New Phone! Goodbye Samsung SCH-U740 (Alias).. HELLO LG DARE!

For the longest time, the Samsung SCH-u740 (or catchy “Verizon Alias”) was my idea of cellphone perfection. It’s sleak profile, full qwerty keyboard, and uber-leet bidirectional hinge, made it well.. too frickin cool for school. It might look like a Razr (ew) on first glance but next thing you know I have it folded out horizontally typing a txt message with both hands! People would freak all the time.. “Weren’t you just talking on that thing like a regular phone, what the HECK?!”

I loved peoples reactions to that phone. It wasn’t anything too complex or sophisticated but it still turned heads and was brilliantly convenient. Anyways, it still ranks rather high on my list but it has been replaced as my official day to day cellphone by the LG Dare.

When my roommate Ray Butcher moved in, I ended up being around the iPhone way more than I would’ve preferred. While pretty slick itself, the iPhone lacks several things that would’ve made it a winner in my book. Firstly, I will never (again) switch to AT&T/Cingular, and the fact that in default trim it can’t send or receive pics or video messages is just absurd.

One thing spending a lot of time around the iPhone DID do however is convince me I have to jump on the touchscreen bandwagon. By the time I played around with the Dare, I had owned an LG Voyager, an evolution of the EnV, for about six months. I liked the fact the Voyager was a touchscreen, but its bulky shape kept me from really being able to use it on a daily basis. It sat on my nightstand while the SCH-u740 got all the action. My phone goes in and out of my pocket a lot, so if its too big or clumsy.. it just ain’t happening.

I went into the Verizon store for a replacement Alias (u740) because the earpiece speaker went out. This actually happened on my first u740 which was only days old, so I wasn’t too surprised. A small price to pay for an otherwise awesome phone. The speakerphone still worked but that’s just obnoxious (and VERY inconvenient for making business calls). While the guy went in the back to check their stock I walked around the store checking out some of their newer model phones.

After looking around and playing with a bunch of other phones, an LG Dare finally found it’s way into my hands.. the rest is history. I started navigating through the interface and was very surprised to see how quick and responsive it was. I was sold within seconds of holding it.The salesman couldn’t know this though so I hastily planted the phone back on the display and waited for him to return from the back.

Sure enough, they were out of the Alias, it was destiny. He offered to have one overnighted from another store free of charge or I could go to another store downtown and pick one up. I declined and gave in, I had to ask him… whats the best deal he could work up for getting my hands on a new Dare. Luckily, my New-Every-Two promotion was only a month away on this line and he told me he could bump it up and have me chatting away on my new Dare for only $100 bucks above and beyond the NE2 credit.

This was a little more than I was looking to spend, afterall I had come in only looking for a working replacement of my favorite phone for the past 2 years. After some haggling, I agreed to let them tack an additional $150 onto my bill for that month. I walked out of the store with $60 worth of accessories, my new Dare, and a $50 mail in rebate. Not too shabby.

I love this phone, in fact.. I love it so much, I sold my Voyager on CraigsList and got another Dare for my second line! I’m letting Josie use it since we’re back together and I never really used that second line but dang… two Dares.. yeah buddy.