in need of a smartphone

J

JB5000

New member
I'm looking into getting a smartphone, but there are sooo many of them. I was initially set on an iPhone, but then there are the androids, nokia 97 or 900, htc (i probably don't want windows mobile), BB, etc. I really don't know what to choose or look for. I want something to syn well with MS Outlook, as I use it for notes, tasks, calendar, mail, etc.

I think I've narrowed my choices to iPhone or HTC Hero, what do you guys think?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks
 
BlackBerries sync extremely well with Outlook, and will handle notes, tasks, calendar, and of course, email extremely well. I would add one in there and consider it.
 
i'm not a fan of blackberry phones unless you have the need for corporate email. that is where they dominate. if you dont need it for work email, then there are tons of other smartphone platforms out there that are better IMO. here's my quick summary of the smartphone industry currently, iphone is still great. windows mobile is going away. symbian is blah, but still my preference. android is where i think will dominate. i want to try an android phone badly. i'd go with symbian or android, or maybe the n900 maemo.
 
Anyone who takes their jobs and family seriously knows that the most essential part of any smartphone is notification management, especially if these notifications are coming from different sources. Three mobile OS out there are that well ahead in the handling of notifications, the rest are so well behind. The best three are RIM, Android and WebOS. The rest, iPhone, Windows Mobile, Symbian, are that behind.

For example. Your friend send you a message on Facebook. With just about every other phone, you won't know if you got a message. You have to open FB by intervals to see if someone posted on your wall or sent you a message.

On the Blackberry, a Facebook post means you get a Facebook notification on your message timeline. You click on that message, and you are opened to Facebook automatically with the contact automatically addressed. It has none of that PC BS ritual where you have to go open Facebook, click on your notifications to see manually if you got any messages. None of that. Your Facebook pals can send you messages on Facebook like they're on SMS. You can reply to them back in an almost interactive manner.

To say that a Blackberry is just for corporate email shows you absolutely don't know how this platfom works. The Blackberry is conceived around the concept of message timeline and notification management, and when I mean message it includes anything from social networking to instant messaging. Even offline instant messages are treated with notifications, so you know your friend just sent you a Yahoo or GTalk message.

Right now I can also sync my Blackberry Contacts to my Facebook contacts. If my Facebook friend has a birthday on his Facebook profile, that's synced into my Blackberry Calendar. My Blackberry contacts not only holds tel, email, but also Facebook, Blackberry Messenger, Gtalk, AIM, Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live information.

The future of mobile OS is built around these concepts:

Unified event timeline
unified Messaging
Unified Contacts
Push notification
Social Networking sync

RIM, Android and WebOS are leading into this. Maemo also have the right clues and working into this direction.
 
I have to say that I'm not into all the hype iPhone has, meaning not cuz everyone I KNOW has an iPhone then I should get one, I'm not like that at all. (I'm not against or with Apple products by no means, too) I want something that works great for me, but I never had a smartphone before, so I have to be sure before buying.

If you say BB, which one would you recommend? I like multi-touch, so it's only the Storm and heard it's not that good.

I'm a clinician, so I see almost every doctor has the iPhone for medical apps, information databases, etc. I've also heard that the iPhone IS THE one for clinicians when it comes to smartphones. So I'm confused.

I'm computer savvy, so hacking or jailbreaking wouldn't be a problem. I already hacked my SE k800i (installed latest firmware (k810), changed acoustics, menu, etc.) do death and don't know what else I could do with it. :p

So in the end it's a choice bt iPhone 3GS, HTC Hero, or BB (which one??).....

-.-
 
Among my Twitter contacts, I got MDs using smartphones. Its true iPhone got a big batch of mobile medicalware. So does Blackberry and the old PalmOS.

If you're a doctor that means you wear gloves frequently. A touchscreen phone should not be on your list. Something with buttons should. That lets you operate your phone even with the latex on your hands. You will probably do well with a Bold or Bold2 Blackberry. Just my opinion.
 
I don't think anyone can answer that for you. What phone do you think would help you better? What phone would you like better? What phone would make you more happy with your choice?

They are both great phones and have their ups and downs but in the end I think you'll have to make that decision. Everyone else is just going to tell you what they like about the phones. Dillbit seems to be giving you a ton of unbiased info but I think that's as much as anyone can give you.
 
im considering the BB Bold 2 now, ditched HTC altogether from my mind, not yet the iPhone. There's also a significant price difference bt the BB and the iPhone.
I'm a pharmacist, btw, so it's all about drugs! :p
 
I didn't know black berry was that good. Anyway i'm really liking where android is going and seriously want a good android phone to use on att.
 
ya, check the reviews on youtube, you'll find positive feedback on the BB Bold 2.

if you see the HTC Hero, it's slow, choppy, and laggy.
 
I've read that but I never experienced it when I had my Hero. I've read on the fourms here that not alot of people are having that issue.
 
I'd say the Hero. The sense UI is amazing and the phone is just so much different because of it. Android is becoming bigger and there are tons of free apps with paid apps soon hopefully. Just my opinion, but then again I've never owned a BB before.
 
The hero is kind of lacking in terms of hardware, so I think I should hold off on the android till it becomes more common and have better hardware with android 2.0 or even 3.0 :p ?

the blackberry has been the same for quite a while now, correct? so it must be fairly known and easy to modify?

im also disappointed at the blackberry apps, they use really bad fonts which makes it hard to read... :/
 
Also beware that the Berries are designed to delete user data when free memory falls to certain levels. I've read 400K, 12MB and 15MB so no one knows for sure. It's been a known issue for at least 2 years and RIM has released on information on it. THe only real solution is to use the BES configuration, which adds the requirement for an Exchange server etc. I've seen people complaon about appointments older than 60 days being deleted, incoming messages being deleted, call/SMS logs being deleted etc.

So be very careful if you're a clinician and maintaining user data is important to you. I am very close to chucking my Berry over this issue and RIM's handling of it.

- R.
 
Yes, BlackBerries eventually will erase some data once the device is full. How to avoid this? Don't keep a bunch of unnecessary junk on the phone. Keep all media on a card, and back your stuff up often. That is why Desktop Manager is included with all phones. This will allow you to make frequent back ups, so that in case you do lose some data, you don't lose it permanently.
 
There might be new BBs coming but don't count on them being evolved far enough to make waiting for them worth while. This month has a lot of discounts on BB. AT&T for instance, halved the price on 9700 Bold2s which is currently the best BB on the market today.

If there is a new BB in the first half of 2010, I predict its more likely a Tour2, mainly a Tour with the optical trackpad, OS 5, and Wifi, to put it on the same level as the Bold2. Please note there is no formal announcement yet, just my prediction.
 
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