Verizon smartphones

[rh71]

All 3 "smartphones"... which do you recommend? I only have experience with the Palm Treos and would like a change. Email isn't a big deal but I usually do use the mp3/video features. The i-760 only has a 1.3mega pixel camera as opposed to the 2.0mp on the others. Any other reasons why one is better than the others?

Or if you have personal experience with any, let's hear it.

 

[rh71]

Ok, answer me this - is there any reason not to switch to WM6 coming from Palm OS? I just feel like there's so many more options with WM since it's more mainstream.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

I can only speak for the Mogul...

RAM is way too little. Open up GPS + WMP and your RAM is pretty much shot. You'll experience pauses in the music every now and then. Open up something else like Opera and it'll have a good chance of crashing. Stop all these programs and your RAM doesn't get freed because WM6 memory management is horrible.

Activesync and Sync Center for Vista are complete and utter POS. Sometimes they will make it so that you can't put your phone on standby. They will wake up your phone automatically each time you do so due to a bug.

When syncing, the Mogul essentially becomes a brick. Nothing responds. If you have a broken Activesync that likes to "check for changes" every 5 minutes, the phone becomes useless hooked up to the computer.

WM6 has a special option just for hooking up an external bluetooth GPS. This doesn't work at all. It can hook up to an external GPS though, just not through Microsoft's sh*tty implementation.

Battery life can be stupid and horrible. You put the phone on standby and come back 2 hours later to a fully depleted battery, with no idea WHY it's now so low. And then there are times when it doesn't get depleted.

The Microsoft Office Mobile products are laughable at best.

With this said, the Mogul can do a lot of cool things and be a lot of things to the user. GPS, note taker, web browser, phone, planner, etc. The only thing that's really wrong with it is the lack of memory and Microsoft, uh, everything.

 

[rh71]

Is ActiveSync the way to put your own apps on there too? I have XP so hopefully the Vista stuff you talked about isn't a huge issue.

How's the video playback? I know I'll probably have to keep files at a low bitrate, but as long as it's watchable.

I figure I have a 30-day money-back... I really can't decide between the Voyager and the Mogul even though I played with both in the store for 15 mins. Of course I have no mini-SD card to stick in it to try the media stuff.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

EVERYTHING goes through Activesync. Installing apps, connecting via USB (sometimes it's connected but Activesync says it's not), exploring the contents of your Mogul (including mini-SD card), syncing, etc. So basically it's impossible to use the thing as a mass storage device or USB drive because the computer has to have activesync or sync center.

The video playback is acceptable, but not that clear due to the low resolution of the screens, as well as the small size. Something with 640x480 would have been better. I come from an Axim x50v with 640x480 and I noticed a difference in clarity. But all in all, it's not bad at all. I don't play that much video because I don't want to deal with re-encoding and because I only have a 4GB mini-SD card (1.5GB taken by GPS maps and the rest by MP3s). Videos look just as good in landscape as they do in portrait. With my Axim x50v videos were unviewable in landscape due to the way the screen was designed.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

GAWD Windows Sync Center is such a POS. My Mogul was just syncing, and then it stopped. Now it says that the Mogul is disconnected, even though it's clearly not. The icing on the cake is that I was playing an MP3 FROM THE MOGUL while Sync Center said it "disconnected," and I can still play it. So basically I'm magically playing music from something that's apparently not even connected to the computer. I have got to say that MS is absolute king at making sh*tastic products and then forcing you to use them. The pile of crap that is Sync Center is truly remarkable.

Just to make things even, I've experienced these connectivity issues with ActiveSync as well, though not to such a gross degree as Sync Center.

 

[QueBert]

I have a Motorola Q and I despise Activesync, hooking my phone up and getting it to sync is a crap shoot. I despise the selection of software for WM devices, and I despise that 90% of them cost money. I found an app that did nothing more than auto turn the camera flash on to use it like a flash light. Which I can do myself by pressing the camera button. The app costs 7 bucks wtf.

Palm's OS might be old and crusty but I'm sure I could find any piece of software I wanted for it, and find a free version.

 

[imported_Mike]

A buddy of mine has the 6800...he likes it but only uses it to make calls...so I doubt he could even comment on functionality.

I have the i760 and I am looking to get my 3rd. Known problem with MMS messages and a few other quirks. I love the layout and the functionality of it besides those few quirks. I've owned a lot of phones and not one has been perfect.

The i760 could be better.