Don't know which smartphone to buy!!!!

[odizzle123]

I've been wanting to buy a smartphone with QWERTY keyboard, or at least something close to a QWERTY keyboard, but I'm still not sure which one to buy. I have been looking at the Blackberry Pearl and the Treo 680. Any suggestions to other phones or to help me settle the dispute between those two phones?

[sky007]

Here's the thing there:

Do you want to go GSM or CDMA?...this could be important as to what kind of data streams you're going for. (I assume that if you want QWERTY, then you're thinking of email/text functions, but that doesn't take a very high data stream.)

Do you travel? (I do...thus, GSM is necessary as well as quad-band capability).
If you never leave the USA or Canada, then you really don't need quad-band. If you go to Europe once per year, you'll probably even be OK with a tri-band phone).

Then, are you looking for a serious 'corporate' data phone, i.e. PDA, or do you just want something to run your email, etc., through?

And another thing, are you going to need any 3rd party apps? If you think that one day you need an engineering calculator or maybe want to tweak your interface or skins...well, then you shouldn't buy an iPhone.

I know that Sprint is offing a phone based on the HTC TyTN. I've played with this phone and liked it...but passed it over because I wanted GPS, which wasn't there on the original unlocked version. Now, Sprint also took off the CMOS vid cam on the front, but then, so did AT&T/Cingular when they had the same phone moded for their network. BUT, the phone under any brand does have a slide out QWERTY.
[I'm just using the phone as an example. However I love the slide out QWERTY keyboard for myself...hard to go back after you have one for a while.]

So that's the question it really boils down to...what exactly will you be doing with the phone?

[therage800]

Personally I have the Sony Ecrisson W950i, it's selling point for me was UMTS 2100... It doesn't have a QWERTY keyboard (And I wanted one!) but it has a touch screen with handwriting recognition which makes texting and emailing fast and easy once you get used to it (It does have a touch screen virtual QWERTY keyboard though) It's far from perfect but I still like it... 4GB of storage is nice too Well it's out there...

[odizzle123]

Originally Posted by Sky007

Here's the thing there:

Do you want to go GSM or CDMA?...this could be important as to what kind of data streams you're going for. (I assume that if you want QWERTY, then you're thinking of email/text functions, but that doesn't take a very high data stream.)

Do you travel? (I do...thus, GSM is necessary as well as quad-band capability).
If you never leave the USA or Canada, then you really don't need quad-band. If you go to Europe once per year, you'll probably even be OK with a tri-band phone).

Then, are you looking for a serious 'corporate' data phone, i.e. PDA, or do you just want something to run your email, etc., through?

And another thing, are you going to need any 3rd party apps? If you think that one day you need an engineering calculator or maybe want to tweak your interface or skins...well, then you shouldn't buy an iPhone.

I know that Sprint is offing a phone based on the HTC TyTN. I've played with this phone and liked it...but passed it over because I wanted GPS, which wasn't there on the original unlocked version. Now, Sprint also took off the CMOS vid cam on the front, but then, so did AT&T/Cingular when they had the same phone moded for their network. BUT, the phone under any brand does have a slide out QWERTY.
[I'm just using the phone as an example. However I love the slide out QWERTY keyboard for myself...hard to go back after you have one for a while.]

So that's the question it really boils down to...what exactly will you be doing with the phone?

Right now, I have a contract with AT&T, so I will be using GSM. I don't travel very often at all, but having the option to travel and not change my plan is very appealing. So I would want either tri-band or quad-band. The features that appeal to me the most would be e-mail, PDA functions, and having some third-party apps to play with. Thanks for the reply.

[therage800]

Originally Posted by crumbles

Get over your qwerty obsession and buy an N95.

Thats not a phone it's a camera that can make phone calls. And at $600 + it better do everything else too.

[hotdog]

it all depends who's your carrier and what you're going to do with it.

if you're a heavy e-mail user and rely up to the minute, johnny-on-the-spot with your e-mails, you probably want to get a BlackBerry. (however, Microsoft's Direct Push is pretty good)
BlackBerry's tend to fall behind in terms of consumer uses such as a Camea/Music Player, but the newer stuff like BlackBerry Curve or the BlackBerry Pearl (non-QWERTY) will come with these features.

if you enjoy more of the Windows familiarity with navigation, a Smartphone with Windows (like the Treo 700, 750) would be your ideal device. plus, you can install GPS navigation software onto Windows Mobile devices

...or, get an iPhone :P

[therage800]

Originally Posted by hotdog

BlackBerry's tend to fall behind in terms of consumer uses such as a Camea/Music Player, but the newer stuff like BlackBerry Curve or the BlackBerry Pearl (non-QWERTY) will come with these features.

Friend just got a Blackberry Pearl, awesome phone. As for the QWERTY, the key layout is in QWERTY just 2 letters per key. It's word recognition software is pretty good, I can type just as fast on it as a full QWERTY keyboard.

[tokenuser]

I love my BB 7130e. The keyboard is the same as the Pearl.
Typing is generally pretty easy EXCEPT for punctuation beyond . , ? !
This is not an issue until you go to type an email address or a URL, but that is a minor annoyance for having a device that is much narrower than the full keyboard models.

[cacogen]

Originally Posted by therage800

And at $600 + it better do everything else too.

It pretty much does.