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The Phones

Once you've chosen a wireless provider, it's time to select a phone. Some carriers may make the pickings seem pretty slim, but you don't have to limit yourself to their offerings. As long as you choose a phone that's compatible with the provider's system and the messaging and wireless Web features you want to use, your provider should be able to activate it for you.

Here's where the acronyms start flying. Once upon a time (starting in the 1980s), all cell phones ran on an analog network. That network still exists as a backup, but modern cell phones have gone digital. Digital technology carries more users, offers better voice quality, and supports features like Caller ID, call waiting, voice mail, and of course, Internet access.

There are three different digital wireless standards: Global Standard for Mobile communication (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), and Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA). The last two can operate on two different frequency bands--800 MHz and 1900 MHz. GSM operates on one band in the United States and two others elsewhere in the world. Phones and wireless providers are either GSM, CDMA, or TDMA compatible, so you won't be using your GSM phone on AT&T's TDMA network anytime soon. Dual-band phones usually work with one band (800-MHz CDMA, for example) along with the more pervasive analog cellular network. So-called tri-mode phones work on both the 800-MHz and 1900-MHz bands and the analog band, making them more versatile roamers. If you have a tri-mode phone, you should be able to walk into a cell phone store and have it switched to a service with a matching acronym. TDMA and CDMA are the most popular networks in the U.S. GSM, popular in Europe and the rest of the world, is just starting to catch on here. Tri-mode GSM phones let you and your phone roam the globe.

Like computers, cell phones keep getting better all the time, and you may be able to get a newer, lighter phone for free or at a discount by signing a service contract. If the terms of the contract are agreeable and you like the phone being offered, great. But remember that just a few months of inflated fees may outweigh the money you save buying a bundled phone. A few of the phones we looked at--Ericsson's R280LX and Nokia's 8260 and 7190--stood out as some of the best. Consider the elements below when you're making your own choice.

We asked PC World readers to rate the importance of several different factors when choosing a phone. By far the most important was battery life, with 50 percent of respondents who use a cell phone or plan to buy one in the next 12 months rating it "extremely important"--a 10 on our scale of 1 to 10.

If long battery life is all you need, you don't have to pay a lot to get it. The two cheapest phones we looked at--Nokia's 6160 and Ericsson's R280LX--offered two of the longest talk times, according to vendor estimates (most vendors quote the best-case scenario). Each lets you talk for more than 3 hours or wait for calls on standby for more than 150 hours. Extra battery life comes with a trade-off, though. Neither of these will disappear comfortably into a pocket, like Motorola's Timeport 8167 or Nokia's 8260. Also, the battery life of GSM phones varies with proximity to transmission towers, according to Nokia.

Battery life isn't always directly related to size or weight. You can talk for an hour longer on the diminutive Nokia 8260 than on the much-larger Mitsubishi T250. Look for a removable battery to help get you through really long days. Most of the phones here offer talk time in the 2.5-to-3.5-hour range, and let you swap batteries. Many vendors offer optional higher-capacity batteries.

What Are You Paying For?

Our readers said cost was a phone's second-most-important feature. In fact, 53 percent of those who use a cell phone or plan to buy one in the next 12 months rated it a 9 or 10. In general, you pay more for a smaller phone with more complex features, or a bigger screen. When phones were only for phone calls, an itty-bitty display was fine. But now even bargain units come with built-in calendars, calculators, and games, not to mention phone lists and complex settings interfaces. Navigating this software using the phone's keypad and often cryptic navigation keys is hard enough; having to do it through a tiny screen only makes things worse. The Nokia 6160 and 8260 and the Ericsson R280LX each display only five lines of text, which means you'll have to do a little more squinting and scrolling than with other phones.

The $200 Mitsubishi T250's ten-line display makes it a good choice for the wireless Web surfer. Since most on-screen menus list more than four items, finding your way around on a smaller screen requires constant scrolling. Browsing with the T250 feels like observing the world through a porthole instead of a pinhole. Not perfect, but much, much more enjoyable, and probably worth the extra $100 the Mitsubishi T250 costs compared to the Ericsson R280LX.

Six- and seven-line screens like those offered on the Motorola Timeport P8167, Nokia 7190, and Kyocera PdQ smartphone give you some much-needed breathing room, but be prepared to scroll around. The Timeport's tiny screen is slightly smaller than the Nokia 7190's, but it's nevertheless sharp, clear, and bright. Not all LCDs are created equal; before spending hundreds on a high-end phone, you should see the screen for yourself. For the ultimate experience in telephone browsing, nothing beats the NeoPoint 1000's bright, 11-line screen.

Just because a phone is cheap doesn't mean it's entirely devoid of features. If your service supports it, the Nokia 6160 lets you receive text messages and store them on your phone, and doubles as a standard numeric pager. A built-in calculator and four simple games are also included. Ericsson's R280LX offers a feature set almost identical to the Nokia's, with one big exception: You can browse the Internet with it.