Smartphone: iPhone, Nokia, HTC, BlackBerry?...
 

What is the way go to?

As a newly self appointed MD (I'll never get used to it :lol: ), I can no longer rely on my old LG phone on Pay As You Go contract to keep in touch with my clients.

I like the iPhone, but I don't need fancy. I don't know the others at all. I used to have an old Blackberry ages ago but at the time it only did pushed emails.

What will matter to me:
- getting my emails anywhere at anytime.
- browsing the net with a browser/display as close to a desktop as possible.
- syncing my Agenda with Google Calendar.
- developping apps as I need them.
- and making phone calls :lol:

So, iPhone or is there another one out there doing the job?

You need to go to Specs-Save & then look at the offers:lol: :lol:

Tonio

My contract is up soon and am in the same hunt. Have a look at Desmo Dave (nee Benelli Dave)'s phone tomorrow night. He has a Blackberry Storm which is apparently quite smart.

Also the new Nokia N97 touchscreen one is out in March....

for business gotta be Blackberry!

easy to use, just like have a tiny laptop in your pocket

Well the big nono with the Blackberry is that it does not do Wifi. Whether I'll be at home or at clients, I will most of the time have a free Wifi network available to use.

Thanks for the N97 hint Paul, will google for it and might wait a few weeks more if it does what I need it to do :)

Well, I am going to wait a few weeks more :D

Looks nice but people were moaning about the size of it.....

I have the model before the storm, its a bit smaller but the res of the storm screen is vg

wont you get internet/gprs ot whatever it is as std in a good contract? wifi not needed!!

Yes I was thinking that. MOst packages seem to give you t'internet

I had the iphone for 4 months and just got a Nokia E51 for work.

iphone is good, very good, as a complete package I can't fault it.

The E51 is very compact, will see how it goes in use. Easy sync and set up so far.

Blackberry.....Bold....Includes Wi-fi! No other choice for business!

The Storm is very flakey...but the bold is all you'll ever need!

Well, 3G is not Wifi :)
3G is great when on the train or in a taxi, but when in an actual office and when not using a desktop, Wifi will make a big difference

Also I can't even make a phone call on my mobile at home, let alone browsing the Internet :lol:

There is a mobile Gmail client, java based, that I run on my HTC device. It doesn't have calendar functionality but you can reach the Google calendar in a browser. The latest HTC HD has a very good screen and a full keyboard. For developing I think that's where it has an advantage over an iPhone, a full qwerty keyboard. Along with Wifi, HSDPA, GPS (works fine with google maps but it's not a satnav replacement) it's the full spec.

I have very little issue with mine when browsing, using outlook or making calls. Only when I am in the middle of nowhere do I lose signal, briefly, and even tho the network is the same it seems to keep signal where my last nokia didnt.

I forgot to add, it's touch screen with a stylus as well as the full qwerty keyboard. Has touchFLO like the iPhone for the same/similar browsing experience. So I think it matches the iPhone in most areas but has an advantage with the keyboard, stylus and wifi. Also, iPhone doesn't do picture messaging!!! WTF is that about!!!

My HTC has two cameras, I recently used the screen side one to take a self portrait for a security card and emailed it to the security staff as I was standing at their desk. Job done.

Jon is probably better placed to answer the Blackberry questions... but

Bold is awesome!! not touch screen but by far the best device out there for business use.

Iphone is good but not great for applications and documents etc.

iphone cannot do mms but you can take photos and email etc. I can honestly say in 14 months of owning it that this has even been an issue. If you get one sent to you then you connect straight through and can see it online.

I've used a Blackberry Curve for over a year and its seems the best 'phone I've had for business use. Synching contacts, emails, calender etc. with Outlook very easy.

Been looking at the Storm but can't upgrade 'till March so I'll be interested if anyone else has any comments. Aparantly battery life is not so good?

Mark.

I would wait for the curve replacement if you are not in any rush.

it's very good and would be my choice

Thanks Lily

I thought the Storm was the curve replacement?

Mark.

There was a recent group test on these on the telly.
The iphone was pretty good but not perfect, blackberry storm wasn't rated that highly for the touchscreen and features and no wi-fi is a let down, but the big winner all round was the HTC HD - great touchscreen and features, push email, wifi all present. May be worth a look?

Tonio

It sure does - we have Blackberrys at work and they automatically connect to ur wifi network here, (or mone at home, or the at the airport) prior to using the mobile phone network.

Unless there is no wi-fi nearby, then they go straight to the phone network.:)

Or you could wait for one of these:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7859562.stm

How about a Google Android phone, geekboy? ;) :D

They had a poor(ish) review on Five's Gadget show

just in case anyone is taken in by the gadget show report.

they did a number of tests and at each one excluded the phone that performed lowest, leaving them with a winner.

Now I am not saying that the winner was on the best, but if they had performed the tests in a different order they may have got a different result.

to truly compare then all should be ranked and weighted and the outcome measured.


MSO - not sure if the Storm is classed as a replacement or just a new device. The new model though is very nice, very stylish and very good. The only downside that I know of at the moment is lack of 3g, but not sure if that will change going forward.

I have a Blackberry Pearl, old money by new models standards but I think it's great, good batterly life, good reception, quick to type, great sync with my notes email and diary anywhere in the world including Cadwell lower paddock! I seldom use the web on it but have always found it a bit cumbersome.

I know three people who have returned their Blackberry Storm as too difficult to use, they just couldn't get on with it and gave up.

I see people using iphone on the train for their emails and I have done 3 in the time they have done one on the touch screen dragging things about the place.....looks very sexy but a keyboard beats it for functionality imo.

In saying that, I am not techno - I still carry my old ipod, one of the first ones out and I still use my old Nokia brick phone that I have had for about 5 years now - it does calls and text and that's all I need from it and it means my tariff on TMobile is tiny.

WeeJohnyB

Bold is ok, not that great to use, still suffers from poorer battery life than pearl / curve.
Storm the current firmware is far better than launch. nice to work with, dodgy accelerometer, and not too bad overall.
I still use my faithfull 8820 pearl by choice, good battery, small size and light, and has wifi unlike the 8810
for non blackberry devices i have used E50, E51, E65 etc etc infact all the proper E series nokias before they dropped blackberry connect.

If you just want to read your mail with the odd quick "ok" type of reply then any of the E series are ideal.
For a bit more of an essay or attachment viewing then it has to be a blackberry.

Windows smartphones or palms are ok with imap or pop, or even if using exchange push, but battery life suffers unless you get it to sync every 30 mins, unlike blackberrys pushed as i like my mail instantly (infact even before it gets into your outbox if with o2)

o2 do a nice blackberry pay as you use bolt on, which is 2.25 per meg or something, and even kicking the arse out of your mail you wont do more than 2 meg a month in just messages and text.

Vodafone's BIS bolt on is 7 quid or so same as o2 if i recall, but using vodafones BIS service is a bit hit and miss in terms of speed which is a shame as i prefer thier network over o2's but for pure performance with blackberry BIS or BES o2 wins hands down.

As you may have guessed i have worked with blackberry since oh day1 when o2 launched it back in 2001 in the uk. Microsoft sync has its place, but blackberry is secure and does what it says on the tin.

Windows mobile sync can also be secure, depends on the provider - the same as blackberry, it's no different. Windows mobile/outlook supports push mail the same as blackberry - there's no difference. In fact from a corporate point of view Exchange and Systems Centre Mobile Device Manager has some features that Blackberry can't compete with yet.

From a device point of view, and bearing in mind Tonio isn't connecting to a corporate push mail server, be it blackberry or windows based, the HTC HD is the hands down winner IMO. Most providers, apart from Orange it would seem, do an unlimited data plan fairly cheap which would be good for email and developing on the fly. Orange bundled data is not expensive but I wouldn't go calling it cheap yet.

Having said that, now that you've got a business Tonio it would be worht investigating what business tariffs you can get from various providers and this deal *may* sway your handset choice. If I was in your shoes though, I'd pick the HTC HD all day long.

We have iPhones at work and they are fantastic; I have to say that it is the most fantastic invention. It's really intuitive and has the benefit of being able to have extra applications added. As it comes, it has:

- Full email
- 3G and WiFi connectivity
- Full web browsing (although not Flash-based sites)
- Camera (only two mega-thingies, but the software makes for great snaps)
- Full iPod... this makes your other MP3 music gadget redundant
- Image library
- Calendar
- Note pad
- Access to 1000s of games and apps
- Google Earth

Can't think of any major downsides

Wrong Tony sorry, BlackBerry is the only true push email device that uses a central infrastructure, it compresses each email and browsing also so if you're concerned about your tariff it beats WM device hands down, as such this also increases battery life way over 100% on a WM platform (by an independent test also) finally it's secure it's the ONLY approved email solution for UK/US government use (think you might of seen Obama kept his BB device recently) and the latest incarnation of WM (6.1) recently failed CESG (government) approval again, let alone Frauhofer certification in Germany (Government) etc etc.

Back to BB though, currently there are the following devices in the market place

Pearl 8810 (includes GPS)



Pearl flip 8220 (as above but flip phone)



Curve 8900 (newest phone available incl GPS and WiFi)



Storm (Voda only "click"screen) - **** NOT SIM LOCKED THOUGH****



Bold (3G, Wifi, GPS....)



The storm is OK but is a consumer device (touchscreen) so far 90% to consumer in market, similar to the iPhone,/HTC, new firmware release a week or two ago to address certain issues.

Pearl 8810 like a normal phone but also BB enabled either BIS/BES
Pearl flip as above

Curve 8900 the latest phone, my personal device at the moment, great bit of kit, good battery life cracking screen , wifi/GPS not 3G

Bold does it all, you can even Bluetooth to your laptop and use it as a 3G modem, BUT because it does it all the battery does suffer (still over 24 hours) but by disabling what you don't use (Bluetooth/Wifi/3G) etc you can vastly reduce the power consumption, new firmware was release last week and should address battery life and will be available on the carriers website.

Note - make sure you have at least 4.5 code loaded on the devices to get the latest features, Bold/8900/Storm all come with 4.6/4.7 out of the box.

Oh plenty of apps out there including Google mail (calendar sync - I use this myself), GPS, Tube maps, travel info, iTunes playlist sync and not that I'd imagine you use SAP but we are the preferred partner for deploying SAP to the mobile workforce, and $150M has just been handed out to developers to create more 3rd party apps.

I love my iPhone, but for business I'd have a Blackberry Bold without question. I don't have one but that's because I prefer clients to have to really make an effort if they want to speak to me!

I would also point out that ownership of a Blackberry of any kind has a direct, and fairly unpleasant, effect on your social skills.....

Good info Jon. I would like a touch screen (perhaps as its gadgety??) and was loking at a Nokia 5800 today which apparently has WiFi, email etc and is basically a new version of my one. The downside is 3 hours talk time!!!!

Might have to be a Blackberry Bold as I am on T Mobile and the Storm is not on that provider.

Is there another touchscreen one in the pipeline which will be on other providers???

I have the new I Phone and have used my Father in laws Storm, definitely wouldnt swap. The I phone is my personal device and it does everything I need including e-mails albeit only from my G Mail a/c

- Average camera (not that I am too bothered about that).
- Doesn't do copy / paste.

I have just had my work phone replaced with an htc touch diamond, as a phone it is rubbish complete rubbish. The battery goes flat in a day and it isn't as easy as a normal phone to access contacts, answer the phone or basically use as a normal phone.
On the plus side I can use it to browse the internet and collect any e-mails from any account and it does that quite quickly, however I am going back to my old phone as I need it to be a good phone with good battery life first and foremost :)

Nokia E series for me, good size with a full keyboard, easy syncing and browsing. can use wifi and be used as a modem.

well I had a play today and I have to say that in terms of usability for a consumer device I prefer the Iphone to the Storm for sure.

For work i have a Blackberry Pearl but also spent a bit of time today playing with the new Curve which is really nice to use. I still like the Bold but it is a bit more bulky even though it is quite stylish.

obviously form user perspective they all offer similar functions for me but if I was choosing I would go for the Curve :)

Can you explain to me how I can get push email from my Exchange server at work to my HTC device if its not considered true push email?

I think Tony is right:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../cc164305.aspx

That's very interesting though, it seems the Windows device is behaving like a web server...