What's the phone for me?

If texting is important, I would think a physical keyboard should be a priority. If you don’t care about a physical keyboard you might want to look at a 3GS model iPhone (released in ‘09) for $99 with a 2-year contract. Of course then you’re stuck paying a monthly data plan, which it sounds like you don’t really want.

What’s your budget?

The Palm Pre is a nice phone but while some might believe that you need a physical keyboard for texting I strongly disagree. Once you start to adopt the software keyboard (especially the one in the iPhone) you’ll be able to type faster than you ever would on a physical keyboard. This is because you barely need to touch the key to type on an iPhone. I find myself even doing my school work on mine when away from home and can even connect a hardware keyboard via Bluetooth. The keyboard on the Palm Pre has very small keys even for average sized hands which makes it a little more difficult to type long messages. You can even lean on the iPhone’s autocorrection which really helps. I recommend and iPhone 3GS. It’s cheap now and very user friendly and it supports Google Sync so it will work with the native Calendar application so there’s nothing to install. Also you’re on AT&T so that makes it even easier to sign up for one. Hope I helped!

BTW this was typed on an iPhone.

If Google is important to you then get a phone from them. You’re on AT&T so check out the HTC Aria and Samsung Captivate, which both run Google’s Android operating system. Also, I hear Blackberry’s have good calendar integration too. But really, the Palm Pre Plus is a good phone too, as well as the Palm Pixi Plus.

Syncing with other accounts is not one if the iPhone’s strong points.

Personally, if I were on AT&T, I would go for the HTC Aria myself. However, Verizon has treated me right so I am unlikely to switch, especially not since I have my eyes on the Droid X.

@rawrgrr I agree that iOS has a pretty decent virtual keyboard especially with the autocorrection and that the Palm Pre is a little troublesome for those of us who have fingers larger than the average 2nd grader, but I still distrust the iPhone as a phone. Given the issues it has, it’s really not much more than an iPod Touch with a monthly fee in many places.
Maybe when AT&T finishes the network upgrades and Apple works out a few kinks that plague the first run of the iPhone 4, or the weak transmitter of the 3GS, I will change that opinion, but for right now I would only recommend the iPhone for those in cities big enough to have the required coverage but small enough to not have the network over-saturated and overwhelmed.

Pity though. I want to like the iPhone :(

@jerv Hmm I didn’t know the 3GS had a weak transmitter, maybe I should look more into that. And just so everyone knows, I live in Canada with an iPhone 4 and the reception is great. I have absolutely no reception issues. This is probably because of the strong network here or the kindof small population using the network but I still think the reception issues have a lot to do with AT&T. If that was one of the issues that “plague” the iPhone 4 that you were talking about.

The iPhone is certainly not for everyone but it’s a great phone and a safe bet. I would definitely recommend it to the majority of people.

@rawrgrr Truth be told, most of the people who have problems with the iPhone are in the US. Other industrialized nations have a more robust and up-to-date infrastructure than we do since they are driven by more than mere profit like us Americans. I’ve heard few Europeans or Asians complain about dropped calls or anything with their iPhone (any generation). Then again, you don’t need a strong transmitter if you have cell towers everywhere, but we pretty much restrict our coverage to major metropolitan areas where the cell companies can maximize their ROI.

I used to live someplace with no cell coverage, no cable, and you couldn’t even get 56K dialup since the phone system was so antiquated. When the tri-city area about an hours drive away got broadband, it was literally years before they even ran a line West to a city of 23,000 and there are parts of that city that can’t get DSL and lack cell coverage. You won’t find that too often in Canada or Europe, but it’s pretty damn common here.

I concur that most of the issues probably are AT&T and not Apple, but until Verizon gets the iPhone and a track record of it working on their network I cannot recommend the iPhone in good conscience.