My T-Mobile MyTouch is giving me trouble: about 25% of the time, calls don't go through. Outgoing or incoming. And since the phone is almost two years old, I'm thinking of getting a new smartphone.

Any suggestions?

Do you want to stay with T-Mobile?

Do you want to stay with T-Mobile?

Yeah, probably. I've got a pretty good deal and my long history with them gives me some leverage.

Right now I'm looking at the Samsung Galaxy Blaze, except the review on Engadget says that setup is a real pain because it's bundled with a lot of junk software. I'm not in the mood to spend days trying to delete crap software.

I really just want email, web access, maps, calendar, phone & texting, and a couple of apps like Twitter and Kindle. I'm not a power user except in that I want to be able to customize it, and get rid of the crap I don't use: I hate the way my current phone is so often running apps I never ever use like Garage Band and stuff.

I'm carrying a Nexus 4 now and it is very nice. You might have to wait a few months for supply to catch up with demand and it's a bit pricey.

Prior to that I was carrying a Galaxy Nexus, which I also liked a lot. It looks like you can get it at Best Buy for $50 with a new contract.

Both are pure Google experience phones, so any junk software on them comes directly from Google.

Yeah, I think the Nexus line is your best choice if you want to avoid crapware. The Nexus 4 will likely be my next phone - we're going to switch to the T-Mobile Value Plans that are cheaper because they don't subsidize the phone (which will save us money in the long time)

Hmm. The Nexus just looks too big for me: I like the narrow profile and light weight of the MyTouch. The HTC One S is looking pretty good in that arena; I just don't need a really high-powered phone with a lot of real estate.

I like my HTC phone quite a bit and will be sticking with it for the foreseeable future, but it definitely comes with some pretty annoying software. The HTC Sense interface is actually quite nice, but it's also a bit slow on the less powerful phones, so gauge carefully.

Well, there's an article in Slate about how T-Mobile is going to stop subsidizing new phones in exchange for 2-year contracts; I may wait and see what happens with that.

My phone is currently annoying but it's perfectly functional.

T Mobile has never made it worth my while to buy a contract and one of their phones that I wanted. Last time the salesperson tried to sell me a two year contract, I asked her to run the numbers on how long it would take that to be more expensive than buying the phone outright (from them--not even shopping around) and then ask me again if I want to buy it. Her reply was, in that case, 8 months and a shrug.

Seems Boxee has a new box out. Anyone have it yet? It looks like you can connect cable, but it says "basic cable" on the website, which leads me to believe it will not do cable card to unlock paid channels.