Rugged, simple cell phone for a person working outside? Does one exist?

[Larry]

AT&T uses a sim card which is the brain...so you need a phone that will accept the sim card.  I just bought a new phone from Walmart.  It was a "Go" phone (there cheap).  Transferred my sim card from another device into the Go phone.

Don't have any suggestions for a good phone.  I hardly ever use my phone but I do have a heavy leather pouch for it on my belt.

[Don_Papenburg]

Doug , That is the phone that I have been looking for .  Told my wife not to get me a cell phone unless she could find one with a rotary dial .    She got me an expensive do-all phone with small unidentified buttons .  they have +-#*= and other picuretype markings that have nothing to do with a phone ,oh and a big button that has  OK on it We live in Illinois. Shouldnt it have IL ? 

  I broke the flipper top out of the thing . It got hung up on something while I was slipping through a tight spot after the storm .  I poped it back togeter but it did not work forsome reason .  She took it back and they could not figure out what had happened ,caled all the employees over to check it out . Not a one had seen that before . So they gave her a new Phone because it was under warranty.

Now where do I get that dial cell phone you have???????????? ;D

[scgargoyle]

I've noticed the more features a phone has, the shorter the battery life. My work phone gets replaced every year, and they got some kinda gee-whiz-super-duper phones with all the stuff ya don't need, and the batteries wouldn't go 2 full days! Everybody complained, and we got new, simpler phones that will go a solid week. When I start building my place, I'll be looking for a cheap, simple, solid phone myself.

As an aside- Does anyone know how to attach a phone (not the holster) to your body, so if you drop it, you can retrieve it? I just know that the day the ladder falls while I'm the roof alone, I'll fumble the DanG phone when I try to call for help!  :D :D :D I'd like to attach some kind of lanyard to the phone itself, and hook it to a belt loop or something. Do they make a phone with an attachment point?

[DanG]

Do they make a phone with an attachment point?

Mine has one.  Of course they don't make that phone anymore. :

[Tom]

Maybe you could super glue something to the side of the phone, ....the same as I had to put a coffee cup holder on the sawmill.  :D

How come they keep making those phones tinier and tinier.  They've got no room to put anything on there but icons now.  I've got at least one picture on there that I can't tell what it is, much less what it does.  I looked it up in the instructions, one day, and it did a lot of stuff, none of which I remember, or apparently do.   I'm still trying to figure out how to get the one picture I managed to take, off of the phone and into my computer.  The instructions say, "just email it".   :-\ :-\

I like the lanyard idea, or the "can't drop it" idea, if you figure out a good one.

They haven't figured out that they could sell a wire head gear that you could put on your head and slip the phone into to talk hands free.  Instead, they sell these stupid looking hearing-aid looking things that hang on the side of your head.   I'll bet I could build one with a coat hanger wire in just a few minutes.   You could make one that fit all kinds of phones, even cordless ones in the house.  Used to be, when phones were phones, you could get those hooks to put on the handset that let the phone rest on your shoulder.   I wonder who uninvented that?

[Bro. Noble]

Do they make a phone with an attachment point?

Of course they don't make that phone anymore. :

That reminds me of the time we had to have a new phone installed because of lightening damage.  The phone guy was going over the charges with me and told me there was a $5.00 charge for the optional style of phone (push button) and I asked him what was standard.  He said rotary phones were standard.  I told him that I liked the rotary dial just fine so give me one of those and take the five bucks off my bill.  He said "Those aren't available anymore"  ??? >:( :

[DanG]

Bro. Noble, you better check that you're not still paying that extra five bucks, even though the phone co. hasn't provided phones for years.  As long as you're paying for something you aren't getting, they are happy to take your money.  I have demanded and recieved two major refunds since we've been here.  Our line is served from the office in Gretna, which was unincorporated when we moved here.  They became a City soon afterward, so the phone co. started billing us for City taxes, which shouldn't apply because we aren't in the City.  Another time, they arbitrarily added "inside wire maintenance" charges, even though I installed and maintain my own wiring.  They cheerfully refunded the charges as if to say, "Well it was a nice try anyway."

[okmulch]

Bibbyman, I have a motorola tundra. I got it because it is dust proof and semi water proof.  I have dropped it out of my pocket from on top of the grinder (which is about 13 feet up with me standing on it) and it has hit the ground and is still working. I have had it for a year and there is absolutely no dust in the screens. I can see the display just fine in the sun. It does have a lot of bells and whistles if you want  to pay extra for them.
The only problem I have had is when Stillwater went to 3G networks it would not pick up other towers. However ATT replaced it for free and the new one is working like a champ, this was about a month ago . I had a motorola razor before this one and the screens had so much dust in them I could not read them inside or out.

[woodsteach]

my samsung convoy has a lanyard attachment point.  it is supposed to be mill specs.  we'll see.  I left it in my soaking wet pants last night and had water in the battery compartment when I checked it this a.m.   The screen now has some fuzzy issues b/c of the water.

It has a camera,  you can hardly read it in the sun it is 4 months old so I can't give it a thumbs up or down but   It does have a lanyard attachment!! 8) 8)

[Bibbyman]

Bibbyman, I have a motorola tundra.

We've looked at phones in 5 stores in 4 towns.  All agree the Rugby II is the best for outdoor use.  But none have them in stock.  We talked to a lady at the AT&T store in the Columba Mall today and she also said the Rugby II was the best but they were out.  BUT!  She expected to get some in on Wednesday!  Mary is going to call back.

On the Motorola Tundra,  she said it was a good and rugged phone but they don't make it any any longer.  Said it had a couple of problems - one being the antenna would break off.

[okmulch]

My antenna never broke off, but it would not pick up signals out in the country. It would do fine in town. It possibly could have broke internally.

[Coon]

If you get your phone wet and to the point where the screen gets fuzzy and such a simple thing to do to remove the excess moisture is to put it into a container of rice.  The rice will absorb and wick away all of the excess moisture.  Don't ask me how I know this.   :   :D 

Don't y'all go trying this at home now folks.  No purposely submerging your phones.  :D  :D

[Toolman]

Have the Boulder sound quality improved? I bought one a couple years back and returned it after only one day of use. You could hardly hear the person on the other end. Something to do with a protective film over the speaker to make it water-proof. It was a shame because it looked like a rugged phone. I liked the flashlight they had built into it.

[Raider Bill]

If you get your phone wet and to the point where the screen gets fuzzy and such a simple thing to do to remove the excess moisture is to put it into a container of rice.  The rice will absorb and wick away all of the excess moisture.  Don't ask me how I know this.   :   :D 

Don't y'all go trying this at home now folks.  No purposely submerging your phones.  :D  :D

This work!  I don't know why but the girls here in the office seem to drop theirs in the potty a lot. That's how they fix them.

[fishpharmer]

If you get your phone wet and to the point where the screen gets fuzzy and such a simple thing to do to remove the excess moisture is to put it into a container of rice.  The rice will absorb and wick away all of the excess moisture.  Don't ask me how I know this.   :   :D 

Don't y'all go trying this at home now folks.  No purposely submerging your phones.  :D  :D

This work!  I don't know why but the girls here in the office seem to drop theirs in the potty a lot. That's how they fix them.

Bill, that's kinda weird.  Nice rice trick.

[scgargoyle]

I've kinda lost my taste for rice all-of-a-sudden.......

[Raider Bill]

Yellow rice and beans................... Just sayin......

[Bibbyman]

I'm happy now!   8)  A sign of a good topic when it stays long enough to get around to food.   :D

[ely]

bibby, i thought of you this am. i seen a comercial on the tube with Meridith baxter in it. she was advertising a simple phone with big numbers and large print onthe screen. it was a basic phone with ab. no frills. looked like what you wanted. sorry i didnt remember the name.