Help me pick a phone

[Druid]

My current phone kind of sucks. I use pre-paid minutes and it is kind of not economical when each text costs a minute. The vibrator is weak, and the ringer is so quiet. It doesn't have a full keyboard either. It just has to go. It is a t-mobile with a sim card in it, so does that mean if I get another t-mobile I can transfer all my contacts and use my same number and stuff? I am, however, willing to switch providers and have to use a new number if it is the best deal.

What I'm looking for:
Full keyboard (not touch keys)
plan that will allow me like 500 texts a month (in that range, I don't need too much)
50-100 minutes a month (I don't do too much talking

What I would really like but is not essential:
camera (doesn't have to be good, just needs to be able to take pictures)

What would be nice but not essential:
internet (this totally depends on the rate, I don't want to pay a whole bunch for it)

This phone should cost no more than $100, and that is pushing it. What provider/plan/phone combo should I go with? I heard verizon is good.

Edit: Virgin Mobile looks like they have some good deals, but is the company any good? It seems to be a bit smaller than the others. The phone selection looks a little slim.

http://www.virginmobileusa.com/cell-phone-plans/#/plans

Is this decent for national coverage? http://www.virginmobileusa.com/check-cell-phone-coverage

I checked the areas I'll be most of the time, and they are good to go, but it would be nice to know if I was traveling.

Edit again: It looks like t-mobile has much better coverage, and the $40 500 minute + unlimited text plan isn't bad, but the phones are sooo expensive.

 

[TheOtis]

I have T-mobile and love them, no complaints. I have a MyTouch 3G, best phone I've ever had. You should just go into your local T-Mobile store and check out their phones, I'm sure you can find a good one for around $100. However, if you want close to a full browser experience, you'll be forking out a bit more than $100 I believe.

 

[Fat.Clown]

you don't have to use t-mobile's phones

you can pick up unlocked phones online easily, better selection also

my past sim card based phones(I use sprint now, no sim cards) had the option to save contacts to the phone, or the sim card.

if you saved all your contacts to the sim card, just pop in that sim card in the new phone and you will be able to access your contacts on the new phone

 

[Druid]

Do I have to find these on ebay?

 

[KSoD]

Well i would think so. Its not like a store is going to sell a unlocked phone to be used on any service provider. I am pretty sure that they dont want you to take your business elsewhere...

 

[TheOtis]

Well i would think so. Its not like a store is going to sell a unlocked phone to be used on any service provider. I am pretty sure that they dont want you to take your business elsewhere...

Ya know surprisingly enough around here we have a few indie stores that sell unlocked used phones. I think some cricket wireless stores here will unlock your phone for you, but obviously not the popular ones like the iPhone. I'm not positive as I'm not a phone know it all, but if the phone works on the GSM network, or EDGE, you should be able to use it. Like AT&T,T-Mobile, Cricket, etc.

Hit up craigslist and ebay. You can usually find some pretty good deals on new or almost new phones. I know on the CL here, before I bought my MyTouch I ran across several new ones that were around $100 and new.

 

[Fat.Clown]

actually...... unlocked phones are pretty common these days

even newegg.com sells unlocked phones

Newegg.com - Unlocked Cell Phones

but not cheap though, so eBay is probably a better place to hunt for your price range

 

[Druid]

Well, my parents seem to be pretty set on t-mobile, and I think I want a new phone, so I'm going to try to stick with a t-mobile phone. Anyone know any equivalents to like the Env2/3 or something that can flip up in both directions in the t-mobile area? I want something small like that with a full qwerty keyboard. This needs to be nice and portable. Most people seem to have Verizon, so these are the phones I'm seeing.

Edit: I'm pretty sure I would like one that can flip in both directions. Are there any economical ones out there?

 

[Fat.Clown]

would you be interested in a Sony Ericsson W900i?

it's been in full body plastic casing since day 1, so scratches are minimal

fully functioning, nothing wrong with it but like I said previously, I am with sprint now, and they don't use sim cards in their phones.

only 1 problem...... I seem to have misplaced the charger, so... you might have to get that off of eBay for an extra $3 bucks

 

[Jayce]

Just make sure if you get an unlocked phone that you get one with the right frequency bands.

ATT uses 850/1900 mhz bands, whereas Tmobile, along with the rest of the GSM world, uses 900/1800. So there's 4 bands in all.

If you get an unlocked phone and it supports all 4 bands, you can pop in your sim card and use it on Tmobile if you wish just as easily if you would use it with ATT. If you get an unlocked phone and it's a dual band with only 850/1900, going to Tmobile will be quite a problem.

Just keep in mind this is limited to GSM carriers only. Sprint, Verizon, and all of those other carriers use CDMA (meh) which is limited to US only, from what I understand. I don't even know if you can cross phones over between Sprint and Verizon, but I may be wrong.

GSM is the "world standard" for cellular technology.