I recently went to a friends house to discover he had a new Palm Pre, needless to say I spent the entire night playing with it and nearing neglecting everyone else. I instantly fell in love with the phone, I can honestly say I wasn’t even this blown away when I first met the iPhone. I really think no phone out there can compare to the Pre, yes the Pre and Android were dubbed iPhone killers but the Pre is in a class of its. Since this isn’t a Pre review I wont go into the nitty gritty of the phone but I will say I would love to have a phone with a real keyboard, and be able to be running a program and not have to exit it then restart the whole thing just to check a text message someone sends me, and thats only one of the many things, the Pre can do everything the iPhone can do and more. As I sat here dreaming that some day AT&T will get the Pre so I can have it I decided to look at Sprints phone plans (no I am not planning on switching to Sprint anytime in the near or distant future) and was pretty impressed on their pricing, this lead me to check out prices of all the major carriers in the US. I thought that the only way to do a fair comparison is to pick a plan and get the exact same plan with all the same features on every carrier, because its not fair to compare a plan that may be less money but offers less features so here is a break down including monthly cost, phone cost, and the total two year cost. Prices exclude tax and offer 450 anytime minutes, unlimited messaging (exclude Verizon their highest message plan is 5000) unlimited data and navigation (excluding T-Mobile they do not offer navigation), unlimited night and weekends, and unlimited network to network calls.

So the Ranking of cheapest to most expensive is Sprint,T-Mobile,AT&T, Verizon.  I will not that the T-mobile plan only has 300 minutes in it as they only have 300 then 600 they also offer 5 numbers which can be called anytime with no minute usage.  AT&T offers roll over minutes so if you don’t use those precious 450 minutes they can be used next month, Sprint offers unlimited calling to any cell phone on any network for this plan, and their night and weekends start at 7 pm opposed to the others which start at 9 pm.  Verizon is the only one that has nothing unique about the plan.  I do think all of these phone are pretty comparable except for the Storm which has no Wi-Fi and is sometimes annoying to navigate, I was a fan at first but after using one so much at work I don’t like them.  To rank the phones I would say 1. Palm Pre (by a complete long shot over any other phone) 2. iPhone (still a great phone and nothing quite like it, it did revolutionize phone) 3. myTouch 3G (I like this phone but due to no headphone jack its a worthless phone to me) 4. Storm (outdated OS, no Wi-Fi, other problems).  To clarify a few other things, these plans are for individual plan and are the current rates I found on each carriers web sites and are subject to change at any given time so this post will not always be current.  The plans listed can be used with any smart phone that has data, MMS, and email capability I picked these phone because they seemed more similar to each other. I am not trying to endorse or say which carrier I prefer or is better so I hope this post has been somewhat objective (although the Pre does rock!) it is only for comparison. To end I will leave you with some pictures of the coverage maps, remember cheaper isnt always better and more expensive isnt always worth it, look at Nebraska they have less than 2 million people and in some areas have better coverage than California. You be the judge of which is better and which is worth the price.

AT&T Coverage Map

Verizon Coverage Map

Sprint Coverage Map

T-Mobile Coverage Map

Please also remember that my views on Cell phones are subject to change so please don’t go out and buy a phone just because I like it, I know that my opinions are very important and should be regarded as such but use a phone before you buy it.