Verizon Phones

[SoSideways]

Just did a search on here, didn't really find anything, so I'm just gonna make a topic about it.

Currently, which Verizon smart phone/touch screen phone is worth the $200 or so price?

I am not exactly the kind of person that will change phones every 3 months to the newest/hippest phone to "stay in the trend", so all you dudes that work in the phone industry and work with hundreds of phones a day and are completely jaded with everything need not come in and say "they all suck" or something stupid.

Be constructive please.

I'm looking for something touch screen, but has smart phone capabilities like email, instant messaging, and all that. Also looking for a decent camera on it. Lastly, I'm looking for something with a nice screen on it so that web browsing and watching videos on it wouldn't be a complete waste of time (like it is with the LG Dare).

And no, I am not switching BACK to AT&T. I switched away from them long time ago and am in no mood to switch back to them anytime soon, so all you iphone fanbois need not come in here and post stuff like "switch to AT&T and get the iphone."

Do not want.

So yeah, please be constructive (2nd time I'm asking nicely, please respect it).

[90hatchie]

i got my storm for 200 with contract
im not a big phone person but it does what i like its fast and i enjoy it

[SoSideways]

Yeah I've heard a lot about the Storm, both good and bad.

Sad thing is, I still haven't had a chance to play with one in person, just held the dummy ones at like Best Buy or the Verizon stores in the mall or something.

Totally lame.

BTW I love your avatar lol

[90hatchie]

lol everyone loves it
my local verizon has like 3 storms u can play with
damn must be ghetto out their lol jk

[SoSideways]

Well, I heard there's one store BY the mall, not actually IN the mall, that has live ones to be played with, so I'm probably gonna go there and look soon.

I believe the 2 phones that I am interested in at the moment are the Samsung Omnia and the Blackberry Storm.

Those two look like they have the right features for me, just a matter of which one I like better as far as the user interface goes.

[DALAZ_68]

XV6800...currently I need nothing else, internet, AIM, GPS, external memory, and windows 6.1, touch screen and QWERTY keyboard, and very light weight compared to its older sister the XV6700...which i used to have, looked liek a giant oreo and weighed an ass load


my 6800 fucking rocks balls...

ive had my 6800 for like about 6 months, enjoy it all the times.

[nismo 240sx]

i upgraded to the dare and i love it just got it last week...i messed around with the strom and it seemed slow to me...if your not going to need all those features that the strom has then the dare is cool touch screen music internet etc.... with most companys you have a 15 to 30 day return policy so you can try out a phone and if you dont like it you can go back and get another one and pay the remaing balence...

[90hatchie]

i dont find my storm slow faster then my sidekick 3

[SoSideways]

My wife has an LG Dare, so I know how those work.

I'm not too impressed with its web browsing nor video quality (like Youtube videos on it).

The camera on it takes pretty decent pics though.

[SimpleS14]

Out of your choices: Samsung Omnia

It's stupid cheap compared to other phones with similar features and has smoother animation than the BB Storm.

Watch the quick review on CNET: Samsung Omnia (Verizon Wireless) Smartphone reviews - CNET Reviews (http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/samsung-omnia-verizon-wireless/4505-6452_7-33399472.html?tag=mncol;lst)

I'm also considering the Omnia, however my contract isn't over till late June and I'm PATIENTLY waiting to see if the HTC Rhodium aka "HTC Touch Pro 2" and HTC Topaz aka "HTC Touch Diamond" are released by then.

[SoSideways]

So I went by the local Verizon store and got to play with a Storm and Omnia, finally, and I'll have to say, the Storm was a bit quicker in response to tilting the phone from portrait to landscape mode.

The Storm's click screen thingie also didn't slow me down any in typing (since I'm not fast on a phone anyway, just fast on a regular keyboard), so that wasn't a problem.

The only thing was, I couldn't compare the two phones' video and pic resolutions because the Omnia didn't have its web browser enabled or something. I couldn't load any web pages with it. The Storm had it enabled, but they didn't install Flash on there, so I couldn't watch youtube vids for comparison purposes.

The Omnia's interface seemed clunky... whereas the Storm's was pretty intuitive for me. It was also slower at flipping over from portrait to landscape. I didn't like the little animation for when you flip it either... makes it slow. If there's a way to turn that off, I'd be much happier.

I don't know, so far, after round 1 of examinations, I think I like the Storm better, but I have to say it wasn't a fair test, because the Omnia wasn't even allowed to browse any web pages.

I couldn't find the XV6800 or anything in that line of phones at the store though. Weird.

So right this second, I think I would prefer the Storm over the Omnia, although, I need more time with the Omnia to fully make a decision.

[DreamN]

I have the Omnia's dumbed down little brother the Eternity and freakin' love it. Great phone for music, web browsing, games, watching movies, and basic tools for organizing your schedule. Works with 16GB cards and rumor have it that 32GB should work as well. I have Opera Mini on my phone as my browser of choice and it's perfect. Fast. Easy to use. Sites load just like on my PC. YouTube videos play perfectly as well.

If I were on Verizon's network I'd definitely get an Omnia. I honestly wish some of the features on the Omnia had made it to the Eternity such as WiFi, the 5MP camera and flash, but that wasn't even close to being a deal breaker for me

[DALAZ_68]

I couldn't find the XV6800 or anything in that line of phones at the store though. Weird.




eoe then u missed out...lol

[C. Senor]

the 6800 is pretty cool. isnt that like a 600 dollar phone though. i have the storm. i switched from iphone to this. it's not that bad. the only thing that i find effing annoying is that from time to time it will freeze. besides that it's a great phone. decent pics, flash, video, voice, mp3, typing is easy once you get used to it. the internet is alright. honestly that's where the iphone kills it. and no games...well there's games but they're like 10 bucks. but you can do all sorts of email, has an app for everything, like myspace, facebook, twitter, flickr, aim, msn messenger, black berry messenger, you can do word, excel, and powerpoint on it. pretty nifty little phone. plus you can get insurance on the phone so you dont have to worry about it. but that's just what i think.

[SoSideways]

Yeah the Storm that I played with at the store was kinda quirky too. Kept freezing up on me and it did some weird thing with the browser.

But we had to go back to that same store to pick up my wife's Dare (was originally there to update her firmware. Her phone was 3 firmware updates behind. Was still running on the original OS when it first came out when she got the phone) in an hour, so when I went back, I went to see if the Storm would act better.

It did.

So either someone restarted the phone, or it finally sorted itself out.

I need to go back and play with the Omnia some more. I never got a good feel out of it.

Oh, and can you turn that little vibration thing off? It got annoying real quick.

I don't need it to vibrate to tell me it received my touch. Just do your thing after I touch the screen. Don't have to tell me you got touched. Geez.

[DALAZ_68]

the 6800 is pretty cool. isnt that like a 600 dollar phone though.
um....no...highest i saw was around 450 or so, but me, with a renewed plan, online rebate, and being a verizon holder since 01 i got it for around 250 or so...

[duballstar37]

I work for Verizon and own the Storm. I would highly recommend it over the Omnia. The Omnia does have a really nice camera, but the widgets on the home screen are worthless. If you are doing anything email related the Blackberrys are the way to go. I also got an updated version of the software from crackberry that gives me the full qwerty keyboard both up right and sideways. If you have any questions you can PM me, but like I said Samsung is crap... all they do is jazz stuff up with effects and what not. After they came out with the Glyde (the worst touch screen phone in history) I have lost all respect for Samsung, atleast in the touch screen industry.

[duballstar37]

And for all you phone junkies to view YouTube videos from your cellular devices (Dare, Voyager, enV2) just goto:

www.m.youtube.com (http://www.m.youtube.com)

its the mobile verison of youtube, making it possible to view videos without downloading the flashware.

[duballstar37]

the 6800 is pretty cool. isnt that like a 600 dollar phone though. i have the storm. i switched from iphone to this. it's not that bad. the only thing that i find effing annoying is that from time to time it will freeze. besides that it's a great phone. decent pics, flash, video, voice, mp3, typing is easy once you get used to it. the internet is alright. honestly that's where the iphone kills it. and no games...well there's games but they're like 10 bucks. but you can do all sorts of email, has an app for everything, like myspace, facebook, twitter, flickr, aim, msn messenger, black berry messenger, you can do word, excel, and powerpoint on it. pretty nifty little phone. plus you can get insurance on the phone so you dont have to worry about it. but that's just what i think.


Yeah mine freezes from time to time aswell, but you should really take your battery out about once a week to restart it, just like any computer. Also if you ever think its running slow you probably have a bunch of programs running. If you hold the blackberry menu button down it will bring up a task manager (just like CRTL+ALT+DELT on a PC). This will show you all the stuff you have running and you can close programs accordingly. As far as games go, if you goto the crackberry website they have all sorts of free apps. I have an etch-a-sketch that erases when I shake it, tetris that works as you tilt the phone, and a piano. No where near as many apps as the iphone, but they are getting more everyday. If you want a phone to play games go buy the iphone, if you want a phone to get email and picture message get the storm. :snoop:

[DALAZ_68]

And for all you phone junkies to view YouTube videos from your cellular devices (Dare, Voyager, enV2) just goto:

www.m.youtube.com (http://www.m.youtube.com)

its the mobile verison of youtube, making it possible to view videos without downloading the flashware.
lol i remember having to hack my phone even be able to use m.youtube lol

i love my pda

[duballstar37]

My bad for posting so much, but this shit is my cake. The VX6900 isn't that nice of a phone either. I see more problems with it then alot of other touchscreens. It really depends if you like windows mobile or not. I personally hate Windows in general so the mobile verison is horrible in my mind. RIM by far makes the best operating systems that are the most user friendly. The only thing windows mobile has going for them is the new browser, Opera, but hell Mozilla is creating a mobile web brower that will be compatible with blackberrys.

Not sure if you are interested, but I have a new in box Samsung I760. I could sell it to you for cheap and activate for you without using your upgrade. It looks like this:

http://www.chinhdo.com/images/verizon_samsungi760.jpg

[duballstar37]

lol i remember having to hack my phone even be able to use m.youtube lol

i love my pda


Yeah one of my buddies at work actually hacked into his chocolate to get free internet. Kind of worthless because the chocolate isn't very internet friendly, but still possible.

[SoSideways]

No problem about posting in here.

This is the exact kind of info I was looking for.

Someone that has access to all these phones and can give an honest opinion on them as far as usability goes and features, etc.

Could you PM me the details on how to get the Storm and have it activated and all that duballstar37?

[SoSideways]

So I finally went back to the Verizon store yesterday to play with both the Storm and the Omnia.

I started off with the Omnia, as that was the phone that I didn't really had much time with the last time I went into the Verizon store, due to the fact that the internet features were turned off on the display model for some reason, so it was pointless for me to spend much time on it, when the Storm next to it was working just fine.

The Omnia was pretty sweet, although slower in response to the change in orientation compared to the Storm right next to it, which is funny, because every review I've read said the Omnia responded quicker to the change in orientation much faster than the Storm.

When you turn the Omnia and it responds, however, it does this kinda annoying animation as it changes the display from portrait to landscape. I found the setting that I thought would change it, however, it didn't seem like that particular phone wanted to save the setting and change that whole animation deal, even after spending like 5 minutes making sure I had everything correctly changed on it.

The browser that I used on it, I'm pretty sure, was just the Win Mobile browser, not even the Opera browser, and it did OK. I liked how it would organize the page in such a way that it fit to the width of the phone's screen, so you didn't have to scroll left and right, just up and down.

You'd tap the screen twice to zoom in, and while you're zoomed in, you'd tap it twice and it'd zoom back out. Pretty nifty.

I went on Youtube on the Omnia, and picked a video to watch to test its video capabilities next.

When I clicked on a video to view it, however, it opened up WMP and played the video through it.

It was kinda weird because it was not full screen, and when I made it full screen, it just seemed like the video quality isn't there? I mean, the screen itself has decent resolution, so I don't understand why the picture quality was kinda crappy, even when I had the video at full screen and turned the phone to landscape form.

I took some pictures next, and I guess it was alright. I mean, you can only tell so much from the phone's screen after you've taken a picture, without D/L'ing the pic(s) to the computer for analysis. But from reviews I've read, the picture quality should be much higher than the Storm's, since it's 5-megapixel, but the colors and all that are also much better, not just from the megapixel difference.

Again, I am not sure if it was just that particular phone or what, but it just seemed like the Omnia was kinda tempermental. It freaked out on my a couple of times, which I was able to get out of the mess by pressing the red "hang up" button.

At one point I decided to just turn the phone off and back on to start off fresh, to see if I could get any kind of better response or clear up some of the memory issues that it could have been having.

I then went back and tried to mess with the flip animation thing, to see if it will save this time, and still no dice.

However, I started to understand where all the Win Mobile lovers' mindset come into play, when they said that it's just like Windows and you can change anything you want and customize pretty much everything.

That is really cool, but I just don't think I will have time to sit there and change every little thing on the phone, especially when I have to deal with a small touch screen with a tempermental OS.

The thing that I didn't like at all, was the fact that, when I was messing with the settings, the green bar on the bottom brought up the keyboard, and there really is no button on the keyboard or the actual phone itself to make the keyboard go away so that you can go back to whatever it was that you were doing just before that.

I then went back to the Storm, and immediately I started up the browser to get a good comparison between the Omnia's browsing experience with the Storm's, while the memory and feelings are still fresh in my mind.

Immediately, it was apparent that I did not like how double tapping on the screen only zooms in on the Storm, and to zoom out, you'd have to hit the BB key to bring up a menu, just to zoom out. Also, when I first started the browser, there was a nice little menu on the bottom of the screen, that gave me widgets for changing from pan mode to cursor mode (and vice versa), zoom in/out, page/column view, and another thing that I don't remember.

As I'm browsing a page, that little tool bar would go away, and I would then be stuck with the menu button method, which is sort of "clunky" and takes a bit of effort to navigate around a web page.

Say for example, all you wanted was to load a page on Zilvia, scroll up or down until you've found a post that you haven't read, then zoom in with a double tap (on the Omnia), drag the page around so you can read it, then once you're finished with reading the post, you can then double tap the screen to zoom back out, and move the page up/down at will again.

You could do that with the Omnia, but with the Storm, you wouldn't be able to do that, unless the tool bar on the bottom stays up and you can change from zoom in to zoom out quickly without having to access another menu.

Overall, I think the Storm is a more solid phone with promising future. With more apps coming out every day, I'm sure it's going to be a pretty damn sweet phone with subsequent OS updates. Firefox is also going to be coming out with a mobile browser that should be compatible with the BBs later on this year too, so the weakest link for the Storm could be fixed and really, at that point, there probably isn't a single thing I'd dislike about the Storm then.

The Omnia, however, has issues, and it's both hardware and software.

My wife pointed out to me that, as you take your finger and swipe it across the screen, which is a common occurance on a touch screen phone, that it would actually affect the screen underneath the touch screen layer, creating the same thing you would get when you use your finger and touch an LCD computer monitor. I dunno about phone TFT screens, but if it's anything like a computer monitor, that's not good.

The Omnia does have a nicer, easier to use experience compared to the Storm, but it's mainly due to the internet browsing. Other than that, I think the Storm has an edge over it.

To be honest, I had a much better time with the Omnia overall, despite the aggrevating OS issues that resulted when I tried to change the flip animation, and the lower video quality from Youtube videos, and the fact that I kept typing the wrong letters on the keyboard since the keys were the size of grains of rice. The Omnia was just easier to use in those instances.

The Storm was easy to use, just the browser is a bit clunky, and for some people they'd have to get use to the "clickable screen". Personally I was fine with the clickable screen from the first time I actually used the damned thing, so it was no problem for me. It was pretty much second nature. When Firefox comes out with their mobile browser, and if it is indeed compatible with BB devices, then the short comings of the BB's internet browsing should be completely eliminated.

I've heard that Opera actually has a browser that's compatible with the Storm, so maybe that browser is the cure, at least temporarily. I have not had any personal experience with the Opera browser on the Storm, so I will reserve my opinions on it until I have.

From my personal experiences with the two phones so far, I'm going to choose the BB Storm over the Omnia, as I know the Storm's short comings can be fixed, while the Omnia's short comings might be fixed by Samsung coming out with another phone in the next 2 months that will have new features and new problems to go along with it, whereas the Storm will probably be around for awhile, and getting better all the time.


Cliff Notes:

Omnia - Win Mobiles OS, better browsing than Storm, smaller keys for their keyboard, even in landscape mode, video quality don't seem to be as good as Storm's, response to orientation change slower than Storm's.

Storm - BB OS, kind of clunky/not as user friendly web browsing with the BB supplied browser, has bigger keys on their keyboard than the Omnia's, video quality seemed better than the Omnia's, and response to orientation change quicker than Omnia's. Has the "Sure Touch" screen technology, which I had no problems with, but some users might not like it.

[DALAZ_68]

Yeah one of my buddies at work actually hacked into his chocolate to get free internet. Kind of worthless because the chocolate isn't very internet friendly, but still possible.

totally doable...but not worth it on that POS...

My bad for posting so much, but this shit is my cake. The VX6900 isn't that nice of a phone either. I see more problems with it then alot of other touchscreens. It really depends if you like windows mobile or not. I personally hate Windows in general so the mobile verison is horrible in my mind. RIM by far makes the best operating systems that are the most user friendly. The only thing windows mobile has going for them is the new browser, Opera, but hell Mozilla is creating a mobile web brower that will be compatible with blackberrys.

Not sure if you are interested, but I have a new in box Samsung I760. I could sell it to you for cheap and activate for you without using your upgrade. It looks like this:

http://www.chinhdo.com/images/verizon_samsungi760.jpg

yeah the 6900 looks like shit to me, some like it...the 6800 is just straight hotness to me...clean look, lighter than the 6700, faster, durable, quick in response...but it fell out of my hand while driving...booo...but whats funny is that now the only thing it doesnt do is vibrate, other than that its working perfectly...

great resolution and response...

check out the review on youtube...
YouTube - Verizon Wireless XV6800 First Impressions Review - BWOne.com (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt9ZV-LkAnc)

im pretty sure there are newer phones now, but for me it still does the job until my next upgrade lol

[SoSideways]

^ Yeah I can't even find the 6800 around here.

[nismo tuned s14]

I was in the BB Storm/Omnia dilemma not too long ago. After lots of research, I decided to go with the Storm. I found the Omnia difficult to use where as the Storm was very user-friendly.

I think you made a wise choice going with the Storm.

[drftwerks]

just looking online, verizon has htc now check em out, alot of people like them.

[SoSideways]

The good HTC is kinda expensive, compared to the Storm and Omnia, and it's not even that much better than those two mentioned, as far as features and functionalities go.

Again, I'm not the type of phone person that changes out phones every 2 months to keep it fresh or whatever, nor am I the type of person who tricks out or hacks their phones.

I just want a phone that I'm comfortable with, and suits my needs, without having to worry whether or not the support is going to go away for the phone in the next few months after getting it.

I don't need/want the most expensive phones, just phones that meets my own requirements and for me to be comfortable with using them, and that's why I narrowed my selections down to the Storm and Omnia.

I also have personal experience with the LG Dare, but it's not the newest version Dare, but the one from like, last year around September time frame. It's since got the newest firmware installed on it, but since my wife doesn't have the plan that allows for unlimited internet use, I don't want to open up the browser and check out Youtube on it just to see how the new firmware upgrade affected the browsing and such, since I found the old browser to be pretty shitty, and the video quality on Youtube was straight crap.

Camera on the Dare is good though. Actually has a lot of functions, like user selectable ISO settings, user selectable white balance, auto focus on/off, 3 shot burst, etc. The camera function on there is probably the best feature for that phone, plus you can edit the photos right on the phone so you can send a B&W version, or sepia version of a self portrait to someone via txt msg.

The keyboard on the Dare is pretty good too, and I don't mind it, but I still like the Storm's keyboard better.

When compared to the Storm's web browsing, or at least the potentials that the Storm has in improving its web browsing capabilities, the Dare just doesn't seem like it's up to par for my standards.

[Z33dori]

Don't buy a dare.....

it's pretty bland..... boring...... just reg phone that u can touch... it sucks

shitty camera, shitty internet, shitty games


but it has an awesome microphone that picks up everything

[SoSideways]

^ Eh... my wife already bought the Dare not long after it came out, so she already has it.

She doesn't use it other than for txt messaging, pix messaging, and the camera features. She just likes how the touch screen is and all that.

Oh well.

[ANVIL]

^ Eh... my wife already bought the Dare not long after it came out, so she already has it.

She doesn't use it other than for txt messaging, pix messaging, and the camera features. She just likes how the touch screen is and all that.

Oh well.

i have the dare and i like it. but thats all i use it for also. verizon doesnt have towers up here yet so i cant use the data. they say june-july of this year they should have the support up. but im not a phone nerd so i dont really care... i just use it for a regular phone anyways.

on the other hand, my gf's bday is coming up and i KNOW shes dying to get an iPhone. anyone know wheres a good place to get an 3G? besides at&t? shes not due for a phone upgrade for almost another year. unlocked, locked jailbroken or not im open to anything...