I don't currently have a smart phone, but I'm going to switch plans soon one way or another, and I'm thinking about joining the modern world. To preempt the questions, no I am not just getting one to keep up with the Jones, I have an e-fund and save plenty for retirement and have room in my budget, etc.

Any thoughts on how to choose a phone? And where to get it?

What are you looking for from a smartphone? If you just need something that does email and web browsing, I'd recommend Straight Talk from personal experience. I have a Nokia E71 with them and it does all the important stuff, though on an obscure and outdated OS. $45 a month unlimited everything (voice, texting, data).

What I like about it is that I have no contract, so as soon as I feel like it's worth it to upgrade to a truly modern phone I can just drop this plan at any time.

I am extremely biased, and to be honest, haven't had a different smartphone except for a palm like 3 years ago. But I couldn't ask for anything more than what my iPhone does. Internet browsing doesn't get any easier, it easily links all the itunes stuff, endless apps for anything you could think of, the newer versions are extremely fast. Email is easy, texting is easy...everything is just easy.

I haven't had any of these android things, but to be honest, I'm not sure I'll give them a chance, if the iphone keeps updating, I see myself sticking with it.

To make this a little cheaper, consider combining with someone on a family plan and splitting the savings...I still am on my parents plan and just go on an pay my portion of $45 bucks a month (unlimited everything, I was grandfathered in on ATT) it doesnt get much cheaper than that.

I want advice on choosing a phone, not on choosing a carrier (though it can be hard to separate the two). Sorry for being unclear. Perhaps I used the wrong word and should have said "device"?

I do plan to join a family plan with a couple of my siblings; probably Verizon.

My vote would be an iPhone. It is really straight forward and easy to use. But if you like to tinker and set up things your way then it would not be the best phone for you. Android would be a better choice. The iPhone has some limitation but unless you want to really customize it, the iPhone is a great phone.

Anything but an iPhone. Unless you really like the idea of only playing in Steve's sandbox.

I run a HTC Desire HD.

Steve irritated me greatly a few years ago, and I have never bought a product of his since (nor will I).

A big thing for me with a smart phone is I have to have a physical keyboard. I send a lot of emails from my phone and I've tried but cannot get used to a touch screen keyboard.

I have worked around phones for many years, and I can tell you everyone and their dog will say something different.

To try keeping this as brief as possible (I have had hour long discussions on this subject, so anything under a page is brief for me.) And I know you are looking for phone suggestions, but I will mostly focus on what Verizon offers since you show interest in them.

iPhone - Overall its a solid phone. No, its not the must have phone as many paint it to be, but it is a very solid and simple phone. However, there are reasons certain people will never use it (I personally wouldn't get one, but that's just me. And I owned the original Iphone for two years, and it was easy to leave it.) However, most these reasons won't affect a majority of users (or at least they won't know they do.)

Android - A solid OS that has many manufactures, however it can be a bit more complicated at times. This is where you will see a wide selection of phones, both good and bad. Their newest version of their OS (4.0, or better known as Ice Cream Sandwich) tries streamlining the entire OS and making it simpler to use (which it does to a large degree.) If you want the latest and greatest on Verizon get the Galaxy nexus. It is an amazing piece of hardware and the new version of android is honestly as good as reviewers have been saying, I personally got the phone the day of launch. The Galaxy S2 is a solid phone for other carriers.

Blackberry - Not much to say here, they are experiencing a slow death, but business are keeping them alive for the mean time. They do have some of the best physical keyboards, but they lack in almost everything else. They can do a handful of things well (mostly email.) But even in these fields they are falling behind.

Windows OS - A few years ago I wouldn't have even mentioned them. But their new phones are solid, and their UI is very very attractive and user friendly. Although their app market isn't as large as the other OSes, they have a good number of those most widely used and their market has growth potential.

I would just go into a store and play around with the phones. As for who to get it from, not the carrier themselves. They will be the last ones to have deals on the phone, and also the custom experience ranges. I personally do Best Buy, not that they are amazing, but they usually throw something in, and they will help transfer all your contacts to your new phone, along with helping setup anything you may need. However, you can experience bad customer service at any store.

Be careful of craig's list. I have sold a few phones on craig's list without issue, but there are alot of stolen/broken phones being sold on craig's list, so you have to be careful if you go that route.

What it all comes down to is personal preferences and what you are comfortable with, cause if you aren't comfortable with your phone, then it doesn't matter what others think or say.

If you have any specific questions, I will try checking the boards and get back to you with answers.

I just got an iphone a couple days ago. It's not perfect. I wish I had an LED blinking light to tell me I have messages. I *hate* that I can't get it to say "you have a text!" without it having the first 2 lines of text. What if I am talking Christmas presents and don't want my FH to see? I ended up taking SMS notification off the screen, so now I'm just checking it all the time to see if I have messages.

I love the functionality and sleekness. The Android phones always seem too cluttered to me (disclaimer, I haven't seen Ice cream Sandwich. And I will never get used to that name). I haven't gotten Siri to do anything useful for me. I keep trying to get it to act like the computer on Star Trek.

On the other hand, I prefer the tactile feedback of typing on an HTC phone. My previous phone was a blackberry storm, and my favorite thing was the feeling of clicking.

I am tempted by the Galaxy Nexus but wonder if it's worth the "new tech smell" premium.

I dont know how the new OS works on the iphone cause I haven't downloaded it yet, but under the old one if you go to settings-->messages and turn "show preview" off...it just shows the person it is from and "Text Message" when you receive the message...I would think that would still be a feature

I waited for the Galaxy S2 to come out that i could upgrade my droid (the original.) When verizon didn't get it, I ended up waiting out for the galaxy nexus (and man was the wait long, talking i was looking to replace my phone mid june when it went out.)

The Galaxy Nexus is pretty amazing, and is the same price of the iphone (32gb iphone = $300 as well.) Although the cost didnt make me smile, 32gb of storage is defenitiatly needed for where phones are going. A friend got the 16gb iphone 4s when it first came out a few months ago and he is almost full already just from apps and some video clips he took with the phone.

ICS (android 4.0) is a VERY solid OS. I don't even remember the things that bothered me from 2.x, it just makes so much sense. I love what they did with all the most commonly used applications (phone, text, gmail, calendar, ect.) The phone also runs VERY smoothly and the screen is gorgeous. As many sites point out, the camera could be better, but it ISN'T bad. And it takes pictures instantly, which when i am taking pictures with my phone, its almost always a time sensitive thing. I haven't missed a shot with the new phone.

If you can get it at an upgrade price, I would recommend it. I would make sure you are alright with the size before buying it. It is very light for how large it is, and it isn't a huge phone, but it is bigger (but watching videos on it is amazing, and the extra space makes the keyboard very easy to use.)

If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask.

Thanks! It's going to take me a while to get used to this newfangled technology. :p

My vote goes for the BlackBerry Bold 9900

* You know your data is safe with it. (Look up "Carrier IQ" if you want more details.)
* It does best what a phone is most used for:
- call quality is clearer than other smartphones
- finding any address in your contacts list takes two keys
- you control how you want to be notified (ringtones/flashing LED/vibrate/on screen indicator) depending on what type of message (phone/email/IM/SMS) and who it's from
* It has the standard camera (with flash)/video/music/radio/media functions

I would recommend the iPhone.

I've been using the HTC Incredibile from Verizon for about a 1.5 years and while it is a nice smartphone, I feel like there are some inadequacies:

1. There are so many phones running the android operating system (OS) that there is a good possibility that the particular app you are using won't be optimized for your phone. A lot of the reviews for particular apps have comments such as, "works on the Nexus", "works on the Incredible", "doesn't work on the Droid, etc..."

2. The Android OS updates may take a while to get. The Gingerbread OS came out about a year ago, but I finally got the update on my HTC Incredible during Thanksgiving. There are phones with similar specs to the Incredible that received the update soon after launch. I also think this is a problem with Google and the service providers having to prioritize which phones get the the update. I don't think this is much of a problem with the iPhone since there are only a few models around.

3. HTC Music player is not as good as the iPhone. The music player application cannot accurately keep track of the time lapsed, the album covers aren't shown all the time, and there are other minor glitches.

4. If your car has a USB port, it is most likely optimized for an iPhone/iPod. Thus, there will be extra steps in connecting an android phone and all the features will not be available.

These may be nit-picky, but I try to get my $30/month worth of features.

If you do decide on getting the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, you'll get the most technologically advanced phone on the market right now. It has the newest operating system and is very powerful. However, in 3-6 months, there will be a better android phone that will be peddled to the masses.