dumb phone with excellent camera

Hi all,

My parents were eternally screwed (2 years) into another data-less tmobile contract. I am in the market for a "dumb" phone that has an above average camera, something comparable to a smart phone without all the bells and whistles.

What I am looking for:
-Data-less phone
-Unlocked GSM
-Preferably analog buttons (though my mom is willing to learn how to use touch screens).
-Great camera.

Basically, my parents want to be able to easily take pictures with their phones but don't want to pay smart phone prices. Any tips, hints, advice??!?!

It's not going to happen, for so many reasons. They're not going to put a good camera on a phone with a dinky screen, most of all, and non-smartphones are limited in the ways that they can share the photos anyway. In addition, smartphones are much more expensive (with the carriers willing to subsidize much of the cost of the phone in exchange for data plan rates), so you have that expectation of good features, while on a dumbphone, they try to keep costs down. If you really want good photos, you're better off telling your parents to buy themselves a decent digital camera, and just carry it with them. You might find a mid-way phone, often called feature phones, that will have decent cameras, but it will be nothing compared to the smartphone camera, like the newer iphone or Android cameras, where you can control where the camera focuses and other settings.


With T-Mobile, or any carrier for that matter, you're allowed to upgrade to a smartphone plan from a dumbphone plan. Or, just find a smartphone and switch the SIM card over. From what I understand from discussions like this, you can do it without issue, and Tmobile even blocks data for you:
http://androidforums.com/t-mobile...obile.html