Travel Technology - Recommendation for a THIN tri-band GSM phone?

My ericsson T68m is on its dying legs, and I'm looking for a replacement tri-band GSM phone... that is less than 1" thick, and will fit in my jeans pocket. It seems like phone manufacturers are mostly interested in stuffing a lot of features into huge, thick phones, which is not what I want. My ideal phone is about the size of my old Nokia 8890- teensy.

Does anyone have any recommendations beyond the Razr? Here are my requirements: tri-band GSM, SMS capable, decent battery life and reception, less than .8" thick- the thinner the better, because my phone lives in my jeans pocket. I'd like something with bluetooth and mp3 playback (it would have to able to be loaded from an apple computer) but those are not dealbreakers. Should I just get a Razr? Are there thinner tri-band GSM phones out there? Does anyone have any other good phones to recommend that are super skinny?

I just read a few recent cellphone threads, but none of them really brought up the size of the phones, so I decided to start a new one rather than bury this one in an older thread. If it makes any difference, I have T-Mobile, and I'm looking to just buy an unlocked phone to put my sim card into.

many thanks, FTers :)

I think if you're specifically looking for thin, then the RAZR is what you're gonna have to go with. It (the RAZR) is pretty wide though, which has been a gripe for some folks.

I would replace it with another t68, way under $100 on e-bay. I love mine, don't think many other phones compare for the price, size, etc.

I would replace it with another t68, way under $100 on e-bay. I love mine, don't think many other phones compare for the price, size, etc.

I'd probably go one or two generations newer. As nice as the T68 was, its display was terrible and battery life could use a boost. Getting a T610/T630/K700/K750/W800 would be a wise choice though currently many Nokia's are thinner.

What Network are you on? T-mobile is releasing a very thin Samsung sometime next month that will put the RAZR to shame:

http://www.mobileburn.com/gallery.jsp?Id=1720

would definitely not go for the buggy T68... As ScottC said,
try 630/637, k750, w800
all depends on your budget...
Nokia 3120 economical
Nokia 6230 moderate

NEC L1 or e949 is currently the thinnest phone on the market. Very sexy phone although there are better feature filled phones out there. You definitely will be paying up to have the thinnest mobile that not everyone wil be carrying.


http://www.threegmobile.net/savvy/index.php/2005/10/02/nec-l1-review/



http://www.nec.co.jp/press/en/0509/2101.html

http://phone.mobile9.com/nec/l1/?view=review

check out the specs @ the NEC website

Although older in style, I love the size of my Nokia 6100. Yes, the NEC above is indeed far cooler. But the NEC costs ~US$400 MORE, too.

But the 6100's reception is good. Size is great. Battery life is excellant. This phone LOVES Europe!

New, they sell for about US$139 (unlocked) (no contract) or even less on ebay.

My wife's Nokia 3100 gets a bit better reception, but is bigger and thicker, too.

Note that there is no 850 MHz available.

Specifications:
Tri-band international phone
High-resolution color display: 128 x 128 pixels, up to 4,096 colors
4-way scroll for easy navigation
Internal antenna and vibrating alert
Weight: 2.75 ounces
4.02 inches long x 1.73 inches wide x 0.68 inch thick


Service
GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900 MHz

My razr plays nice with my Mac. It's quite thin though wider than my SonyEricsson was that it replaced. It does fit in my jeans pockets, even my teeny weeny jeans.

It has taken a number of tumbles and survived nicely. The buttons take getting used to, and the GUI is crap, but all in all it's okay. Reception is quite good, sound quality is better than the SE.

The battery charges off of a miniUSB cable, which is cool, since I can charge it with my laptop.

It's not the best, but my options were limited (corporate phone program, horrible phone selection).

You can get them for free or better now (with rebates) through Amazon with a year of indentured servitude.

Recently bought a T39 on e-bay. Tri-band, unlocked, cheap. Has bluetooth, and VERY good battery life (see the phone here (http://vowe.net/whatiuse/archives/002318.php)).

You're getting a PHONE, period, with a lousy menu system, but great sound, great battery life, and very thin.

I had a T68 and still use it as a secondary phone. After that I switched to a P900 but became tired of carrying such a large phone around.

I used to stick to Nokia but I think they lost their way some time ago. I've only had a Motorola one time and never again - not intuitive or user friendly at all. Having said that, I considered a razr when it first came out but didn't bother when I saw how wide it was.

My current phone is the Samsung SGH-E720 which, in my opinion, is the best phone I've had in 16 years. In fact, Samsung have outdone Nokia with this one. It's so intuitive and easy to use, it's hard to go wrong.

SGH-E720
Talk time:3 hours
Standby: 10 days
Weight: 90g
91x45x23mm - clamshell design
Bluetooth technology
Email
GPRS
Java™ capable
Mega Pixel Camera with 4x zoom and flash LED
MP3 player
MP4 playback
Photo Messaging
Tri band technology
Video Messaging
Wap
88.5MB internal memory

Cons:

You have to manually switch from 900/1800 to 1900 and vice versa.

It's not possible to silence an unwanted call without dropping it unless the phone is already on mute.

Recently bought a T39 on e-bay. Tri-band, unlocked, cheap. Has bluetooth, and VERY good battery life (see the phone here (http://vowe.net/whatiuse/archives/002318.php)).
If you're getting great battery life from your T39, I'm guessing that's because you don't have the Bluetooth turned on. I also found the RF performance outrageously sucky for a phone with an external antenna.

I don't think of my Nokia 6230 as exceptionally thin, but it is JUST under .8 inches thick and has all the other features you're looking for. The nice thing is the built-in audio player does MP3 and you can also use MP3s for ring tones, sync'd over USB or infrared from your computer. It uses an MMC flash card, so you can have up to at least 2GB of memory for files (I'm currently using a 1GB card personally).
There is a new, fancier replacement with a superset of these features, the Nokia 8801, but its currently at the ridiculous price level still.

bob


...
Does anyone have any recommendations beyond the Razr? Here are my requirements: tri-band GSM, SMS capable, decent battery life and reception, less than .8" thick- the thinner the better, because my phone lives in my jeans pocket. I'd like something with bluetooth and mp3 playback (it would have to able to be loaded from an apple computer) but those are not dealbreakers. Should I just get a Razr? Are there thinner tri-band GSM phones out there? Does anyone have any other good phones to recommend that are super skinny?
...

many thanks, FTers :)

If you're getting great battery life from your T39, I'm guessing that's because you don't have the Bluetooth turned on. I also found the RF performance outrageously sucky for a phone with an external antenna.

My T39 and r520m had the best RF of any phone I ever had. I think Ericsson had some quality issues as I have heard people confirm what you found and have others confirm what I found...

If you want international and domestic North America coverage, you might want to consider a quad-band rather than a tri-band. The RAZR is quad-band, as are the newer Treo handhelds, a couple of other Motorola and Nokia phones.

Cingular and the old AT&T which Cingular acquired have rolled out GSM on their entire network, including on all the old 800 (or 850 as it's called in GSM) licenses. In many areas of the country, AT&T was one of the two "cellular"* carriers and in other areas, the predecessors to Cingular (Bellsouth, SBC, some but not all of the "Cellular One" brand) were the established A or B-side Cellular carriers. That means that there's more 850 GSM than 1900 GSM in the States now, even though Cingular and Cingular/old AT&T also have a lot of 1900.

I think that T-Mobile has started allowing roaming onto 850 GSM carriers in areas where they do not have coverage. So it may be worth having it on your new phone, if for nothing more than emergency coverage (emergency calls can in theory always be made on any technically-compatible carrier even if the carrier doesn't allow regular calls to roam onto them)

If you do go for a "tri-band" be careful that you are getting what you want - an "International" tri-band that has 900 and 1800 for all the Europe/Asia/Africa/SAmer systems, along with 1900 for the "traditional" North American GSM. Now that there's 850 in N. America, a lot of phones labeled "Tri-band" are "Domestic Tri-band" that have both North American frequencies 850 and 1900, but only one International frequency, 1800. Many of the newer Nokias are like this.

*(there could only be two actual "cellular" carriers as opposed to many PCS, and "cellular" was only on 800/850)

My T39 and r520m had the best RF of any phone I ever had. I think Ericsson had some quality issues as I have heard people confirm what you found and have others confirm what I found...
Ah; OK - I remember sitting outside at a hotel restaurant and finding I had no network available on my T39, but my colleague - who was on the same network as me - managed a reasonable signal on his Nokia 3210. I guess I got a bum one.

Also note that 850MHz is popping up in South America. In fact some areas are 850 only, so you will be SOL with a tri-band phone that excludes 850. That was one major reason why I bought a Moto V600 and then a RAZR.

Motorola has the SLVR coming out shortly, too, if you are a candy bar style person.

I'd definitely go for a quad band phone if possible.

I have the L1, I LOVE the L1. Great skinny skinny phone and about the same price as the W800 and K750i.

Rumor mill: Wal-Mart could sell Razr for $88 this Thanksgiving

http://www.mobilemag.com/%63ontent/100/340/C5046/

No mention of how long you might have to sign up for...

Did you happen to read the OP's requirements? I think not.

I like the 6100. I have a 6100, but the 6100 does not meet the OP's requirements.

The 6100 does not do MP3s and does not have Bluetooth.

That's why I bought a 6021, but I would not consider it thin. But it does have Bluetooth (and no camera), which is what I wanted.

Although older in style, I love the size of my Nokia 6100. Yes, the NEC above is indeed far cooler. But the NEC costs ~US$400 MORE, too.

But the 6100's reception is good. Size is great. Battery life is excellant. This phone LOVES Europe!

New, they sell for about US$139 (unlocked) (no contract) or even less on ebay.

My wife's Nokia 3100 gets a bit better reception, but is bigger and thicker, too.

Note that there is no 850 MHz available.

Specifications:
Tri-band international phone
High-resolution color display: 128 x 128 pixels, up to 4,096 colors
4-way scroll for easy navigation
Internal antenna and vibrating alert
Weight: 2.75 ounces
4.02 inches long x 1.73 inches wide x 0.68 inch thick


Service
GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900 MHz

Get the RZR V3 on your next trip to SIN. It's about $200 with no operator lock and the full video cam capability. And that price is without contract!

My panasonic G51 (or G50?) is now pretty old so it, or a newer version of it, should be available pretty cheap. It's tiny and I still get a lot of comments on it being "the smallest phone ever". My only complain is a dumb decission to make the keypad unlock be to hit the same button 3 times in a row.

Just looked on ebay and there's a power-selling offerring them as-new out of the UK. A bit over $100 with worldwide delivery.

80 x 43 x 18mm

tiny!

Many years ago, back in the 90's, I had a super tiny Philips Genie phone. I think it was dual mode and about the size of a large vitamin. ;) It was very light as well, and nowhere near as sturdy construction as todays phones. But it lasted nearly a year and everyone was amazed at the size.

I also love the T39. it's small, thin, bluetooth, triband, and they're a dime a dozen on ebay. I've bought a few of them as spares... if I lose my phone I dont worry at all, I've got two more in the drawer...