Cell phones: more than just talk.(SPECIAL PHONE SECTION)(Buyers Guide)

If you're like many cell-phone users, you're using your phone for more than just talking these days. In a recent survey of more than 50,000 ConsumerReports.org subscribers, more than one-third reported having used their phone's text-messaging capability.

Messaging now seems almost quaint, though, as more phones are equipped with cameras to send and receive photos, or designed to accommodate TV news, weather, and music services (see "Beyond Voice Calls," on page 22).

You may not want those additional capabilities yet. In our survey, only 15 percent of ConsumerReports.org subscribers said they used their phones to access the Web and only 2 percent to send video clips. But such services are already shaping cellphone prices and selection.

As the Ratings for this report indicate, you can still find a number of good, basic phones priced below $100 if you shop carefully. But the number of such phones is dwindling as cell-phone manufacturers seek to offer more-expensive models to support the new services.

Those fancier phones may actually hamper your ability to make old-fashioned phone calls. For example, their buttons, which often perform double or triple duty, can behave unexpectedly if you're in the wrong mode. And the new models cost more than basic phones, even if you take advantage of heavily discounted offers.

Here are some other developments that may affect your choices when you shop:

Higher-resolution cameras. For several years, the cameras built into cell phones have had VGA (one-third of a megapixel) resolution, OK for viewing on a phone's tiny display, but not enough for making good snapshots. Now more than a few new models include a camera with 1 megapixel or greater resolution. In the Ratings, 10 models did so. Though cameras with higher resolution will typically yield better print quality, other factors such as the quality of the lens can greatly affect it. Even very basic stand-alone digital cameras outperform the best camera phones.