Just started the school year? Looking for a new phone? Then this comprehensive guide will hopefully give an insight to what phone you should buy for the new school year. We’ll cover styles of use, features and most importantly price. We’re dividing the phones on offer this fall into three categories, messaging phones, media/entertainment phone and ease-of-use phones.

Let’s get started.

NOTE: All above prices are with AT&T with 24 month service. Prices elsewhere may or may not be cheaper, depending on your handset. We’re simply stating the price of the handset and if it requires a data plan. The prices will obviously vary depending on the amount of voice and messaging you desire.

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MESSAGING PHONES 

Are you a heavy messenger?

If you’re an individual who likes to keep on top of messages and emails, then I’d recommend a phone with a QWERTY keyboard. These phones are excellent for shooting out messages in a flash, and are generally well built and affordable. Here’s the list of phones that we’d recommend.

• Palm Pixi Plus.

The Palm Pixi Plus is no longer in production, so if you want one of these, you’d better snap it up fast! These phones are equipped with HP’s infamous webOS, something that people either love or hate. Overall, the touch screen is a nice feature that most QWERTY phone’s don’t have, and messaging is a breeze on these keys. The only bad thing about this phone is the design and build quality. All plastic with gummy, sticky feeling buttons? Surely Palm could have done better.

Price: FREE upon activation of a 24mo contract. You’ll also need to pick up a data service plan, starting at $15 per month. Also, on top of that, add voice minutes and messaging extras.

• Blackberry Curve

The Blackberry Curve is Blackberry’s “entry-level” device, however this phone sure packs a punch. Blackberry has won the hearts of millions of people around the globe for their simple yet elegant business design. Blackberry’s have one of the best e-mail services on the world and Blackberry Messenger will let you keep up with your friends for free. The bad thing about this Blackberry and, well, Blackberry’s in general is the camera is awful, to say the least. The Curve has a mere 2MP camera, so if you grab this phone, be sure to pack a camera for college. Another great thing about Blackberry’s is that, in my personal opinion, they have the best call quality. If I were you, pay the extra cent and pick up a Blackberry over the Palm Pixi, it’ll serve you well.

Price: $0.01 upon activation of a 24mo contract. You’ll also need to pick up a data service plan, starting at $15 per month. Also, on top of that, add voice minutes and messaging extras.

• Sharp FX

The Sharp FX is the younger brother to the Sharp Sidekick family, rocking a similar design and similar functionality. If you’re a heavy messenger that needs a larger keyboard than a Blackberry, this is the phone for you. With a neat slide-out QWERTY keyboard as well as a full touch screen, this phone is the best of both worlds. The camera is nothing to gloat about, totalling 2MP. What’s nice about this phone is that IM (instant messaging) is a built in feature, with no need to download additional software and applications.

Price: FREE upon activation of a 24mo contract. You don’t need to pick up a data plan with this, so theres a large saving in itself. Also, on top of that, add voice minutes and messaging extras. AT&T recommend that you select an unlimited messaging plan, as you message a heap on this particular handset.

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MEDIA/ENTERTAINMENT PHONES

Do you like playing games?

If you’re like me and like having access to thousands of games and applications to keep you entertained (and drain your battery) you’d probably be best to pick a multimedia type phone. These phone’s generally tend to be the priciest (as they’re versatile and can do everything).

• iPhone 4.

Obviously I can’t write an article without mentioning the iPhone 4. Hailed by some as “the best smartphone in existence”, you can’t really go wrong with the iPhone. The best thing about the iPhone is the app store, which boasts hundreds of thousands of applications, most of which are free or really cheap! The cameras great (5MP) and with 16GB or a whopping 32GB of storage, you’ll have no problem keeping all your music, videos and photographs on this phone. The only downside about the iPhone is the price. It tends to be one of the most expensive smartphones on the market.

Price: 16GB/$199 and 32GB/$299 upon activation of a 24mo contract. You’ll also need to pick up a data service plan, starting at $15 per month. Also, on top of that, add voice minutes and messaging extras

•  iPhone doesn’t push your buttons? Prefer Android? Let me introduce to you the Samsung Captivate.

It’s a beast of a phone with a solid 5MP camera, Swype texting technology, super large amoled display and a huge 1GHZ processor. The screen on the Captivate is absolutely gorgeous, and in my opinion, ever better than the iPhone’s “retina” display. This phone is certainly an iPhone contender and if you don’t want an iPhone, I’d recommend this phone as it truly captivates you with its brilliant display. The best part of the Samsung Captivate is the price.

Price: $0.01 upon activation of a 24mo contract. You’ll also need to pick up a data service plan, starting at $15 per month. Also, on top of that, add voice minutes and messaging extras.

If you happen to dislike iOS and Android, perhaps Windows Phone 7 will tickle your fancies?

• HTC Surround

The HTC Surround is an extremely polished phone that I’d consider if I could get a new phone. Not only does it run Windows Phone 7, a simplistic, efficient and clean OS, it boasts a myriad of nice features. Windows Phone 7 is neat because it fully integrates with Microsoft Office, Xbox Live, Bing search and Zune. It’s 5PM camera with 5x zoom is certainly pleasing to photographers, whilst it’s slide out speakers will please even the most fussy audio fanatic. I think this is an all-round great phone and strongly recommend it to anybody who isn’t after an iPhone or Android phone.

Price: FREE upon activation of a 24mo contract. You’ll also need to pick up a data service plan, starting at $15 per month. Also, on top of that, add voice minutes and messaging extras.

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EASY TO USE PHONES

Don’t really care for all the extra bells and whistles? If you’re not into apps, high definition cameras, full qwerty keyboards and all those bells and whistles, you could save a small fortune on picking a basic, classic phone.

• AT&T F160.

If you’re on a tight budget and don’t need all the added features of a smart phone, I think this may be the phone for you. The AT&T F160 is certainly not winning any awards but if all you’d need a phone for is light texting and the occasional phone call, pick this phone up. It’s free and the best part about this phone on AT&T is that you aren’t required to pick up a data plan. This is going to save you at LEAST $360 over the 24month contract.

Price: $30 upon activation of a 24mo contract. After you pay, you can claim a $30 mail-in rebate to drop the price to $0. You don’t need a data plan, which saves you a small fortune over the 24months. Also, on top of that, add voice minutes and messaging extras.

• Samsung Rugby.

If you’re looking for something a little more rugged that you can take out without fear of cracked plastic and glass, I’d strongly recommend the Samsung Rugby. It’s military level rugged design is second to none and you can throw this phone around with confidence. It also acts as a walkie-talkie which is pretty neat if you were on-site and needed voice access. You can throw this phone in your school bag and pencil case without any fear, and, best of all, it’s cheap.

Price: $99 upon activation of a 24mo contract. Also, on top of that, add voice minutes and messaging extras.

• Samsung Evergreen

The Samsung Evergreen is a nice little phone that is feature packed and is well worth it’s price. Not only does it have the simplicity of a basic phone, it also has the slide-out keyboard just incase you need to type out a long message or email. The camera is nothing to be excited about, with only 2MP, but this phone doesn’t advertise to be a camera replacement. This phone is actually a world phone, meaning that you can take it overseas and it will be compatible with local networks. This is a nice feature if you’re travelling frequently, and need to constantly change sim cards. You can also multitask on this phone, you can be in a call and browsing the web at the same time.

The major downside about the easy-to-use phones is that you won’t get a rich application store. If you’re lucky to have one at all, you’ll only have a small handful of applications. If you’re a type of person who would like to constantly discover and try new applications, games and services, we recommend you look within the entertainment phone section of this editorial. If you want access to hundreds of thousands of application, I’d recommend looking into the iPhone, see “Entertainment” section of this editorial.

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So there you have it, three “back to school” phones from each category, QWERTY messaging phones, all-round media smartphones and your basic phones for calling and texting. Please keep in mind that we’ve only selected three phones from each category just to show the diversity, however there is a myriad of other phones available. Although that we strongly recommend the products mentioned here, we recommend that you do a little bit of your own research as you’re going to be locked in for 24-months!

Written by Nathan Dickson for TheAppleFreak.com