What kind of new phone should I get?

February 6, 2005 10:17 AM

I want to get a new phone, but I'm sure what direction to go. Palm? Blackberry? Symbian? [+]

The one I am looking at is the Treo 650. The features I'd like are: e-mail, calendar, address book, maybe a camera. The one thing I like about the possibility of the Treo 650 is bluetooth, and using a bluetooth foldaway keyboard to type stories and such on.

Right now I have a symbian (nokia) based unit, but I would like to have a QWERTY thumb board as well. My current provider is T-Mobile, but I am willing to change carriers.

posted by benjh to shopping (7 comments total)

The newest Blackberries (Blackberrys?) have Bluetooth as well, and I've heard good things about the keypad on the Blackberry 7100. But I'm not sure that a Bluetooth keyboard would work with the Blackberry, even with the Bluetooth. There's a question similar to this a few posts down you might want to consult as well.
posted by EatenByAGrue at 11:27 AM on February 6, 2005

> and using a bluetooth foldaway keyboard to type stories and such on.

The bluetooth one-handed frogpad is easily the coolest portable keyboard I've seen in a while. Not cheap ($225) and surely a learning curve involved, but... damn, it's cool!

Other than that, I've contributed nothing to solving your dilemma. 30 wet noodle lashes!
posted by jimray at 12:13 PM on February 6, 2005

Depends. I have a 650 and its overkill for most people. I wrote a little review here if you want to get a feel for its features.

Also, you could save a lot of money if you dont get a pdaphone but a pda and a phone. Convergence comes with a price.
posted by skallas at 12:21 PM on February 6, 2005

I gave up waiting for the Treo 650 to appear in the UK and instead bought an iMate Jam (more generically known as the HTC Magician). It doesn't have a thumb board so perhaps it's not suitable for you, but having said that, I'm not really missing it on the iMate. Its advantages are that it's fast, has lots of apps and syncs well with Windows (and with Macs, if you buy the appropriate linking software). It also has bluetooth built in and you can get a whole bunch of wifi cards that work well.

The disadvantage is that it runs Windows Mobile. Surprisingly, it hasn't crashed once but it does have some confusing menus and settings that will no doubt infuriate you for at least a couple of days. After you've acclimatised to its quirks, it's a very decent phone.

For me, one of the major advantages was that it is very cheap in the UK compared to any other smartphone - might not be the case in the US though.
posted by adrianhon at 1:15 PM on February 6, 2005

I recommend the Series 60 phones -- I've just ordered Think Outside's Bluetooth keyboard that's supposed to work with both my N-Gage and my Pocket PC.
posted by krisjohn at 6:24 PM on February 6, 2005

I have an N-Gage QD right now, and that's the one I am getting rid of. The TO Bluetooth Keyboard was one of the big reasons I was leaning towards the Treo 650.

If I did get a Treo 650, should I get Sprint's, or wait for Cingular's? Both have good coverage in my area.
posted by benjh at 7:04 PM on February 6, 2005

Instead of waiting for a Treo 650 (Cingular --which is apparently now available), I got a Treo 600. Since I'm a long-time Palm user, my take on the switch is this: love it as a phone so far. While the keyboard is nice, I do miss the stylus writing area. As for price of convergence, I'm adding a 1G SD card ($71 US) and PocketTunes ($15 US) and on the host, an SD reader ($7 US), which gives me the equivalent of an iPod Shuffle 1G, for $60 less, and in my case 1 device fewer to carry around.

My brother-in-law, who is more of a gadget freak than me, has pocket PC's for he and his spouse. He went that route because he wanted a more standards compliant web browser and email application, but he said that the phone pretty much sucks as far as ease of use compared to the Treo. I knew up front that I wasn't going to want web browsing on this device (call me funny, but I spend enough time around web browsers during the work day. I feel like I'm plagued by them and would prefer to not pay through the nose for that).
posted by plinth at 5:41 AM on February 7, 2005