Wifi phones w/no data plan?

[Mintkisu]

Not quite sure where to post this....

Long story short, I bought some dumb phones (Samsung) for my parents who live in a spotty coverage area. The reception is bad and getting worse. Customer service said that in spotty coverage areas BlackBerry or Nokia phones have the best antenna and get better coverage than Moto or Samsung.

Now the thing is that my mom loves having the keyboard on her phone, but will -not- use a full data plan. The 8100 or 8220 are the only BBs that Tmo can service with no data plan. Leaning more towards the 8220 since it has UMA...

Also, the 8220 is going for around 70-80 on CL and ebay (or 150+ if unlocked), which seems really high.

Any ideas on any phones that may be good in a low-coverage area? Or anything with wi-fi that doesn't require a data plan? And preferably has a keyboard?

Thanks!

[48593039584729]

C/S doesn't know what they're talking about. Samsung and Blackberry UMA will make up for poor reception but they do not have the best reception. Nokia has been **** poor for a while now and Blackberry is just average now.

I have the 8220 and WiFi reception isn't great, but it will get the job done. Regular reception is once again, average to good.

You can use any phone on T-Mobile with no data plan, you just can't get a discount on a smartphone without having a data plan as part of the deal. /any/ phone.. Samsung is the worst phone for reception that you can buy next to the Nokia 1661 which is the most pathetic phone I've ever used. Samsung (all of them that I've recently tried, all recent models) has 2-0 (SOS) bars at my house.. even the iPhone picks up better reception on T-Mobile here

Look into the Motorola W490 or W510. If you want to avoid trial and error looking for the best reception out of a phone stick with UMA phones. The 8220 is a nice UMA phone, the auctions go for a bit less than some of the BIN's. Especially if they just use the stock photos. Just what I've observed.

Motorola generally has good reception with all of their phones, definitely not Nokia anymore. Samsung is one of the worst phones you can buy if you live in a weaker signal area.

[tmd04020]

My wife used to have a samsung flip phone that had UMA support and worked great making calls over UMA.

[Artemis68]

I know a couple of people with the 8220 (BB Flip) and the UMA works well. There is a SureType keyboard, not QWERTY, so once your mom gets used to that, she will be able to type as efficiently and quickly as she can with a qwerty keyboard.

Also, the BB flip does not require a data plan on T-Mobile. I've seen fairly new BB Flips going for around $99 on eBay. You just need to make sure you find a reputable seller.

Good luck!

[Myveggies]

Just bought my mom a Samsung T339 (the only non smart phone that has UMA still floating around) off ebay. It doesn't have a keyboard but it grabs onto wifi signals and doesn't let go, it actually works better than my 9700 in that regard.

[NorrisCell]

Avoid the W490 at all costs. I have seen so many of them fail it is amazing. Motorola's quality in their non-smartphones has been garbage for quite some time now. Lower ends Nokias are the same way unfortunately. Some of the mid to high end Nokias are still awesome. Samsung makes good phones, but the signal strength does seem to be lacking still.

[48593039584729]

Originally Posted by NorrisCell

Avoid the W490 at all costs. I have seen so many of them fail it is amazing. Motorola's quality in their non-smartphones has been garbage for quite some time now. Lower ends Nokias are the same way unfortunately. Some of the mid to high end Nokias are still awesome. Samsung makes good phones, but the signal strength does seem to be lacking still.

What kind of issues? I've heard of the software becoming slow overtime & issues with a random white screen but for making calls it's nice. Some Moto phones have good quality but I do agree a lot of them are crap.

[NorrisCell]

The W490 holds the distinction of being the model I have seen the highest quantity of defects in. I still have them come to me regularly. White screen, frozen keypad, no audio. The W450 is only marginally better. If you want some good reading, look up the MPx220 fiasco a few years back. It's sad, because Moto used to be the best phones available

[Artemis68]

Yeah what a shame. I wonder how Droids (made by Moto) are holding up.

All I can say is that back in the day that I was with VZW, I had a silver moto Razr. It was made of metal, not plastic and that thing was a TANK. I was a clumsy teen and was always dropping it on concrete, having it fall out of my pocket while biking, etc.

[Mintkisu]

Thanks for the suggestions! I decided to go with an HTC Shadow 2 since she has finally gotten the hang of texting and it just felt cruel to leave her with a traditional keypad, which was a definite must-keep for her. We'll see how it goes.

Decided to pick that over the BB Flip because it seems like it would be easier to use for someone who is not technically inclined. I also couldn't justify spending as much as everyone is asking for the Flip when it's not getting updated at all... I remember how frustrated I was with my Pearl towards the end...

I'm definitely having it delivered to my office so I can fiddle around with it before having her try it. The less calls I get, the better!

If anyone is interested, she currently has the Samsung Gravity 1. I'd definitely not recommend that phone to anyone who is not in the center of a 5 bar coverage area!