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Bluetooth Phones On The Cheap
Two great tastes that taste great together
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by Scott Raulinaitis, Editor - 12/5/2003 - 1:34pm EST
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If you're looking to use your new Zodiac for more than just gaming, and are specifically hoping to do some wireless browsing or emailing, you're probably going to want a Bluetooth cell phone. Well, there's a great deal on a great phone at Amazon right now. If you buy the Nokia 3650 and sign up for a two-year contract with AT&T once all the mail-in rebates have been cashed in, you'll actually end up making $150 (and one cent)! If you're interested in this deal, I would personally recommend that you not commit yourself to two years, though. With just a one-year contract you'll end up getting $50 less in rebates, so you'll still end up making $100.01. Two years is a long time to be locked in to any phone. By then they'll probably be built on much faster data networks and have TiVo functionality built-in.
Here are the details...You pay Amazon $199.99 (free shipping) and sign up with an AT&T plan online at Amazon. For an extra $19.99 you can even add a Jabra FreeSpeak Bluetooth headset to your cart! There are two rebate forms you'll need to print out. One is from AT&T and is good for between $100 and $150 (depending on whether you commit to one or two years). The other rebate for $150 is from Amazon and simply requires a one-year commitment.
As tempting as this offer is, I must tell you that AT&T's data usage plans are prohibitively priced. For $8/month (when combined with a voice plan) you'll get a lousy 1MB of data transfer. 8MB will set you back $20/month, and unlimited data costs a whopping $80/month! Alternatively, Amazon also has this same phone available through T-Mobile (who offers $20/month unlimited data unrestricted or free with some restrictions). The rebates aren't nearly as generous with the T-Mobile deal, though (you'll end up paying $0 after rebates - still a pretty good deal).
I should add that the Nokia 3650 is a full-featured smartphone, running on top of the Series 60 / Symbian multitasking OS (the same OS the N-Gage is built on). The 3650 is known for its excellent signal reception and has one of the better integrated cameras available. If you get bored with the Palm OS, there is a growing number of Series 60 freeware/shareware apps to play with. On the downside, the phone is fairly large by today's standards and many people dislike the odd circular numeric keypad which was designed for improved T9 entry speed. A much more comprehensive description of all that this phone has to offer can be found in an old article from sister-site goodthatway.
Want something smaller and don't need the added functionality or better signal reception and camera quality of the Nokia 3650? The T-Mobile Sony-Ericsson T610 with $50.01 cash back (after rebates) or the AT&T T616 (same phone) with $100.01 - $150.01 cash back are also good choices.
You can also find the Siemens S56 available for AT&T. The phone costs $79.99 up front but you can get a $150 Amazon rebate for a one-year contract, so you'll end up making $70.01 on that one.
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