I recently renewed my cell phone contract in order to get all of the rebates for my wife’s new phone; her old one has given up the ghost.

I also purchased a new phone to take advantage of the myriad of rebates, not wanting to be forced in to paying the ridiculous cost of a new cell phone were my own scratched up model to die in the next two years. While I joked about waiting for the iPhone’s release this summer, my strategy in choosing a cell phone was really very simple: Pick the phone with the largest buttons.

Indeed, I did choose the phone with the largest buttons from among the 12 or so rebated options at our small, local Cingular store. The Samsung Sync boasts a very thin profile and wonderfully large screen for a clamshell, and also bears the largest buttons I’ve seen on any recent cell phone.

My fingers aren’t fat, but they certainly aren’t as dainty as my wife’s. How do other guys do it, use the miniscule keypads provided with so many phones? I made do with my somewhat chunky old Sony, however the Samsung functions much more easily.

I have a feeling my priorities are very different than most people’s when it comes to things like this. Sure, I’m kind of excited about the half decent camera and Bluetooth capability the Samsung comes with, but in the end it all came down to the size of the buttons on the keypad.