A dizzying array of phone options... not to mention resets...

Well, at this point after attempting soft resets, hard resets, an intricate type of reset that involves pressing 3 buttons with 2 hands while poking at a 4th with a stylus held between one's teeth (I kid you not), and 2 stymied store clerks, I think it is safe to declare my Treo defunct.

I'm eligible for a phone upgrade via AT&T, and so I spent the morning researching many, many phone options - first online, and then down at the local store branch. I came away from the process feeling disgruntled - there are so many good phone features out there, and each of the high-end phones seems to have a different subset of them but not the full assortment. This one has GPS but not a touchscreen. That one has both of those but not built-in IM. And so forth. Nothing has screamed "this one!" so far, and so I haven't bought one yet.

I need to look into a couple more options that weren't on display at the store (anyone got any experience with the LG VU?), but I think I'm currently waffling between just buying another Treo - used and cheap off Craigslist, to be used with my Sim card, and with features I'm already familiar with - vs. buying the new iphone, due out this Friday. Of course, it'll be well nigh impossible to actually get it this Friday - they're expecting huge lines and my mother is coming into town - and I am hesitant to buy one before I know more about how well it works. A middle ground option would be to get the used Treo now, and then when that one goes, to look into the by-then-less-new iphone, with lots more info at hand at that point about its functionality and what programs are available to run on it.

Thanks very, very much to emmett_the_sane, who has lent me his London partner's iphone to use for the next few days, to citore, who let me come by late at night and test my old phone using oakdragon's treo battery, and to mikz, who helped me to optimize the temporary iphone's usability for my needs.