Comments on: Open Thread: What Mobile Phone Do You Use?

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 18:14:34 +0000

I’m a little late to the game on this one, but I just got one of the red Blackberry Pearls and I’m a big fan. Camera, media player, Gmail, Opera mini, good voice quality, international coverage for when I’m on the road and the best email client available on a mobile device. As a former perl programmer, I even like the name. Oh, and the sleek red form factor is pretty sexy too.

By: Christopher Johnston

Christopher Johnston — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 20:13:32 +0000

I use the Treo 700p and I’ve been somewhat happy with it. The Palm OS leaves something to be desired when it comes to system stability but I need to run certain software that will only run on Palm. I currently use my Treo to:

*Read RSS feeds with Google Reader mobile
*Listen to downloaded podcast using pTunes
*Find places and get directions to my appointments with Google Maps
*Occasionally check my email with a cool Java Gmail app
*SMS for Twitter!
*My work proprietary app that pays the bills (for the time being!!!)
*Camera for taking pics for my blog and to upload to Twitter
*Oh yeah, I also manage my calender, notes, and address book.
*Sometimes I make a phone call or two.

I sync my Palm with Outlook only because I had a Blackberry previously and it was the least painful way to transition from one device to the other. I only open Outlook on my computer if there is an issue that was created during the sync. My ideal solution would be a device that would sync strictly with Google Calender and Gmail for my contacts. I will be interested in the new that is rumored to be in the works.

By: TIM

TIM — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 17:46:20 +0000

What Thejesh said above – only I’ve got a SE w810.
By far and away the best phone i’ve ever had – and in spite of the lack of 3G i use Opera Mini (and Gmail and Google Maps) a LOT.
The phone’s user interface is spot on.

By: Thejesh GN

Thejesh GN — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 06:09:06 +0000

I carry my k750i
– I have Opera Mini installed on it. I use it to browse and check my webmail
– Very good camera
– Very good phone functionality
– Upgraded it to 2GB card. Now has lots of music on it.
– It has a recorder ( from call too)
– It has a radio

By: Mrinal

Mrinal — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 00:16:03 +0000

Have a Treo 650 now – loved it so far with RSS feeds, Email, Wikipedia, etc etc on it.
Its not catching up though and form factor is too clunky now (relatively) – moving out to either BlackJack or BB8800. Why – Form factor, 3G and muti-media.

By: Cell_Fella

Cell_Fella — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 04:02:09 +0000

I use a Nokia 6630. It’s a bit ancient and has pretty much destroyed the pair of jeans I wear for work every day, but it does the trick, I can pick up email and take good quality photos.

By: JT

JT — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 23:00:48 +0000

I use a Treo 750 on Cingular. It’s nice having 3G.

By: Jochen Lillich

Jochen Lillich — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 11:19:51 +0000

I’ve been using a Nokia E61 since last year and I love it. It’s got a decent battery life between charges, even if I’m using it for visiting web sites or chatting with IM+ over WiFi or UMTS. I also like how it syncs automatically with our corporate Exchange server over the WiFi network, keeping me always current on appointments.

By: Raj

Raj — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 07:26:39 +0000

Samsung Blackjack, I like the design and sound quality is really nice.

By: kelly

kelly — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 05:25:36 +0000

Put up my Treo 650 for sale today. I’ve had it with Palm. Instead, I have a Nokia N80 Internet Edition on order, and am using my SE k700i in the interim. Switching back to my SE has made me realize what a huge brick the Treo really is.

When I sat down and looked at my usage and what I rally wanted out of a mobile, it was phone/email/internet. And stability. The Treo likes to crash. A lot.

I want IMAP email, Google maps, internet access with a good browser, and decent battery life. I’m ok with charging everyday, since I’m not an average user. We’ll see how the Nokia holds up I guess.

By: Nakul Malik

Nakul Malik — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 04:24:06 +0000

I have a Motorola A780 as my primary phone. I’ve had it for over a year and i love it. It handles all my POP accounts perfectly and i can use it to connect my laptop to the internet should my data card happen to be out of the service area. In a pinch i can use it to telnet to client routers. The interface is great and the best part is that i can charge it using the USB cable which means i am almost never out of Juice. I went on an impulse vacation 2 weeks ago and charged it off my laptop’s USB port the entire trip. The camera quality is amazing. look at my vacation photos @ http://photos.nakulmalik.com for an example. Click on Ranikhet Trip. The best part is that i dont have to carry a thumbdrive anymore since i can just plug it into any system and it appears as a removable disk without the need for driver installation. Im thinking of buying another copy before they stop producing it. This time i’ll buy the one with the integrated GPS.

For my secondary phone i have a Motorola C115. smashed against a wall 7 times dropped into a bucket of water twice and constantly abusedfor over a year, it still only needs a charge once every two days.
-N

By: Leisa

Leisa — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 03:45:51 +0000

Nokia N73. Avoid it at all costs. It’s awful, in so many ways.

By: Jon

Jon — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 23:19:57 +0000

SE K800i at the mo for my personal phone – 3.2 mp camera which is pretty good – some recent shots here http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonnymoss
Have a Nokia 6230 for work but looks like we may be getting Blackberrys. I will get an iPhone when it arrives in the Uk :-)

By: Coops

Coops — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 23:14:50 +0000

Nokia 6110. It makes calls, sends SMS messages, has a phone book and cost $70

(It even has a loudspeaker!) I’ve had no problems, and I carry around a $1.75 organizer to make up for the lack of a calendar. No, it doesn’t have WAP, or even a color screen, but I have a computer at work and at home, so the few times I’m not at either of those places, I call it “balance” — not taking your work with you everywhere. :)

By: buster

buster — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 23:12:04 +0000

blackberry pearl- i would def buy this again today. i love having my work email on the blackberry platform and personal via gmail. gtalk is incredibly awesome too. i only wish more of my friends were on gtalk.

i would be interested in whatever this google phone may be, especially if wiFi is in the mix, and i lived in a place with muniFi…like san fran, someday…

By: Dub Dublin

Dub Dublin — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 22:41:38 +0000

Treo 650. I’m a big Palm smartphone advocate, and the Treo replaced my much-missed Kyocera 6035 smart phone. (Sure it was bigger, but I routinely took week-long trips without a charger!, and to be honest, it’s phone integration was better than the Treo’s.)

Like a lot of people, I have a love-hate relationship with Palm (much like Windows): PalmOS is showing its age and is seldom updated, integrates semi-horribly with the rest of the world, and Palm’s “support” is non-existent. Despite all that, it’s still the best option out there – and (IMO) far better than the Microsoft and Symbian alternatives. (I’ve been a Palm user since the 1000, but I’ve seriously looked at alternatives several times.)

One reason I still have a smart phone is that it’s really nice not only to carry only one box, but for that one box to be able to do what *I* want it to, not just what the manufacturer built it to do. From a real RPN calculator, to the wonderful Google Maps as a native Palm application (why would I want a GPS?), to whole Bible, to John Walker’s EatWatch program for maintaining weight, to the PocketTunes MP3 player (because the RealPlayer that ships with the 650 is beyond lame – newer Treos come with PocketTunes) and many more, I’ve become quite used to having these capabilities with me – and I’ve discovered that even a mediocre camera beats no camera at all.

Interestingly, I find synchronization is less of an issue these days – I’ve pretty much abandoned the ToDo list for my own handwritten system, but still use the calendar, contacts, and memos quite a bit. I only sync with the badly neglected Palm Desktop, because I hate Outlook, and refuse to use it. I never sync with a computer I don’t own, either, so sync to work systems is not an issue. This preserves a clean delineation between my data and everyone else’s. The only calendar that really matters is the one in my pocket.

I don’t use the built-in e-mail app or text messaging, but in a pinch, I use the execrable built-in Blazer web browser to read web-mail.

The real value of a smartphone, to me, anyway, is as a application platform – this is the way that a PDA-type device becomes truly personal. I think the ultimate success of the iPhone or any other smartphone-type device will really depend on how well it works as an app platform – running “OS X” doesn’t help if you can’t easily add the things you want. (And note, by the way, that I’ve paid for only about half of what’s on my Treo – much of what I use is free.)