We decided to get some Smart Phones at work. Most everyone here has their own cellphone plan but they don’t have laptops. All they really need from a new unit is email access and possibly text messaging. It was my job to decide which to go with - Treo 700 or BlackBerry 8700.
A couple of weeks ago I went to a demo to see the Treo 700 running Windows Mobile. It was really nice but it does a lot of things we don’t need. Basically the Treo 700 is a phone, SMS messager, camera, mp3 player, video player and mini laptop since it runs Windows Mobile OS & a mini version of MS Office. The BlackBerry is more simply a phone with email and text messaging.
I decided to go with the Blackberry 8700c. It’s alright so far. I don’t like that it doesn’t have any storage like a removable media card. I guess there’s little need since you can’t play music or video or edit files on it anyway. I don’t like that I can only get new Exchange mail, but nothing that was in my box prior to setting it up. The only way to get previous mail is to forward it to yourself again, which isn’t practical. I can use the browser and our webmail to do that but the screen is only 320×240 (the Treo is 240×240). The browser also doesn’t support frames. The browser speed with Cingular’s EDGE network is not bad really. It’ll do in a pinch for sure. It’s more than fine for quick Googling.
The keyboard takes some getting used to but its better than texting on a regular phone; probably not better than a Treo. Another difference is the Treo uses a stylus and touch screen to navigate while the BB has a thumbwheel. I’m not sure which I’d like best there.
If I were to get one for myself I think I’d rather have the Treo 700. I don’t have a laptop so the computer-like features would come in handy for me. They’re just overkill for what we’re going to use it for here.
The real fun for me will come when I have to configure it for a new person every other week. Since these will be shared units I have to set it up for whoever will be out of the office next. That’s gonna suck but that’s why they pay me the small bucks.
-ugh - I think I just ran into a major gotcha. It looks like you have to use BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) to be able to view attachments. That’s like $1500 so this could be a deal breaker. Adding more email complexity for essentially two BB’s just ain’t happenin.