Yup, it’s that time again. I love it and I hate it. I love the fact that I will be getting a new “gadget” to play with, but I hate the fact that I have to do the research to make sure I find a phone that I like. No, I won’t be waiting for the vaunted iPhone. I just can’t justify the four or five-hundred dollar price tag. Ohh, but I would reaaaally like to get one.

My wife thinks I’m obsessive about researching things like this before I buy them and makes fun of me all the time for it. She would just go into the store and pick out the under $50 phone she likes the best and get it. That’s the thing, she doesn’t get why people would pay more than $50 for a cell phone. I on the other hand would pay a little more, say up to $100. At that price I hope to get a phone that isn’t about to be discontinued by the carrier or maybe a phone that is at the bottom end of the nicer phones. Since I’m just getting started I’ll document the process on this site.

Here’s what we currently have.

• Our carrier is Cingular (“Now the new AT&T”)
• We are on a family plan with two lines
• Our plan gets 600 anytime and 5000 night and weekend minutes
• Both phones are Motorola V551‘s
• Our contract is currently expired
• Our bill was in the mid-$50 range until we recently added 7pm-7am nights and weekends

That’s good for now. Next time I’ll get into what features I’m looking for in a phone and some of the sites I use to research before buying.

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