I'm at a crossroads guys (regarding mobile devices)
CategorySince early sharp personal organisers, I have been a PDA fan. I have had Palms, IPAQs and psion kit over the years, but I really started to like PDA's when they could be my phone aswell. Since then I have owned an XDA, and XDA2 and an XDA2s. Always the week they come out... I have had one ordered and setup. Recently, I have found it harder and harder to justify sticking with the HTC / Windows Mobile device range. This is not an MS rant... I really want them to work... I like my xda2s. For all its failings, I like what I can do with it. Currently, the model is my phone, my blackberry mail client, my IMAP mail client, my mobile WiFi unit, GPS kit (via Bluetooth) and much more, all in one unit. Great.
But it isn't that great. The battery life is awful, the unit becomes unresponsive at least twice a day (requiring a reset) and the phone functionality is poor. I can let everything go except the phone functionality. Calls get dropped, signal strength is weak even when other phones are fine, and the constant complaining by staff in Blue Wave about listening to me on that phone (or is it just listening to me) has put me over the edge. Bill, is very vocal (I know... its so unlike him) about Windows phones, but I really like the concept of everything in one unit. Ten years ago, we all started on the real PDA road... So... where do I go from here?
My peers in Blue Wave want me to go blackberry, and I have looked at the 8700g unit. It looks impressive, but the berries just don't do it for me. I know they "just work" and do an exceptional job but I like the added functionality of storage etc. Has anyone any advice. Should I go with a Mobile 5 unit? Is it good enough to make me happy with windows units again? Should I look at alternate models (Treo perhaps) or just screw it and go with the 'berry.
I know I am being a spoiled child here. I want my phone to be able to do everything and be reliable. I don't mind leading edge. I don't mind bleeding edge, as long as the core unit (i.e. it being a phone) is good. Any suggestions/comments?
What I need
A good phone
Integration with mail/PIM information (obviously Domino)
Bluetooth
What I would like
WiFi ability
Good battery life
What I would love
Built in GPS hardware
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Comments
Choose life.
Get a nice phone and a separate blackberry device.
Dont stick Microsoft in your pocket and expect it to work reliably.
---* Bill
Posted by Wild Bill At 21:22:55 On 07/03/2006 | - Website - |
The K-Jam battery life is shown as 3.5 - 5 hours talk time and 200 hours standby. Thats pretty much the same as the BlackBerry 8100 - 4 hrs talk time and 192 hours standby.
The i-mates devices have a second 'back-up' battery that keeps the device 'alive' should the main L-ion battery run down. Or while it is being replaced as it is removable and rechargable so carring a spare charged battery is an option for those long trips.
-- Sean
________________________________________________________________
~ When Life Throws You a Lemon....Ask for some Salt and a shot of Tequila!
Posted by Sean Murphy At 21:49:42 On 07/03/2006 | - Website - |
long time no hear. Work has just got me an iMate SP5. Never been one to get excited about phones but I love it. ActiveSync has all my work mail pushed to me. MSN mobile for hotmail. Can browse the web via gprs or wi-fi to get gmail. Or footie results...
Decent camera and videocorder. The photo I sent from Paddy's day was taken with it. Also got a multi doc reader. DOC, XLS, PDF, PPT, image. Mini SD card slot and I've got a 1GB so am now listening to work again via the inbult windows media player. A colleague in work got an alternative player and was showing me rips of the matrix trilogy all on the one card! Very impressive too. Downside is no Qwerty kB and I don't c one as an accessory for the SP5. Nor to my knowledge is there GPS available.
speaking of which, have u heard about:
http://www.automotoportal.com/article/Volkswagen_and_Google_develop_revolutionary_navigation_system
Battery life is good too and has just about every type of connection u need.
Some mgrs here have the Treo 650. Proper qwert kb but I find them kind of heavy.
talk2ya!
Brian
Posted by Brian Clancy At 12:32:53 On 27/03/2006 | - Website - |
I would definitely advise (after seeing Blackberries in the wild where I work for 18 months) that the sound quality on these devices as phones is awful, but for mobile email (ONLY) they cannot be faulted. Buy a small phone with Bluetooth for the car/headset (SE K750i or whatever) and a mobile device for your ego
These things will eventually work, but let someone else find the faults first.
Posted by Stephen Mooney At 10:28:56 On 08/03/2006 | - Website - |
The 'basic' one was the i-mate JAM. Similar to what I remember the original XDA features.
The one I really liked was the K-JAM (http://www.imate.com/t-DETAILS_KJAM.aspx) . Similar size to the Blackberry 8100, slightly heavier though. Neat feature where the keyboard slides out from the back on the side rather than to the bottom like the XDA. The screen then automatically rotates to landscape mode. Nice! Quad Band. MiniSD slot. 1.3 MP camera (very clear). Bluetooth. Wi-FI (b/g/e). MS Mobile 5.0. And it uses a standard mini-usb slot for charging (I can still use my BB charger
The next model was the JazJar (I know, a stupid name!) - http://www.imate.com/t-DETAILS_JASJAR.aspx . Think of it as a mini mini-laptop. 3G. Even has Skype pre-installed. Don't think I would use this one as my single device but more suitable for the support engineer on the road that needs a bigger device to access remote services etc.
As much as I like my 8100V, I could be seriously tempted to 'trial' the K-JAM...!!!
Posted by Sean Murphy At 21:19:56 On 07/03/2006 | - Website - |
Stick with the windows mobile devices, but look at the HTC K-JAM (My current phone). The battery life on these has improved drastically, unless you really dick around with them they don't crash - and WM5 stores everything in NVRAM, so it doesn't go flat.
I'll obivously have mine with me anyway, so you can have a play. It (and the other recent phones) are literally a whole different ball game to the previous HTC phones.
And don't even get me started on Blackberry
Posted by Warren Elsmore At 15:26:05 On 11/03/2006 | - Website - |
It goes without saying, btw, which is of course why I'm going to say it: that whichever device you buy will require add-on software to talk to Notes. As opposed to the built-in stuff that talks to Exchange/Outlook. When *will* IBM wake up about this?!?
Posted by Rob McDonagh At 20:23:46 On 07/03/2006 | - Website - |
Not sure if you are aware of Jason Langdridge' blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/jasonlan).
His blog contains all you want to know (and more) about Windows Mobile / Devices, etc.
Drop him a line if you have any queries or doubts
Posted by Peter de Haas At 11:02:17 On 08/03/2006 | - Website - |