I'm not sure if this belongs here or perhaps accessories, but my current cell phone is a Samsung i730 Windows Mobile PDA phone (upgraded to WM Vs. 5.0). I can tether it to the N800 with BT using a hack that's available over at httb://pdaphonehome.com . The problem is that if the PDA is using the modem for OTA sync (which happens often) the BT connection to the N800 fails and I have to stop whatever the phone is doing and manually connect to the IT. I'd like this whole process to be more or less automatic, and I'm thinking that a dumber phone would probably work better.

The i730's BT hardware is Vs. 1.0, so I'm not getting the full benifit of the BT Vs. 2.0 on the IT. It occurs to me if I'm going to replace my phone with a dumber one, I should find one with BT 2.0. I'm pretty much constrained to Verizon Wireless as I'd have to pay early termination fees on three phones or not use my family plan in minutes ... so ...

Which Verizon phones work best with the IT N800?

Are there any that have BT 2.0 so the BT hardware is not the choke point for data throughput?

If you want full performance, then, get an ulocked phone. Isn't Verizon one of those SPs that cripples BT?

The BT 1.x maximum throughput of 721Kbps should be good enough for most cellular/mobile phone connections. A BT 2.x phone will give you more headroom (3x that of BT 1.x) but probably isn't essential - you may only get the benefit of BT 2.x speeds when transferring local files between phone and N800.

Verizon (and Sprint) use CDMA technology. The third generation data technology on CDMA systems is EVDO and is capable of burst speed of up to 2 MB/Sec. Actual throughput averages 400 to 700 KB/Sec. The additional overhead inherent to BT 1.x cuts this approximately in half.

CDMA systems don't lock phones as such, and do not have SIM cards. They control which phones connect to their systems by blocking ESNs for unbranded or "forign" branded phones. There are some smaller CDMA companies that will acvtivate a phone from a different company, but there are none here in Hawaii.

I happen to work in telecom industry for years and know the technologies (but thanks for your explanations anyway).
I've heard some companies like Verizon intentionally reduce the performance and profiles of BT on their handsets; so, I suggested that you get one yourself and activate it with them; if you say they don't allow this, it's only more evil of them...

Wodin - the speeds you quote should be Mb/s and Kb/s - ie. mega bits not mega Bytes. A 2MB/s speed is close to 20Mbits which certainly isn't possible on any cellular network.

The BT 1.x throughput is ~720Kb/s, and while this is lower than the maximum air speed of EVDO (at least for Rev A - a Rev B device can achieve an air interface speed of almost 5Mb/s downstream) it's unlikely most users will notice the benefit that BT 2.x would bring. And so my advice would be to buy the best phone (looks, functions, weight, price) and not worry too much whether it's BT 1.x or BT 2.x.