Web Phone Reccomendations?

stjames

stjames

Sebenzanista
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Oct 26, 1998
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I am looking to purchase a web enabled phone for my wife this Christmas. She works from home and would like to be able to check her email and do web searches when she is out of the house. She is also keeping up with the Jones as one of her close friends has become a Crackberry.

Ease of use is important, good screen, and QWERTY keyboard. We use Sprint as our provider. I don't need the smallest device around, she has a purse you could lose a small dog in.

I'm also wondering if it is better to have a seperate phone from the device? And what kind of charges you run up using one, besides minute usage.

Budget is around $500 but not carved in stone.

Thanks in advance!
 
I have a Treo, and despite all the bad press about it, I really like it.

I use GoodLink for email, and it stays in-sync nicely with my work email. I'm on Verizon, but I think all the providers have them. Mine runs the Palm OS, and while it's not that great, it's also not that bad.
 
Avoid the T-Mobile Sidekick. I had one for a while. Aside from the prolonged service outages, the web speed is slooooooooooow.

I currently have a Sprint PPC6700. It's fast and service is reliable, but the software on the phone crashes... a lot. It's got other software bugs and issues too. It literally makes calls randomly. I have several times had it sitting on the table with nothing touching it and suddently heard the faint sounds of a telephone call and looked and seen that my PPC6700 has just decided on its own to make a call. The most common time for it to crash completely is just as you receive a call. The battery is also very short-lived. It can not get through the day without a mid-day charge and I'm not a heavy user.

I've got a friend who has the Samsung similar phone. He reports even more problems.

Go Blackberry.
 
I would also recommend a Treo. The Treo 700p smartphone is an excellent machine, and it fast, too.
 
T mobile in Orange County California is a very reliable carrier and although the internet speed is not that good it is very reliable. I would suspect that which carrier you should choose and what kind of service you can expect will depend heavily on where you live
 
K.V. Collucci said:
If they only had this model for T-Mobile I'd be all over it.
Click to expand...
Have you seen the Perl? I'll need to check if the 7130c is compatible on th T-Mobile network.

Web-wise, they're all pretty slow. Fastest I've seen is my Treo 700W from Verizon. For emails, I prefer my 8700g.
 
tonyccw said:
Have you seen the Perl? I'll need to check if the 7130c is compatible on th T-Mobile network.

Web-wise, they're all pretty slow. Fastest I've seen is my Treo 700W from Verizon. For emails, I prefer my 8700g.
Click to expand...


The Pearl is compatible with T-Mobile, and is supposed to be pretty bad azz.

I just bought one of these babys today (the Dash, by HTC), and I suspect it will take awhile to configure. For one, I have to research the hack to not have the volume controlled by the Jogger strip. :jerkit:

This device has integrated WiFi, so if you are OK with not having full time Internet, I understand it grabs any available wireless connection very readily, and can deliver the web and POP3 and IMAP eMail. Otherwise you will be paying $30 a month for the priviledge of full time, always on Internet.

061010_Dash_vmed_11a.widec.jpg
 
Thank for the recs, everyone, I was able to go into a Sprint store today and look at the models without looking like a complete fool.

I am leaning towards the Treo 700p, the layout is good and it has a camera as well. I had almost forgotten how much my wife likes to send snapshots of our daughter to her friends and family, so that is a big plus over the Blackberry.

With Sprint you also have to have a contract with BB for $40 a month to use their service (like the push), so I think it is worth having my wife check her email manually in order to save almost $500 a year.

Anyone have a good case to talk me out of the Treo? Thanks again!
 
I have a sidekick 2 and only remember one outage in the year i've had it. There was a server overhaul that made my web and email a bit rough for a couple days about 9 months ago. For web, email, IM and the basics you won't find a phone that's easier and more reliable. There are a few bells and whistles missing (no video recording and no adding your own software like on a treo) but it outperforms my old treo as a phone. It's a great phone that does other stuff and has a nice qwerty keyboard.

My 2cents.

N2
 
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