Don't know what smart phone to buy!

[Ed_100x35]

Hello there everyone,

I have never had a smart phone because I didn't have the need, but now I am doing a lot of business and along with it the need to upgrade to a Business Oriented Smart Phone.

Please, in your opinion, what would be the best Smart Phone currently in the market or being released in the near future?

Thank you in advance for all your help!

Ed_100x35

[questionfear]

Well, Ed_100x35, there is no "right" answer for this question.

What do you need a smartphone for? Email? Calendar? Web? What carrier are you with or can you use any cell phone carrier? Have you ever used a PDA before?

With a few simple answers we can help point you in a direction, but the smartphone category is quite large and has many options.

[Dick Tracy]

Welcome to Brighthand Ed_100x35.

For starters, you might want to consider which carrier has the best coverage for where you spend the majority of your time. If coverage is not good, no phone will make you happy.

Which applications have the highest priority for your business? Email, Calendar, Contacts, composing and editing Office Documents, any specialty application area or need to sync with the office?

Some idea of your primary needs can better point you in a direction.

[Ed_100x35]

Excuse me for being so vage in my posting.

First of all, I have no contract right now and was seriously considering switching to AT&T Wireless because almost every contact that I have including family and friends have AT&T, which would help me save money, but also because the are very satisfied with the company.

Secondly, I need the phone for e-mail, web, contacts, calendar and composing and/or editing office docs along with sync with the office pc would be great. Yes, I have used a PDA before a long time ago.

I don't need a phone for entertainment, just purely business.

I just want a top of the line smart phone that is all in one, phone, pda, web browser, etc. Price is not a problem.

If you guys could give some of the best competitive options for AT&T Wireless I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you so much for replying!

Ed_100x35

[questionfear]

Editing office docs on a PDA screen can be a very frustrating experience. Most high-end phones can do it, but like everything else there are trade-offs.

For the most "computer in your pocket" experience, I'd go for the AT&T Tilt. It's windows mobile 6, and it has a very large screen with a slideout keyboard. The upside is that it will be easy to read and reply to emails, edit docs, etc because the screen is so big, as is the keyboard. The downside is that the whole device is bigger because of it; it's definitely one that you'll want to spend some time playing with in-store to decide if you like the form factor. It also lacks a hardkey dial pad, since you'd dial from contacts or using the keys on the screen.

There's also the blackjack 2 (and theres rumors of a blackjack 3), which is also windows mobile but the standard rather than pro edition. That means there is no touch screen, and you'd have to buy a 3rd party software option to edit word docs (I think-I can't remember if this is included with windows mobile 6 standard). The screen is smaller but you get a tablet style keyboard (QWERTY), which makes the whole package a lot smaller. Typing is also pretty easy on that style of keyboard once you get used to it.

If email is your #1 priority, I'd go for one of the blackberry models, as they do email very, very well. Downside is that the general feedback seems to be email at the expense of some bells and whistles and eye candy.

All of them can do basic web browsing, I'd say the Tilt probably offers you the best because of the larger screen and the option to run Opera Mobile, which is an excellent 3rd party web browser. All of them do have web browsers built in, and if you're just using them for basic check the web stuff you probably will be happy with any of them (but the blackberry's web browser is probably the least nice out of all of them.)

I think your best bet is to go into an AT&T Wireless store and fiddle with the demo units. See if the staff can get you working models to play with so you can get a better idea of the look and feel of the software. If you can hang tight until fall-ish I believe there are some updates to AT&T's smartphone lineup rumored, mostly refreshes of the existing styles. However, I don't think anything that's rumored to come is so amazing that you'd miss out by not getting it, just that they might be incrementally faster/more memory, etc.

Does this help narrow it down?

[Adama D. Brown]

I'd second what QF said about the Tilt--if you're looking for Office editing, it's a good place to start.

I personally love my Blackjack II, but I don't think I'd want to try a lot of document editing on it. The Blackjack III, if it's what's rumored, might be better for that, but we don't know when it's actually going to be available.

[Ed_100x35]

Thank you so much for your advice. This definitely narrows it down. I will visit a store and check out the Tilt, Black Jack and maybe the Black Berry.

I wish you guys the best! Take care...

Ed_100x35