Real Estate Investor · Dearborn, MI · Member since 2010 · 75 posts · 27 votes
At our company right now there is a debate over which is the best cell phone for our company to get.
There are votes for the Droid, iPhone, and BlackBerry Bold. Most of us have BB Curves right now and a big knock is that the multimedia is lacking as well as web surfing.
I get reception everywhere, and rarely lose my 3G coverage. The internet is quick, and the phone can run multiple apps.
There are several real estate related apps that are helpful to the business, and the phone connects directly with facebook and google to help you manage your contacts.
The slide out keyboard is large enough to manage (I can't stand the tiny blackberry keyboards), and I find it easier to use than the on-screen keyboard of the iPhone. It does have voice recognition, and a touch screen keyboard though if you don't want the slide-out. The voice recognition works for spanish and english.
Plus, the Droid X (which I don't have), allows 5 other devices to use the phone's internet.
I get reception everywhere, and rarely lose my 3G coverage. The internet is quick, and the phone can run multiple apps.
There are several real estate related apps that are helpful to the business, and the phone connects directly with facebook and google to help you manage your contacts.
The slide out keyboard is large enough to manage (I can't stand the tiny blackberry keyboards), and I find it easier to use than the on-screen keyboard of the iPhone. It does have voice recognition, and a touch screen keyboard though if you don't want the slide-out. The voice recognition works for spanish and english.
Plus, the Droid X (which I don't have), allows 5 other devices to use the phone's internet.
I was in the industry for 2 years and have good friends who are still in it.
This is an easy call, first off get Verizon, then get a droid. Tons of real estate apps, full flash internet, great service, and the camera is great for taking pictures and videos of properties. I have the droid x and just switched from the blackberry tour.
I agree Verizon is the best service provider but they are also the most expensive. I have an iPhone which works fine and the Samsung Galaxy is good too (both are w/ Tmobile, cheap!). Overall, IMO, I think as long as you get a phone with a full internet browser, you'll be fine.
I use T-Mobile as i get unlimited calling and texting for only $69 monthly. Verizon costs mucgh more, but I have grown tired of my "dead zones" which cause dropped calls. I am thinking of switching. As for the phone itself, I am still stuck in the 90's and use a standard phone. (time to get with the times Will)
I'm with t-mobile as well, I have the motoblur now after being a blackberry guy for ages. I'm happy with it. Its got everything but a salt shaker on it so it works for me.
I had a regular phone up until this year. Actually, the same phone I got my freshman year of college. A free-with-contract POS. Now my wife thinks I'm married to my Droid.
I agree that Verizon is a bit pricey, but there's a few ways to get it down. If you Skype, or have a lot of contacts on Verizon, you don't need an unlimited minute plan. Another option is to split the cost with others, as adding a line is fairly cheap. Having 4 or 5 people on an account, pitching in, can make it pretty cheap.
My business partner has an iPhone on T-Mobile and constantly tells me that his phone never rang, or that he didn't have any missed calls when i, or others, can't get hold of him. Some of it is an excuse when he's lazy, but I have been with him a few times when he gets a voicemail without the phone ringing.
My business partner has an iPhone on T-Mobile and constantly tells me that his phone never rang, or that he didn't have any missed calls when i, or others, can't get hold of him. Some of it is an excuse when he's lazy, but I have been with him a few times when he gets a voicemail without the phone ringing.
Are you sure about? iPhones are sold exclusively with AT&T service so I don't see how he could have one with T Mobile. I am currently a T Mobile customer. I've got a great plan ($75 month for unlimited everything) and their customer service has been great and I think their coverage areas are better than Sprint, who I used to have. I've got the BB Curve, and it works for my purposes. I'm not much of a techie though.
Tony, above, also mentioned he had an iPhone on the T-Mobile network.
I believe it's a pretty simple hack to allow it to work on another network. Though, I'll admit that might be a part of the issue with his reception. Thanks for pointing that out.
I think most networks are very location specific. Check out the maps for each network, especially the 3G maps if you plan on using the internet, and see which has the best coverage where you need it.
I really like Verizon and carry a BB Curve. I don't like web surfing, seems slow, but that might be because of where I live, high in the Rocky Mountains. Something else to consider is an iPad and then just a simple phone. Then you have some real computing power and a large enough screen to read.
I have a droid, the apps available are awesome. This past summer I was on vacation in the mountains and the wifi in my log cabin stunk, luckily I had downloaded PDA NET on my droid and laptop. Viola, I had internet thanks to my handy little droid. I love it.
As an avid iPhone user on AT&T I can quickly suggest to you...something else on Verizon. AT&T service is downright ridiculous in my opinion. I get "No Service" at my work and dropped calls at my apartment one city over. I'm moving this Saturday 60 miles away to a coastal city and people are already saying AT&T doesn't work at the new apartments. Great! To be fair, the buildings definitely cause signal degradation and maybe the iPhone doesn't have the best antenna of the bunch.
When/if the iPhone comes out on Verizon I will definitely switch. I'm not sold on the Android platform yet because I'm not a fan of the UI.
Has a pretty detailed calendar/day planner, an "office suite" that allows the viewing of most Microsoft documents. Acrobat reader, and a great camera. I wish it had a stylus sometimes, so you could sign documents, but I'm sure someone will come up with a way to do it. I haven't played with everything it can do yet, but I can do what I need to do on it with no problems other than the document signing thing. Mine also came with a 32gig micro SD card, making it a pretty capable flash drive that I never lose.
When I first landed in Phoenix, I got a pay-as-you-go cheap phone from Virgin Mobile, which supposedly rode on the Sprint network. It worked fine but I had a hard time with text messaging. Email did not work.
So I got the Nexus One from Google and signed up for T Mobile. It's a great phone although the touch-screen is not as responsive as I would like. The stock Droid on it is fabulous for gmail, email, text messaging, contacts and phone calls. It is also a great clock and car phone and the google maps app is nice. But the phone did not work very well in my "home" in Phoenix although I am less than half a mile from a freeway.
So I signed up for Verizon and now have the Droid Incredible. I had to pay a big fee to T Mobile to cancel the contract with them. Verizon works even worse than T Mobile and I now have to use skype on my computer to call people. And the Droid Incredible prevents you from going to stock Android, which sucks because HTC's Sense UI is not really for me.
I am thinking now of switching to Sprint with the EVO - and paying one more cancellation fee :(.
Moral of the story - whether or not you get good reception seems to depend purely on your particular location and not on the general reputation of the phone company. The second thing is that the Droid UI is really quite nice and easy to use and I will not buy a phone again unless I can uninstall the manufacturer's UI and go with stock Droid.
BTW, I second Mike's suggestion about the iPad. I was driving recently and had to sign a contract before a deadline and was able to do it on my son's iPad using Docusign. I would have missed the deadline had I waited to get back home.
Also using an Iphone 3GS on Tmobile, and dont think I could ever go back to any other phone, BB Bold is crappy IMO. Blackberry and Palm both are slowly disappearing, as new companys make better smarter cheaper phones, like HTC.
Althought it seems like im getting screwed by tmobile compared to the prices listed here, I have no complaints. Was with verizon for awhile and didnt like the service, always had problems.
As with any unlocked Iphone on tmobile internet is not as fast as ATT's iphone, and where im currently at there is no 3g. Still an AWESOME phone I couldnt be without.
I use Tmobile and recently switched from Blackberry Bold to Samsung Galaxy Vibrant phone.
Things I miss from blackberry:
1. I have a blueant speakerphone in my car, and the andriod 2.1 OS does not support voice commands via bluetooth. My blackberry had it and I loved it. I'm told the 2.2 OS does support this features, but my phone does not have it yet.
2. The android OS does not support calls through wi-fi. I have a weak signal at my house but could always call through wi-fi. Now I cannot.
3. Visual voicemail only works on the andriod OS when the wi-fi is turned off. An annoying feature.
4. Battery life of course. The Android OS is a major drain on batteries. On a busy day, I will easily drain the battery in 8 hours. The blackberry would definitely hold up.
5. I miss the buttons on the blackberry, but the swype texting definitely makes it better.
6. I get a lot more dropped calls with the android system. It does not switch from 2G to 3G coverage areas gracefully.
I think about going back to the Bold everyday, but I'm sticking with my Vibrant because the internet features are so much nicer and that is a big bonus with mapping houses and looking up stuff.
People think I'm crazy but I still love my Blackberry. I guess it really doesn't matter what kind of phone you have as long as you USE it and make those calls and relationships. :-)
I've made the less...attractive decision in getting a phone!
After going back and forth between a Droid and BlackBerry (I have t-Mobile). I have gathered that it is extremely tough to argue the efficiency of a BlackBerry Bold in terms of business communication.
It definitley does not have all the bells and whistles of a Droid, but for now I am OK with sacrificing 1000s of Apps until BlackBerry figures out a way to do it.
With that being said, I hope BlackBerry gets their act together and creates a next level smart phone!
I use Zillow, a mortgage calculator, Real Estate by Smarter Agent, a notepad, and the invaluable google maps with navigation. I also have a craigslist app that alerts me as soon as items are posted with my keywords, and a multi language dictionary which helps when renting occasionally.
I'm also interested in what other people use, maybe I'm missing something great.
phone
GPS
camera
notes
email
text
calendar
voice search
voice recorder
web browsing
YouTube
calculator
loan calculator
contacts list
Google earth
realtor.com
CraigsListPro
Banking app
Well after months of agonizing, I finally picked up the T-Mobile G2 android based phone.
I could not be more thrilled! I was the biggest BlackBerry advocate of all time, but after an hour with this phone you cannot compare the two. Anything you can think of you can do with an Android phone. It is a completely new and refreshing cell phone experience on all accounts.
The G2 does have a slide out keyboard which is helpful but it does take some getting used to.
Overall I would highly recommend it to the BP community!