Phone with internet access? (Motorola, T-Mobile, Verizon, computer)

[scsigurl3000]

I made the mistake of buying a Kindle when they first came out (for five or six hundred dollars, I think it was), so I have hesitated to buy a phone with internet access (Is that what "smartphone" means??)

I need a phone with good internet, good email (yahoo would do), and GOOD access and clear voice, for US and international travel.

Recommendations?

TIA

[scsigurl3000]

Is this just such a stupid question that nobody's going to bother to answer it?

[scsigurl3000]

I'm trying to figure out why 67 people looked at my question and not one person answered. Why?? Is it a stupid question? Is it somehow offensive? Will someone PLEASE tell me?

I'm looking at the Android phones here:

http://android.t-mobile.com/android-...C7wEwybgCjCWf-

and there are so many. I just have no idea which to pick. Or should I look at IPhones or something else....

[MediocreButArrogant]

My guess is that most people don't want to spend their time writing a long detailed response when they believe it will just be lost on you. You've clearly not done your homework, otherwise you would have formed your question better. For instance, when you say you want a phone for international travel - well, what countries??? A quad-band GSM "world phone" may work well for traveling through Europe, but is completely useless if you mainly travel to Japan. Have you ever priced international roaming to determine if it is something you would even do? Personally, I carry a separate unlocked GSM phone and put in a prepaid sim card purchased locally when I travel internationally, but that's just me.

[scsigurl3000]

Thanks for your response. And you're right, of course; I haven't done my homework on this one. Guess I was hoping someone on here would do it for me. That didn't work, did it?

I did find a good Wikipedia article on smartphones, so I got that much. I have no clue what an "unlocked GSM" is, but I'd need a different phone for Japan, Europe and the US? I should probably go somewhere, stand at a counter, and have someone pick something out for me.

[Peregrine]

Motorola Droid Pro.
Has a global mode that works in most countries.
For those that it didn't work, you could still find wifi to get email.

[MediocreButArrogant]

Originally Posted by scsigurl3000

I have no clue what an "unlocked GSM" is, but I'd need a different phone for Japan, Europe and the US? I should probably go somewhere, stand at a counter, and have someone pick something out for me.

A quad-band GSM phone will work for the USA (AT&T, T-Mobile) and most of Europe. GSM is virtually non-existent in Japan; they use CDMA technology like Verizon and Sprint, so a phone that supports GSM only is pretty much useless there. Verizon will sell you a CDMA phone that also supports GSM (like the Droid Pro mentioned above, or Droid 2 Global) so you can roam in Japan and Europe in addition to using it in the USA. I haven't seen phones sold by AT&T that support CDMA, but I didn't look very hard. "World Phone" generally implies quad-band GSM, so for AT&T that would mean a phone that supports the GSM bands they use in the USA and GSM bands that allow you to roam in Europe. For Verizon that means a phone that supports GSM technology in addition to CDMA.

"Unlocked" means the phone is not locked to a carrier. Most phones in the USA are carrier locked since the cost of a new phone is subsidized by locking the customer into a one or two year contract. With an unlocked GSM phone you can buy a prepaid SIM card once you arrive at your destination, put it in your phone, and make cheap local calls. If your phone is locked it will not accept another carrier's SIM card. I do this all the time when I travel in Asia; I have a bunch of different SIM cards for different countries that I typically purchased right in the airport. I have a couple cheap unlocked Motorola RAZRs that I use when I travel. I've been pickpocketed enough times that I usually don't keep my good phone on me while traveling in Asia.

Intl. roaming is around $2/minute, and you can rack up huge bills with data. A colleague of mine racked up a $13,000 bill by MMSing a large number of pictures back to his relatives in the USA while on a vacation to Europe. When I had an iPhone it had a setting to disable data while roaming internationally to avoid large data bills.

[samston]

Any of the top smartphone brands will do. IMO, these are Apple, HTC, Samsung and Google.

A smartphone is a mobile telephone that essentially is a computer and mobile telephone in one. The specifications of a smartphone are very similar to that of a personal computer.