The content below is an email I sent to some friends and family summarizing my decision for a cheap cell phone. I thought it may be useful to others, so I'm putting it on my site, too.

From: Scott []
Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 2:34 AM
To:
Subject: I Need A Cell Phone (good info, I hope)

My thanks to those of you who responded with advice… I’m sending my final analysis to a lot more people than I originally asked because I think it’ll be helpful to anyone looking for a cheap cell phone. Feel free to forward this; but, please delete my email address from the thread. And, if I didn’t ask, don’t be offended. I really just asked those I considered to be on the cutting edge for this topic.

I’ve spent hours following up on leads, and researching all of this further.

The most common recommendations were for the Treo and the iPhone. My preconception about the iPhone turned out not to be the case: I was worried about monthly service, and as it turns out, all of the plans among the major phones are pretty ridiculous when compared against my needs, and the iPhone (first generation) was better than most. The pay-as-you-go offerings from the major providers are downright ludicrous.

Eventually, I guess I chose cowardice. I got a crippled Motorola W376 from tracfone.com for $49, with “Double Minutes for Life”. Once the phone arrives, I’ll use a bonus code (52057), and buy their 400 minute card (doubles to 800) adding a bonus 200 minutes.

In the end, I get the phone with over 1000 minutes to use over the course of a year for $150. (15 cents per minute, including the phone, with no crazy per-day fees or roaming charges.)

If I need more minutes, I can get 450, and an additional three months, for $80. The minutes will double to 900, bringing the cost per minute to about 9 cents. I’ll pay about a minute for a text message exchange, so it’s probably more practical than making a phone call in most cases. I didn’t care about messaging going into this, so I’ll consider it a bonus.

It’s nearly impossible to find straight rate information on the TracFone site, so here’s a link to purchase cards:

https://www.tracfone.com/add_buy_airtime.jsp?task=buyairtime&buying_airt...

Anyway, yes, this does represent a serious compromise from my original goals. I guess I can carry our Archos 504 for any multimedia needs. It’s crazy-bulky; but, 160GB of capacity is hard to match any other way. The camera portion of this phone is rather poor, too; and you have to “mail” photos to get it off of the device; but, I’ll "make do" for now. At least it has BlueTooth.

In the end, if having this phone delays buying a “iPhone-type” device for three months, I’ll still be to the good, money-wise. I honestly expect that my initial 1000 minutes would truly keep me going for a year under “normal” usage. Plus, in the coming months, I may find that GD is willing to foot part of my bill, or get me a BlackBerry.

Another concern that came up was the fact that only Verizon phones work in the Metro tunnels. Finally, I realized how irrelevant that is… If I take the train into work, I’ll be underground for about half of the trip. If I desperately need to make a call from inside the tunnel, it’ll probably mean that Washington is under attack, and the phone grid will be swamped anyway 

Again, my thanks to everyone for their input. For those looking for a high-end (non iPhone) camera phone, check out the “LG Rage”. It actually appears to have the best camera on the market, and should even be great for soccer moms who want slow motion replays 

Oh, BTW, a very cool thing about TracFone: you can transfer your service at a later date. if Cinthy likes my phone, we can upgrade her LG-225 to my model for $50, moving her number, time, and unused minutes. (When I bought hers, I had no idea that the photos on TracFone(s) needed to be mailed; but, then again, I’m not sure that she knows that yet, either.)

I should also mention that most reviewers seem to agree that TracFone's customer service is horrible. I'll post more about that if I run into problems myself.

Regards,
Scott

From: Scott []
Sent: Monday, July 28, 2008 1:21 PM
To:
Subject: Cell Phones

If you were going to buy a phone today, and you didn’t have a work-provided BlackBerry, what would you buy?

At this point, all I can say with certainty that I want is decent MP3 capabilities, a semi-decent camera, and I’d prefer support for SDHC memory cards. I don’t intend to pay $100/month for service; but, I’m not afraid to drop a few bucks on the phone. I’d like something that I can at least load “lists” (shopping, wanted DVDs, etc) into; but, that’s not a make-or-break feature.

And… I’m not sure if you’re aware of this one:

This company sets people who want out of their contracts up with people who’ll assume them… it’s very likely where my next phone will be coming from.

http://www.celltradeusa.com

Regards,
Scott