Replacing my Nexus One

[terriko]

My smart phone has decided that it needs to spontaneously reboot itself 5-10 times a day, so I have decided I probably need a new smart phone. I've been very lucky to receive contract-free dev phones for free the last couple of times, but that seems unlikely to happen again.

I don't currently have a data plan, but it turns out my boyfriend has a spare t-mobile sim for which he's paying for a plan just 'cause he wants to keep the unlimited deal he's got on it. (There's a longish story about why this makes sense in his very specific context of phone plans; I'm not sure I'd do the same, but it's his money.) I'm welcome to use said sim until such a time as he needs it, (which is possibly never). It would be a pretty huge upgrade as I'm currently on a pay-as-you-go and just pay for data when I'm travelling. I don't care about changing my phone number as the one I give out is my google voice number anyhow.

So... I'm looking for an unlocked cell phone that will work with t-mobile in the US.

HOWEVER, it turns out that phones are getting bigger and bigger, but my pockets are not. I've had my N1 fall out of my pocket when I crouch down twice this week as is. Sadly, online shopping rarely tells me how huge these things are. Can anyone suggest reasonable smartphones that are not much bigger than the Nexus One? Or point me to a reviews site that includes the phone dimensions? I wouldn't mind having a physical keyboard again and I'd probably prefer something that can be flashed with cyanogenmod, but I'm hoping to not pay $500+.

Comments

[af_carson]

I switched from a Nexus One to the Nexus Prime (I don't care what Verizon and Samsung say it's called) and I can definitely sympathise with the concern about size with a new phone. The N1 was a tiny bit too small for my hands, but the Prime is almost ludicrously large.

T-Mo's website has dimensions for pretty much all their phones, and Wikipedia has the ones for the N1 to compare. I think size-wise the HTC Wildfire S is a bit smaller, but the hardware specs aren't quite as good. On the other hand the MyTouch 4G Slide has a hardware keyboard, a silly name, better internal hardware than the N1 and is only slightly larger (same size screen, but the body is a tad bulkier). Corey has had the MT4GS since August or so and I think he's really liked it. Most of T-Mo's other offerings are either bigger than that, or have crappy enough specs that you probably wouldn't want to bother.

I don't know about Cyanogenmod availability in any sort of detail; looks like there are AOSP ROMs available for several of T-Mobile's phones but not "official" Cyanogen releases.

If you're looking for something T-Mobile compatible from outside the US make sure you get a phone with HSPA support on the 1700 and 1900 MHz bands.

-Adam

[terriko]

Thanks! That's super helpful. I have seen the wildfire and the smaller size is most definitely tempting but I'm not sure if the lower specs will drive me crazy. The slide actually looks like almost exactly what I want, including a physical camera button (a source of much irritation on my n1), so maybe I'll head into a t-mo store and see if it feels right.