[madinga]

Hi, I'm on Vodafone UK, and I've got an 8700v. Some things annoy me about it:

- Poor calendar/contacts functionality
- No touch screen

Some things I love about it:
- Messaging/Email
- Keyboard

Has anyone switched over to the Treo 750v (which is also 3G/UMTS), and found it to be better?

All I want is a good solution for email/calendar/contacts, for personal use (I run my own business), so I won't be able to stretch to BES or Exchange etc

Thanks

Alex

[Stinsonddog]

Have you considered Hosted BES. With the ability to deduct the cost its 50cents a day or something. Also, what calendar functionality are you missing the most?

[madinga]

Just looking at hosted BES solutions, seem to all be the same-ish. I access 10 different email accounts through BIS (all different domains through POP3), not sure if they can offer that!

What do you mean by "deduct the cost"? And I'm also not sure how my provider (vodafone) would charge me for the data overhead of BES over their BIS plan...

Geez, the complications...

On the Calendar functionality I guess I'm just missing the Outlook interface. Also the ability to invite other attendees, and the fact the reminders show up on both the BBerry and my desktop outlook (probably the same with the Treo I guess). I suppose aswell the touchscreen I think might speed up the process of creating a new appointment (click-drag the time window, etc)

[concentrate]

Well, get a Treo, then

[outfocus]

I owned a Treo and it is a fantastic device, especially considering you don't need to use the stylus or touch the screen for 99% of tasks, which is kind of ironic don't you think?! I also had Blackberry connect working on it nicely.

Anyway, I went back to my Pearl after finding the typring somewhat difficult and the propritary connector plug is a pain, especially seeing the battery life is a bit below the Blackberry. So you need to contantly remind yourself to charge it overnight, as appossed to charging and syncing throughout the day.

A great device, but not quite there for me. The speed of the Blackberry is highly underated until you try another device, then come back...others agree???????

[roybeasley]

I keep both a Palm device and a BB8700. I too much prefer a touchscreen, which makes dataentry in forms and data updates much, much easier, and the calendar and contacts PIM software is much easier to use and more elaborate on a Palm (especially using DateBk, and perhaps Contacts4 or 5 for the address book). If I need to very quickly enter data or look up data, the Palm comes out.

The BB is a great phone, that also has PIM software. The basic contention on the forums is: if you want a good phone that also has PIM, use the BB. If you want a good PIM that also has a phone, use a Palm (and I'm referring to PALM OS, not Windows). It's a question of primary use of the device.

[takeshi]

The functionality that the OP is looking for is pretty much included with BES. Well, except for the touch screen (not a selling point in my book) and contacts/calendar functionality.

Personally, my decision is first based on reliability. My experiences with the Treo have been really poor which always immediately rules them out regardless of other critieria. Obviously, everyone's criteria are different so my decision making process may not be relevant to you.

I'd also suggest checking out hosted BES.

[pinhead]

It is amazing how some of us completely write-off Windows Mobile and Palm OS as lacking and then so see some of us do the same regard to Blackberry's deficiencies. I have used all three as well as adding a SonyEricsson P990 or 910 or something like that for good measure.

I will stick to the OP's points and tell you honestly, from the perspective of someone who really doesn't care which OS is on the device, what performs well and what doesn't. This only applies to the applications included on the devices at purchase though...

Blackberry PIM applications are terrible. I find the the Calendar is tedious to navigate. It is even more tedious to actually enter an appointment, filling out the exact time and category designations, and the notes. The Contacts list is actually the reason I have kept other devices around. I have found that for some contacts there is missing information!! A second home address might not show up on the Blackberry at all. The BB added unrecognizable characters to some contacts and I had to edit them in Outlook to get them back to normal. These are two of the most important applications for someone using the device for business and if I use a Blackberry I also have to carry another device that is capable enough to handle them. That's not really alright with me.

Palm's PIM applications are much better. Everything synchronizes correctly and shows up on the device as expected. Searching for contacts is not perfect but it certainly works and Calendar events are simple and intuitive to enter and view. In fact, entering appointment information is the easiest of the three. Both applications are very basic and are just as they should be on a mobile device.

Windows Mobile PIM applications are similar to Palm's but they just look better. It is very easy to enter a new appointment or edit an existing one and the viewing options are clean and intuitive. Unlike the Blackberry, on which there is just a black and white textual display of all aspects of an appointment, some of which can be difficult to read with just a quick glance, the viewing of appointments is quite nice. Instead of cluttering the screen when an appointment is opened it just shows the Subject, time, location, and notes if there are any.

I prefer the PIM applications on WM5 overall to either of the other two.


As for the touchscreen...it really isn't needed for the way that the Blackberry works but it would be nice to have more than that little hamster wheel to navigate with. On Palm and Windows Mobile I really like it (and I wonder why people complain when they need to use it...I don't want to touch it...ahhh!!) since I can use my thumb to quickly tap on something instead of rolling my thumb around a little wheel hoping to eventually get there.



If you plan to switch to the 750, which is Windows Mobile, do you plan to actually use the cradle or sync cable to plug into the computer to synchronize? If not, you will want to pay the $4-10 per month for a hosted Exchange service (I like 4smartphone.com and 1and1.com), as that will allow you to have your Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks pushed over the air to you just as fast as the Exchange server will be pushing your email to you. I don't plug into my computer anymore at all. Well, maybe over bluetooth to send an MP3 or two. If you can afford the Treo 750 you can certainly afford what I am paying, $6.99 per month, for a hosted Exchange server.

However, if you are fine with Pop3 or Imap email then you don't need this. You can get your PIM information synchronized directly with the computer and email every few minutes...and that is certainly fast enough.

[jibi]

I used a Treo 750v with BlackBerry Connect and Direct Push from our Exchange server. The negatives I hate were the phone application locked up no less than 4 times in 2.5 days. You have to literally reboot/reset your device every day in order for these lockups not to occur. Battery life, with the 'always on' connection of BlackBerry, died within 10-18 hours (or atleast I got notified that I was less than 5% battery life). Without BBC on, I got a full 20-24 hours. Anyhow, you HAVE to charge the 750v EVERY day and EVERY waking moment that you have downtime (when you're at work and not using the cell at all times, for example). The UI for WM5 is rather clunky and it takes a while to get used to doing simple tasks (such as changing a ringtone or alert and trying to figure out which to change). The last thing I could say as a negative is the various data connection pools and the inability to maintain more than one at a time. For example, if you're surfing the internet and then you receive an MMS message, you get disconnected from the net and connected to MMS during that time; same goes for BlackBerry Connect or Direct Push, etc.

Anyhow, there are some positives, such as the threaded conversational SMS/MMS messaging interface. I absolutely LOVE that. Very colorful and quite nice.

The Treo is much heavier and bulkier than the 8700, as well. This is also a negative, especially for me when I changed from a Pearl to the 750v.