage
• Look for positive reviews across multiple sites

So - it was off to do some research. I looked for many hours at PDA's, flip phones, walkie-talkie phones, sliders, and more...and the "Touch" cell phone by "HTC" was the one that caught my eye. Here are the finer points of this phone:

TouchFLO technology: In layman's terms "it works like an iPhone" (at half the price). You can use a stylus, but your fingers are just as good.
Windows Mobile 6: You can sync your Outlook, calendar, and contacts with your PC using "ActiveSync" software.
2 Megapixel Camera: Take better quality pictures up to 1200x800 pixels in size - good enough to print or use for desktop backgrounds.
MicroSD memory card slot: will take up to 4GB microSD cards meaning you can store up to 450+ songs in your cell phone.
Stereo Bluetooth: Use your phone as a high quality mp3 player with stereo bluetooth built-in.
Phone as Modem: Browse the web on your laptop through the phone.
4 hours talk time: Pretty darn good for a touch phone.
Rubberized case: Easy to palm and hold, comfortable for long periods of time.

You can use this phone on Sprint, Alltel, Verizon, AT&T (Cingular) - so nearly all the major carriers have it now. You can even find it on eBay - you might even get a deal. The advantage of buying on eBay is if you pay the price there you won't have to buy into a contract. But if you get it from one of the carriers (Sprint, etc.) you'll get it cheaper (usually) - but have to sign up for probably a 2 year contract. You might get lucky and get some kind of mail-in rebate as well. Sometimes Amazon has some great deals on phones, so I'll give you some links below for good deals on the HTC Touch.