My Treo 650 is dead. A few days ago it stopped working – wouldn’t turn on, wouldn’t charge. I futzed around it for it a bit and got it to work for a few hours. And then it stopped working again. And then I got it working again and had the screen go wacky on me a couple of times and now it is not working again. I opened it up and looked around for loose connections and didn’t see anything.

So now I’m looking for a new Cingular (err, AT&T) phone.

I was hoping to get something with nice 3G data speeds and a decent camera. I want something fairly easy to type on since I always used my Treo more for Internet than for phone calls. When I do make phone calls, I want to actually be able to hear them (I had a lot of problems in this regard with my Treo) and I want to be able to use Bluetooth and have a longer than 4 foot range.

So far it’s not looking good. All of the phones I’ve looked at so far seem to fall short in one area or another.

• Cingular 8525 – Despite its 3G capability, Web surfing speed was atrocioius when I tried it in store. Did not like Windows Mobile or the overall feel of the phone.
• Samsung Sync – CNET was not impressed with call quality, navigation, and buttons
• LG CU500 – User reviews a bit sketchy on CNET
• Motorola RAZR V3xx – not quad band, CNET seemed to indicate so-so voice quality, seems to be crippled by Cingular (e.g.: no MP3 ring tones, constant Java permission warnings for non-Cingular apps)
• Blackberry 8800 – GPS is very cool, but no 3G and no camera.
• Blackberry 8100c – No 3G and not sure yet if I will like the Blackberry OS or the trackball.

I’ve only really played with the 8525 so far (a few weeks ago), so I still need to head over to a store and try them out in person as the feel of a phone and its UI is a very subjective thing.

If anyone has any recommendations for phones I should look at, please do post them…