Are there other phones that are compatible with Boost Mobile, or will the cost of flashing to Boost (or data cable and time to do it myself), and activation nullify any savings?

i'm a yodude follower and boost solution lover. used the connection for the past 11 days on vaca in california. using it now. i set modest to auto dl email from gmail and it works great. i'm also a skweezer lover. use it with tear browser for best results.

i have the i605 phone (from ebay) and it works perfectly. never used boost voice, and it's just $10 every three months to keep acct active. read my posts from yodude's howto thread to see how to get it working.

Nextel iDEN phones will work with Boost, no modifications necessary. You just insert the Boost SIM and go.

Boost iDEN phones, on the other hand, will not work with Nextel unless unlocked.

Please note that only the Motorola pure-iDEN phones--Boost or Nextel--will do the free data tethering trick. That means you're looking for Motorola phones with i### names. iDEN Blackberries and even non-i### Motorola phones will not give free tethering.

Cell data is way overpriced particularly when you're also paying for broadband on cabel or DSL. With my tablet I decided on a compromise and got a Boingo WiFi account for $7.95 per month. That gives me Starbucks, McDonalds, many hotels and major airports. Not anywhere but still always close by for me. There was some mention of gmail. I find using the internal mail client, modest, and IMAP access to gmail provides a more responsive mail experience.

Great info.
The cheapest thing I'm seeing with bluetooth is the i335 for about $40-$50. I'll keep an eye out for others.