I went to an AT&T store today with my girlfriend. Her 12-year-old iPod just died and she's eligible for a phone upgrade so we thought maybe now's the time to get her a smartphone. She's coming from a Pantech feature phone with a landscape keyboard and free tethering capabilities via Bluetooth. She has what I consider to be basic requirements:
1. Good turn-by-turn navigation
2. 10GB+ to hold her music
3. Tethering
4. Landscape keyboard
Of course, item #4 was a deal-breaker already since no WP at AT&T currently have a keyboard. However, she thought she'd give the soft keyboard a try and return it after 30 days if she couldn't stand it. So, we threw out #4. Even with only the first three items on the list the only choice was the Lumia 900 with Nokia Drive. She loved it except it was too big for her tiny girlie hands. The only other WP that was physically smaller than the Lumia 900 was the Focus Flash, which only had 8GB storage and no tethering. So, WP on AT&T was a fail.
I then started thinking about other carriers and found the only other devices that have tethering are the Lumia 710 and Radar, neither of which meet the storage requirement of 10GB+. Fail again.
She is leaning towards staying with her freaking Pantech feature phone, enabling AT&T Navigator on it, and just getting a new iPod Nano. WP loses to Pantech + iPod Nano. How embarrassing for Microsoft and their partners. What's worse is that my WM Tilt2 from 2009 had all of the above features once adding a microSD card and downloading the free Bing program. I didn't even pay extra for tethering. Now AT&T charges $50 for a tethering/data plan. LG Quantum fits the bill also, but it went EOL a few months ago. Expandable storage would also have saved the day. Why that's not widely available in WP just boggles my mind.
Can anyone else recommend a solution? Android and Blackberry are not options for various reasons. iPhone 4 16GB maybe, but she will need to get a nav app, pay the exorbitant tethering fee, and still won't have a keyboard. If I can find my Tilt2 maybe I'll just give her that. Pfftt...
1. Good turn-by-turn navigation
2. 10GB+ to hold her music
3. Tethering
4. Landscape keyboard
Of course, item #4 was a deal-breaker already since no WP at AT&T currently have a keyboard. However, she thought she'd give the soft keyboard a try and return it after 30 days if she couldn't stand it. So, we threw out #4. Even with only the first three items on the list the only choice was the Lumia 900 with Nokia Drive. She loved it except it was too big for her tiny girlie hands. The only other WP that was physically smaller than the Lumia 900 was the Focus Flash, which only had 8GB storage and no tethering. So, WP on AT&T was a fail.
I then started thinking about other carriers and found the only other devices that have tethering are the Lumia 710 and Radar, neither of which meet the storage requirement of 10GB+. Fail again.
She is leaning towards staying with her freaking Pantech feature phone, enabling AT&T Navigator on it, and just getting a new iPod Nano. WP loses to Pantech + iPod Nano. How embarrassing for Microsoft and their partners. What's worse is that my WM Tilt2 from 2009 had all of the above features once adding a microSD card and downloading the free Bing program. I didn't even pay extra for tethering. Now AT&T charges $50 for a tethering/data plan. LG Quantum fits the bill also, but it went EOL a few months ago. Expandable storage would also have saved the day. Why that's not widely available in WP just boggles my mind.
Can anyone else recommend a solution? Android and Blackberry are not options for various reasons. iPhone 4 16GB maybe, but she will need to get a nav app, pay the exorbitant tethering fee, and still won't have a keyboard. If I can find my Tilt2 maybe I'll just give her that. Pfftt...