I did a search and didn't see a discussion comparing cell phones best suited for Realtors. Hope this one benefits someone. I'd like to hear what others are using and why.

I use a Nokia N95.

Why?

1. No more taking notes while I drive or any other time for that matter. The Nokia N95, with a 12 dollar addon **please note** in the United States where driving and talking on a cell phone (bluetooth or not) are still legal, and for folks who live in "one party consent" privacy law States (like mine, both callee and caller residing in the same State), you may use the record feature of this phone. What it does is records both sides of every conversation of every call without beeping- it does this automatically. All calls are indexed in a database on the phone identified by caller id, date, duration of call, and saved in WAV format. I have saved every call I've ever made, both incoming and outgoing since I bought the phone a year ago. So no more agents saying that no appointment was made when in fact there was an appointment made with their assistant via my cell phone, no more "he said she said" basically. It's pretty nice. This feature alone has saved me many times over. And basically the convenience is nice when I don't have to write anything down. Just play it back when I'm back at the office.

2. It's a video recorder. I've taken many video tours of homes by just whipping out the phone from my pocket. These are *nice* tours uploaded to Youtube. You can add titles, fades, special effects, etc. It will allow you to take away the sound track, leave it, or add a new one. You can even add music on the sound track from the mp3's stored on the phone. Oh yeah, it's an mp3 player too.

3. It will sync with Outlook (for contacts and calendar events). I use google calendar. Google calendar syncs with Outlook which in turn syncs with the N95. I can't tell you how nice it is to be extra organized. Even the State holidays are automatically transferred to the phone and pop up when there's a holiday I may have forgotten about. Nice to know before I head to the bank or post office. Every last "to do", listing appointment, showing appointment, etc is listed right there on the phone. It has bluetooth so it syncs with my computer when I walk by it.

4. I keep current contracts on it. I can move my contracts as pdf's and sync them to the phone. It has Adobe Reader and the entire Microsoft Office suite for reading excel spreadsheets, Word documents, and will even do powerpoint presentations.

5. Has a 5 megapixel camera. I don't really use it to take pictures of homes though. I take pictures of documents with it. Basically it's my "photocopier on the fly."

I don't have a data plan as I'm near my computer for many hours out of the day. I have my web site setup to send me a text message when users fill out home information requests online. I have unlimited minutes and unlimited text messaging with Tmobile for $74.00 per month (including all taxes).