Ok its upgrade time and I think I have talked myself into buying a smartphone. Here are the few phones I am considering and I figure I would open it up to thoughts from all you that are already smartphone users.

LG Vortex - My buddies Father in law got this...I taught him how to use it... I like my LG Envy 3 too.
HTC Droid Incredible
Motorola Droid X - I'm not sure I like the size... but it has everything I think I could ever want.

I will most likely buy it through Wirefly.com as they seem to give the best deal of how much out of pocket I will have to pay. Anyway if you have any suggestions or like one over the other let me know.

I really will be using it for mostly the basics like talking, texting, facebook, email and whatnot, but I am sure as I get to know the phone and geek it out a bit I will use more functions.

I still need to research and understand the whole rooting thing but I am sure some where down the road I will do that too.

This is coming from somebody who likes to root and install custom roms, but I avoid anything by Motorola. They lock the bootloader and make it as hard a possible to perform any type of hackering. If you don't want to root it, you have to put up with Motoblur - their bloated UI. If I had to choose from those 3, I would go with the HTC. Easier to root if you choose to do so and their Sense UI is much nicer than Motorblur.

I've never used a phone by LG, so nothing to say there.

I'd say HTC just because they're dragging the industry behind them by the balls right now. Anything new outside of Apple comes from HTC at a lower price. They're kind of like the Vizio of smart phones.

A friend of mine either has the LG Vortex or a version like it. She likes it, but isn't one to push the phone tech-wise. It works for what she uses it for, but to me the screen seems small (I'm used to the 4" screen on my Epic 4g)

For the DroidX, it's a nice phone from what I've seen, but like Suppa said, there's not much to be done as far as rooting and such. Even if you're not currently looking to root it (I wasn't when I got mine), it's still nice to have that option out there.

The DiNC is also nice due to the dev community supporting it, but it is a relatively old phone. I think HTCs releasing the 2nd gen of that soon, so that is one issue to think about. However, of the three you list here, I'd go with this one.

If it weren't for the fact that it looks like you're on Verizon, based on your phone choices, I'd say to look into a Samsung phone (if you're willing to root), since they tend to have very nice hardware but lag a bit on software updates (hence the willingness to root). But I can't in good conscience recommend a Vibrant. Verizon seriously messed up that phone...

So I just found out I can get the Thunderbolt by HTC for like $150 straight from Verizon. It seems to be the upgrade you were referring to for the HiNC. It just came out a couple weeks ago.

Maybe I will go with it. I am reading reviews now.

I don't think I have any 4g towers in my area so that isn't a big deal... I live in Coeur D'Alene, ID.

I've heard relatively good things about the Thunderbolt, as long as you're able to turn off the LTE if you're in an area that supports it (huge battery hog compared to 3g). Also, from what I've heard, the T-bolt is essentially a slightly upgraded EVO with an LTE radio in it, which isn't a bad thing. They still haven't announced the sequel to the DiNC officially, but the fact that verizon is set to stop selling it soon has started up the rumor mill.

I'd go with the HTC. I have one at the moment and I really love it. I've gone with LG before and every time I wanted to throw my phone out because it was such garbage. They also break easily which isn't fun. So thumbs up for the HTC.

Tink said:

So I just found out I can get the Thunderbolt by HTC for like $150 straight from Verizon. It seems to be the upgrade you were referring to for the HiNC. It just came out a couple weeks ago.

I think that would be a great choice. I've heard nothing but praise for the Thunderbolt.

I went with the Thunderbolt... I had to order it from the Verizon site because the store here couldn't get me both my corp and 2yr discounts as the site could...go figure.

I didn't get the extended battery yet because I can pick that up at anytime from the store here with my discount. Figure I will see how it works with the standard battery first but I am sure I will end up getting the extended at some point. It is just so big and they don't make cases to use with it yet.

Well Phone will be here on Wednesday I guess. Then the fun begins... Thanks for all the help guys.

For what it's worth, make sure you bring the charger with you to work the first week or so you have the phone. you'll most likely keep using it most of the day and drain it quicker than you would normally