After using a smartphone/PDA phone, could you ever go back to a regular cell phone?

Use a "crippled" phone ever again?

  • Yes

    Votes: 10 13.3%

  • No

    Votes: 53 70.7%

  • Depends on the phone

    Votes: 12 16.0%
  • Total voters
    75
M

markt435

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Aug 9, 2004
Messages
7,590
I was thinking about this earlier today and also just now while setting up ALL of my email accounts on my treo. I could never go back. After having all the bells and whistles for awhile now, I doubt I could live without a smartphone. In fact if I could find a portable keyboard for it, I'd prolly get rid of my Eee altogether. Anyway, could you live with a "crippled" phone ever again?
 
No, I don't wear a watch, don't have an alarm clock, don't check my email from my computer, don't have a land line, don't bring an ipod with me, etc. My phone is with me 95% of the time, so why skimp? A qwerty keyboard makes things soooooooo much easier as does the large screen - really I use my phone 15% for phone calls and the rest doing other things so a smart phone is important for me.
 
Nope. After having a Blackjack, iPhone and iPhone 3G. I just can't go back.
 
Kind of funny the poll says "crippled" phone when I'm itching to get rid of my iPhone because I think it's crippled. :D

Anyway, there's no way I can use a plain "only for calls" cell phone again. I'd really like a good non WinMo phone with a kick ass camera. *sigh*
 
I went back to a normal cell phone from my old XV-6700
 
Nope, after i got my hands on a blackberry (first one was a 7100i), i knew i couldnt go back after that. Thats like going back to dial-up internet. Now im ricking a curve, bold and storm are too expensive right now and ill wait for my contract renewal.
 
Yes I can and did, I had a Palm treo 650 and sold it and bought an Env then I got the HTC XV6800 and returned it for the LG Dare which so far I'm glad I did.
 
As far as I'm concerendd the dare isn't really a crippled phone anyways. It is just as capable as many of the 'smRtphones' avalible. Phones like that Arent dumbphones at all. They aren't smart but they certinetly aren't dumb
 
I went from my budget-level Samsung A640 (worst phone ever) to my Palm Centro and can't imagine going back. I have a terrible memory, my old cheapy MP3 player broke, I get lost when driving in unfamiliar areas despite having good sense of direction, I don't have a land-line or a digital camera, and unfortunately I'm away from my main computer more often than I like. My Palm Centro (or any smartphone) with an unlimited data plan relieve me of these faults.

I suppose I could go with one of these "multimedia" phones like the Samsung Instinct or iPhone, but I'd rather have a Palm or Blackberry.
 
I went from a Samsung SCH-a850 and it was the worst phone ive ever had it just drove me nuts. I decided to go all out and bought the most expensive and feature rich PDA/Phone verizon had. And i couldnt be happier. I could never imagine going back.
 
I came from Cricket using a Samsung Siren which was a good phone for what I needed it for....making calls.
I always carried a MP3 player on me for listening to music, a 8 gig thumb drive drive for movies to watch on my work pc while on lunch and additional songs that I can swap out with my mp3 player.
I recently got promoted at work and required traveling so my wife got me a Tom Tom so now I have to carry a backpack for my toys.
I started looking into smart phones primarily for keeping appointments and emails. So I got the Blackberry curve and found out that it replaced everything that I had in one unit and more. So I sold all my other stuff and made more than enough to pay for the phone and a few accessories. So to answer the OP's question, no I will never look at another non smart phone again.
 
i plan on getting a palm treo pro for sprint once it comes out. ic an't wait :)
 
For me it is how the phone is used.

If you expect me to do my current job with a crippled phone? No way. Never.

If it means I can go back to leaving work at work, not needing to be able to check on emails, respond to them, etc nights/weekends? HECK YEA. I'd give up a phone for the luxury of not having to deal with it, it's just I couldn't do that with what I currently need to do to do my job.
 
I mainly use my phone to stay connected in other ways than just voice. I rarely use any minutes on my plans, it's mainly all data. So no, I don't think I can go back :)
 
I want to.

I've hated every "smartphone" I've owned. They all have horrible battery life and reception in comparison with the "buy one get one free" Samsung X270 or whatever it was tiny clamshell I got something like 8 years ago. I've had Nokias, Sony-Ericcsons, and Motorolas since. They've all been unreliable, overly large and heavy, and died consistently after as few as two calls. I actually carry a spare battery for my current phone, because I've had it die on me at inconvenient times so many times now.

Also, for all the bloated features they offer, I never seem to use them. Perhaps that's just me, I grant you that, but considering how tech-oriented I tend to be otherwise, I doubt it.

The reasoning for this? Implementation of those features is horrible. I've played music on my Motorola Rokr about... 3 times. The interface is shit. It's slow. There's startup delay, a play delay, a stop delay, transferring music to the phone is equally slow. There's really nothing good about it aside from a multi-band EQ, and this is a dedicated "music phone"! It theoretically has video support, but that requires format conversion (annoying, slow) and the end result is so horrid that it leaves me wondering why I bothered every time. This was the same with the Nokia and the Sony Ericcson.

I suppose I'm just 'spoiled', but really, until modern, affordable phones ($800+ Nokia N series, I'm looking at you) are fast enough to handle all my media without slowdowns or transcoding of any kind and have proper browsers with Flash support that don't bog down (iPhone, N810) I'd rather stick with a phone that's good at being a goddamn phone.
 
Blackberry my friend. Great battery life (minimum of 1 day- never ran out yet!), well designed product IMO.
 
TechieSooner said:
Blackberry my friend. Great battery life (minimum of 1 day- never ran out yet!), well designed product IMO.
Click to expand...

Well designed and built, yes, and very good battery life, but absolutely horrible for everything save email from what I've seen, and I /hate/ the form-factor. They're just too wide to be easy to carry (I refuse to get a phone holder -- I am a geek, not a total social outcast) but not wide enough to have an actual usable keyboard.
 
SMS is great. It's threaded. I use MMS, everything on this thing is easier than my Windows Mobile device was.

Formfactor is personal preference, but I just carry mine in my pocket. I actually consider mine to be pretty wide though... Check out the Blackberry Bold it is much wider than the Curve was.
 
I got a Treo 600 a number of years ago, and upgraded to the Treo 650, the the Treo 700p. This past Friday I upgraded to the Touch Pro. So no I couldn't go back to a non-smartphone. I might be able to get away with one of the not-so-smartphones like the one my wife wants, it is an LG something or other. But a straight phone, no, could not do it. I check e-mail, play games, listen to music all from my phone.
 
I tried to switch from a blackberry 8700 to a moto razr and that lasted about 2 weeks before I went and shelled out $500 for an blackberry 8800
 
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