Cingular mobile phone selection help
 

I am looking to get a new cellular phone from Cingular. My wish list in order of significance is as follows:

1. Capability to record multiple numbers on one name
2. Bluetooth
3. Vibrate alert
4. Flip or slide or rotate

Most of the Motorola phones, like Razr or V551, do all these except #1, most of the Nokia phones do well except #2 or #4, and others do even less. I am looking for a gadgety phone for something less than $300.
Can anyone help, please? Do you know of any model that's due out in few months? My current contract expires in December. At that time, I could switch to another carrier, but lot of my co-workers and family members have ATT/Cingular so it'll be tough to switch to another carrier.
Your help is very much appreciated.

HJ

Sony Ericsson Z500a or S710a seems to fit your needs.

No Bluetooth in the z500a.

Actually, since the mpx220 runs Windows mobile I am pretty sure that it will fit your needs as well.

I've got a Sony-Ericsson S710a that I've been very pleased with. As Vunder31 said, it meets all your criteria.

It's slightly fatter than most other phones but it fits my hand well. My only other complaint is that the keypad isn't as comfortable for me as the average Nokia keypad, but it's certainly adequate. The camera is very good except for the "flash", which is basically just an LED flashlight.

Here's a review from cNet

Maybe do like me, wait for the Sony Ericsson Z520a, due out anytime now. It's a flip form factor like the Z500 but adds Bluetooth and internal revisions apparently not unlike the K750 (according to one piece I read), although it makes do with the 640x480 camera. Camera wasn't one of your desired features, though, so that shouldn't be an issue. Also it's quad-band GSM.

I've pretty much zeroed in on this as my next phone. You can buy the international version now for $250-300 or so, but I don't feel it's worth doing that. I'm currently with T-Mobile and will take Cingular's subsidy and switch. Not a demanding user and figure it can't be significantly worse.

Some whispers on the impending availability of the Z520 are here http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/p_forum.php?p=765 Looks like should be around in time for the holiday shopping season, so that should mean sometime in November at latest. Always a possibility that this gets shelved by Cingular I suppose. It does have a placeholder page on Amazon already, though. (And a few days ago it actually allowed ordering with "usually ships in 1-2 weeks".) Amazingly for a brand new phone it was priced at $99 with $150 Amazon rebate as long as it's a new line with Cingular. It was $200 without a new line.

It's already featured prominently on Sony Ericsson's US product page. Do some googling if you want other writeups or more info.

(Scott, have you tried one of these?)

Thank you ScottC for the suggestion for the Motorola MPx220 and Vunder31 and MarkW for the Sony Ericsson S710. When I checked with the Cingular website, it indicated both did not have the vibrate feature, whereas the homepage for each said each meets my criteria. Now I guess I'll have to wait couple of months for the S-E Z520.
The Cingular dealer did not want to say anything about the new upcoming phones from S-E, Nokia or Motorola. I guess this group knows and can tell more about the phones, even.
Thank you again.

HJ

Check out the website, www.phonescoop.com -- they have a ton of great information about every phone you could imagine, along with reviews and forums.

I've got a Nokia 6230 from Cingular and it does all but #4. Capability #1 works only for phone memory, not SIM card storage BTW.

I don't see the phone on the Cingular web site, but pretty sure it can still be had even though it is over a year old. I've been very pleased with this phone.

Here's a new review of the SE Z520. http://www.mobileburn.com/review.jsp...source=HOMETOP Looks ideal to me, except for no EDGE capability. I can live without that, though. I haven't been using my phones as a laptop modem at all. The reviewer and site are based in the US, but I don't know for certain if it's a US-spec phone he got or where it came from.

No new word I've found on a Cingular roll out. Hopefully soon.

I am using this at the moment, the 7370

SHould be in stores soon.

http://europe.nokia.com/nokia/0,,82487,00.html

Motorola sort of does #1. You can set the phone to display the primary number only. You wind up with multiple entries, but it stacks them all, and only displays one. It's not particularly elegant, but I find that it gets the job done. OS X's iSync handles it transparently, so it never seems like a problem to me. No idea if Windows sync tools do the same.

If the OP or others are interested in the S-E Z520a, it is now in Cingular stores (and on their website). I picked mine up at a local store last night. (I think we bought the first two sold there; the rep said they just got them.) It has also been reported at some Best Buy stores, and it is available at Amazon with a hefty extra rebate. (Problem for me is that Amazon insists on telling me the phone is not available for my region.)

Can't say too much about it yet, except that I'm happy with the size/weight/form factor and features, especially for the price. The Cingular edition is coming in the silver body color with darkish blue faceplates. It's not at all outrageous looking, but it's not a true understated business sort of phone either. The blue faceplates could be changed for different colors. (I haven't searched yet, but I suspect there are sites out there already selling these.)

If you buy it from Cingular you get 30 days to try it out, so not much to lose.

It took me a long time....
 

It took me a long time to decide which one I wanted for the next couple of years. I finally decided on SE S710.
I was really leaning towards the SE Z520a after seeing good reviews and the compact size BUT the one thing that lead me away from it is the camera shutter button. Some of the reviewers mentioned it being sensitive and takes pictures without even trying. I went to a store to check it out and sure enough it took pictures of things even with a slight touch.
I like the S710 because of the larger display as well as being able to do what I wanted it to do. I like the fact it has Bluetooth and IR transfers so I was able to transfer all of my contacts using IR from my previous phone and the PDA. I've had it for a couple of days now and I found one thing that I don't care for. In order to get to a name in my contact list, I have to scroll from beginning of the first letter of the name. I can't narrow the search by typing out the name as I was able to do on the Nokia. I hope I can find my way through this with some kind of shortcut or something.

HJ

If you find out how to get around the name look-up problem with your S710, let me know. Luckily I don't have enough names in my address book to make it a big problem but it is irritating.

One interesting note: outside the US, Sony-Ericsson sells the same phone as the S700, which is available only in silver. It's rare that you see the S710 here in the U.S., but when I was in Hong Kong a couple weeks ago, two different people (a waitress and a DJ) both said "Hey, why is your S700 black?". Different world...