What phone should I buy

[Splash]

Ok my family are all in the market for new phones - that's 4 of us at once!

I love the gadgets and stuff but the others probably want the simple life.

3 of us are generously proportioned - OK we're real tall and have huge hands - so i'm not lokking for something the size of a matchbook.

Coverage is important as we don't live in a major city or centre.
I spoke to our Telstra regional manager the other day who told me that the CDMA phones are the way to go. Telstra are spending big $$$ getting this network set up. He reckons not only is the coverage better than GSM but the data speed is like 3 times faster.

So I am probably looking for CDMA models and will be on a Telstra group plan.

Any suggestions on handsets? do you have one you like or one you don't?
Please let me know.
Cheers,

[erwin1978]

That's bull****. He's a salesperson. I suggest you do a research with an independent party. Go to cnet.com or do a search on yahoo.com about cellphones.

[tangcla]

Buy my 8310! I'm trying to sell it :)

IMHO, stay away from CDMA. Only good for rural hicks, it's useless around metro areas (no offense if you live out there, btw :p) Nokia are reliable, they've been on the market for long enough, and even though their products may be ****, you get a lot of support for it (including me! :D)

[ikey]

Hey mate

Ive got a Nokia 8210 here I want to get rid of. Great Condition.

My ICQ is 16994488.

[tangcla]

Hey mate

Ive got a Nokia 8210 here I want to get rid of. Great Condition.

My ICQ is 16994488.

hrm... more info on the phone? ;)

[pdv]

Splash
as you say you dont live in a major town
check both digital & cdma out
IMHO cdma works better
I AM 7K'S FROM A TOWER THAT HAS BOTH SYSTEMS
ON THE TOWER NO MAJOR ABSTRUCTIONS
& DIGITAL CAN JUST MAKE THE 7K'S LOT'S OF DROP OUTS

CDMA
STRONG SIGNAL NO DROP OUTS.
In this location anyway
95% cdma here other 5% wish they were.
:D

[tangcla]

Splash
as you say you dont live in a major town
check both digital & cdma out
IMHO cdma works better
I AM 7K'S FROM A TOWER THAT HAS BOTH SYSTEMS
ON THE TOWER NO MAJOR ABSTRUCTIONS
& DIGITAL CAN JUST MAKE THE 7K'S LOT'S OF DROP OUTS

CDMA
STRONG SIGNAL NO DROP OUTS.
In this location anyway
95% cdma here other 5% wish they were.
:D

lol, there's more to CDMA vs GSM than you think ;)
The concept of CMDA is fewer long-range cells, whilst GSM is more short-range cells, especially at 1.8GHz.

Depends where you are... Where exactly are you? I'd recommend the Optus GSM network :bounce2:

[pdv]

Carriers who cares which one as long as the service is there
Uuuotus, Hell$tra ect
Grampians Victoria area optus not an option
:)

pdv

edit:
Tangcla you would not phone god on optus from area's around here
:D

[tangcla]

edit:
Tangcla you would not phone god on optus from area's around here
:D

how dare you... i shall summon the wrath of...


*ahem*

well, like I said, it depends on where you are. Metro, then it's Optus all the way. Rural, then CDMA for sure.

[Albinus]

All but one of my friends who lives in Metro Brisbane and has CDMA hates the crap coverage and numerous dropouts. Even in regional areas with rugged terrain CDMA is worse than GSM. CDMA really comes into its own when dealing with large areas of FLAT land (ie the Darling Downs west of Brisbane). For example, I was recently in a hilly area north-west of Caboolture, about 30KM from the Caboolture base station. Signal strength with Optus GSM was 4/4 bars, my friend with Telstra CDMA was lucky to get 2/5 bars. But north of Gympie he gets 5/5 bars while I'm lucky to get 2/4 :(

Out of the GSM carriers, here's my opinion on the best networks for different scenarios:

Capital Cities and Suburbs

1) Optus
2) Vodafone
3) Telstra


Fringe Suburbs and Major Highways

1) Optus
2) Telstra
3) Vodafone


Remote Towns and Minor Highways

1) Telstra
2) There is no other carrier :D


So hopefully I'll kill a few birds with one stone here... if you're in flat terrain, then go Telstra CDMA; if hilly then use GSM - it's far more effective at going around obstacles ;)

[tangcla]

Capital Cities and Suburbs[/b]

1) Optus
2) Vodafone
3) Telstra


Fringe Suburbs and Major Highways

1) Optus
2) Telstra
3) Vodafone


Remote Towns and Minor Highways

1) Telstra
2) There is no other carrier :D

I agree, especially the rural area options :)
Note, don't go with Vodafone unless you need to take it to UK (I _think_ they have direct Plug&play support there since there's Vodafone over there too, but even then I'm not sure whether it can do that :p)

[Splash]

Looks like I sparked a good chat here. Seems the argument is pretty location specific.

I am convinced that in my area CDMA is better and will be getting even better soon as they put the new towers in. I am South Coast of NSW past Wollongong.

I travel to Vic and Canberra semi-regularly and there are balckspots regularly. The Telstra guy reckons the new towers will help with this and says they wont support gsm only cdma.

Thus any reccomendation of what CDMA phone to buy?
Preferably a make and model and some reasons.

Thanks everyone :)

[pdv]

Splash
Kyocera are good imho not just because i have one, the 2135. The Hel$tra guys use kyocera 3065 6530? Its the model up from mine.
Easy to use even i can drive mine.
they are not small phones maybe more suited to guys than gals


pdv

:)

[stormychef]

Well i have got 8210 currently and am going to buy an 8310 soon as i can get the time to go to the shop during business hours.

I definately recommend any Nokia phone...