Which flavor/manufacturer should I get?

[Guest Gamer X]

Hi all,

I've been using an Audiovox SMT5600 (HTC Typhoon) for about a year now, and I definitely love it. While I may be a couple years behind the trend, I think it's time for me to move up. I've been looking at the Vox and Trinity, but there's no way my college student budget can afford either of those.

The HTC Wizard therefore has caught my eye, and it looks like it could be pretty good.

I'm in the central US, using Cingular. The main things I'll be using the Wizard for is the 802.11g support (checking e-mail, Wikipedia, eBay...), slide-out keyboard for IMming and writing quick notes to myself (which I do often), listening to MP3s, and playing games (like Mario or Zelda). I might also use it with a GPS device for navigation, but it'll be a while yet.

I definitely like the smallness of the Typhoon, which is why I'm not going to a bigger device (can't imagine holding a brick up to my ear, or carrying it in my pocket all day). The Wizard looks like the best I'm going to get without being overly expensive or obtrusively bulky.

I'm a bit of a tinkerer, too, and would like to be able to customize the inner workings and appearance (screen arrangement and whatnot) as much as possible, as well as running a myriad of freeware utilities (emulators, star charts, dictionaries, etc) (I've read there's one kind of Wizard that can be unlocked, and another that can't?).

Anywho, I've been scouring the 'Net for quite a while now, but can't get to a solid conclusion on which brand is best (Qtek 9100? Cingular 8125? K-Jam? Others?). Especially now that it's had a couple years to settle and get the ROM versions worked out, can anyone out there give me a good indication as to which Wizard is the best?

Thanks!

~~Michael

P.S., How durable are the screens on the Wizards? I cracked the plastic screen on the Typhoon by accident one day (and have been much more careful since then :rolleyes: ), but if it weren't for a gap between the outer plastic and the actual screen I'd have been out one device...

Edited June 19, 2007 by Gamer X

[Guest pdtp]

i would say if your going to get a phone and you wanna play games on it via an emulator i would get the 8525 instead as it has more horse power and you can get a used one off contract for about $250. otherwise all the wizard devices are the same just shaped a little differently. i have a lanyard on my phone (from a psp) and having that on my phone has saved it so many times from falling on the ground. otherwise the one or two times it has made it to the ground it came out fine.