So I got a new phone, and I'm not sure whether I should keep it or send it back.

Some dude from T-Mobile called me last week and was like "you're such a loyal customer, we want to offer you a cheap new phone!" and I was like SOLD. I told the guy that I preferred keyboards to touch-screens, and he recommended the Samsung Gravity 3, and offered me a ridiculously low price, so I took it. But now it's not living up to all of my expectations and I kind of miss my old crappy Motorola phone. It didn't have very many features, but what it did do, it did WELL.

The Gravity isn't a smartphone, it's... I guess they call it a feature phone? I'm not quite sure what makes a phone "smart." Anyway, it has web capability but it's very limited on things like apps and such, because people only make apps for the common smartphone OSs. Now I'm wishing I had gone with a smarter phone, even though they're more expensive, because I want some apps, dammit. I have, like... Google Maps and YouTube and that's it.

I have two weeks during which I can return the phone, but I've already started using it so I don't know if that voids anything. I'm wondering if I should return it and get a nicer one. I don't know which one I would get, though. I don't know if they'd let me get a huge discount again, too.

My old phone was dismal at anything web-related, and didn't have a camera. It was just a PHONE. It could call and text, and that was about it. But it seems extremely well-designed in comparison to this phone.

For example:

-ALARMS. I use my phone as a reminder to take my medications, which I have a lot of. My old phone had 5 alarms, which was perfect: 4 for meds and 1 for waking up or whatever else I needed an alarm for. This one has 3. I'm like WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THREE ALARMS YOU BASTARDS. I didn't expect to LOSE functionality by upgrading my phone.

-Ringtones. My old phone had a LOT of ringtone options. Many of them were annoying but it also had some that sounded like actual PHONES, and some that were just beeps and computery sounds, which was great because I could assign them to all my contact "groups" and texting and alarms, etc. This one has maybe ONE ringtone that sounds like an actual phone, and the rest are annoying "songs." I downloaded an "old school phone" one, but I had to pay for it. Also, my old phone had "Ride of the Valkyries" as a ringtone, which this one doesn't have. BOO. I MUST HAVE MY WAGNER

-I used my old phone for Twitter by just sending a text message to the Twitter number. This one has a Twitter app, but IT DOESN'T HAVE A CHARACTER COUNTER. What type of shit Twitter app is this? (UPDATE: I tested this, and it will stop you when you get to 140 characters. It just won't tell you how close you are to that point.)

So as you can see, I don't care about the usual things people want in phones so much as I care that it has a lot of alarms and sounds like a phone. I don't like that I had to give that up in order to get a phone with web capability. (I wonder if I got another Motorola phone, would I get "Ride of the Valkyries" back?)

On the other hand, I CAN get on the internets with my new phone, which is handy. It's not as graceful as getting online with the iPhone, but it does the job. And I can finally actually use 4Square.

Like the iPhone, however, I can't watch flash videos with this phone. BOO.

Anyway, I really like the keyboard function as opposed to touch-screens. Touch-screens kind of bother me. They feel too "iffy." I like to press a key and know that I have pressed THAT key, not that my finger will slip and I'll have a Hilarious Autocorrect situation or whatever. I have more faith in a keyboard than in a touch-screen. However, the best smartphones seem to come with touch-screens, unless you get a Blackberry. So maybe I should get over it. I probably can't afford a touch-screen though.

As much as I hate the touch-screen, the iPhone does have a lot of things going for it, mostly that it's so popular that everyone makes apps for it. Plus it's made by Apple, and I trust their design sensibilities. But I don't want to switch to AT&T and have to pay big $$$. I'm no longer as enamored with T-Mobile as I used to be now that I've actually tried to use their website and found that it's SHIT, but they do have the best customer service if you actually CALL them. Like, I just called to ask a couple of questions about my phone and the dude was like I WILL GIVE YOU A MONTH OF FREE INTERNET ON YOUR PHONE. Thanks, dude!

Maybe I should just keep my phone, get an iPod Touch, and use apps that way without having to deal with AT&T. The problem then becomes affording an iPod Touch, especially since I have my heart set on a DSLR camera the next time I have extra moneys. WOULD ANY REALLY RICH PEOPLE LIKE TO GIVE ME THINGS FOR CHRISTMAS. First world problems.

Advice on good phones? Should I send this one back and try to get a Blackberry or something? Should I just put up with this one because returning it might be a big hassle and I don't have any money? Should I go back to my old basic-but-functional phone?

I mean, it's not like 4Square is a huge need in my life. I just feel like if I'm going to upgrade, I should UPgrade to a phone I'd be really happy with. This feels like a sidegrade.

In other news, I really love oatmeal. Like, more than you know.