Yeah, I’ve got the Samsung i730, a qwerty slider (meaning it has a full qwerty keyboard that is accessed when the screen is slid up.) I love it so far. The only drawback is the size, but I brought that on myself. There are several smaller WM devices, like the Motorola Q, which is about as thin as a RAZR, but has all the functionality you’re looking for (email, calendar, contacts, etc…) the oly drawback to the Q is that it is a smartphone, and not a PDA phone, (which basically means no touchscreen,) so it gets a “dumbed down” version of Windows Mobile, so not all programs will work with it.
But I love that I have complete customzability. I can use any wav or mp3 file for a ringtone, I can download and use one of thousands of different themes and color schemes, I have soduku, a NES emulator, and a program that basically turns my phone into a universal remote control for almost any TV, DVD player, cable box, etc…
Not too long ago, it was around the beginning of the year, there was a slight SNAFU with Windows Media Devices and the daylight savings patch. Not so with Blackberry.
Yes, it’s an isolated incident, but I’m tossing another stick into the fire.
If your primary concern is email compatibility with Exchange, Blackberry would probably work best.
If you like to customize your phone as much as possible with different applications, tinker with your phone, and use your phone as a PDA, I would go with a Windows Mobile.
Just be aware that Windows Mobile devices do take some level of “geek” knowledge in order to fully utilize them to the maximum capabilities. You will at times have to be messing with registries and the like, but since you can do that the phone can be customized more than a Blackberry. They are not generally phones for a casual user.
If you are interested there are several links I could direct you towards so you can research this further.
I had a Blackberry, and now I have a Motorola Q, so let me try to give a few highlights.
The first thing that you come to appreciate about having the Windows phone is, as bouv points out, software. I’ve got Handy Weather, Skype, Voice Commander, OneNote Mobile* and a couple of extra games installed on my phone, for instance. There are literally thousands of applications available, ranging from wine catalogs to expense tracking to photography tools.
The Media Player syncs seamlessly with Media Player on my PC (and keeps track of all of the different MicroSD cards I have). The built-in mail package can access an Exchange server if it’s publicly addressable (or when you’re connected locally or via a VPN), as well as Hotmail and conventional POP3 services. The email application is not as well laid out as the Blackberry one (using folders is badly implemented, in particular), but it still works quite well. Also, things like SMS and IM work much, much better on the Windows Mobile phones.
Generally, the thing that I preferred about the Blackberry was the clean, consistent interface. It was most noticeable to me when I first switched, but there are only a few times that I think about it now (like, when I adjust the volume while listening to my voice mail, and then have to wait for the volume screen to disappear before being able to do anything else).
If you use OneNote 2007 on your PC, the first time you sync your Windows Mobile phone after it’s installed, Office offers to install the Mobile version on your device.
Ok, first thing you have to ask yourself is if you want a phone, email device and PDA? Trust me, this is critical. for example, I need the PDA functionality to do my job, and I often take business trips sans laptop these days and do everything from the PDA. Read and compose emails, OneNote, take meeting notes, phones, IM, text messabing, update address books and calendars, etc. Or do you want a smart phone (non touch screen). Or do you want what is primarily an email device (Blackberry)?
The Blackberry is not a PDA. It started as an email device, added a phone, and has some work around apps that allows you to kinda access programs like Word, Excel, etc. However, you risk compatability and you can’t sync calendars and other functions when you’re out and about.
Second, if your big goal is to sync with Exchange and Outlook, why in the love of god would you not want to use a Windows Mobile Device? Unlike a Blackberry, the WinMob will sync directly with your server. This is really key. If you’re out and about, you have the up to date information. Not the information that was up to date yesterday morning when you cradled into your PC. All your scheduling information will be updated directly on the Exchange server, and your family/cow-orkers will also have that information. A previous poster pointed out that a Blackberry won’t do this.
Third, do you need to use Word, Excel, etc files with your customers? You can download, read, write and send these from a WinMob device. A blackberry may try to do these things with customized products but you’ve got a big risk that key customer file will be unreadable.
The biggest features for me (that I most regularly use) are:texts, emails, calling (I would hope heh), and then the ability to sync to our calendar would be a handy one.
I realized (without really realizing for all of this time) that I think the reason I went to Blackberry was because our third party company/ server (I’m not a computer person, in all honesty- if that wasn’t insanely obvious to begin with) has a “sync with Blackberry” tab, but that’s the only one. I honestly am not even sure if I can sync it with none Blackberry products.
What we do is log in to a web portal, then we launch any number of programs through a citrix server. From there on out, it’s just like using the program if it were loaded on the computer. So yeah, does it sound like they just have a contract with Blackberry and therefore have a link? Or should I be able to sync up anything regardless? Bah, I’m going to have to call customer service Monday.
And I really don’t have to worry about opening client files that they said, so that’s not an issue. Though in the above server situation, we have a program called File Cabinet (from Creative Solutions, if it helps), where we scan all of our client docs and such. The only thing I can think of needing that for is client contact info, but there’s really no reason I can’t import that into Outlook.
Not necessarily a contract with BlackBerry, but demand for that button. If enough consumers asked for a “Sync with Windows Media Device” button, it’d be there. Creative Solutions is a Microsoft vendor. If anyone could push their prodict to Microsoft Portable devices, it’s they.