So I am looking to buy a cellphone but I really have no clue where to start.

I was wondering if anybody had any recomendations or suggestions on what I should get? I live in Canada if that makes any difference, and would prefer not to get a contract. But I also would like a pretty nice phone, something that looks nice and actually is good quality phone, My price range is probably within 100-200$.
What do you guys like / dislike about your cellphones (if you have them) and what would you recomend?

why don't you want to get a contract? if you do then you can get a 200 dollar phone for free, pretty much.

Well, I think it's because he doesn't want to end up in a year contract if he decides to stop using the cellphone, you know? Have you tried looking at some websites for non plans? Check out the Cingular website.

Yeah, I won't be using the cellhpone a whole lot or very consistently. And I wouldn't like being bound to a contract as well either, doesn't sound to fun. Unless there are any good plans that you guys would recomend that is cheap and has minimum usage as well.

From personal experience using both contract and non-contract plans, I would go for the contract plan.  For me it costs less than when I had a non-contract plan, and I got a brand new $200 phone for free.  I don't use my cellphone all that often either.

I didn't like pay-as-you-go or non-contract because I would end up spending upwards to $80 a month to make a couple phone calls a week.  Then, for months when I didn't use it at all, they will send me e-mails saying that I needed to add more minutes to my phone, or else they would cancel my subscription from inactivity.  In the end I just was fed up with it, because it was too much money to make about an hours worth of calls a week.

Now, with a contract I pay half of that, have a good phone, and don't have to worry about keeping track of how many minutes I have left.  I would never recommend a non-contract plan to anyone.  Most contracts aren't that bad, mine is only 2 years.

If you have Cingular/ATT up in Canada that is what I use, and it seems pretty fair to me.  I got the cheapest plan and I only end up paying around $40 a month.  You get plenty of free minutes and if you are like me and don't use your cellphone often or consistently you will end up with a ton of rollover minutes so in months that you do talk a lot you don't need to worry about getting charged for going over your limit.

look for the service plan that best fits your first, THEN see what kind of phones they support
also start thinking about the features that you want (mp3? video?qwerty keyboard? web browsing? what memory cards supported?) and which you can do without, then the choices should be more clear

or if youre like me and dont care about that crap, just look for the cheapest service and use the cheapest phone supported.

one plan i had game me unlimited local calls for only a monthly fee of 25$, and it came with a phone
another one i had gave me a set amount of minutes per month, and if i didnt use them they were carried over to the next month

so there should be one out there that fits your needs if you look hard enough

Okay. My suggestions:

Don't get a Motorola: They're popular for some mysterious reason, I hear they got good technical specs... Good screen, good camera, etc.
Now, the interface is HORRIBLE. Menus are cryptic, nothing's intuitive.

What I'd recommend: Sony Ericsson. You'll get good hardware, with an AMAZING interface. The buttons all behave the same in the different menus and their functions are generally intuitive, plus most things are only a few "clicks" away.

yeah, I really hate motorola's interface, but I do enjoy sony ericsson phones. They are packed with a lot of features too, small apps that you will find useful.

Sony Ericssons are pretty damn gr9.  Both my brother and I had them (although we had different ones), and we both loved them.  Maybe it's just in my small shitty area, but I seriously can't find them anymore.  When I went looking for a new phone, they were NOWHERE TO BE FOUND.  I ended up getting a Blackberry Pearl, which I have to say I do like, although not having the Blackberry data plan means no internet or a few other things that I don't really need since I have a laptop.  So let me throw that in--make sure you know EXACTLY what sort of things need to go into your cell phone plan to get access to the features the phone has.

Every Motorola I've seen is pretty terrible.  Nokias were decent for a while but I haven't used any recent ones so I can't say anything on that.

Well I got a Nokia 6233 not too long ago. I mostly just wanted a cheap phone that could play MP3s, but it turned out to support a lot of other neat things too, such as e-mail, videos and Java applications. This basically means that you can use cool stuff like Opera Mini (or other HTTP browsers), FTP browsers like Moby (though I haven't tried it yet) as well as other neat applications such as Telnet clients and multi-protocol messaging programs and also online games like Tibia Micro Edition (which is really shitty but still).

You can also pirate commercial mobile games and transfer them to the phone via Bluetooth or some kind of adapter I guess, or just get free applications and games from sites like GetJar which has tons of freeware and ad-supported stuff.

I need to point out the fact pretty much every phone in the market nowadays comes with Java.
Features you might want include:

-Bluetooth (Stereo if you plan on using it for music, I've heard the quality of bluetooth stereo ain't too great, however...)
-Expandable or large memory (Again if you want music, or maybe just photos or a lot of applications or whatever)
-Some kind of actual music player.
-Synchronization with pcs.
-I am very dumb today and can't really think of useful stuff. 

Well I talked to my uncle today and he is a cellphone whore and has a motorola razr that he doesn't use anymore and will give it to me, only problem is that I have to use bell (which may not even be a problem).

If I have my own phone does that mean I don't have to get on a contract? How exactly does that work?

you may not have to get a contract depending on the plans they offer.

also there are additional services allowable on that phone, such as web browsing, that you'll need to ask them how the payment works for.