My new phone. Except everywhere on the internets only has pics of the blue colour, and I have the red and silver...

But hey, no matter, it gives the right idea.
( Noo fone, yeah?Collapse )

So my phone has a red ring around the central button (the multitask button, to flip from one application to another) and the keyboard is black with silver and red touches. Red on the buttons, silver around the number keypad. The keypad all lights up so it's easy to use. Doesn't have nearly as good a camera as my old phone - I've gone from a 5mp to a 3mp, but as I only ever post things online I don't think it'll matter too much. I needed to choose between this and a Samsung (I think). But as my new plan is unlimited internet use and texting, with 500mins talktime (All for £18 a month. The iPhone and the associated stupid contracts on the worst 3G networks can bite me!), I figured it would be handier to use the whole screen for browsing and have the slide-out keyboard, for texting and typing when online, rather than the Samsung which was all on-screen. This does have the touchscreen if I want to type onscreen, but it seems far easier to use the cute wee keyboard. It's a pretty good/easy to use keyboard, once you've got used to the slightly weird placing of some of the punctuation! But hey, it is tiny, so I can forgive them that. From end to end the entire phone is about the same length as my palm and a bit narrower than 3 fingers.

The hilarious screen shown on the phone on the right is this thing which means I can give anyone I communicate with often a wee little icon, and when I click on it I can find their latest FB, Twitter, Email, IM, Skype and texts to me! Which is kinda cute, although with unlimited online stuff I imagine I'll just go to the websites...

I'm currently trying to find a good price plan and contract for a new phone - I'm due to upgrade mine (have been for ages) but haven't found one I like.

But it strikes me, as I wander around the internet, that the UK mobile market and the US one are wildly different. What do you guys in the states/Canada expect from a phone nowadays? Why do phone companies produce different models on each side of the pond?

For a cheap tariff like mine (£15 per month - 300 any network minutes or texts, 300 same network minutes, free email with Google and free Googlemaps) I currently have an LG Viewty - 3" touchscreen, haptic feedback, HDSPA internet, 5mp camera and video recording with slo-mo. We don't have nearly as many phones over here, it seems...but I think I like them better! So what do you get/want, guys? I'm just interested.

Especially now the iPhone seems to have conquered both sides of the pond.

So...Orange are cocksuckers. Well, actually, I don't really mean that. When you FINALLY get to talk to one of their customer service people, they are helpful and fine - although the woman I spoke to today was properly flakey. But anyway, finally, after about three months of trying, I've told them I'm quitting my contract and they're sending me a porting code to keep my number...YAYES!!! They said "Is there anything we can do today to keep you with Orange?" so I answered: "Cut my bill by £15 per month, give me free video calls, free text, free calls, free voicemail. And upgrade my phone."

.................. "I'm sorry, we can't do that."

"And that, my friend, is why I'm leaving you."

So, it'll take them three to five days to send me a freakin' porting code (I know it was on the screen in front of her, and if it wasn't, why the hell not. Computers can generate these codes in seconds. Three to five days is them being boners.

SO...does anyone on my flist own an LG Chocolate U830 3G? Any good? The problem with 3 is they only have Sony Ericssons (which I hate with a passion), LG (which I've never used) and Nokia (who have lost the plot and now only seem to make ugly phones). I've had a go on an LG in the shop, and I quite liked it. Plus it's a clamshell, which I would prefer.