[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] pianoplayer88key:
Hey all. :)

I've been plodding along with my G1 for ... oh i'd guess a few years now, and it's definitely showing its age. Sometimes the keyboard / trackball is doing things when I'm not using them, the ear speaker doesn't work (for listening to phone calls privately - the speakerphone part still works).... and the straw that broke the camel's back? I'm doing good to get maybe 5 MINUTES out of the supposedly fully-charged Seidio 2600 mAh extended battery. (The original battery is about 1100 mAh or so.) Also the camera is no longer working, and hasn't been for several months now.

So, it's time for me to do something about it, and SOON, like within the next few days. I'm currently on T-Mobile on their 500 minute, unlimited text + data plan paying about $62-63/month with taxes and fees. (I got my plan before they started throttling data. I wonder if mine's being throttled anyway, though, as I can't stream high-quality youtube videos in realtime.) I don't do much talking or texting, but until my battery life went down the tubes I was on the web, youtube, listening to streaming music, etc probably a few hours a day or more.

Is there a cheaper plan on a GSM carrier anywhere I could get unlimited high-speed data on? Or am I stuck with having a bundle of minutes, 95% of which I never use? Or should I maybe consider one of the T-Mobile Value plans, for example? They at first on paper appear to be somewhat cheaper than what I'm using now (except I'm a bit concerned about the data). AT&T doesn't have any of the phones I would use (not that it'd matter as I plan to buy the phone without the contract, probably from a 3rd party) so I haven't checked out their rates. Verizon and Sprint are both CDMA carriers and therefore don't use SIM cards, a disqualifier because I wouldn't easily be able to port my account from one phone to another. (I do have a lot of friends on Verizon, though, and I hear Sprint has unlimited data.)

As for the phone ... I'm basically looking to upgrade from what I have now. Things I'm looking for include, but aren't limited to:

* Full 5-row physical QWERTY keyboard. I know about swype, but I don't want a virtual keyboard taking up real estate, and I want to be able to

FEEL

the keys.

* very long battery life - at least as good as I used to get with the Seidio 2600 mAh battery in my T-Mobile G1 (HTC Dream) when it was new. (The stock battery for the G1 was 1100 mAh.)

* preferably at least 2.2 or 2.3 Android OS native, and I'll want to be able to run 3.x and 4.x when they are available. (Also 5.x and maybe 6.x if possible in the future - I may have this phone at least as long as I've had the G1 (originally purchased within a couple months of release) if not longer.)

I'll most likely be buying the phone off ebay or craigslist to save money on the contract. The one I've been eyeing the most is the Sidekick 4G so far. Other contenders, if there's a way without rooting to make them work with T-Mobile (or another USA GSM carrier) are the Samsung Epic 4G / Galaxy S (the one with the keyboard - I understand some don't have it) and the Motorola Droid 3. I'm reading reports that the Sidekick 4G's camera may not be all that great, and I expect to be using it a lot including in indoor environments. (Another reviewer says it's actually pretty good, though.)

I'm basically looking to spend up to about $150-200 or so on a new phone (ebay/craigslist w/o contract), but I'm at a bit of a crossroads here. :(

Should I buy the Sidekick 4G (or another 5-row QWERTY GSM phone) NOW (within the next 4-5 calendar days)?

Or should I buy another battery and headset adapter (I seem to have lost mine and have lost count of how many I've had to buy) for my G1 and limp along with it for up to 8-10 weeks longer until I can score a good deal on a really awesome GSM 5-row QWERTY slider dual-core 4G AMOLED phone that may not have even been leaked yet? Also if I do decide to limp along with my current phone, is there a way I could open it up and repair / replace the speaker and camera? Also would it be possible to do any internal hardware upgrades like put in a faster CPU, more internal RAM, etc, and load a rooted version of 3.0 on it?

Also, as for the new phone, I'm definitely wanting something with a spacious keyboard and screen, but that will still fit in my pants pocket. Just to give you an idea of the size of my hands .... (sorry I didn't have a pic of my hand with my phone, so this'll have to do)