I'm looking to buy a PDA phone, help?

[Oxyminus]

so my AT&T contract is about to run up, and as per usual they're going to swing me a reasonably sweet deal on a new phone. I'm currently on a Razr, and am considering moving into the world of a PDA/Messageathingy phone. based on what I'm looking to spend, my 2 candidates are the Palm Centro, and the Blackberry Curve 8310. They seem to be pretty similar in most respects, both obviously do talking, text, email, photo, and all that. I'm curious if anyone has any experience with these 2 devices and could provide any insight. and any idea if they provide web browsing? or just the email and text?

edit: and of course any advice/recomendations on other similar PDA phones would be appreciated. the Centro is gonna cost me $100 after rebates, and the Curve $150, so thats as high as I'm willing to go I guess.

[zoobernut]

I just got the palm centro today. I know it does do web browsing. Not too sure on the rest of the features of the phone but I will update as I learn more about the phone. So far it has a really nice feel in your hands its small, better in my pocket than other PDA phones I checked out. It makes calls easy and its easy to navigate through the menus and your contact lists.

[guartz]

so my AT&T contract is about to run up, and as per usual they're going to swing me a reasonably sweet deal on a new phone. I'm currently on a Razr, and am considering moving into the world of a PDA/Messageathingy phone. based on what I'm looking to spend, my 2 candidates are the Palm Centro, and the Blackberry Curve 8310. They seem to be pretty similar in most respects, both obviously do talking, text, email, photo, and all that. I'm curious if anyone has any experience with these 2 devices and could provide any insight. and any idea if they provide web browsing? or just the email and text?

edit: and of course any advice/recomendations on other similar PDA phones would be appreciated. the Centro is gonna cost me $100 after rebates, and the Curve $150, so thats as high as I'm willing to go I guess.

Any pda rebate requires that you sign up for data-package. about +$30 on your bill.

Centro's internal AIM works via sms, which makes your messages lag. So you'd have to download something 3rd party if you want to aim real time.

Good thing about centro though, is that it's browser supports flash so u can goto youtube.

but if you want good browsing on the curve you can just get mini opera browser.

Curve also has gps and push emails. But it's not touch screen and although neither phones are 3g, the curve seems to have slower browser, and a tendancy to crash/load up forever if you have too much software installed.

Txting on the centro is way cooler, because it arranges them like an aim chat. Curve txting feels like emailing. Centro also comes with a picture editor, similar to windows paint.

Also, if you have a voice plan higher then 60$ and you are getting a pda data package, try to haggle for a discount, like 50$ off, or some free accessories. This works a lot better in a retail store then at a at&t corporate. If you have a secondary line (9.99) forget about haggling.

[Tyche]

I had four blackberry 8310's (Curve) in about a month. They are really shitty phones, and people complain about lack of memory and leaks. I completely wiped mine and removed almost all the useless software and installed a barebone OS. They also collect a ton of dust behind the screen, which, if that Razr you have is first gen, then you know how absolutely annoying that is. All four of my phones had problems dropping calls intermittently. The GPS on them is really sweet though, especially with google maps. It's practically a free navigation unit, although it doesn't have turn by turn. None-the-less, after four of the 8310's i picked up a blackberry 8820. Excellent excellent phone. Only problem some have with it is a lack of camera. Not really a problem with me, as I use it mostly for business. The 8800 series is pretty much the BB corporate phone. They have an 8830 that will work anywhere in the world if you travel a lot. Anywho, the BBs have a ton of really great applications. You can get programs that can track your phone via GPS, or if you lose it in your house in the couch or some shit, they have programs that will make you phone go absolutely nuts, blinking and ringing non stop til you find it, even if it's on silent. Then there's the 411 apps, then there's messengers for ICQ, AIM, and MSN that use the data plan for instant message push (jive talk), as well as instant e-mail push. Oh, and I definately second the Opera Mini post. Great program. Oh, and the 8820 has Wifi, which is awesome. You may want to look into a windows mobile phone if you live in an area with 3G. You can tether the phones with an unlimited data plan to a laptop. I'd just pick the phone with the OS you feel most comfortable with.

[BIGSTIC]

Go check out http://www.howardforums.com/

They are the end all of any cell/pda phone discussion.

[zoobernut]

so my AT&T contract is about to run up, and as per usual they're going to swing me a reasonably sweet deal on a new phone. I'm currently on a Razr, and am considering moving into the world of a PDA/Messageathingy phone. based on what I'm looking to spend, my 2 candidates are the Palm Centro, and the Blackberry Curve 8310. They seem to be pretty similar in most respects, both obviously do talking, text, email, photo, and all that. I'm curious if anyone has any experience with these 2 devices and could provide any insight. and any idea if they provide web browsing? or just the email and text?

edit: and of course any advice/recomendations on other similar PDA phones would be appreciated. the Centro is gonna cost me $100 after rebates, and the Curve $150, so thats as high as I'm willing to go I guess.

Any pda rebate requires that you sign up for data-package. about +$30 on your bill.

Centro's internal AIM works via sms, which makes your messages lag. So you'd have to download something 3rd party if you want to aim real time.

Good thing about centro though, is that it's browser supports flash so u can goto youtube.

but if you want good browsing on the curve you can just get mini opera browser.

Curve also has gps and push emails. But it's not touch screen and although neither phones are 3g, the curve seems to have slower browser, and a tendancy to crash/load up forever if you have too much software installed.

Txting on the centro is way cooler, because it arranges them like an aim chat. Curve txting feels like emailing. Centro also comes with a picture editor, similar to windows paint.

Also, if you have a voice plan higher then 60$ and you are getting a pda data package, try to haggle for a discount, like 50$ off, or some free accessories. This works a lot better in a retail store then at a at&t corporate. If you have a secondary line (9.99) forget about haggling.

The thing about this is that with AT&T you can get the rebate by signing up for their $20 a month unlimited texting and messaging package too and you can cancel as soon as you get the rebate if it takes a max of three months to get the rebate back you are still saving a net of $40 not to mention that in the OP he said he wanted a data plan to surf the internet and get email anyway so this should be a non-issue.

[Myst]

The PDA market today is as following: Only two phones worth looking at are the Palm Centro, and the Blackberry Curve 8310.

Treo:
Pros:
-Great Battery Life
-Does all the basics, texting, phone stuff, internet access
-Serves as Internet modem via Access Manager Software, i.e. provide internet access anywhere you have a phone signal.
Cons:
-All of the software i've used by palm has sucked dick, including Treo.
-They break. alot.
-Freeze for 10 seconds randomly. (known memory issues.)

Blackberry:
Pros:
-Better phone than the treo as a whole.
-No memory issues as seen in the treo.
-durable from what i've seen.
Cons:
-Horrible battery life.

I dont have too much experience with the blackberry, but i consider my Treo knowledge useful. I manage about 25 Treo's where i work. It's the preferred phone here simply because of battery life and it's consistent with our national Verizon account.

[Tyche]

The curve has severe memory problems if you don't strip all the bullshit software off of them. The 8820 blackberry is a much much better phone than the curve if you can handle not having a camera.

[zoobernut]

Does anyone else have a palm that has recommendations on good places to find software? Mostly I really want to keep my outlook calender on my computer synched up with my centro and I want to load up some games or other non-internet using apps that are interesting or useful.

[guartz]

had my treo 650 for about 2-3 years now.
Works perfect.

Hesitant to give it up because I have custom stuff on it.


mytreo.net

[Oxyminus]

I think I'm leaning to the Centro. seems to be more around what I'd plan on doing with the phone. and its physical profile is more phone'esque, which is important to me since I will be carrying it either on my belt or in my pocket. At this point the only sticking point is figuring out if I can haggle something with my plan. I know a few months ago I changed my plan to allow more text messages (goddam girlfriend). so I want to see if knocking that off will put my current plan low enough that I can sustain a data plan. I'm also curious, since the Centro is from Palm, who started the whole PDA thing, how is it on basic organization for dates/schedules/etc?

[Takeno]

lol @ contracts. Get that shit on ebay for the same price without a contract.

[guartz]

lol @ contracts. Get that shit on ebay for the same price without a contract.

$289 on ebay

[Oxyminus]

lol @ contracts. Get that shit on ebay for the same price without a contract.

$289 on ebay

which is much better than the $100 I'll pay at ATT, and besides, what am I gonna do with the thingy without a contract? lol

[TheKobainGuitr]

I don't wanna make a new topic and seems like a good thread to post this in.

One or more of the message components have been deleted by MMS Adaptation. Either the message was too large or the components were unsuitable for your terminal.

So i've been getting these txt messages on my phone from a friend who likes to forward funny Gifs and videos thru txting. It seems very odd to me because some of the file sizes that Ive received in the past are actually larger than the ones she has been trying to send me, but they get deleted regardless. I have the BlackBerry Curve 8310 (which I love compared to the 8525). Can anyone tell me exactly what that message means or maybe a solution to this.

[Tyche]

I don't wanna make a new topic and seems like a good thread to post this in.

One or more of the message components have been deleted by MMS Adaptation. Either the message was too large or the components were unsuitable for your terminal.

So i've been getting these txt messages on my phone from a friend who likes to forward funny Gifs and videos thru txting. It seems very odd to me because some of the file sizes that Ive received in the past are actually larger than the ones she has been trying to send me, but they get deleted regardless. I have the BlackBerry Curve 8310 (which I love compared to the 8525). Can anyone tell me exactly what that message means or maybe a solution to this.

One of 2 issues.

One of the known memory issues with the Curve''s causing it *Doubtful*
The video is not encoded properly to be viewed by a blackberry *almost 100% sure that this is your problem*

Edit:
http://forums.crackberry.com/f52/receiv ... deo-28802/

Did I mention I hate the Curve? Try to update your BB OS to the latest version.

Oh, and here's some info on the memory issues and leaks
http://forums.crackberry.com/f52/blackb ... zero-2439/

[guartz]

Tyche, I'm really impressed with your cellular knowledge.

*squints eyes*

When was the razr first released, and how much was it?

[Tyche]

Eh, I don't know a whole lot about cell phones, but I have a ton of blackberry experience. Before I jumped into the blackberry phenoma, I had a 1st gen razr. My daughter tried to eat it and it quit working heh. I guess I got it a few years ago.

Oh, I think I paid $50 for my razr. 2yr contract and I didn't get it as soon as they came out, so it was pretty cheap.

[kearnsy]

Somewhat of a bump. Anyone know a good site for good free games to DL for windows mobile 6.0 pro? Touch screen and all that stuff.

Also a somewhere possibly to get a SNES emulator?

PM/post replies please, very much appreciated.