Recommendations for Smartphones

[zolidlim]

Hi there, new to here, and looking for someone who can advise, in terms of smartphones with qwerty pad, for its functionality, which is taking the lead?

1) Samsung i600
2) Dopod C730
3) HP? Any model?
4) Palm? Treo...

[ekin101]

Well If u don't mind without qwerty pad, then Dopod d810 is great.

[lucifer06]

the treo will be the best. only thing is the screen is square.

[blue_quartz]

<bias>

I'll recommend the Sony Ericsson P1i as well. The unique rocker-style keyboard is *not that* hard to get used to (I reckon users of similar QWERTY thumbpads shouldn't find it hard to switch, I personally switched from a Siemens SK65) and it comes with 3G (complete with front-facing videocam), 3.2-Megapixel camera with Autofocus and 2 white LEDs for illumination and to top it all, touchscreen. Comes bundled with QuickOffice to create and edit Office documents, a PDF viewer and support for BB and Exchange ActiveSync. The only downside is the lack of 3.5G, Wifi 802.11g and for very blur drivers out there, GPS, but I don't really think all three are deal-breakers. :)

</bias>

[Choon_Lye]

Having second thought about i600? Saw your post to sell the phone :D

[rijac]

Hi there, new to here, and looking for someone who can advise, in terms of smartphones with qwerty pad, for its functionality, which is taking the lead?

1) Samsung i600
2) Dopod C730
3) HP? Any model?
4) Palm? Treo...

you should be clear what you want. smartphone and pda phone are two different things. a samsung i600 is a smartphone while a treo 680 is a pda phone.

one is a phone with some pda functions and the other is a pda with a phone application... pda phones tend to be more powerful devices.

[blue_quartz]

On a serious note, is there still the need to differentiate between both definitions? The general consumers don't really care for such terms anymore. The lines are definitely blurring too, with the level of PDA-centric integration for "smartphones" getting better by each release.

[rijac]

maybe in time. right now the user interfaces are still quite different. if you are a long time pda user you will need some time to get used to the smarthones... most of them don't have touch screens for example.

[rijac]

maybe in time. right now the user interfaces are still quite different. if you are a long time pda user you will need some time to get used to the smarthones... most of them don't have touch screens for example.



don't even need to compare across platforms. take windows for example - there two versions of the os for portable devices WM and WM smartphone edition.

[zolidlim]

thank guys for the prompt reply... SE P1 is out? Its kinda like PDA, with touch screen if not wrong, and not looking for PDA phone.

More into smartphone with qwerty pad.

Ha, ya, selling my i600, not used to it. Better with Dopod C730, as previously was using that...

[blue_quartz]

I bought it for S$1019 with Martin Fields screen protector, without contract. If you are willing to forgo the bundled HBH DS970 stereo Bluetooth headset, Mobile Square will even let it at S$898, although they are out of stocks now...

Why draw the distinction between touchscreen and non-touchscreen, anyway? :D

[rijac]

I bought it for S$1019 with Martin Fields screen protector, without contract. If you are willing to forgo the bundled HBH DS970 stereo Bluetooth headset, Mobile Square will even let it at S$898, although they are out of stocks now...

Why draw the distinction between touchscreen and non-touchscreen, anyway? :D



because this is important to some people.

[zolidlim]

I bought it for S$1019 with Martin Fields screen protector, without contract. If you are willing to forgo the bundled HBH DS970 stereo Bluetooth headset, Mobile Square will even let it at S$898, although they are out of stocks now...

Why draw the distinction between touchscreen and non-touchscreen, anyway? :D
Hi there, any problem getting used to the odd+rocking qwerty keypad? haha Read the reviews, many were put off just for that. dunno hows the rest of the applications, like selecting symbols...

Care to elaborate more say like the above, browsing contacts, sending or reading sms etc? Using stylus is a must?

Mobile Square stated is $998.. w/o BT headset will be cheaper? Wats in the bundle anyway? Oh, btw, for those who dunno how this rocking pad works, can try calculator... haha I tried that, and it was fine..

Very confuse, whether to change phone not. Really not used to Samsung phone, guess have no fate. Been tried to use a few models, bu ended up selling.

[blue_quartz]

For every one person you find who likes/accepts the "unique" style, you'll find another who dislikes/hates it. Personally for me, a Siemens SK65 convert, I'm ok with it. It has greater tactile feedback then what it looks like, and as long as you've used a QWERTY thumbpad long enough before, the only difficulty you will experience is the new positioning of the numbers and punctuation keys (duh). In other words, the size of the rocking key shouldn't hamper your typing speed by much.

Importing contacts is very tedious, because the PC Suite can only sync contacts with Outlook (not direct import via vCards) and beaming x number of vCards to it will mean you'll see x number of incoming vCards in your Inbox, which you'll need to import one-by-one! The solution? Create a vCard group file, basically also a vCard file but containing all the entries you wish to import over. I couldn't find any freeware to do this, so I ended up using the geeky way though some web programming...

You just quoted my post for the price without the Bluetooth headset. ;)

[zolidlim]

okie... so for importing of contacts, so long its syn with outlook, will be just fine?

Btw, is most of the application usage using a stylus a must?

[blue_quartz]

okie... so for importing of contacts, so long its syn with outlook, will be just fine?

Btw, is most of the application usage using a stylus a must?
It supports BlackBerry and Exchange ActiveSync too actually. Mine came with BB pre-installed and I had to uninstall it in order to get ActiveSync support.

The lack of soft keys means it's an absolute for you to touch the three virtual soft keys below with your finger tips. Other than that navigation can almost be completed with just the three-way jog dial at the side and left/right arrow keys in front. Even so, implementation is not consistent (but it is largely) and as user friendly I had hoped it to be. It does get most of the work done, but if you're comparing it with the Treo for truly effortless one-handed navigation, the UIQ interface still has some way to go.

[rijac]

i picked up an SE M600i yesterday for 335 brand new... now i have the same problem... synching my contacts from treo 600...

any tips?

[davidb]

i picked up an SE M600i yesterday for 335 brand new... now i have the same problem... synching my contacts from treo 600...

any tips?

The previous models of Ericsson/Sony Ericsson phones that I've owned all support vCard standard for Contacts. Just blue-tooth your contact from your Treo 600 to your M600i, they will be streamed as vCard format which is recognisable by SE phones. I think M600i is no exception.

Ah... I'm eyeing the M600i as my next phone also... :)

[rijac]

The previous models of Ericsson/Sony Ericsson phones that I've owned all support vCard standard for Contacts. Just blue-tooth your contact from your Treo 600 to your M600i, they will be streamed as vCard format which is recognisable by SE phones. I think M600i is no exception.

Ah... I'm eyeing the M600i as my next phone also... :)

the problem is treo 600 doesn't have blue tooth! over 1000 contacts.... i might have to set up an ms exchange address book - synch treo to pc... and then sync with new phone...

[blue_quartz]

For me, I Bluetoothed my contacts from my Siemens SK65 as individual vCards. Then I had to employ some web programming trickery to read the contents into a vCard group file before I Bluetoothed the new vCard file over to my P1i and then opening the file from the file manager.

Should be much easier with MS Exchange. :)

[zolidlim]

I got the P1i, finally making the courage to do so..

The contacts were imported automatically, and most were jumped up.. Will try later see if possible to get the contacts sorted out.

[davidb]

the problem is treo 600 doesn't have blue tooth! over 1000 contacts.... i might have to set up an ms exchange address book - synch treo to pc... and then sync with new phone...

But, the Treo 600 does have infrared, isn't it?
Maybe, you can try beaming instead of BTing.