Phonefilter: help me choose a new smartphone that's not a iPhone for email and roaming?

October 24, 2009 5:24 AM

Phonefilter: Help me choose a new smartphone with QWERTY keyboard. Primarily for email, some browsing, calendars. Constraints: in the UK, contract may be a problem, need to use overseas a lot, I rarely use the phone part, don't want an iPhone.

I have decided I am in need of a new phone, my Nokia E65 is just not cutting it when I need to have access to email and a bit of internet et cetera when on the road. I travel a lot and sometimes getting Internet access is a pain, but I have found that in many places I can still use WAP on my phone to get email which is fantastic.

I live in the UK but travel to the US, Europe, Asia etc a lot for work. I have not lived here long so I am not sure if I qualify to get a phone on contract. I am using my old phone on O2 pay and go right now. I need a plan or provider that offers reasonably priced roaming data in the months that I know I'm travelling.

I have a Mac so I need to be able to sync with that, possibly over wifi/bluetooth? My Nokia was always crap for that. Bonus points if I can tether and use the phone as a modem at a pinch. Wifi would be cool too, though I have the iPod touch for that.

I work for a small NGO so we don't have a great infrastructure (or any tech support really), we are still on Exchange 2001 but I would love a phone that could integrate my Exchange mail and my Gmail and give me push email.

I have an iPod touch which I love, but I find typing on it a real pain so I don't want an iPhone. I send text more than I use a phone to make calls. I would prefer a proper QWERTY keyboard.

posted by wingless_angel to technology (10 comments total)

I have the G1, and if you add the TouchDown Exchange connector (if it works with exchange 2001, not sure about that) and
PdaNet for Android apps, all your features should be met, but you'll have to sync with google, then sync google to your Mac. I believe T-Mobile has resonable international roaming plans, or you can just buy a local SIM.
posted by jrishel at 6:13 AM on October 24, 2009

Nokia N900?
posted by pharm at 6:41 AM on October 24, 2009

I also wanted a smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard, so I chose the G1 Googlephone, and have never looked back. It's reasonably fast - the new Googlephone models are even faster - with a keyboard, and Internet access is almost seamless.

You can use it to access the Internet abroad (either via 2G/3G or wi-fi) although of course it's not exactly cheap. It integrates very well with Gmail - not so sure about Exchange.
posted by almostwitty at 9:37 AM on October 24, 2009

G1 no longer available and replaced by keyboard-less G2 as far as I can tell.

Nokia - have taken a spin through Ovi and I'm far from impressed. Nokia always felt like a battle, you know?

Is Blackberry a possible, or is it useless without any corporate support or network?
posted by wingless_angel at 10:24 AM on October 24, 2009

Blackberry's can be used outside of exchange; we have a couple of users with them on vodafone with which they get a vodafone email address. I forward their email automatically from the mailserver to their email address, and it gets delivered to their phone automagically. I don't like blackberry keyboards that much though, and the screens are small.

Personally, I recently bought an HTC touch pro 2 off contract mainly because of the excellent hardware keyboard. Windows 6.5 which was recently released is a significant improvement, along with the HTC custom touchflo front end makes it a nice touchscreen mobile too, and obviously it has browser access etc, the builtin opera 9.7 works fine over 3.5G. GPS is handy too.

It's a lot fatter than something like the iphone due to its slideout keyboard, but I got a nice noreve belt pouch and its not a problem.

You can sync it with windows/outlook directly via cable or bluetooth or a mac with missing sync. It also has imap and pop support.

So far I've had it about two months, and it's definitely the best smartphone I've ever owned. Roaming data is going to be expensive whoever you go with; vodafone or O2 are probably your best bet (I pay £15 a month for a sim only 500MB/month 100 anytime minutes data contract with vodafone)
posted by ArkhanJG at 10:57 AM on October 24, 2009

For what usage you have described above you could use blackberry with or without a blackberry push email service as long as you have a data service (all blackberries will work on GPRS when you are in the UK and on faster EDGE when you are in other countries). You can download google mobile app which will give you live email and calendar.

With a sync software on your desktop you can sync your outlook calendar with your google account and you have a cheap option which gives you pretty much everything you need. If you did get the push email option which comes at anything between GBP 4 to 7.5 you could link it to your work email via BIS. The benefit of the second option is that you will be using the native messaging option of blackberry which 'just works' instead of the gmail front end which is fine too. The only possible downside to using the always on gmail is that it does have a negative effect on your battrey life.

If for whatever reason you didnt want to use blackbery then go for Nokia E71 which is my 'other phone' and it works very well on the google mobile app platform. The added benefit of using the E71 is that it is SIP compatible (dont know if that matters to you) and more recently Skype compatible (conditions apply*). If you took it out on 3 you cold get unlimited use of skype for free too.
posted by london302 at 11:33 AM on October 24, 2009

I'm pretty happy with the keyboard on the Palm Pre, which is just now available in the UK. I don't know if it supports tethering out of the box there (Sprint here in the US doesn't allow it), but there's a few homebrew solutions to it (that doesn't require anything as heavy-duty as jailbreaking; in fact if you care about such things, the Pre is probably the most homebrew-friendly phone around).

It does well with exchange and email/calendar. All of its syncing is automatic and done over the internet/wifi, instead of via bluetooth, so depending on what you need to sync that might be acceptable, or it might not be.
posted by aubilenon at 11:59 AM on October 24, 2009

I'm in the UK and have recently bought a Pre. Its not without its flaws (and currently runs an older version of the OS) but I like it. Folded up its the same size as my old original Razr phone and very pocketable, but its also very usable and the gestures and GUI are more intuitive than the iPhone/Touch. I'm syncing my Mac with the Pre via Google, and it works well. I've not used the Exchange features in WebOS.

No tethering yet. Few applications so far (but the number seems to be increasing steadily). WebOS seems a bit laggier than the iPhone's OS. From my experience battery life is just as bad as the iPhone but OK with regular charging.

The keyboard is apparently not as good as BB keyboards (so I've heard) but I prefer it to the Touch's keyboard. You can see all the screen and type at the same time, useful for IM.
posted by BinaryApe at 3:12 PM on October 24, 2009

(Snow Leopard can sync contacts and calendars with Google)
posted by BinaryApe at 3:13 PM on October 24, 2009

The Blackberry Bold is a quad-band global phone, apparently.
posted by gjc at 7:54 AM on October 25, 2009