Here are the facts:
1. My wifes phone has died and I must get her a new one tomorrow.
2. I've had my 730 since about a week after they came out.
3. I upgraded to SD WM5 the day it came out.
4. We are officially out of contract with Verizon so we have nothing holding us there.
5. In order to get her a phone without paying through the nose, I'll be under contract with "someone".

Now, here's the quandry. I was wanting to wait until the 760 came out to at least see if it was any good, but if I go with another carrier (cingular) that isn't going to happen. The reasons we are looking at cingular are because when we travel to Oklahoma, Verizon has no data coverage (frustrating) and a lot of my wife's family are on cingular (free calls).

So, having weighed the options, if we stay with verizon, I guess I'll have either the 760 or the 6800 to choose from when they come out. If I go with Cingular it looks like the 8525 would be my choice. Looking at the specs, to me, the 8525 doesn't look a whole lot different that what I would get with the 760. wifi-g, bt 2.0, and WM6 is out there for it already. I'll get to hold one and play with it a bit tomorrow to see how it feels.

My biggest problem is that to me, (and it's been said before), the 760 just doesn't feel like a new replacement device for the 730 that has been 2 years in the making. If feels more like a simple upgrade from everything that I've read (which of course is mostly speculation) so I really don't think I'll be missing anything if I do end up switching to cingular. On the plus side of the 8525, there seems to be more "hacker-ware" available, meaning there is more user work going on in the customization department than what is allowed on the 730.

All that to say, what would you do? Are there any other options that I haven't thought of?

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Michael Hampton

I switched from the i760 to the Q....It is so much easier to use and works a lot better as a phone...Cingular is getting it very soon. I would pick up a used i730 on ebat to hold you over or get q from verizon. Get the black one..its little more $ buy its rubberized coating is scratch resistant.

I think you shouldn't worry about the device, I think you should be more concerned about coverage from the carrier, and if you REALLY want to go to something different. Carefully weigh in the Cingular/AT&T option, as many people have more issues with it's service than with Verizon's service. Compare data coverage as well, as Sprint and Verizon have a MUCH larger broadband data area than Cingular, and many markets have a very small footprint.

I think your last decision should be the device, since all carriers have a PDA Phone now, and all are pretty decent. For me, I wouldn't switch to Cingular, simple as that, the service is horrible in my area, even in Indianapolis and Louisville (two rather large cities) it was spotty at best, and Verizon's coverage was FAR better.

Be careful in your decision and test the waters. Heck even the last time I talked to SuperDave, he was planning on paying the EFT and making the switch back to Verizon because of the service issues...

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-Michael
Need help setting up your i730/i830 or other WM2003/WM5 Phone, as well as the other hacks I have done, check out the MRailing Guides and Links

The Q is a totally different device than the i730, and for many of us, it just won't work. The smartphone OS is a downgrade for many of us, and is FAR less powerful of a device, and is limited at what it can do compared to the i730, and other Pocket PC devices. It is a much simpler device, but that is in part to the OS, but with that simplicity comes loss of features and functions that many of us rely on with a Pocket PC OS phone.

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-Michael
Need help setting up your i730/i830 or other WM2003/WM5 Phone, as well as the other hacks I have done, check out the MRailing Guides and Links

Thanks Mike. Coverage for me is a toss up between the two. I live in the dallas area and they both have great coverage. The data issue only comes into play when I visit family in Oklahoma about every other month or so, and there are always ways around that if work REALLY needs me. You pretty much confirmed what I was thinking. There just isn't much difference between the 3 devices at this point (730, 760, 8525) and since the service is pretty much the same for me, I guess I will just let my wife pick out what color phone she wants and go with that. Keep her happy and I'm happy.

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Michael Hampton

hmmm. i dont post to often here... but in dallas my family has Cingular. they drop calls alot. my mother has a smartphone with them. although not sure which one it is but shes content. i dont like cingular IMO.

hen i lived there i had T-mobile and i enjoyed their service. they have good rates and alot of phones to choose from. but their coverage is spotty when you travel,i dont think i EVER dropped a call with t-mobile while in dallas. joined the AF and ended up in Ne where there is no "OFFICIAL" coverage just a couple of random towers.

with verizon, i have no problems with dropped calls anywhere but on base(normal with any cellphone service)... and at home in the corner of my house where the computer is (go figure)
they have alot of coverage but the price is a little steep (always has been) and the customer service is a little on the crappy side. oh and i think their phones suck. especially with that single crippling OS they put on all of their phones that "makes it easy for a user to switch phones"

I held a Cing 8525 today, it is a nice phone. It's about 1/4 slimmer than the i730. I suspect the i760 will be at least this thin, if not thinner. Michael (as usual) is right on the money about choosing the network first. There are very few "toss ups" in service coverage. Consumer Reports compares carriers every year and as it has always done, Verizon wins in every market, not just major markets. I can predict that you will lose service by moving to Cingular.
Just my .02.

Mark

I talked in another thread about "test driving" the carriers for a couple of days (I think in the i760 release/rumor thread), and now Verizon is basically offering the service:

http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/0...arting-monday/

Might be something to go to Cingular and show them and get a 30 days trial with it before committing to a contract...

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-Michael
Need help setting up your i730/i830 or other WM2003/WM5 Phone, as well as the other hacks I have done, check out the MRailing Guides and Links

Thanks guys. All good comments. Wife and I went to the cingular store today and tried out a few phones. Now this was interesting. I had her call my 730 with one of the store phones and she complained that she couldn't hear on that phone. Then I picked up one of their other phones and called the phone she was on and she could hear fine. Tried this with several of their phones. I had full signal strength on the 730. She has complained about not being able to hear me in the past, but I blamed it one her cheap phones (she's a CPA, what can I say) and kept telling her if she would spend decent money on a phone she could hear. Guess it's been the 730 all along. Hmmm.

Looked at the 8525 and figure I can live with that if we switch. Now it comes down to finding a phone that she likes and has the features I want her to have (bluetooth, voice dial, etc) Thought we found one with the Sammy D407, but the voice dial (voice signal sound familiar?) is what is in use. Other that that she really liked the phone. Tomorrow we're headed to the verizon store so she can check out the mint chocolate. She doesn't do anything but talk on her phone but she likes it because it's green. Oh well, I've done stranger things in my life.

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Michael Hampton

Well, after the wife tried on several different phones this weekend, I have ordered the 8525 and a d807 for Cingular from Amazon. She really didn't care for the touch sentative "buttons" of the chocolate (which I thought were kind or wierd as well). Hopefully everything will work out. The PDA should be fine and from what we heard on the test calls we made the call quality will be better than my 730. Of course, we'll see how that works out in real life. My only concerns about the PDA side are.
1. MiniSD (same with 760 - i use a 4gig SD currently and they don't exist in miniSD)
2. Different plug (usb) for the wired hands free. Guess I'll just use bluetooth all the time now.
3. I'll miss this forum. At least xda-dev is pretty active. The 8525 forum here is pretty dead.

Anyway, we'll see how it goes.

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Michael Hampton

MHampton- Sorry to see ya leave. BTW it might be in hindsight but VZW will be increasing coverage in OK sometime this year...I think. Anyway, I hope Cingular works out good for you.

Good luck with Cingular and the 8525. Also the i760 will be MicroSD, not MiniSD. So if you do decide to switch back, you will be buying more memory.

__________________
-Michael
Need help setting up your i730/i830 or other WM2003/WM5 Phone, as well as the other hacks I have done, check out the MRailing Guides and Links

Thanks Digdah. I've been waiting on them to get their act together in OK for 4 years now. Funny thing is that when I first switched to Verizon with the 7135, I had perfect data access for the first year, then nothing. Oh well. See ya round.

And Mike, thanks for everything dude. The 730 has been a fun ride. And, Micro/Mini/Maxi/whatever SD. Geez. I guess it will never end.

Happy Trails.

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Michael Hampton