Phone Upgrade

Last December I started to grow tired of my LG VU cell phone as I saw better and better ones out on the market, so I jumped online to see when I was available for an upgrade discount. February 2nd was the date and I had been eagerly awaiting it since then.

By the time January arrived, I had read what felt like thousands of reviews for several phones that made the short list of ones that were being considered. The Samsung Impression was my clear choice and I was confident that when Feb. 2nd rolled around that I would get a great deal on one and it would be awesome.

However, by the end of January, I was having second thoughts. Cold feet, if you will. The two-year commitment started to sound more like an until-death-do-you-part sort of time frame. I started thinking that I had become pretty good with my VU. What if I got the Impression and discovered that it was just like the VU? What if I preferred my VU over the Impression, but then it would be too late?

I had the great idea to go into an AT&T store to play with the phones so that I could make a more informed decision, but the sales guy was pretty pushy towards the iPhone. Then, come to find out, that the iPhone is actually a little cheaper than the Impression! What?! I told the guy that I wasn't interested because it wouldn't Bluetooth to my headphones for listening to music, but he showed me that it would. I was sucked in. All of the sudden, the iPhone looked rather intriguing.

Then, I was reminded of several reasons why I knew I didn't want the iPhone. First, it would cost me $20 more dollars a month for the data plan increase. Second, everything that I need or want to do online away from home can be done on my VU or an Impression. I don't really need full HTML browsing. Third, I like the ability to Bluetooth files to and from my wife's phone, or friends' when the need arises. Fourth, the biggest reason that I wanted the Impression was because of its slide-out QWERTY keyboard. You can get pretty good at typing on a touch screen keyboard, but your accuracy is nowhere near as good as when typing with the Impression's widely-spaced actual keyboard. In conclusion, the iPhone, while beautiful in its design and user interface, just doesn't compare with the Impression in its features and combined cost savings.

Better yet, I was able to buy my Impression at Walmart for less than half of what the AT&T store wanted for it and a little more than half than what ATT.com was charging for them.

I am totally sold on this phone, after all. I was scared that it would just be a little better than my VU, but it's WAY better! It's like everyone involved in developing it at Samsung was required to spend a week with every other smart phone and then required to design and program one that is better than them all and yet not considered a smart phone so that the phone's owner isn't required to pay a high monthly fee for the most expensive data plan.

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