Let's talk PDAs/Smartphones

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Dude, I was just going to start the same freakin' thread.

I need to upgrade my phone, I'm looking to upgrade to a smartphone. I'm on AT&T. Got a decent plan, so I'm not looking to switch carriers. Looking at either the Samsung Blackjack or Blackberry Curve as being pretty cheap ($50 or so with a two-year committment, which I'm fine with). Anyone have any experience with either? Critical is that I've got big fingers (just ask your mom) and I need it to sync with Outlook '03 without being too complicated.
 
Soulive said:
What would you recommend without getting too expensive?
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Im not really knowledgable about them I have my pers. Nextel that I carry and The place where I work makes me carry a Blackberry and it is pretty cool kind of complicated for me but has features like a damn laptop and nextel is selling it for 359 right now with a 100$ rebate
 
the_bird said:
Dude, I was just going to start the same freakin' thread.

I need to upgrade my phone, I'm looking to upgrade to a smartphone. I'm on AT&T. Got a decent plan, so I'm not looking to switch carriers. Looking at either the Samsung Blackjack or Blackberry Curve as being pretty cheap ($50 or so with a two-year committment, which I'm fine with). Anyone have any experience with either? Critical is that I've got big fingers (just ask your mom) and I need it to sync with Outlook '03 without being too complicated.
Click to expand...

Dude, same here. I'm looking at the Curve, I have AT&T, and I need it to sync with Outlook. The Treo 750 also gets good ratings on Cnet...
 
I have T-Mobile and have had the BB Pearl for almost a year. Love it. But just this weekend upgraded to the Curve. Should get it on Friday. After having a Black Berry, I could never see using another type of phone. They are great but take a little getting used to.
 
Soulive said:
Dude, same here. I'm looking at the Curve, I have AT&T, and I need it to sync with Outlook. The Treo 750 also gets good ratings on Cnet...
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upgrading to the 750 this month, I currently have the Palm 650 thru Cingular/AT&T/whoever the hell they are... awesome phones that i've fallen in love with...

Brentk14 said:
I have T-Mobile and have had the BB Pearl for almost a year. Love it. But just this weekend upgraded to the Curve. Should get it on Friday. After having a Black Berry, I could never see using another type of phone. They are great but take a little getting used to.
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i had the pearl for a month or so for work and just couldn't get into it... altho they are nifty phones.
 
Here is what I know. The Blackberry is a great device, but you'll need to familiarize yourself with its service. Unlike the devices that run Windows Mobile (which is mediocre imo) you'll receive your email through Blackberry's servers. This isn't an issue, just something you'll have to get used to (and configure up-front).

The Treo devices are great hardware, but they run Windows Mobile which personally I'm not too thrilled with (I have it on a Motorola Q). It does what I need it to, but just barely. If you need it to integrate with Outlook, you'll want something running Windows Mobile though.

I have the Motorola Q cuz I'm on Verizon and the Treo was too expensive for me. It's an okay piece of hardware, but battery life is terrible.

Anway, that's what little I know on these. Good luck finding the right device.
 
the_bird said:
Dude, I was just going to start the same freakin' thread.

I need to upgrade my phone, I'm looking to upgrade to a smartphone. I'm on AT&T. Got a decent plan, so I'm not looking to switch carriers. Looking at either the Samsung Blackjack or Blackberry Curve as being pretty cheap ($50 or so with a two-year committment, which I'm fine with). Anyone have any experience with either? Critical is that I've got big fingers (just ask your mom) and I need it to sync with Outlook '03 without being too complicated.
Click to expand...
I have the Blackjack with WM5 on it. It is kind of cool, the full text keyboard is really the only reason I got it over the Curve. However, the intigration with MS Office is non-existant on my version of the phone. As I understand it, the new Blackjack come loaded with WM6 that has full intigration with Office. There was a hacked WM6 program floating around the web for the older Blackjack, but it voided the warrentee, plus I am too lazy to install it and troubleshoot the hard way.

I like the phone alot. I have actually been quite successful lately loading some brewing widgets on it so I can do calculations when my laptop is not infront of me on brew day, or screw around when on the bowl at work.

It is actually fairly durable too. I was drinking the other day, and dropped it in mthe driveway, and when looking for it in the dark I found it my stepping and pivoting my foot on it. Aside from a small scratch on the letter "O" key, it is fine.

One final thing, if you have the insurance, or do not plan on adding a data plan, order the phone via the wek and not in the store. There are some wierd rules for either if you buy it from a person.
 
I have the Treo 650. I hope they upgraded the web browser, because it sucks. It all depends on what you need in a device, IMHO. One thing I might reccomend...get a car charger. These devices burn a lot of power, especially if you're on the phone a lot. You WILL get stuck somewhere with a dead device.
 
What Provider do you have Soulive? If you have ATT I would recommend the Tilt. Its got touch screen and outlook and its probably the best Windows Mobile phone on the market. Not gonna get it for cheap but your not going to find a better phone either.
 
I have the Treo 750 with Windows Mobile. Mines great. My battery lasts for days and days. But it crashes a lot more than I would like it too. It syncs right up with outlook. The browser is decent...Hell it's a cell phone.

The great thing about mine is I can hook it up to my PC (shh don't tell Verizon), and use it as my internet connection.

Despite it's downfalls, it's a great phone, and these things are still kinda new. So I expect the next generation of smart phones to be way better (2 - 3 years down the road). I wouldn't change...I'm satisfied.
 
Ok so if I can't sync the Blackberry with MS Outlook, then thats out. Now I'm down to the Treo 750 and the Tilt. My needs are pretty simple. I want good email capability, calendar with reminders, good web browsing, and talking. I'm not concerned with camera or mp3 capability...
 
I can't speak for the Tilt Soulive, but I can tell you the 750 has what you are looking for. I even pop my gmail account to my phone, or download through outlook and sync that way.

I had to turn off the reminders on the phone. You know when you setup an event in outlook, sometimes you forget the reminder is set to go off, and you are lying in bed, and the damn thing doesn't stop going off until you realize that it's 4:30 in the morning, and yes....thanks for the reminder about the all meeting I have at 6:30.

Not that it's happened to me.
 
Warped04 said:
I can't speak for the Tilt Soulive, but I can tell you the 750 has what you are looking for. I even pop my gmail account to my phone, or download through outlook and sync that way.

I had to turn off the reminders on the phone. You know when you setup an event in outlook, sometimes you forget the reminder is set to go off, and you are lying in bed, and the damn thing doesn't stop going off until you realize that it's 4:30 in the morning, and yes....thanks for the reminder about the all meeting I have at 6:30.

Not that it's happened to me.
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I used to have that problem with my Dell PDA :D
 
I had a treo and got rid of it. I wasn't the phone it was Windows Mobile. It sucked all the power from the battery which drastically weakened the signal. Tons of dropped calls. Crashed a minimum of 3 times a day. I have the Blackberry 8830 now and its great. strong signal and no crashes, Same service.

Bottom line stay away from Windows Mobile.
 
Mutine Bullfrog said:
I had a treo and got rid of it. I wasn't the phone it was Windows Mobile. It sucked all the power from the battery which drastically weakened the signal. Tons of dropped calls. Crashed a minimum of 3 times a day. I have the Blackberry 8830 now and its great. strong signal and no crashes, Same service.

Bottom line stay away from Windows Mobile.
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Do the Blackberrys have some kind of calendar/reminder feature?
 
Mutine Bullfrog said:
I had a treo and got rid of it. I wasn't the phone it was Windows Mobile. It sucked all the power from the battery which drastically weakened the signal. Tons of dropped calls. Crashed a minimum of 3 times a day. I have the Blackberry 8830 now and its great. strong signal and no crashes, Same service.

Bottom line stay away from Windows Mobile.
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Windows Mobile does leave something to be desired. I haven't had the experience with the power as you did, but the crashing drives me batty.
 
my 650 luckily has the Palm Software with some Windows add-on programs... still the one thing that does bug me is that on occasion (like once every other month) my cell crashes... it recovers ok, but it does drive you nuts

i can sync up with my computer with no issues and I too have used my treo as an internet connection :D

i love palm and can't see myself not owning one in the future.
 
Blackberry's use their own proprietary operating system. It takes a bit to get used to, but it is pretty good. I have the curve - works great, syncs with office, email is money. however, the web browser is only OK. it will only work if the site you want to view has a 'mobile' ready website. I believe that the windows ops system will let you look at any site you want to-but someone else should confirm that.
 
blacklab said:
Blackberry's use their own proprietary operating system. It takes a bit to get used to, but it is pretty good. I have the curve - works great, syncs with office, email is money. however, the web browser is only OK. it will only work if the site you want to view has a 'mobile' ready website. I believe that the windows ops system will let you look at any site you want to-but someone else should confirm that.
Click to expand...

Wait, so the Curve can be used with MS Office?
 
See, this is why I'm so confused... which phones will sync with Outlook? I'm not even really concerned with email (I'm never far from my inbox, and it's a compliance nightmare since we need to archive all email), I just want to have my calendar and to-do list with me.
 
blacklab said:
Blackberry's use their own proprietary operating system. It takes a bit to get used to, but it is pretty good. I have the curve - works great, syncs with office, email is money. however, the web browser is only OK. it will only work if the site you want to view has a 'mobile' ready website. I believe that the windows ops system will let you look at any site you want to-but someone else should confirm that.
Click to expand...

This is true, you can view any website, but I don't recommend it....These huge websites these days take forever to d/l and it's just a disaster trying to look at them. You get a half inch by half in square of the web page...Scroll central.

And Treo's I know come with Palm OS or Windows Mobile OS
 
I have the Blackberry pearl, it is the best phone I have owned and I used to go through phones ever few months. Battery last for a week, does everything I need it to do and then some.
 
Ryanh1801 said:
I have the Blackberry pearl, it is the best phone I have owned and I used to go through phones ever few months. Battery last for a week, does everything I need it to do and then some.
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Can the Pearl support MS Outlook?
 
I just rolled out 2 dozen Samsung sch-i760's. Great units. I tested a few crackberries and they just weren't very user friendly for people accustomed to Win... plus I couldn't open Office attachments which was a dealbreaker for use here at work.
 
Mutine Bullfrog said:
I had a treo and got rid of it. I wasn't the phone it was Windows Mobile. It sucked all the power from the battery which drastically weakened the signal. Tons of dropped calls. Crashed a minimum of 3 times a day. I have the Blackberry 8830 now and its great. strong signal and no crashes, Same service.

Bottom line stay away from Windows Mobile.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you got a hold of some bad hardware. I've had phones with a version of Windows Mobile on it for about 5 years now and never experienced the issues that you mentioned here.
 
I have a MotoQ on Sprint and have the same issues with WM5 that everyone else does as well, its a POS. My only question for all of you: If WM5 crashing daily can drive everyone so batty, why is it acceptable on a Windows based desktop? At least I can sync my MotoQ with my Mac using Missing Synch.

The Q is an allright device, nice user developed software out there for it, was free (sprint actually effed up and paid me $200 for the phone, I'm not telling), I get my email, web(ish), and google maps. I check HBT quite regularly from it.
 
BraeHaus said:
anyone here have an iphone?

i'm not a fan of i-products, but it could be an option.
Click to expand...

I have a few friends that have them, its about 50/50 that like them and others don't. My problem with the I phone is the price and the fact that most smart phones can do a lot more for a lot less money.
 
the_bird said:
See, this is why I'm so confused... which phones will sync with Outlook? I'm not even really concerned with email (I'm never far from my inbox, and it's a compliance nightmare since we need to archive all email), I just want to have my calendar and to-do list with me.
Click to expand...

The blackjack does this fine. That is one of the best features about the phone.
 
Does the BB Curve sync with Outlook? Is there anything goofy about needing an Exchange server or anything like that that you're aware of?
 
I pulled the trigger on the Curve 8310 that is in the video above. It was $200 with the mail-in $100 rebate. The data plan puts my monthly service up to $100. Gotta spend money to make money, or at least I keep telling myself that :D
 
Nokia e-70 http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=iphone

I actually have the treo and I must say get the one with the palm operaiting system and not the one with windows. The windowns one is a bit more intuative, but eats up processor time and battery life compared to the palm O.S. The treo I have does everything the I phone does and more, only because I took the time to set it up properly and download extra software to make it a better phone. Out of the box it is decent, but once you get all the extra programs and stuff it is amazing.
 

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