Alright, time for either a converged device or a Smartphone!

[Joelacrane]

The time has come. I'm 18, and I need a cell phone. I'm getting sick and tired of not being able to contact people when I need to.

U.S. Cellular has a decent little plan that should fit my needs.
$30 a month = 300 Minutes
$6 = Either free incoming calls of free nights and weekends (Starting an 9)
$10 = Unlimited EDGE

I'm still debating on whether or not I want free nights and weekends or free incoming calls.

So now, I need to get some advice on a device! I can't decide between a Smartphone and a Pocket PC.

Pocket PC:
+ I could get one with a slide-out keyboard, and use it for email and texting
- It would make my Dell Axim x51v a little useless
- I haven't touched a Pocket PC with a phone yet, but I'll bet you have to use the stylus all the time, right?
- I'm not sure I could get what I want for under $200

Smartphone:
+ I could get one with bluetooth, so I could use my Axim for web surfing. Right?
+ No stylus!
- Text input wouldn't be very fun

Either way, I'd like to see if I can use Skype for my outgoing calls, but I would need someone to test it and tell me for sure. With my limited minutes, It would be nice to just use skype all the time. It almost works acceptably on my Dial-up connection (It is clear besides the 3 second lag), why not on edge?

Point out some models and give me advice! Thanks!

[Dale Daniels]

There are so many choices these days. That is what makes our mobile world so cool. If you have an Axim, you might look into a phone like the LG CU500. I use one in conjunction with my iPAQ hx2795 via Bluetooth. The good thing is the better processor that the Dell offers you.

Recently I also purchased a Cingular 8525 and I can't say enough positive things about this one. I have been very resistant to the phone enabled device or smartphone up until this point. Once I tried the 8525 I was sold!

The problem is that the 8525 is expensive. The best I have seen is $350 on ebay. However, I truly think this one is well worth it.

[Cybrid]

Pocket PC:
Smartphone:PocketPC! Hands down! Coming from a PPC background going to a smartphone would be annoying. You'll expect things to work a certain way...
I own the HTC Apache/VZW 6700/UTStarcom 6700, a nice handy PPC phone, but I still carry my Dell. You'll hate the smaller screens and cpu's for gaming and multimedia.
-Is the $10 Edge plan, truly unlimited? Most have "reasonable use" caps. *On my provider, it's way cheaper to get more minutes.
-Some service providers do block Voip traffic.

All said. Ebay, Kijiji, Craigslist for an older device. You should be able to get one for less than $200. Just be careful on these sites. A deal too good to be true usually is.

[Joelacrane]

I'll stop in and ask. I can still use a Pocket PC as a modem for my Axim, correct?

Once again, Cybrid saves the day.

[Cybrid]

I'll stop in and ask. I can still use a Pocket PC as a modem for my Axim, correct?
Yep. It should work. There are caveats though...
Dialup over BT might be disabled. Some only support USB connections which the Axim cannot do.
You'd need either a serial capable device with the cable or a BT device with no restrictions on the use as modem.
As if there wasn't enough to worry about already... :roll:
Flippin' useless cell companies.

[Joelacrane]

I am not using the Microsoft Bluetooth stack on my Axim, its the Broadcom stack. Just the other day I was experimenting with my friends Razr (US Cellular) because he has EDGE. I didn't have the phone number to dial so I could not continue.

I would also like to use the phone with my laptop. My laptop is ancient, just barely capable of running Windows XP (Pentium 2), so I don't have bluetooth. If I had to, I could pick up a bluetooth card but I wouldn't mind just using USB.