So, I got sick of not having a cell phone and my wife got sick of having her AT&T phone die, drop calls and be generally a piece of crap, so we bit the bullet and went down to the T-Mobile store. It was pretty much a toss up between T-Mobile and Verizon. I know Verizon has a large network and works fine in New England, that’s what my relatives have and they have no major complaints. I’ve also personally experienced T-Mobile as a provider here, also with no major complaints. It was pretty much 50/50. What sealed the deal was the phone selection. I could find 6 phones with T-Mobile that I wouldn’t mind having. 2 with Verizon. Funny thing was that the two I wanted from Verizon were also offered at T-Mobile. That was pretty much the end of that.

Both of us got the Motorola W490, the mid-level phone that they added to fill the cap when they dropped the v1 RAZR to “entry level” and discontinued their mid-upper level KRZR.

My main motivation for the Motorola over the Nokia and Samsung equivalents was the mini-USB connector. I can charge it at my desk at work, manipulate the data on the phone via the data cable, add ringtones, all that good stuff. Plus I had a selection of accesories from my old KRZR which would also work. I also just liked the fact that it was a standard mini-USB cable and not some proprietary connector I’d have find a replacement and/or adaptor for later on down the road.

So, like all Motorola phones, it’s nearly completely unlocked. I had to find a different driver for it than my previous KRZR, but once I did I was able to view the phone like a regular USB drive, allowing me to add/replace/remove things at my leisure.

I’ve had it 4 days and it already has a whole host of MP3s, wallpapers and sound effects. Having the phone say “Bleep Bloop” every time I get a text message is friggin priceless.

If you guys would like the number, drop me an email and I’ll let everyone know what it is.