Yes, I know. I’ve been talking about it since December when my last phone died (Cingular 8125). You know it’s old when the phone carries the name of the service provider that’s been gone for over a year.

Well, I’m not getting an iPhone. Yes, the iPhone is pure awesomeness, but I’m not getting an iPhone. Mainly becasue I don’t want to pay a $30 data plan every month for the next 24 months. That’s $720. Heck no! I’m either home or at my work 90% of the time… maybe more. With a wi-fi enabled phone, I have full data services. So for the iPhone, I’d pay $720 for the convenience of having internet during that 10% of the time I’m not at home. No thank you, it’s not worth $720. If my work was paying for data, I’d do it in a heartbeat, but they’re not, so I’m not.

So, I’m getting the HTC Fuze. HTC makes great phones and the Fuze has w-fi functionality. Now my phone will connect to the web whenever I’m at home or at work. Perfect! It also has a slide out keyboard. I like the iPhones keypad, but I feel like I’m aster on a slide out QWERTY keyboard. ATT doesn’t restrict me from using data on the phone over wi-fi and I have the ability to sign up for data whenever I need it. That’s a great plan. So, I’ll sign up for data when at camp, at a conference or maybe taking a road trip. The HTC Fuze is powered by Windows Mobile. No, it’s not as smooth as the iPhone OS. However, it has a huge developer base and I’ll easily be able to twitter, twitpic or enjoy other apps doing the kinds of things I want to do. I’ll let you know how it goes after I get it!

Specs:

Operating System Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
Keyboard Sliding QWERTY Keyboard.
Applications Remote Desktop Mobile
Domain Enroll
Managed Programs
WorldCard Mobile
JetCet Print 5
Sprite BackUp
AT&T Video Share Calling
AT&T Cellular Video
AT&T Push To Talk
AT&T Navigator
Processor Qualcomm MSM 7201a, 528Mhz
Memory ROM: 512MB RAM: 288 MB
Display 2.8″ VGA TFT touchscreen, 65K colors
Size 480 x 640 pixels, 2.8 inches
Full QWERTY keyboard
TouchFLO 3D finger swipe navigation
Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate
Touch-sensitive navigation controls
SIM Interface 1.8/ 3V SIM card slot
Headset Jack HTC ExtUSB TM (11-pin, mini-USB and audio jack in one)
Frequency UMTS (850/1900/ 2100 MHz ) and GSM/ GPRS/ EDGE (Quad-band, 850/ 900/ 1800/ 1900 MHz)HSDPA
Talk Time Up to 8 Hours.**Depends on device configuration and use.
Standby Time Up to 406 Hours.**Depends on device configuration and use.
AC Adaptor 100 ~ 240V AC, 50/60 Hz
Wi-Fi WiFi 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth® Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR
Email Microsoft Exchange, POP, IMAP, and AT&T Xpress Mail supported at launch.
Good Mobile Messaging to be supported 12/15/08.
BBC to be supported on Q1 of 2009.
Battery Lithium-ion Polymer 1340 maH battery
External Antenna Port Built in.
Speakerphone Built In.
Internet Opera Mobile (default) and Internet Explorer.
Built-in Camera 3.2 MP Color CMOS camera with auto focus
Caller ID Supported.
Audio/Video Built-in microphone and speaker Ring tone formats:
AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, QCP, MP3, WMA, WAV
40 polyphonic and standard MIDI format 0 and 1 (SMF)/SP MIDI
Expansion Up to 32GB MicroSDHC Card
TTY / TTD Supported.
GPS Built In
Other Features TouchFlo 3D, G-Sensor