Back To School 2007: Really Good Cellphones

The temperature is dropping and the sales are starting. It can only mean one thing: It’s time to bid farewell to your family and head off to school. Whether you’re a bio major, fashion design major, or even a business major, you can be sure that you’ll need a cellphone to survive the next four years. Now chances are some organization or your parents hooked you up with cash and you have a meal plan. This is key. You’re going to need all the cash you can get to get a posh cellphone that will boost your status as party king. I’ve compiled a list of cellphones that will most certainly fit anyone’s budget and style.

Samsung Blast
Price: $99.99
Provider: T-Mobile
Agreement: None

Samsung still has one of the best user interfaces on its cellphones, which makes it ideal for the technology neophyte. All the stuff you need to keep in touch with your friends and family is on the Blast. You’ll find a great IM client, a 1.3-megapixel camera, MMS and SMS, Bluetooth, and an easy-to-use QWERTY keyboard. Texters will find the Blast to be a time-saver. For $100, it’s not a bad phone for the T-Mobile crew.

Motorola RIZR Z3
Price: $49.99
Provider: T-Mobile
Agreement: None

In search of a cheap phone that has a decent set of features? Stuck with T-Mobile? Give the Motorola RIZR Z3 a spin. It has a great 2-megapixel camera, so you can take video of you doing body shots off a tranny. Also, consider how big of a phone you want to lug around campus. The thinner the better, right? The RIZR Z3 is only 0.6-inches thick and has quad-band GSM for when you study abroad. A music player, IM client, and microSD slot complete the feature list. For $50, you wont find much else that’s better.

Apple iPhone
Price: $399
Provider: T-Mobile, AT&T
Agreement: None

Please. Did you really expect a “Back to school” write-up without some mention of the iPhone? Of course not. Apple’s latest gadget just went from $599 to $399, which pissed early adopters off. Take advantage of the price drop to get your hands on the most technologically advanced phone available in the US. Touchscreen, YouTube videos, iTunes, Safari web browser, Clock, Email. What can’t the iPhone do? With a recent iTunes update, you can even make your own custom ringtones out of purchased iTunes Music Store songs. Groovy.

Motorola KRZR
Price: $99.99
Provider: AT&T
Agreement: 2 years

Ideally, you won’t be able to buy an iPhone, so settle for less. Sometimes less is more and in the case of the KRZR from Motorola, it’s a perfect example. The soon-to-be-standard 2-megapixel camera can do 8x zoom and video for when you need to spy on your roommates. Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP allows for wireless streaming of music from the KRZR’s media player. An IM client, quad-band GSM, and airplane mode are ideal for the long plane ride to London when you go to study at Oxford.

Motorola RAZR 2 V9M
Price: $249.99
Provider: Verizon Wireless
Agreement: 2 years

Motorola’s RAZR is still one of the most successful cellphones to ever be released. Playing on the device’s popularity, Mo’ has gone ahead and unleashed the RAZR 2, which is essentially the original RAZR jacked up on Creatine and anabolic steroids. Booh yah! A USB 2.0 connection means it won’t take hours to transfer your music library on your PC. If you’re not near a computer, you can always use Verizon’s VCAST service to download your favorite songs, ringtones, and videos. VCAST is $15 a month extra, but the content is at least entertaining.

Also, if you have a car, the RAZR 2 can do GPS-based directions. A huge lifesaver when you’re new on campus. All the standard crap like Bluetooth, MMS, etc. is here too. If you have Verizon, this is your best option if price is of no concern.

G’zOne Type-V
Price: $99.99
Provider: Verizon Wireless
Agreement: 2 years

Should your major require a lot of rough work, spending time outdoors, or partying hard, Verizon’s G’zOne Type-V might be a solid match for you. This phone is designed to be indestructible. Conforming to Military standards, you can throw this device in a river and not worry about it for an hour. Dust can’t get in it, dirt you can wash right off, and it’s built-tough. The next time you roll over to the Theta Chi house to smash chairs on each other and chug Keystone Ice, you’ll feel good and drunk, knowing nothing will happen to your phone tonight, tomorrow night, and the night thereafter. Speakerphone and a 2.0-megapixel camera make up the rest of the G’zOne’s features.

Helio Fin from Samsung
Price: $175-$365
Provider: Helio
Agreement: Varies with price

Helio may be a niche wireless provider, but it’s excellent at what it does. Packed with features like Flickr and YouTube uploading and GPS services, the Fin is one of the hottest phones of the summer. Probably the thinnest cellphone in existence, you’ll love the big screen for viewing the pictures you take with its 3.0-megapixel camera. Photos look fantastic at high-resolutions, making the Fin a rare find in a world of shitty phones. Need the web on-the-go? The Fin sports a full HTML browser with RSS reader, perfect for checking Google Maps. Your digital life on the go = Helio Fin.

LG Muziq
Price: $99.99
Provider: Sprint Nextel
Agreement: None

Music majors love to rock out and drink too much Vodka. Now you can get at least one of those activities done while walking to class, thanks to the LG Muziq from Sprint Nextel. Using Sprint’s powerful high-speed network, the Muziq can stream TV shows, give you GPS directions, and gather your e-mail. All from one thin-ass phone. The camera is a paltry 1.3-megapixels, so don’t try using this for blurry night shots of you with a beer. The Muziq obviously has a media player for playing back tunes and you can stream them to your headphones via A2DP-compatible Bluetooth.