WHAT KIND OF PHONE ARE YOU?

Cell phones used to be the epitome of boring design and architecture--pale tan monstrosities of transistors and antennae with a single-line numeric display. The idea of a phone that you could (kind of) carry in your pocket was so alien to the general populace that it evaded all standards of fashion. It was so cool that it didn't need a stylist.

But oh how things have changed. The modern phone needs to be better at multitasking than the owner. Just like buying a new pair of shoes, purchasing a new phone requires one to consider both the practical and impractical aspects each choice. The average American should not be burdened with such a choice, so we at 611Connect have decided to answer that question: What kind of phone are you?

The Student - Typical age: 16-24, Typical Income: -$2000 a year.

Young people are born storytellers. They eat stories for breakfast. They yell their stories into a mouthpiece at their favorite concerts. They quietly tap their stories onto a keyboard in 180 characters or less. They show their stories in pictures, videos, and Twitter updates. It provides a means to which they can communicate and stay connected to their comrades while letting them live separate lives.

They also drop their phones a lot.

They want a phone that makes it very easy to send text messages, take pictures, get on Facebook and Twitter, and in case of emergency, actually make a phone call. It should work for the user, rather than have the user work for it, meaning that it should not lag like a turtle in a pit of molasses.

Our choice: Samsung Rogue from Verizon Wireless (Review)

Why? It's the most solid feature-phone on the market. By far. It's also big enough to feel sturdy to the touch, but lacks an annoying amount of girth. You can also get it for $80 dollars on Verizon's website.

The Parent - Typical age: 30-50, Typical Income: enough to take care of the student

Now that technology is cool and accessible, you want to communicate with your child: The Student. You want to comment on their facebook statuses, retweet their tweets, and send them funny pictures of things you saw in the supermarket. Your affinity to making physical phone calls with the device is higher, and you will likely drop it less, but lose it more often. Touchscreens are not preferred, especially those scary ones that make little pulses when you touch them (e.g. haptic feedback). There is a chance that you owned a Motorola brick-phone when it was as cool as Miami Vice.

Our choice: Motorola Droid from Verizon Wireless

Why? You'll have a phone that is cooler and more practical than the one you bought your child. It also has a gorgeous screen, a great battery, and the ability to run Google's Android 2.0, which means that you can double this phone as a GPS in the car and run one of the many thousands of applications available on Android's App Market.

The Entrepeneur - Typical age: 25-45, Typical Income: $500,000 one year, $0.50 the next

You are the new face of business. Your ceramic frog/Snuggie dispenser business is tapping into a market that hasn't been breached before, and you are ready to rock their world. Your clients, partners, janitors, parents, and money launderers want to get in touch with you in a variety of ways for a variety of reasons at a variety of times during the day. You need to be able to read email, call, and text at the blink of an eye. One day you will be on the cover of Time.

Our choice: Blackberry Bold 9700 from AT&T and T-Mobile

Why? It's a Blackberry. All successful people have Blackberries. This may or may not be true, but when you have an annual income of more than a million dollars, you get one in the mail. Not only that, but this phone is quite stylish and sexy. Even if it didn't run on the famous Blackberry network of push-based email, its media features and application support would make it a great phone, not even a great smartphone.

Grandparent - Typical age: 60-80

Phones make phone calls. Done.

Our choice: Samsung T339 from T-Mobile

Why? It makes phone calls, and is free with a 2-year contract (link). And, if they are daring enough, it comes with features like a camera and text messaging, but doesn't advertise them as main selling points of the phone. Sometimes, you need a bit of simplicity.