As many of you know, I’ve had nothing but grief with AT&T and my poor iPhone, which is soon to be a well-loved iPhone Touch. In fact, my AT&T contract is up on Thursday. I was all set to go dancing into the Sprint store and pick up a new Pre, hoping that it would work well within the first 30 days, with no hardware or carrier surprises.
But my experience with the excellent service of the Verizon Mi-Fi on my cruise gave me pause. So two weeks ago, I took a day and visited my local Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon carriers, looking for a phone that fit all my criteria. Now, I’m not easy to please. I may not like AT&T, but for the most part, I like my iPhone, so I want something that can compare. My requirements include
- Wi-Fi
- GPS
- Native Internet browser
- 3G+
- Touchscreen
- Physical keyboard (I just don’t cope with the virtual one very well)
- Ability to sync with my Mac or at least with Gmail/Google Calendar
- Nice to haves include Google Voice capability and/or visual voicemail and voice-activated dialing, tethering, Application download/App Store
The staff at the local Verizon store couldn’t even tell me which of their phones had WiFi, and when I found the HTC Touch Pro, they told me I didn’t need WiFi when I had their excellent 3G service. To take it further, my sales rep couldn’t understand why I’d need out of network texting, because she was convinced that Twitter was only accessible from the Web.
I left Verizon and T-Mobile disappointed. I have to admit, the only phone I thought would work would be the Pre.
Now comes the personal connection. A friend of mine works for a PR firm representing Verizon. When she found out about my Verizon experience, she set about to rectify it. Now Verizon is involved – they are convinced that one of their phones will meet enough of my requirements that I’ll switch to their service, and not Sprint. So much so that Verizon is sending me five phones over the next month – all fully activated and ready to go. I get to play with the Samsung Omnia, HTC Touch Diamond, and EnV Touch, all of which will arrive this week. In the next couple of weeks, I’ll also get to play with the HTC Ozone and HTC Touch Pro. Apparently they think I’ll like the Samsung, as it is the closest to an iPhone. (Full disclosure: All phones will be returned to Verizon. I’m not keeping anything.)
So my props to Verizon, for letting me review these phones for bub.blicio.us and for trying to convince me I want their service. My challenge is now to Sprint: let me compare your Pre and maybe the latest Treo, going head to head with Verizon’s best smartphones.
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Cheers!
Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.