Жизнь без мобильного телефона / Life without a mobile phone

So this is an odd topic, and I apologize right off the bat for that.

As far as cell phones go, I haven't had one in years, and I know nothing. I'm looking for one now and I don't need any specific features, but I'd like it to be international-compatible, as much as possible. I have made a couple of friends in Russia and I think it would be smart to consider before making a choice. Thought there might be a good knowledge base here at MR. I know it's a broad way of asking and possibly this is a silly question. But if anyone has any insight on this I would like to hear it. l/l

If you only need a phone for voice conversations/SMS only then any phone will do. All you need to care about is if it's not hardlocked for use in any particular cellular network. Also, if you plan to travel with it, you should buy one that supports GSM standard (most widely spread cellular standard in Eu/Russia). CDMA works too, but it's more expensive and has less coverage area.
If your interests include Internet, you'll need a communicator (to my taste, HTC makes the best ones, although some people prefer iPhone).
They usually support any cellular standard and are sold in more or less 'plug and play' state - you only need to add a SIM card to it.

KidKBloom - are you really a "kid"? I thought people under the age of 20 would rather commit ritual suicide than live without a mobile phone with all the latest features.
Personally I don't like them much, got an "overdose" when I had a work Blackberry and an obsessive boyfriend at the same time. You become slave to a stupid gadget.... I thought I was the only person in the universe who isn't keen on mobiles. I do of course have one though, I am just not an enthusiastic user.

If your talking about Russian language support on a phone:

Re: Cell phone in the USA that does English/Russian

Got it! I recently bought a Blackberry Curve 8530 through Verizon which does Skype to Skype calls for free (have to purchase the data plan). I could read Russian text fine but not write. Today I updated my Blackberry software and they added full Russian write support! Nice!


Scott

@Ramil - Thank you! Looking at the HTC in particular, looks like a good bet... Watching for the hardlocked question, I'm trying to avoid some local carriers that say that they're not, but really are restricted to certain local/government networks.. SMS was a concern - some sell "text" but not "int'l text" and I'm thinking it's worth paying for the latter.. This is very helpful, thank you!

@Hanna - Does 28 count?? Вероятно нет.. ;-) The name was accurate when I first took it. Kid at heart - does that count? =) Honestly I never much liked cell phones.. They have their uses. But who wants to be chained? Same theory with my TV - threw it out 5 years ago. Now I get my news from overexcitable bloggers, like everybody else. =) I don't want to be tethered, but between that and being unable to talk/write to some people.. The phone might be the better of the two evils.

@Scott - Very interesting! It sound like an awesome package for Rus/Eng... I think Blackberry might be a bit rich for my blood, but I could be wrong, too. I'll check into it. Thanks!

You guys saved me a lot of time and headache. Thanks again!

@Kid, yeah that's younger than me anyway. We are on the same wavelength with tech/entertainment, I think. I can't be fussed with TV anymore either.

At work, I had a group of six guys (developers) working on my project. Most of them had the same HTC phone and thought it was great. They spent soooooo much time talking about it and doing things with it. I almost had to set up a special time code for it, sigh! Not sure which model it was, but they paid around 250 EURO to get an unlocked version.
Did you know that you can send and recieve SMS from the internet?