Crappy cell phones

**Woodsman** · 04-08-2009, 10:58 AM

OK, WTH is the deal with cell phones these days ?

The first Motorola I had in 04 had a little pullout antenna and reception was very good. The next LG phone had a stub antenna and reception was OK but not as good. The latest has no external antenna and reception is even worse.

I would gladly live with a pull out antenna if that means I can get reception inside metal buildings and out in the country but apparently there are none. Aren't we supposed to be making advances in technology ?

Sooo, I need some recommendations based on your personal experiences, for a Verizon phone which will be used in rural areas. A "ruggedized" phone (Motorola Adventure V750 and G'z One Boulder) would be best but I understand that the heavy cases give them even worse reception.

cscott971 · 04-08-2009, 11:48 AM

I have a Krazr K2 and it does pretty well......even dropped it in a lake....dried it out and works like new :P

hpiguy · 04-08-2009, 11:48 AM

I have a now 5 year old Nokia 3100b and love it. Good reception, durable as all heck in it's little hard clear case.

Tiny little phone, fits in any pocket, can get internet and stuff on it. No camera and other fancy stuff.

I have no reason to upgrade. It works great and does what I need it to. AT&T bought my local company Cellular One and wants me to come in and get a "new phone" and contract. They of course propbably hate that I pay $40 month for unlimited and no roaming on the current contract that is month to month and cannot be terminated by them.

Lowest contract those a-holes offer right now in my area is like $100 month for the same features. No thanks.

Maybe look on Ebay for a used one. It takes regular SIM cards and when the 3100b came out very few carriers locked them to their network.

**Woodsman** · 04-08-2009, 12:13 PM

Admittedly, a camera phone would be very useful in my work. My original Motorola was left on my truck bumper (when I was hitching up a trailer) and who knows how many miles the little fella hung on for before going to cell heaven. . . or would that be cell hell ?

Flying Brick · 04-08-2009, 01:22 PM

I would stick with Motorola through Verizion. I have had LG phones and Motorola phones. The LG's would barely get reception in my house where both Motorolas were great. I have had the RAZR and now have the Q9

**Woodsman** · 04-08-2009, 02:24 PM

The Motorola's are running up front. The Adventure V750 may be the way to go . . . since my phone seems to hit the concrete so often in the shop.

***TennesseeSquire*** · 04-08-2009, 03:20 PM

I upgraded my mother's phone a couple of months back with the Casio G'zone. At 76 she has a knack of misplacing things and I thought the orange color would be easy for her to find. I used it a couple of times and I thought it had good reception. She really likes it and says she can hear better with it.

**Woodsman** · 04-08-2009, 04:36 PM

Quote:

TennesseeSquire previously said:

I upgraded my mother's phone a couple of months back with the Casio G'zone. At 76 she has a knack of misplacing things and I thought the orange color would be easy for her to find. I used it a couple of times and I thought it had good reception. She really likes it and says she can hear better with it.

My brother has one of the orange G'z as well. I read somewhere there was a software upgrade for these and there's a big difference without it.

Dusther · 04-08-2009, 06:08 PM

Woodsman... if you mess around the water at all go with the Boulder there are actually 2 versions of it so look close first example

note the lack of the speaker beneath the display... this is the first revision of the boulder and it does live up to it's name. that thing is a rock.. bad reception and speaker quality.

example 2

note the speaker on the outside that is the newer version
alot better phone than the version 1 model is what I am running now..

I upgraded from the Gz'one type S which spent most if it's life in the bottom of my kayak and never did really have a problem with it. fairly good reception and speaker quality but the new boulder is alot better so far than that one was

***LandCruiserSteve*** · 04-08-2009, 06:24 PM

I'm still looking for a decent cell phone.

Not a digital camera. Not a video camcorder. Not an MP3 player. Not an Internet accessing device. Not a digital movie player. Not a walkie-talkie. Not a remote control for my TIVO programming. Not a JPEG photo album. Not a television. Not a built-in coffee maker.

Just a decent cell phone.

I think since the manufacturers have tried to put every conceivable non-telephone feature into a cell phone, they kinda forgot what the original purpose of a quality cell phone was supposed to be.