Personally? I'm comfortable with my Virgin Mobile Switchback, which runs at $99.. though it's getting discontinued, so can be found cheaper yet.

Pros: The only contract-free phone under $100 with a QWERTY, which is comfortable and well-laid-out. AIM client on phone, exterior keypad. Unique look that continues to make my co-workers ooooh. Great cheapskate plans with Virgin. Text messaging's a good deal.

Cons: Screen is fairly small. Camera is lame, no bluetooth. All the usual caveats of pre-paid services. Does not encase well, as is the case for morest sideways flip phones.

less than $100 with a contract, or just without?
With a contract opens the door to all the random deals out there...

My Blackberry Pearl was $15 after a $50 rebate with a 2 year T-Mo contract.

This is the best for me, since it allows syncing with Lotus notes, has push e-mail, a decent 3rd party developer base, and can be connected to my laptop for a free mobile 200Kbps internet connection.

The Motofone F3([en.wikipedia.org]) is perhaps the best lowcost handset I've run across. You can get it, unlocked, for under $80. Unfortunately, it can be a bit awkward to find; I personally had to go through a shadey dealer in order to find one, but it beats my RAZR hands down for reception.

Its does have a limited character set, so if you do a lot of SMS, it could be difficult - as well as lacking most of the features most have become accustomed to tacking on phones.

Its a simple phone from a simpler era, but is absolutely lovely.

for the money, maybe the lg vx8300, it's only 50 after rebate, it gets the best signal, has great speakers for the mp3 player and does bluetooth headphones, great picture quality and decent video...that's what i would say. (oh and it's for vzw)

I got the T-Mobile Dash for $100 bucks with 2 Year Contract Extension!

anything from virgin mobile really...in the US and Canada even.

i picked up a used T-mobile dash for ~$100. That was pretty sweet.

Nokia 5300 Xpress music phone's a very good bargain for non-smartphone lovers with it's S40 UI. It's only $50 under contract at T-Mobile.

@ninjatales: OMG, no way that is a good phone for the money. The N76/75 are way better, and one of those (I forget which) is only 100 bucks. SO worth it for 3G and other modern trimmings.

To the rest of you, virgin mobile? are you on crack? Wait, am I on crack? what am I missing?

Question for you editors and members of Gizmodo, what's the best digital camera you can get for around $200? My camera is roughly 3 years old 5megapixel Olympus that is starting to die on me and I want a new one cause I'm heading to a wedding in Poland next month. I think I'm down to the Pentax Optio A30 and a Sony Cybershot W80, but really all I want is good image quality, fast start-up, shutter lag, shot-to-shot time, image stabilization, and small body, like less an inch or less thick.

@Jesse Mrozowski: why the fuck would you post this here? good luck getting an answer.

Otherwise, I hate contracts so I'll put out the option of getting something from ebay. I'm a fan of SE and some of the past K series models are near identical to the W series for a lot less. I picked up the K750i for not much and it can be flashed to be exactly like the W800 (or was it W850?). You can even pick up the W800 case on ebay too, making it identical.