I get the lineup, but what does back to school have to do with phones? Kids go to school to pay attention, not to play on their phones and text all day.
Want a real back to school phone? Then get a cheap prepaid phone for your kid. Otherwise you are asking for trouble.
Back in late March I posted my top 10 smartphones of 2011 that were available or announced. I then followed this post up with my top five that were actually available and after more time with some I don’t even think those are valid any longer. It’s a bit sad that the top two and one other in my top 10 still are not available and one is never coming. There are so many smartphones available from all the carriers and to make this a helpful guide for planning your purchase I will present my top three picks for smartphones from each of the four major national carriers and all of these phones are available now. The rumored, and still not confirmed, Apple iPhone 5 may be coming to AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, but until we get some kind of confirmation and announcement from Apple that is still all speculation.
The prices you will see in this article are from the carrier, when available. If you are new to a carrier or adding another line you will find excellent prices on Amazon.com and other online vendors like Wirefly (I buy both contract and off contract phones here). So you know where my personal perspective is coming from I am a long time (about 10 years) T-Mobile subscriber with five phones on a family plan and signed up for a Verizon account in March and had the HTC Thunderbolt then HTC Droid Charge and this week will have the Bold 9930. I had an AT&T account (mainly used only with data) for a couple of years and was a Sprint subscriber for about a year with devices like the HTC EVO 4G. I do have some experiences with each of the four major US wireless carriers and have also been purchasing SIM-unlocked smartphones for over 6 years. I personally will switch and pay the ETF to get a new device and jump to a carrier that offers me more for my money, but will most likely never try leaving T-Mobile with my family plan again (AT&T failed me big time when I tried that and my wife almost killed me due to the constant dropped calls).
Each carrier is different for all of us and is highly dependent on where you live, work, and play. I recommend you figure out which carrier works best for you before buying a device you won’t be happy with because of the carrier. There are many excellent smartphone options today and you honestly can’t really go wrong with any of the available choices. Like carriers, different smartphone operating systems work for different people because of their different strengths and weaknesses, 3rd party applications, and available form factors.
Enough about the disclaimers and warnings, let’s take a look at my list of smartphones to consider for school year 2011-2012.
AT&T
There is likely a new Apple iPhone coming this fall, but until now the one year old Apple iPhone 4 is still an excellent smartphone choice on AT&T. This year you can also pick one up in white and it will be upgradeable to the iOS 5 update coming out in the next few months.
AT&T made some major changes to their pricing plans after the release of the iPhone 4 so that now there is a 2GB cap on data with the ability to also tether for another $20 per month. Each additional GB of data cost $10/month. There are additional charges for text messaging other services, like AT&T Navigator.
Price: $299 for 32GB and $199 for 16GB with 2-year contract
[Check out the iPhone 4 CNET Reviews page]
AT&T may have been a bit slow to launch Android devices, but they have a good selection now and it was tough to choose between this Samsung Infuse 4G or the HTC Inspire 4G, but I went with the larger more brilliant display for my choice. The Infuse 4G has a whopping 4.5 inch Super AMOLED Plus display, runs Android 2.2, has an 8 megapixel camera, and is the thinnest 4G smartphone at just 8 mm thick.
The Infuse 4G comes with a very large 1750 mAh battery, internal 18 GB storage, and microSD card so you can load this bad boy up with storage memory. It supports AT&T’s HSPA+ network too. Customer reviews are overwhelmingly positive and the Infuse 4G looks like a definite winner on AT&T.
Price: $199.99 with 2-year contract
[Check out the Samsung Infuse 4G CNET Reviews page]
I am a major Windows Phone 7 fan and think people need to actually try one of these devices to appreciate how good it really is. The great thing about the existing lineup, like the Samsung Focus, is that they will get upgraded to Windows Phone Mango soon and that OS update is wonderful on the Samsung Focus.
The Focus has a brilliant 4 inch WVGA Super AMOLED touchscreen that is extremely responsive. The 5 megapixel camera takes decent photos and there is a lot to like in Windows Phone 7 with Xbox LIVE gaming, Zune Pass music services, Bing Search integration, and so much more.
Price: $49.99 with 2-year contract
[Check out the my Windows Phone 7.5 Mango technical preview article and the Focus CNET Reviews page]
HTC Trophy 7.5 Verizon 
