I recently switched to T-Mobile because of their awesome FlexPay system. Basically, you prepay for service, but you sign a 2 year contract and get all the post-paid plans and options. Not to mention the sweet discount on the phone for signing a contract. This option is wonderful for my fiance and I, both of whom have exes who killed our credit. If you're on pre-paid or don't want to pay a high deposit (if your credit isn't that great) for cell phone service, give it a bit of research. It seems like a "too good to be true" option, but I assure you, it is real.
At any rate, I went with the Nokia 5300 XpressMusic slider phone. The phone itself is great; dedicated music shortcut keys on the side, a really smooth, spring assisted slide, a ton of customization options, and, most importantly, full Bluetooth 2.0 +EDR. I've already created a Leopard theme for it, and I'm loving everything about it. The sound is loud and clear through the speaker; I'm almost scared to use the ringer at full volume because it's so loud! At the highest volume, music is a bit distorted, but it's so loud that you'd rarely need to have it that high. Nokia did include a nice little headphone/speaker adapter that takes the 2.5mm headset jack and converts it to a 3.5mm audio jack. While T-Mobile hasn't launched their 3G network yet, this phone does have EDGE, and it's surprisingly fast. I had an EDGE phone (Nokia 6230) with Cingular a few years back, and I swear it wasn't this fast. I can start up the browser and load Weather.com faster than my fiance can get the page to load in a pre-existing browser window on her laptop. Yes, the pages are optimized for it, but it's pretty damn fast! I just wish I could use Opera Mini with it (see next paragraph). The camera is okay; it's 1.3 MP with no flash, and it takes pretty decent pictures in the sunlight, but get it under any kind of dark lighting and it gets really grainy, really fast. I like having it there for snapshots, but it hardly puts a dent in my real camera use. lol Battery life is lacking (I need to charge every night), but I also use it A LOT. I listen to music and browse the web constantly, so I'm probably the heaviest load this battery is designed for. lol Reception has been excellent so far; I've been in a few places way out in the country where I've dropped signal, but I expected that. The memory card can be acccessed by using a USB cable to connect the phone with the computer. Upon plugging it in, the phone gives 3 options: Nokia Mode (for use with Nokia PC Suite for Windows), Music Sync (puts the phone in MTP mode for WMP11), or Data Storage. Data Storage is compatible with Mac, so that's what I use. Under Windows, both Nokia Mode and Music Sync work flawlessly (I have VMWare Fusion to run Windows). Bluetooth access is also complete, allowing for file transfers and data syncing. That being said, I had to hack iSync to add support for the 5300, but it works very fast over the Bluetooth 2.0 +EDR now. You can also use a customizable "Active Standby" screen in place of the the blank home screen that shows you what music is playing, today's calendar entries, and a customizable Shortcut Bar. This screen is great, and was honestly a selling point for me on the phone. I keep all my photography and sales appointments, along with my school assignments, in iSync, so after syncing it with the phone, these show on the main screen.
There is one glaring issue: T-Mobile blocks, through the firmware, blocks "unauthorized" 3rd party apps from using any data connectivity. That means no Opera Mini, Google Maps, or even Salling Clicker. I've gotten used to it now, but it was really disappointing at first. I was really looking forward to trying out the location ability with the new Google Maps, and I've always loved using Opera Mini and Salling Clicker (the firmware won't let an "unauthorised" 3rd party apps access Bluetooth properly). T-Mobile also blocks some SMS short codes, so I can't Twitter through text, but I can get at it through the WAP page. One last gripe: it only supports up to 2 GB MicroSD cards (beyond that, the cards are MicroSDHC). MicroSDHC support can apparently be added by a firmware update, so I'm hoping that it'll come down the pipeline soon.
Overall, the 5300 is a great phone. Good reception, awesome music controls, loud sound, and a great physical interface (smooth slider and easy-to-find-by-touch keys). It has a few flaws, but what phone doesn't? For high end users, it might not be enough, but for music lovers, it's a great phone.
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