I’ve written about my current setup, what options I’m looking for this time around, and now it’s time to narrow the field to the 3 phones I’m considering purchasing. Here’s what I’ve come up with.

• Sony Ericsson W810i
• Samsung Sync (SGH-a707)
• Blackberry Pearl (8100)

The W810i gets a 4.39/5 rating on PhoneScoop.com. Not too shabby. It has a very highly rated Walkman feature that is great for playing music, a 2.0 megapixel camera (fyi, my first digital camera was only a 1.0 and I used it up until about a year and a half ago), it can record video, and has a built in LED flashlight. Very cool feature set.

I was able to go to my local Cingular store and play around with all three phones as well. The W810i was a good size that fit nicely in my hand. On the negative side it made a creaky sound when you pushed the buttons. No, I wasn’t trying to hulk smash them either. That sound did give me a “cheap” feeling. I also wasn’t thrilled with the menu system and I kept accidentally connecting to the internet because of a dedicated menu button. I read in some forums and on Phone Scoop about a problem with low call volume. That’s a big negative right now for me. My current V551 has a slowly failing ear piece which makes hearing the other person talk difficult so I am especially worried about this. This phone is going for $69.99 with 2 year contract.

The Samsung Sync gets 4.04/5 on Phone Scoop. Unlike the other two phones this one is 3G capable. That doesn’t really matter because there is no 3G coverage in Lexington. The Sync is similar to a RAZR but it looks a little longer and possibly a tad bit wider, but not much. Call volume is reportedly excellent. Battery life, the camera, and signal strength also received high marks around the internet. This phone also plays music and has touch controls on the outside. Overall I really like this phone.

As for negatives on the Sync, there aren’t a lot of consistently mentioned problems so I would say that is a good thing. Some were annoyed because there wasn’t an easy way to disable the camera shutter sound when taking pictures. After further research there are solutions to this problem on the net. The Sync comes in at a very affordable $24.99.

Last but most definitely not least is the Blackberry Pearl. This is one really, really, cool looking phone. It’s very thin and stylish looking. Phone Scoop users give it a 4.19/5. Several of the reviews said the ear phone and built in speaker phone were quite loud which is a very good thing. This is one of the newer generation of Blackberry’s that has the trackball instead of the click wheel on the side. The new trackball works a lot like the Apple Mighty Mouse scroll ball. I liked this feature a lot. Some reviewers didn’t like it at all but most of these comments were from people who were used to the click wheel. I would be a first time Blackberry owner so this didn’t bother me.

As for the negatives, one huge barrier for me is that this phone almost requires you buy a data plan to accompany the voice plan. The Pearl can be used as a regular phone without the data service but you would be missing out on a lot of features of the phone without the accompanying data plan. The unlimited data plan is $34.99 a month or $29.99 per month if you also have a voice plan. This is without a doubt my favorite looking phone but I’m not sure I can justify an extra 30 bucks a month on my cell phone bill. The phone costs $99.99 with the discount through my employer.

I’m going to think about it for another day or so and place an order. Since I will be buying two phones, one for my wife and one for myself, I will probably buy either the Sony or the Samsung for her since she really just wants a phone that does what it’s supposed to, be a phone. Any extra features are just a bonus for her. Myself on the other hand, I need to decide if I would get enough usage out of the data plan to justify the extra cost. We’ll see.