Smartphone Lust

In the recent wake of smartphone-related news, I’ve never been more unhappy to be locked in to a Verizon contract for another six months. For me, the iPhone is a no-brainer, the sleek Apple design and the versatility it gains from the App Store really leaves much to be desired of my current Samsung SCH-U740.

The iPhone isn’t the only contender to be my most desired smartphone. While the Google G1 and the Android platform looked promising, it’s first iteration didn’t really live up to it’s full potential or hype in my opinion. The second generation Android phone doesn’t change much. With my general dislike of BlackBerry or Windows Mobile based devices, I was thrilled with what the Palm Pre has to offer. Reading about it really doesn’t do it justice; you need to watch the demo of the new WebOS to really get a sense of why it’s so cool and how Palm has positioned itself to be the most legitimate iPhone competitor.

This brings me back to my original point. The Pre is being released exclusively on Sprint. Sprint (like Verizon) uses CDMA technology, one of the main reasons for my general Verizon-bashing. Why is CDMA so bad, you ask? Gizmodo summed it up, saying:

Sprint and Verizon’s Secret Shame: CDMA

To the end user, CDMA and GSM don’t seem very different—Sprint, a CDMA carrier, offers the same services as AT&T, a GSM carrier—except when it comes to how they handle phones.

GSM phones are identified by the SIM card that they carry, which can be moved between phones at the user’s will. Not so with America’s other wireless standard. Effectively, a CDMA phone is like a GSM phone with the SIM card welded to its socket. Your CDMA phone is permanently locked to your carrier, and your mobile connection is permanently bound to your handset—unless your carrier is kind enough to authorize a transfer to another phone.

The presumably intentional effect is that there’s no market for 3rd party hardware in CDMA, which is fine for carriers, shitty for customers. Worst of all, there’s no good reason for this. CDMA SIM cards exist. They’re called R-UIM cards, but US carriers are in no rush to implement them.

Furthermore, CDMA severely limits my options for using my phone abroad. I realize that the cell phone companies would rather me use my plan and rack up ridiculous international charges instead of simply replacing my SIM card with one from a local provider but Verizon’s poor selection of phones (each with the same terrible UI) and their general Mac-unfriendliness don’t help their case either.

Ultimately, do any of these networks really offer such better service than the other that compels me to use one over the other. I’ve heard all the arguments for Verizon’s network being “better.” I’m much more skeptical of these claims. Even in upstate New York, I never had a problem with AT&T really. I think Verizon’s reputation of network availability is somewhat exaggerated and doesn’t come near to outweighing better pricing schemes, the flexibility of GSM, or my satisfaction with a phone I actually like. I think will only continue to see increasing parity in terms of quality of cell coverage from the major players (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon).

What are your expierences with any of the phones or networks? Is the coolness of the Pre worth going with Sprint’s CDMA? Anyways, I have six months to wait and see.