If you're made of gold then yeah, Iphone.

The Palm Pre and Palm Pixi are pretty good. The software, webOS needs some work. It's a big slow in places, but not slow as Windows Mobile stuff. The Pre is the higher-end choice, a "true" smartphone. The Pixi is only $100 (or less with a deal maybe?) and has most of the same features.

If Sprint has good coverage in your area and if they have phones that work for you, you should consider them. They have the best plans of anyone. You can get 450 minutes/unlimited text AND data for about $70/mo. Other carriers charge you bull**** fees for unlimited text, but Sprint kindly includes it in data (which costs the same or less as anyone else). Also, calls to ANY cellular network on Sprint are free. Now it wouldn't be free for your friends on Verizon, but it's worth pointing out.

Both you and your fiancee should check with your employers to see if they offer any kind of discount. Most corporate discounts are around 20% off all monthly fees. Also, you get MUCH better customer service as you are working through their corporate support. Every time I've had to call Sprint, the service has been phenomenal. You call them up and they're like, "Well hello sir, how may we fellate you today?" But this goes for any provider with a corporate/business option.

Um, I got the Droid for myself and my parents for $50 each (with 2-yr renewal) on Amazon Wireless. For $50, you can't go wrong. Only reason not to pounce on this deal is to wait for the N1 which is supposed to come out late March, but that'll cost you more. Also, take this with a grain of salt, but apparently the Droid's components add up to about $8 more than the N1's.

The Droid's also getting Android 2.1 soon, and if you're okay with rooting the phone (voids warranty), you can overclock the phone to 1 ghz, tether the phone to your laptop (use it as a modem), and other neat things... For the record, I love the Droid, but to be honest it's my first smartphone, so I'm probably not the best judge for comparing these things. The only change I really wish for is the 4 "buttons" along the bottom (back, menu, home, search) to be actual press-type buttons as opposed to touch buttons. If you think you'll need a keyboard, go with the Droid for sure. People rag on its keyboard a lot (for valid reasons), but personally, it just took a little getting used to (write a couple texts and e-mails and you're gravy). Also, having the keyboard is a huge plus for simultaneously typing and viewing in landscape, as a virtual keyboard doesn't need to clog up the screen.

I need to reiterate the fact that it's $50 with 2-yr renewal/contract, which is ****ing cheap as hell for a flagship phone. Hell, the sandisk 16 gb micro sd card it comes with costs $46.75 on amazon.

I want to chime in with Emon. With your price max of $150/phone, I'd suggest getting the Pre. If you go Sprint, you're automatically getting one of the cheapest plans available for a smartphone, so that's a benefit. Also, if you go Verizon, they have the Pre Plus and Pixi bundle, which might be nice for you and your wife. You buy the Pre Plus, and you get the Pixi free. The Pixi isn't nearly as fast and powerful as the Pre, but for web browsing, calendar and messaging it's fine.

I got a droid and I <3 it

Hey emon I think the Pre is on Verizon now as well. Albeit more expensive with their data plan.

the pre is on verizon, its true.

but we've decided to go with the eris. they're BOGO right now, and since most of our friends and family are on vzw, it makes sense to switch. additionally, we were informed that our monthly cost could be less than anticipated if we opted to go with a plan that doesnt include out of network texts. so hooray for that.

we're happy with this decision, especially her since she is all about google, and loves that everything will be integrated with her google account.

She will join us as we bow down to our Google overlords.

What is this "out of network texts" crap? Is Sprint still the only one that's doing unlimited everything? That's sad.

well originally we were going to go with the talk&text plan which includes unlimited texts to any network, but this plan the rep sold us on is 10$ less/month with unlimited in-network texts, and 500 out of network texts. since we can count the number of people we know that arent on verizon on one hand, none of whom we text often, we thought it was the smarter way to go.

My phone makes calls. That is what I find important.

Verizon differentiates between people on Verizon and people not on Verizon by giving you only X amount of texts to non-Verizon customers so they can screw you blue with an extra $10-$15 for truly unlimited texts. Because it costs SO MUCH to send between different networks.

Also, when I used to have limited texting (even in-network) it wasn't uncommon for me to break my limit of 250 a month because Verizon counted incoming texts against me as well, not just outgoing. So I could send 75 texts a month and still get railed by people sending me stupid forwards/asking me to do something/asking for help. Meanwhile, my friends on Cellular One get unlimited texts, period, for I think $10 a month. And their incoming texts don't count against them.

i've never heard of a provider that didnt count incoming texts as part of the per month limit.

That's Verizon for you.

i was with alltel before that, and t-mobile before that. both of them counted incoming texts as part of your monthly limit. pretty sure at&t does too...

Sprint would too, likely, but they don't differentiate against "out of network" and "in network". I never heard of that. I know T-Mobile didn't.

Also, not sure what the big deal is with Google integration. I think every phone mentioned here has that, especially the Pre >.>

I have an enV touch and i HATE it.

T-Mobile and Sprint are pretty low on the bull**** factor. Sprint is better for unlimited texts. Also, it still blows my mind that Sprint gives you free calls to ANY cellular network when you have an unlimited data plan. It's like, someone realized that calls ARE data, and decided to NOT bone their customers...!!

I just recently got a HTC Touch Pro 2. Very nice device. There are still some tweaks I need to make (removing the stupid camera button on-screen). Video/Audio quality is great, having Windows on the device makes mods easy and quick. I use this thing as a wireless router for my internet as well, works wonderfully.

I wonder how fast Windows Mobile will die off now with the Phone Series 7 coming out at the end of the year. I can't imagine any developers sticking to that old platform for longer than they absolutely have to.

Probably by the time the new stuff is bug free, I will be looking for a new device anyway

I was seriously considering that phone, because I had been following it since its announcement from HTC, BUT it comes with windows mobile 6.1 rather then 6.5. I'm not sure if Verizon supports the upgrade to 6.5 yet or not.

Verizon got the 6.5 upgrade already, Sprint is supposed to get the upgrade this spring. Both for free.

Same. AT&T counts incoming/outgoing towards the limit. I know because I got slammed last month because one of my wife's friends decided to send her 20+ text messages on several different days & we went over. Otherwise I wouldn't have noticed.

That's why you should always remember to punch friends who FWD texts...

FWD - Plague of text based communication since the creation of the interwebs