GoPhones

This post goe shand in hand with the previous one, since it shows what GoPhones are available.

Before I start, Cingular won't let me get any of their phones online, even though there is Cingular service here, due to there being a lack of local numbers here. Someone help a poor sould and buy me some Cingular GoPhone Nokia...I'll PayPal them when I see the package headed my way for the price paid for the phone, minus $25 (DealKing gives $30 so you'll wind up with $5 extra).

By the way, on Pick Your plan it looks like you can get $20 off instantly if you get a MEdiaNet data package when you get the phone. Hey, I'm all for free phones on hybrid plans...but personally I don't use enough minutes a month to justify paying $30 a month for them, even if they roll over.

Anyway, here are the phones...

Sony Ericsson T290a Refurbished - $30 (free with DealKing cash back) - This is a preetty old phone but is still pretty good. It's a bar phone but it is color and seems to work just fine. Just don't but it for putting it on T-Mobile though, unless you're also going to get the neccessary cable and software to do so; only Nokia and a select few other phones can be unlocked with a simple calculated code.

Nokia 6030 Refurbished - $30 (see above) - This is one nice phone. No, there's no camera, but it's thin, new and can do FM radio if you get the headset for it. And you can unlock it. If someone wanted to get me a Cingular phone, this would be the one I'd want. Yes, you can unlock it (I would) and put it on T-Mobile.

Nokia 6061 - $40 ($10 with DealKing cash back) - The only flaw of this basic phone is that its earpiece is very, very small; you'll have volume issues if you don't place the pinhole speaker correctly over your ear. And no, it doesn't have an outer LCD. But yes, it's a Nokia and I wouldn't mind having it if the 6030 was out of reach. Nokia just makes good phones, that's all.

Motorola v173 - $30 (um...see T290 about here) - Yes, this is the same phone that Tracfone sells as the v170, and Net10 sells as the v171. Yep, it has an abominably tiny screen for a flip phone, and there is no external LCD. And you can't unlock it easily. But it is free with DealKing's "rebate".

Sony Ericsson z300a - $60 ($30 with DalKing) - This phone, complete with a round external display, is on the newer, higher end of things, and is priced as such, though you aren't easily taking it to T-Mobile as far as I know. But it is a pretty good phone, especially for $30.

Pantech C300 - $120 ( $90 with DealKing) - Someone unlock this, quick! This phone is the world's smallest camera flip phone, at least Cingular thinks so, trumping the Razr lengthwise and widthwise by a fair amount and having an LCD just as beautiful on the outside as on the inside (both are 262,000 color, aka 18-bit for techies who want to figure out the last three numbers). Plus its camera is 1.3 megapixels. And it's a good bit cheaper than the Razr. Though it is about half again as thick as the Razr, and unlike the Razr has an external antenna. But it's not bad for $90.

Then there's the Razr, weighing in at a hefty $250, or $220 with DealKing's cash back. My question: why not just get a refurbed unit at TigerDirect and pay around $180 for an unlocked version of the same phone? Beats me.

Anyway, that's the current Cingular lineup. And yes, I'll take and pay for either the Pantech or the two Nokias if anyone's interested.