Quick poll - Which phone shall I get?

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Quick poll - Which phone shall I get?

BigRed

20 posts

Geek

#36415 24-Jun-2009 16:35

Hi all,

I'm a new Geekzoner and was after some honest opinions as to which phone I should get on the XT Network out of the following:

Palm Treo Pro
Blackberry Bold
Nokia E71

The price is not really a consideration (including the data plan etc), as work are paying for it, and it's more about functionality and useability. I have read many reviews for each device and have played a little with each as well but I'm finding it hard to make the final call.

So, that's why I'm asking all the geeks here who have had more experience with the phones what their opinions are.

Some important factors are:

* I have stumpy fingers (big toes for thumbs!) but would like to be able to at least use the keyboard on the device with having to finger-nail it (really wanted to wait out for an HTC Touch Pro 2, but no idea when/if that's going to happen on XT so decided to give up on that.)
* It is for business use so good email and organiser capabilities are a must (doesn't have to be push email however I have to be able to check on the run.) I like how Outlook operates in terms of email and organiser handling, so the closer the look and feel to that the better (obviously that points me straight to the Treo, but the others may be just as functional?)
* I like customisability, but this is nearer the bottom of my wishlist.
* I'd quite like to be able to use maps in conjunction with GPS - preferably free maps that I can download to storage (Googlemaps?). I don't need it for turn-by-turn instructions.

Anyway, await all the experts feedback, I appreciate your comments.

paradoxsm

3000 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#228051 24-Jun-2009 18:25

A simple rundown, they are very different phones so I suggest getting into a store and discussing and trying out the phones

The treo has the smallest keyboard, blackberry and Nokia are similar

The palm is the simplest to run with an exchange server and works well as it also does with standard POP3, the nokia is unknown to me exchange wise but my tries with pop3 xtra were futile and the Blackberry may require extra costs or modules to be loaded into MSexchange to load email though I think they offer a "pop3" grabber free of charge.

The Nokia has free maps and chargeable turn by turn nav, unknown blackberry, Palm has to have an application loaded (I use GarminXT) but it must be purchased.

The nokia does video calling, unknown with the balckberry, The palm does not.

All are customisable with the Nokia having plenty of options/themes, blackberry in the middle with full themes and palm least (colours/ring sounds/background image only though that's enough for me)

I use the Palm as I prefer the more open platform, simplistic and open file system that makes operating huge memory card much easier and Windows mobile standards I also much prefer the SMS and MMS handling.

BigRed

20 posts

Geek

#228162 25-Jun-2009 08:20

Thanks for the info. I know what you mean by saying I should get into store to test all 3 out, and I will be doing this, but I often find when you go in to test something like handsets, you don't get a full appreciation of how it will work for you and you can miss a lot of things.

Anyway, thanks again for your comments.