Bite the bullet

I finally succumbed and got a cell phone. Actually, I got two cell phones. While I’m pretty good with computers, when it comes to mobile phones, I’m a bit of a noob. I’ve been looking at plans for awhile, comparing features and what not, and I wasn’t totally pleased. Plus, I kept reading about customer service horror stories at the Consumerist, so I wasn’t in any rush to make a decision.

All of the plans I looked at came with phones, but the selection of phones weren’t what I was looking for. I like the Motorola Razrs, but the plans I looked at only had a limited selection of colors, and they would come locked to the provider, which I didn’t want. I got a green Razr from the Motorola website, then looked at plans again. The Razr I got was unlocked, but came with no SIM card. When you sign up for a plan, you get a SIM card from the provider, and all of the plans came with phones. However, I noticed that a lot of the plans came with free phones. I ended up getting a plan from AT&T that came with a black Razr locked to AT&T. The phone was $50, but there was a $50 mail-in rebate (which I still have to mail in).

The Razr from Motorola arrived last week, and the Razr from AT&T arrived today with the SIM card already inside. I pulled the SIM card out of that and stuck it in the other Razr, (I figure I can use the AT&T Razr as a backup) then spent most of the day learning about how to do things with it. The sad thing is that the day flew by. I suppose it was because I was active, even though the phone didn’t seem that complicated. I tested t out by calling my office phone, then used the office phone to call the cell. I sent a text message from the phone to one of my email addresses. The phone was able to talk to the Mac and synchronize, but connecting it to the Dell laptop with Vista was problematic, because Vista couldn’t find the drivers. I could probably try it harder to make it work, but it’s not that important. I may try it again at some point.

Figuring out how to take photos with the phone was easy, but the screens are so small it’s hard to tell if they are any good. I will have to transfer them to a PC to get an idea of the quality.

So far, it’s an interesting toy.