iPhone Replacement: Less Gadget, More Phone

April 1, 2008 6:59 PM

iPhone replacement sought. Got an iPhone, not too crazy about it and don't really want to pay $20 a month for a data plan I hardly use. Which phone should I get to replace it?

Currently have an iPhone (4GB) and while the phone is one nifty gadget, I don't want the data plan any longer (don't use it enough to consider it worth it) and think I'd be fine with a phone that didn't "do so much". Right now, I'm on Cingular and I'm looking for a phone to replace the iPhone. I'd like it to sync with OS X's iCal and Address Book (basic PDA functions, essentially). A hardware QWERTY keyboard would be nice for texting. I don't care about whatever camera it might have. I don't care about MP3 playing. I don't care about a web browser. I don't care for Windows anything. Bonus points if it plays nice with Linux and/or can be tethered to an Eee like device.

Thanks!

posted by Brian Puccio to Technology (4 answers total)

Well, I recently went through a really tough process of deciding on a phone, and there are pretty limited options with the phones Cingular/AT&T offers on their website.

Here's a list of phones that sync with mac products.

You could get a Palm phone or maybe one of the Nseries Nokia phones.
posted by hazyspring at 7:47 PM on April 1, 2008

Take a look at the Treos, or a Centro(Cheaper, but I personally don't like the keyboard) - Palm's got pretty good support on both platforms (Linux - I like jPilot, personally, but there's several other suites.), and while I've never been a big fan of iCal/Address book, they're supported, and the last time I tried them they worked.

You may also be interested in CellSwapper if you haven't heard of it.
posted by Orb2069 at 10:52 PM on April 1, 2008

You can keep the iPhone and just drop the $20/month data plan, if you like.
posted by designbot at 11:57 PM on April 1, 2008

One caveat: If you tether it to an Eee type device, and so much as visit even a few modest pages, you can quickly blow through 20 bucks worth of data in mere minutes as they will charge you x cents/kilobyte.

So if you do intend on using it to occasionally get onto the internet with your Eee, you may want to stop and figure up some estimated page sizes (email attachments, Google Map queries). May end up costing you more in the long run.
posted by sourwookie at 7:08 AM on April 2, 2008