Mobile phone/pda advice
 

Hi all,

I am looking for advice on buying a couple of pda/phone devices for my employer. I have been looking at the Palm Treo 650 and the Blackberry devices. Does anyone have any experience with these (or any others)?

I will need coast to coast US coverage and probably an international plan as well.

Thanks for any advice.

I have a Treo 600 and am quite happy with it. From what I have read, the upgrades and improvements on the 650 make it even better.

Do you just need to be able to get email and phone or do you need your devices to do other things. The Treo, being PALM based, allows me to run Excel spreadsheets, Word files and it has a PALM version of my contact manager, ACT! that works seamlessly.

The GSM Treo will work pretty much anywhere in the world.

My colleague loves her Blackberry, it gives her world roaming, email and phone and she never seems to have any problems with it...

As I see it, it is a MAC/PC thing... like a PC, the Treo is adaptable to other programs, etc. and like a MAC, the Blackberry is very stable but you are stuck using what they tell you to use (not always a bad trade off for stability).

My blackberry is ok -- it's on TMobile service, and in North Jersey, to be honest, service is iffy - my AT&T phone was rock solid, this phone.. eh - not as good.

I can't use the phone without a headset, it's just too uncomfortable in my hand.

I like/dislike having immediate access to instant messenger, or rather my customers like having me available on instant messenger even when I'm in transit, it's actually convenient because I don't have to pick up a phone - and the conversations are quick and dirty....

the web browser is poor, and oh so slow...

If you're looking to get email "pushed" to you, you'll need the Blackberry Enterprise Server to hook in with your existing email server.

I personally cannot stand the Palm software interface. I use a Dell Axim x50v and a regular Sprint Cell phone.

Oh my :thumbsup:

I've had three. The Verizon Treo 600, which replaced my Nextel blackberry, which replaced my old school black and white cingular blackberry.

Still always used my daytimers! These things were just huge ass cell phones.

They all sucked and I wouldn't get another unless forced. They were ALL marginal at everything they did.

I've seen the treo 650's and they look very capable, but everyone that has one seems to think they do too much and don't know how half of the crap works? I don't think I'd have that problem, but it is an interesting point.

Off all of them, I think my old school cingular blackberry was the best. It didn't have a lot of marginally functional features, and the cell phone with ear bud was decent, and email was always there....plus it was smallish, and the batteries lasted forever on a charge.

All that and still no recommendation?

I think either will be just as good and I'd go with whatever is cheapest. Figure employee used equipment will need a good 'abuse warranty' and factor that into your decisions.

-bear

The Treo interface is better than the regular Palm interface in that it has a QWERTY keyboard rather than the "grafitti" interface.

Palm rocked when it did what it did simply, quickly, with lots of battery life, and people didn't expect more. Now, with so much power available, and people not making choices but rather expecting a full PC in a matchbook, once you get out of niche/vertical apps, Palm is showing its age. It can work used like it used to, but so can a cheapo organizer. Make it do lots and it suffers the effects of creep. PPCs have their ups & downs. Blackberries are the modern Palm, with similar clouds on their horizon.

I don't think there is a best answer. It becomes so much of a preference thing.

It ought to come down to the primary purpose, hardware fitness (battery/durability/input/output...) and as always app availability/development. If it's just going to become a pocket laptop then guaranteed once the novelty wears off, half the users will hate it. A coin flip is about as safe as, and less expensive, than a 3mo evaluation. Just buy one of everything, get to know the games, and on month 2, day 29 write lots of jibberish justifications to make the boss happy. Otherwise, if there's a set of needs then start burning through what works & doesn't.

But hey, I'm a cynic.
A friend cooked my last Zire with a pint of lemonade,
Still haven't fully recovered.
Just waiting for my eyeball & spinal implants,
and writing long annoying nat. lampoon sigs

I also have a Treo 600 but know several people that have the Treo 650. I love my phone and have heard no bad reviews for the 650. I'd go that route.... ;)

I use a Palm Tungsten Bluetoothed to my Nokia 6320. It's a really good compromise - works 100% with Outlook and MS Office using the (pretty good) bundled software and if I just want a tiny phone I got one.