ring, ring, phone, phone... it's a PHONE!

yeah, so my phone did the six-hour thing one more time, so i discharged it all the way (until it turned itself off), charged it all the way... and now it's been off the charger for about 34 hours. and it's down to two bars (out of three... but the top bar lasts longer than the second... don't ask...) not the amazing battery jump from last weekend, but i'll take it over what it was doing for the past couple of days. i'll let it kill itself at least one more time.

so... at the verizon store, all i heard from the employees showing the non-business solution phones was that the motorola v265 sucked. they kept showing customers the moto's screen vs. the lg screen. any lg screen. don't get this phone, it sucks.

well... i wonder if they know the difference in reception. i mean, isn't the first function of a cell phone to be a phone? if i wanted a damn camera i could make calls on, i would have taped a phone to matt's w1. now that's a camera. i don't understand why people keep thinking that they're going to get any sort of quality picture out of a small phone. how much room is there for camera circuity, optics and the ccd? yeah...

from what i can tell, the reception and sound quality on the v265 are among the best verizon has to offer. though i'm not sure because people keep comparing them to lgs. (no, i will not let you swap my phone for an lg. bitch.) either way, it doesn't look as if i'm going to find a phone for me without having a camera integrated in the damn thing, since the lack of a camera seems to be a fucking con now. boo hoo, your phone doesn't have a camera. it's also smaller, lighter, and better as a phone than the one with a camera. but you don't care because you want to be cool. idiots.

of course, there could be a legitimate need for a camera phone. if you need to take and transmit pictures quickly, as long as you don't need too much detail in the picture. but most people that bitch about the lack of a camera... don't need it. want a camera that bad? get a keychain camera. you may actually be able to use the damn thing when you have to turn off your phone, too... or! you can attach the keychain camera to your phone via the wrist strap loop thing. voila, a camera cell dangly. if you simply must pay your carrier to send picture messages, then pick a phone with a camera, don't bitch that the one you picked doesn't have one.

okay, i've gotten off course. anyway, so yeah... if i were to pick a phone now, it would be the v265. it has the mono outside display that can actually be read in the sun (i don't care what you say about the quality of the other displays... enough sun will wipe out any color display). and, of course, the most important part is the reception, followed by sound. i was afraid i was going to have to settle for a samsung with a color outer screen and maybe even an all-digital handset for that end. if i do end up back with verizon, i only hope verizon hasn't pulled this phone from poor sales because of the idiot salespeople.

yeah, it's not as solid as the v60 series, but it's a consumer phone, not a business phone (yes, they are classified that way). it's a cstn display and the camera sucks. cosmetics? my current phone (t730) is a cstn, and the color depth is not as good as the v265. it's usable. and i've already bitched about the camera thing. i'd choose a cameraless cstn with great reception and sound over a camera-able (relatively speaking) tft with iffy reception and bugged sound any day.

the biggest gripes about the v265 are the camera, the screen, and the lack of date display, none of which really bother me. *my* biggest gripe is that they chose to keep the light-on-dark external display even though verizon swapped the black faceplate for a silver one. seems out of place and a waste of energy. but, for all i know, that screen turns off black, so i'll hold off judgement for that part until i know more...

as for me wanting to switch a phone... it's not that i regret picking the phone i have. i love volume buttons on the side, so i pretty much have something against candy bars right off the bat. then there's the tri-mode part. sound quality turns out to be top-notch. reception... above average. (actually, maybe even better than that. i always thought the nokia matt and my parents have, the 3589i, had better reception... but it turns out that it just starts showing bars later. i could make a call with no bars. as far as we can tell, they can't. of course, i think that's all changed with my new firmware. i'm showing bars earlier now...) given the selection at the time, i wouldn't have made any other choice. perhaps a more informed choice, but not a different one. which always makes me feel better (i hate feeling that i've made the wrong choice, don't you?)

... is it so much to ask for a consumer-level, solidly-built clamshell with good reception and sound and a mono external display that *doesn't* have a camera?

...now that i look at it, it does seem pretty specific... good thing i didn't get into my weak vibrate mode (because of the missed calls, thank-you-very-much) or battery life (i'm still perplexed).

oh... and it would be nice if headsets with inline controls were available for the phone, too... why are samsungs and nokias always the focus of headsets? (of course, i already have one for moto, so... this works out nicely... in my fantasy-world, where i drive a blue s4...)