Cell phone purgatory

My cell phone is toast. Not completely - it works if the battery is disconnected and AC cord is attached. But that kind of defeats the whole notion of a "mobile" phone. So I need a new one.

Since I don't want to change my number, I'm stuck with Sprint's meager selection of phones. As opposed to another provider's meager selection of phones, that is. It's amazing just how many different types of cell phones there are on the market, and how few I can actually pick from. Can you imagine if we could only pick from five different phone models for our home, depending on whether we used SBC or AT&T? Unbelievable.

Anyway, I'm kind of drawn to the idea of a camera phone. When they were first released, I scoffed. But after a couple of recent shopping trips, I'm realizing that the camera phone has the ability to revolutionize (or at least evolutionize) shopping. No more telling my girlfriend "oh, I saw the coolest chair at the store today - it was...sort of...chair shaped". I can snap a pic and show it to her later, or even send it to her immediately for her aesthetic seal of approval. See an interesting item but not sure if you want to buy it? Snap off a pic for later research. The possibilities are...well, not limitless, but at least useful.

Unfortunately, the only camera phones that Sprint sells at this very moment are Sanyo models that are too bulky and have mediocre screens. Fortunately, Samsung is in the process of releasing two new camera phones, and one, the A620, looks perfect. Unfortunately, it's just now trickling out into stores. It's less desirable sibling, the A600, hit the local Best Buy today, but not the A620 yet.

So I'm stuck in technology release limbo. I have a need, I know what I want, but I can't buy it.

This sucks.