Why Not Flip Phone?

I'm a mac desktop and laptop user for years, but use a Motorola flip phone with my Verizon wireless account.

I'm due for a new phone and plan to get one as my cell phone has been a real champ and taken a bit of a beating, getting dropped etc. I was thinking of possibly getting a Motorola Barrage or something like it with military specs so I don't have to worry about dropping it.

As far as flip phone versus the newer style, why not get a flip phone if you like them? What is the advantage to the newer style? It's more convenient for texting? Thanks for any replies.

Christopher said:

I'm a mac desktop and laptop user for years, but use a Motorola flip phone with my Verizon wireless account.

I'm due for a new phone and plan to get one as my cell phone has been a real champ and taken a bit of a beating, getting dropped etc. I was thinking of possibly getting a Motorola Barrage or something like it with military specs so I don't have to worry about dropping it.

As far as flip phone versus the newer style, why not get a flip phone if you like them? What is the advantage to the newer style? It's more convenient for texting? Thanks for any replies.

Click to expand...

There are a lot of advantages:
Bigger / better screen
Easier to text
Watch movies
Android / iOS
Easier web browsing
More customizable
Apps

I think for basic "not a smart phone" Flip phones are way better. Small and easy to use. But for smart phones they are not so good for every reason mentioned in the above post.

the8thark said:

I think for basic "not a smart phone" Flip phones are way better. Small and easy to use. But for smart phones they are not so good for every reason mentioned in the above post.

Click to expand...

I agree. For a basic cell phone, I think the flip design is probably the best form factor of any. The trouble is, getting a usable touchscreen or a QWERTY keyboard in a flip style is pretty much impossible.

I still miss my RAZR. If I found a decent flip the same size as the RAZR that did email, calendar, address and web browsing extremely well, I'd switch.

Anyone for a touchscreen flip-phone? lol

CVDQ-M43 Quad Band Touchscreen Flip-Phone Dual SIM TV Accelerometer

- Simon

cwa107 said:

I agree. For a basic cell phone, I think the flip design is probably the best form factor of any. The trouble is, getting a usable touchscreen or a QWERTY keyboard in a flip style is pretty much impossible.

Click to expand...

I also agree. The rectangle block design is great for a smart phone when used for everything else besides phone talking. Every time I make a call with someone's smart phone I miss my Motorola flip phone. On the other hand texting, browsing the internet, etc on a flip phone is a pain.

The compromise I found that works for me is to use earbuds/headsets when making a call on a smart phone. It's more ergonomic so it doesn't feel like I'm holding a brick up to my ear and I can also multitask on the smart phone while I'm talking.

Buzzard2010 said:

Anyone for a touchscreen flip-phone? lol

CVDQ-M43 Quad Band Touchscreen Flip-Phone Dual SIM TV Accelerometer

Click to expand...

That wouldn't work for me either. The screen still looks too small but if they made it larger then the flip phone would be huge. It would defeat one of the things I like about flip phones which is they can be very slim, thin, and light. Think of the Motorola RAZR and you'll understand what I'm talking about. It's nice that they at least tried to solve the problem.

I'm sure if there was a good enough flip-phone, a good deal of people would pick it up. I could picture Apple doing a sweet flip-phone.

idrinorbarsaku said:

I'm sure if there was a good enough flip-phone, a good deal of people would pick it up. I could picture Apple doing a sweet flip-phone.

Click to expand...

The iphone nano?

the8thark said:

The iphone nano?

Click to expand...

Make sure you get commission if they take up the idea ;P

- Simon

Thank you guys for the helpful and informative responses. My current phone that i'm looking to replace is a Motorola W755. I really liked it. It was sleek and thin, not Razr thin but still small, and I've dropped it like five times in two years, it's only now beginning to fall apart. So I feel like it's pretty rugged. I'm looking at a rectangle phone as a replacement... but what if I wanted to find another Moto 755? Verizon has retired it... but extra stock must go somewhere. Are there discount resellers somewhere for retired models like this?

Thanks again.

If you want another Motorola W755 you can always try finding a used one. I don't know if they are still making new ones. Places like eBay and others might have used ones. You have to make sure it works for your phone carrier or get an unlocked phone.

As for your original question, you just need to decide if you use your phone more as a phone or as a portable computer (smart phone). If you use it more as a computer then you'll probably be frustrated at a flip design and vice versa. It would be interesting if someone can come up with a good hybrid design but as of right now it's best to choose which is more important to you.

If ruggedness is your concern, get an iPhone an an otterbox case, or something like it. But as others have said, you need to figure out what you want to be able to do with your phone.

EndlessMac said:

If you want another Motorola W755 you can always try finding a used one. I don't know if they are still making new ones. Places like eBay and others might have used ones. You have to make sure it works for your phone carrier or get an unlocked phone.

Click to expand...

As a matter of fact, I have two W755s - and two RAZR V3ms sitting in the basement in like new condition. I probably ought to put them out on eBay.

Christopher said:

I'm a mac desktop and laptop user for years, but use a Motorola flip phone with my Verizon wireless account.

I'm due for a new phone and plan to get one as my cell phone has been a real champ and taken a bit of a beating, getting dropped etc. I was thinking of possibly getting a Motorola Barrage or something like it with military specs so I don't have to worry about dropping it.

As far as flip phone versus the newer style, why not get a flip phone if you like them? What is the advantage to the newer style? It's more convenient for texting? Thanks for any replies.

Click to expand...

No Moving Parts ;D

Am I the only one who loves the features of my iPhone, but misses the old predictive text using the number keys 2-9?

What I miss is being able to text, without having to concentrate on what I'm doing! And I'm sure it was quicker than the touchscreen qwerty we have now.....

MacFanDan said:

Am I the only one who loves the features of my iPhone, but misses the old predictive text using the number keys 2-9?

Click to expand...

I don't know how your old phone was setup but I don't miss the predictive texting on my old phone. It wasn't bad when it made correct guesses but when it made wrong guesses it slowed me down a lot because I had to select the correct version from a list. I also never liked the 3-4 letters for one button since I'm a good touch typist on the QWERTY keyboard.

I find myself typing much faster on the iPhone mostly because it's a QWERTY layout but I type even faster on a friend's physical smartphone keyboard. The iPhone does have some predictive words for common misspellings but the prediction is not all the time like your old phone. I still don't miss it though.

My favourite pre iPhone phones were both by Nokia.

A 6500 slide and an 1110 or something so basic, all it did was phone and text - maybe the snake game and some very basic features, but with both of these, I could almost type blind - Nokia's didn't give you a list of words, you pressed * to select a different word and the phone would learn words, just like the iPhone does! Even swear words. So anyway, once the phone had got used to you, it would know what word you probably meant and put that in first....

I wouldn't go back to them though!

That at least sounds quicker than my old phone. It didn't have the learn feature so the words would always be in the same order which meant if the word you wanted was at the bottom of the list it took a long time to select it. I found it faster to just type out the word manually.

I did think an app to do predictive text might work (there is one out there) but without an actual key to find by feel and not sight, it wouldn't work for me....

I was a die hard Nokia fan from 1996, until the 3G came out!