Okay. This month my carrier is letting upgrade my phone once again .
I’ve been using my trusty Palm Treo 650 for ages now, and it certainly has seen better days. It’s always been a bit buggy, and from other users that i’ve talked to (including my dad; he’s had treos since the Handspring days) the bugs I’ve been experiencing over time are pretty par for the course.
So, today I was on my carrier’s website researching what is available in the way of smartphones that do all the little things i like.
I was considering upgrading to another Treo (the 750 with Windows Moble 6), but upon reading the reviews, (not just on my carrier’s site, but other places too) found that the current like of Treos are pretty cruddy offerings.
I looked at the Centro, and it’s got even worse user ratings.
My main reasoning for wanting another Treo was that I thought it might help the transition process if I was familiar with the setup, and I really liked the touch-screen (from what I understand, other than the i-Phone and the just-as-expensive Tilt, palm has the only touch-screen offerings on the market), but I can certainly give up the touch-screen for a couple of years if the phone that it comes on isnt all that spectacular.
I’ve pretty well narrowed down my list to the Motorola Q and the Samsung BlackJack II.
Both are fairly well evenly matched as far as capability, from what I understand.
The Q has more memory capability, but can’t edit MS office documents (that’s not mission-critical for me, but it might be nice)
The BlackJack II is lots cheaper, price wise, and lets you edit MS office documents.
Both have speedy data/internet connections and support microsoft applications when synched with your PC (so they says…)
Anyone have any experience to speak from regarding these units?
Cruddy user ratings??!! (I have a new Centro. My first “smartphone.”)
I wanted to stop carrying the Palm cheapie that I used to keep addresses, and–most importantly–QuikBudget which lets me track expenses as I go and not let things get out of hand. So, while I really liked my tiny Pantech flip phone, it was an attractive proposition, once they released Centros to AT&T, to move to one device.
I didn’t want something squarish and wide like a Blackberry, because I just don’t care for that size ratio in something that’s going to serve as a phone. And, because of QuikBudget, I was holding out for the Palm platform. (Hence, no iPhone need apply.)
I have used it for a couple weeks and like it so far. I’m used to the Palm OS, and I can carry around a tiny, hard to read copy of writing projects if I find myself stuck somewhere in need of something useful to do.
Only problem I’ve had so far is this one: Olivia and I were sitting in Lebanese Taverna today, trying to think of the name of a certain Michael Jackson song, so I went online. (Browsing is crappy on Blazer, but checking email is easy.) The thing hung on the Wikipedia page. Just too much information I think, so I had to take the battery out to turn it off.
But for what I really want it to do–phone, addresses, calendar, budget, alarm, texting, and occasionally email so crap doesn’t pile up–it meets my needs.
Yeah, palm has been trying to get Blazer to work properly for ages . there’s just some sites that you ought not bother going to with a PalmOS unit. i had to learn that one the hard way.
The thing that gets me is how much of a hard time the most advanced Treos have surfing the web (unless you get the Windows mobile 6 version), but you get some entry-level smartphone by someone else that’s lightning fast…
The worst things I’d heard about Centros were from people moving from a treo 650+ to a Centro (i.e., it’s like having a smaller 650, bugs and all; no progress was made anywhere but making it smaller, etc), but hey, if it works for you that’s cool; I’m not trying to knock on anyone’s phone of choice or anything.
I just think I’m off Palm for a while until they get their act together and put out a high-end device that warrants the high-end cost; dern thing is $250 to upgrade to, no rebate or anything either, but they’ll give me a Q or a BlackJack II for $140/$99…i dunno…
anyone have experience with the Blackberry curve or any of the newer RIM models that have come out in the last year or so? How’s their WiFi compare to high-speed?
I’m holding out for my iPhone. I just reynched all my Palm data into my Mac’s address book and calendar functions so all I need to do is plunk $400 down and buy it <soon, but not now>.
I liked all my Palm devices, but as of late things are not that current. I have a Windows XP 64 bit machine at work and they have not released a hot synch conduit for it, after what, about a year into release. The Palm was my common computer between Windows and Mac OS.
I’m in the same position, my trusty 650 is getting long into the tooth. But, I can’t decide what to do.
The HTC phones running Windows Mobile 6 are neat, and there’s an SDK out so I can write software for it, but I’d have to pay for the nice dev environment. Plus the OS doesn’t look as nice as the iPhone.
The iPhone SDK was just released, but I’d have to buy a Mac to develop for it. However, my computer is three years old and I was thinking of replacing it this fall anyway. But, I’d like to wait for the 3G model.
Then there’s Google Android, which looks really neat and is free to develop for, but there aren’t any actual phones out yet!
Oh, and someday Palm will release their Linux based platform, but I’m not holding my breath.
Three nice options but each one has a flaw. I am thinking about getting a Blackjack II for my wife when her contract expires this summer. She hates her phone and several friends have recommended that BJII.
Mostly just because I haven’t been able to get my hands on one to get a feel for it yet; my provider’s brick-n’-mortar stores don’t have any that i can fiddle around with, just the fake ones (but they’ve got the real deal for the other two…go figure, eh?) and they wont quote me a price for the unit on the upgrade option… they do that with the iPhone too, so it makes me wonder if I would have to pay full price…(if that’s the case I wont even give it a second thought…that’s why I’m most certainly not getting a bloody iPhone; I ain’t shelling out $400 when i can get away with paying half that for something as equally functional or better)
I would most certainly consider a Curve or an 8830 if I could get someone at the provider to commit to a friggin price on an upgrade (I’m really getting tired of the hoops I have to jump through just to get an upgrade… fer heck’s sake, I’ve had the same provider for almost ten years and they still treat me like I’m a first time contract renewer…).
I certainly like the way they look, but looks aren’t everything (again, iphone…)
I’d probably consider looking deeper into a crackberry if someone could educate me a little about them (specifically the curve or 8830), perhaps a trusted friend who might happen to own one (BTW, good to see ya around, loren!)
But anyways, thats the roundabout reason why I didn’t list a bberry in the OP; they’re not out of the running by any means. If one of their top o’ the line deals can do everything I need for a price that’s competitive…
Tyler, life has been crazy busy the last 6-7 months but I figure I gotta stop by and say “Hi” now and then - good to “see” you man.
Unfortunately I can’t offer any first hand feedback on the Curve or 8830, I can only say that where I work nearly everyone uses a smart phone of some sort, and by far the most satisfied users are the blackberry owners.
I need make the move to a smart phone and have been asking around. I was initially interested in a Treo, but just heard too many reliability issue stories. By contrast, I couldn’t find one person who’d had their blackberry break. I’d almost consider paying for an iphone, just to have some of the multimedia functions, but I refuse to deal with AT&T, as they have screwed me in the past big time, and I’m holding a grudge
The only thing keeping me from getting a Curve right now is that the CDMA version isn’t out yet, so my carrier (Sprint) doesn’t have the Curve, and again, I’m not going to use AT&F’ing T.
Good luck with your smartphone shopping, I’ll be interested to hear what you end up with, and how you like it.
I never did any research at all on ‘smartphones’, and really had little interest. Predictably, I was issued a Blackberry by my employer recently. (A “better leash”, they called it. ). I was pleasently surprised. Not only can I do the normal email and browsing stuff, but I can run a terminal emulation program called ‘Idokorro Mobile SSH’ that allows me to perform tasks on our midrange IBM iSeries systems.
For me, this is a double-edged sword: I can never get totally away from work, but I can spend a lot more time kind of away from it.
My Treo kicked the bucket yesterday while I was in the office, so I left a little early to go to my provider’s store to see about an upgrade.
I wasn’t planning on getting an upgrade until later this month (kind of a birthday-present-to-myself thing), but the failure of my ol phone forced my hand.
I played around with my top three choices for a bit (BackJack-II, MOTO Q, Crackberry Curve) and finally settled on the MOTO Q.
FOr the money, it seemed to be the best deal and the best reviewed by other users who’d purchased it.
A very close contender was the Crackberry, but the screen resolution on many applications was well below the Q and navigation with the trackball was clumsy and hard to get used to.
I think the tie breaker was the data exchange speeds: the Q is 3g enabled while the Curve was not. Using the internet browsers on each phone, I noticed the Q was above and beyond the Curve in speed, and what with the Q having an application that does everything the Curve does, that was the kicker.
The BlackJack was an okay phone, especially for the price; it was $50 cheaper than the Q. What I didn’t like about the BlackJack was its memory was only expandable to 4gig via microSD, while the Q is expandable to 32gig via its microSD slot. The new feature that really sets apart the BlackJackII from its predecessor is the “track-wheel” on the front. I thought this was a neat feature, but it felt kinda clumsy in my hands. I felt like I was going to break it The salesperson I mentioned this to said he’d had one before upgrading to an iPhone and he said his broke after a few months of use, and that the drawback was that it was an actual mechanical wheel instead of a touch sensitive pad like on an iPod or similar device. Definately a better step in the right direction and difinately an upgrade from the track wheel on the side of the device which felt even more clumsy the times i’d tried it.
I’m really liking the Windows Mobile OS compared to the Palm OS. Lots of familiar things, and things seem to be just where I’d expect them to be. That was another big reason I liked the Q over the Curve; the BBerry OS felt very foreign to me, and I really did not want to get into a phone where I had a high learning curve ahead of me.
So, anyways, there’s the short review after a day of ownership.
So how you getting on with that new phone a couple of months in now Tyler?
I was delayed in buying a new phone by a little bicycle accident, and in the mean time have started thinking that the upcoming 3G iphone will suit me better than anything else that’s out there, but I’m still keeping an open mind, so I thought I’d check and see if you still like your new phone.
Yeah, I’ve heard 3G is a battery hog, but the new chip is supposed to help…
Regardless though, I don’t spend hours and hours a day on the phone, and the nature of my job is such that download speed is more important than battery life, particularly as I’m close to an outlet more often than not, in case I need a quick battery top-off.
I could also really use the GPS at times.
The new iphone comes with a built-in toaster oven too doesn’t it? I like my toast in the morning…
I have a phone for one reason. To call somebody if I need to ask them a question and for someone to call me if they have a question. No games, texting (snort), and enough memory to store the phone numbers. Why do people need more in a simple phone?
I guess it’s just the curmudgeon in me.
I may be way off, here, but I think that there is a real change in today’s society in that people are interacting with each other more. I know there are those who will disagree with that because the mode of communication is all electronic, but seriously, the technology exists, and is being used for, voice, Instant Messaging, texting, email, sharing images, music, tv shows, videos, etc. I don’t know about you, but I was never in an analog world where I communicated so much with so many people in so many ways on so many topics.
It must be a sign of old age, but I personally find being so very available to so many people all the time really annoying. I like being unreachable. I like my peace-n-quiet times. I like being able to choose if and when I will communicate with anyone.
. there’s just some sites that you ought not bother going to with a PalmOS unit. i had to learn that one the hard way.
The salesperson I mentioned this to said he’d had one before upgrading to an iPhone and he said his broke after a few months of use, and that the drawback was that it was an actual mechanical wheel instead of a touch sensitive pad like on an iPod or similar device. Definately a better step in the right direction and difinately an upgrade from the track wheel on the side of the device which felt even more clumsy the times i’d tried it.
