QUICK! "Smart phone" advice!!!

[Volpone]

A little over a year ago I was ready to make the leap to a "smart phone". I thought they were small enough and had enough functionality that I could move to one--especially since I never really got into toting a PDA after my last Palm. And the ones that run Office Mobile seemed to have everything you could want in an all-in-one device.

But I was also less than halfway through a contract with TMobile for a no-frills Nokia and when I came to them, wanting to upgrade to a Shadow, they said that because I was a loyal TMobile customer, they would charge me $100 more than some schmuck just in off the street(!)

But that's another story. The point is, that at the time you had the Shadow and the...Wing? from TMobile and the slicker Tilt from AT&T.

So about the time my T-Mobile contract was completed (and on coming back from Wisconsin) my beat-up Nokia apparently shit the bed. The speaker and the...the green button you use to answer the phone--are behaving erratically.

So I zapped off to the Internet to see what the latest and greatest phones with Windows and Office Mobile on them were. It seems that none of the phones I was looking at getting are offered anymore! And I'm not happy with anything out there that has Office Mobile.

Does anyone know any good smart phones that have office mobile, are small, and come at a reasonable price?

 

[Conchaga]

Your first mistake was being a T-Mobile customer. I have a poor, unfortunate friend who uses that service and calls it T-not-so-Mobile.

Your second mistake is wanting windows mobile.

Why?

Just buy an iPhone and jailbreak it.

 

[Conchaga]

Your first mistake was being a T-Mobile customer. I have a poor, unfortunate friend who uses that service and calls it T-not-so-Mobile.

Your second mistake is wanting windows mobile.

Why?

Just buy an iPhone and jailbreak it.

 

[chucklemeister]

It was so nice, Conchaga said it twice!!

 

[Volpone]

I will not give money to Steve Jobs. Besides, will an iPhone seamlessly integrate with Outlook on my desktop? Let me open Office e-mail attachments? :S:

I narrowed it down to a T-Mobile Dash or a Samsung Blackjack II on AT&T. Both get about the same score on CNet (I haven't read the reviews yet). The Blackjack is the sleeker of the two, but there is something about the Dash that I like. And the T-Mobile plan is around $10 a month less. That's $240 over two years. :shrug:








I got the Blackjack though. The store has a 30 day return policy but if I switched to the Dash they'd have to port me back to T-Mobile. Not that big a deal, I guess. I've still got my T-Mobile SIM card.

 

[chucklemeister]

I've thought about switching companies when my contract is up in May. But where I live there are only two companies that get decent reception, my current one and AT&T. I've had AT&T before, back when they were Cingular. Which is why I'm with my current company. I got tired of crappy service from Cingular, but Cellular South has crappy phones.

So it's either crappy service or crappy phones, I'm not sure which is worse.

 

[Volpone]

Well my nagging fears were confirmed. The reason the Blackjack wasn't on my radar is that it doesn't come with Office Mobile. It comes with Windows Mobile. But not Office Mobile. Shit. If all I'm getting is a Microsoft OS and browser, I'd be better off with pretty much any other web-capable phone out there.

I knew the salesmen I was talking to either didn't know what they were talking about or they were dodging the question. Now I gotta return this phone and get one that does what I want it to.

[Or not. CNET says the Blackjack II comes with Office Mobile. (But the Dash doesn't. Whew!) So now I gotta figger out how to use it.]

 

[SuN]

Samsung are pretty good in the fact that they basically never die, never fuck up, and u can leave multiple appz running for multiple days without recharging or turning it off, and the thing will just keep going as accurately as it always has, do that on a nokia/sony and u will fry it.

 

[ctmelvital]

But I was also less than halfway through a contract with TMobile for a no-frills Nokia and when I came to them, wanting to upgrade to a Shadow, they said that because I was a loyal TMobile customer, they would charge me $100 more than some schmuck just in off the street(!)

Yeah, that's why I'm switching after my current contract runs out, too. It's a fucking joke and just shows that someone never bothered to take any marketing courses. If you're gonna punish me for being a loyal customer - well, what do you think I'm gonna do?

Same shit with making my contract more expensive and giving me one free ringtone a month in exchange. No, I don't want it and now fuck off. Bloody retarded.

 

[Volpone]

No shit. I even explained it to the girl, who was the store manager and seemed a very bright girl.

"Look. You give me a phone for $150. Now instead of having me obligated for another year, you've got me locked in for three more years. And instead of the base plan, I'll be upgrading to a more expensive plan with Internet access. That more than pays for the cost of the phone rebate."

She said she still couldn't do it.

 

[Conchaga]

Blackjack was the right answer as SuN said (HOLY SHIT WE FINALLY AGREE). However, you CAN download office mobile to your phone with windows mobile.

And, to answer your question, yes, you can sync your outlook and e-mails to a jailbroken iPhone.

Face it mac > pc.

 

[Volpone]

Now I need to go back hand have them tell me why I can't surf the web.










That or try reading the instructions first.

 

[Ancalagon]

Well with T-Mobile, you could have gone G1 or waited for the G2. Did you check them out?

 

[Volpone]

Yeah. I looked at the G1. It was OK. I'm not disappointed with the Blackjack. I just gotta learn to use it. The web browsing wasn't as obvious initially as I hoped and I needed to read the instructions to get online.

Oh, and apparently a lot of pages have shit you need to download to optimize them for mobile browsing. And I need to set the phone up with my computer (to synchronize with Outlook).

 

[ctmelvital]

No shit. I even explained it to the girl, who was the store manager and seemed a very bright girl.

"Look. You give me a phone for $150. Now instead of having me obligated for another year, you've got me locked in for three more years. And instead of the base plan, I'll be upgrading to a more expensive plan with Internet access. That more than pays for the cost of the phone rebate."

She said she still couldn't do it.

Yeah, I don't do more than one year just because you're gonna give me an additional 80$ off for that second year. What do I look like? Some retard?
You're charging me ridiculous amounts of money for a pretty shitty service and then expect me to waste even more money? Pff.
Besides, my mobile phones rarely make it a lot longer than a year anyway...

 

[Volpone]

OK. Finally sat down and started to go through the quick start booklet. Getting a better feel for its capabilities and I'm increasingly happy/impressed with it. I'm still figuring out the best way to carry it. So far the two most disappointing things about are that it collects fingerprints really effectively and it looks like if I want it to synch up with my computer I'm going to have to tie it to the XP machine. :S:

 

[Volpone]

Oh, and totally not what I was looking for, but the Samsung A837 is probably as close to a Captain Kirk communicator as your gonna get IRL.

The AT&T Store I was at didn't have the black one with the gold grille, and I couldn't flip it open one-handed, but the size is about right (which means it is too large for my needs) and it looks pretty cool.

 

[SuN]

YUK!

U should have got this instead.

 

[Volpone]

Eh. This is a decent first step. It's got a lot of insanely useful features, but not so many that they overwhelm me. I'll get good with this thing and in two years the REALLY sexy phones will be out.

 

[SuN]

Tru, and although Samsung are great the A837 tis UGLEIGH! Blackberry will suffice till the super-sexy ones are released, enjoy the new toi