[phrider]

My wife already has a 9700 for data. She wants a separate phone for voice, and prefers flip-style phones, but a slider might be OK. Because of coverage issues in several of her locations, I'd like to get her a UMA-capable phone.

Choices:
1. A Blackberry 8220 flip WITHOUT a data plan.
Can this Blackberry get UMA calling access without a data plan (Blackberry or otherwise)?
What about using WiFi services that require access to a web sign-in? Can the 8220 browser be set to hotspot-only access and work for the WiFi web sign-in without a data plan?

2. A Samsung Katalyst (a slider)
Will it work for good or better than Blackberry UMA calling?
Can it access WiFi sign-in screens without a data plan?
Any other notes?

3. A Samsung T339 flip
Will it work for good or better than Blackberry UMA calling?
Can it access WiFi sign-in screens without a data plan?
Any other notes?

Any other suggestions or cautions? Any rumors on new UMA T-Mobile phones, Blackberry or otherwise?

[Trimix]

Wirelessly posted (Scared of sea bunnies)

Seems a bit redundant to have two separate phones when a smartphone is supposed to do it all. Any reason for this particular setup?

As far as I'm aware of with tmobile you can use a pearl flip without a data plan. If uma usage is big, consider getting the Hotspot @Home (or whatever they are calling it now) plan so calls made over uma are free. As for wifi, unless the rules have changed you should be able to use the native BB browser for web browsing. If that doesn't work, you can easily get an alternate browser like Opera Mini or Bolt 1.5.

In general pages that require log in should work (gmail, facebook) but there are some tha may not (depending on site design). If you don't have a data plan, you'll need to change the browser settings when you get the phone in order to use the native browser.

Sorry can't comment on the other phones as I'm not too familiar with them.

[Dubdub]

Check the 8200 section. Seems there have been some growing pains with the 8200 series devices.

[phrider]

Thank you'all on the comments -- esp related to the 8200.

My wife really wants separate data (Blackberry) and voice (a basic basic flip phone). Efforts to convince her of integration have been and will continue to be futile... so we're likely moving the voice to the Samsung.

[tom0100]

My daughter uses a A Samsung Katalyst for UMA voice calls and I have to admit it's better at picking up the wireless access points than my blackberry. It has a designated button for it. It's a cool little phone for voice and texting.

It's not a blackberry but it's a very nice voice phone (that can do voice over IP ...UMA).

Originally Posted by phrider

My wife already has a 9700 for data. She wants a separate phone for voice, and prefers flip-style phones, but a slider might be OK. Because of coverage issues in several of her locations, I'd like to get her a UMA-capable phone.

Choices:
1. A Blackberry 8220 flip WITHOUT a data plan.
Can this Blackberry get UMA calling access without a data plan (Blackberry or otherwise)?
What about using WiFi services that require access to a web sign-in? Can the 8220 browser be set to hotspot-only access and work for the WiFi web sign-in without a data plan?

2. A Samsung Katalyst (a slider)
Will it work for good or better than Blackberry UMA calling?
Can it access WiFi sign-in screens without a data plan?
Any other notes?

3. A Samsung T339 flip
Will it work for good or better than Blackberry UMA calling?
Can it access WiFi sign-in screens without a data plan?
Any other notes?

Any other suggestions or cautions? Any rumors on new UMA T-Mobile phones, Blackberry or otherwise?

[Berry One]

Originally Posted by phrider

Can the 8220 browser be set to hotspot-only access and work for the WiFi web sign-in without a data plan?

Yes. Set default blackberry browser to Hotspot browser and that's it.

[phrider]

My wife went with the Samsung T339, and is happy with its simplicity.

I like the new phone book sync features that sync the phone's contacts to the my.t-mobile.com web site. Before downloading any long list of contacts to the phone, however, do a test of which fields on the web match up to the fields in the phone versus any imported Outlook file. The field matching wasn't as expected in my case.