My PDA seems to be dying. It's probably just the battery, but it's done a few flaky things over the past 6 months and has become VERY unreliable the last day or two. Batteries aren't all that expensive, but the PDA has been beat up a bit over the last 3-4 years, and I've been getting tired of carrying a separate PDA and phone everywhere anyway.

I don't really care about internet use on a phone (at least, not at the moment). What's critically important is syncing my calendar, contacts and maybe even my task list with Outlook (currently Office 2003, though I'm open to updating to the new Office if needed). I'd also like to be able to sync Word docs if possible.

Multimedia is less important to me. I've always used a phone as a phone, then again maybe it's time to get with the times.

My initial feelings are that Blackberry is better for business and the Droid is better for multimedia.... but maybe I'm believing marketing hype. Neither site seems to be very helpful... they're both all about "coolness" and anyone who knows me knows that I don't even try to fake that.

Anyone have experience to share?

I have an Android phone + iPod touch, my girlfriend has a Blackberry Bold 9700 and, at the office, we devellop software for all three. If all you care about is business-type stuff, then Blackberry by a landslide. My girlfriend frequently goes 5-7 days without charging and she uses it a lot (not "heavily", but a lot). It is well-thought and the keyboard is excellent. The applications are a bit on the ugly-side (compared to Android, or even the iPhone), but they are very functional.

The Bold 9700 has a pretty high resolution making everything onscreen easy to read and not causing eye fatigue (it provides the same DPI as the better Android phones and the new iPhone 4), but on a smaller screen.

Additionnal: By comparison (based on my phones and what we see at the office, the 5-7 days would translate into 1-2 days for android phones like mine (Xperia 10) and 1.5-3 days with newer iPhones.

We use blackberry at our work, but only because that is the only option for web based phones.

I'm sure if people could choose droid or iphone many of them would switch... However, there aren't too many complaints about the blackberry- it seems to be a winner for business only (emails, phone, etc.)


Also, with all of the streaming music and how often i use my iphone 4 it gets charged bout every day and a half.

Great info! Maybe I should have asked if the Palm is still in the running for anything(?)

The new Palms are junk.

Blackberries are targeted at business users.

Androids are a pain to sync with Outlook/Exchange because of the MS vs. Google war.

I don't like Apple stuff, but that's a personal bias.

We use both Blackberries and iPhones at my work. While I prefer to carry an iPhone, I'd say the BB is better for typing out emails on, and offers slightly better integration with Exchange, although not a lot at this point.

Our Tech department chose Droid rather than Blackberry or iPhone. The Manager is no longer with us.

I have a Droid and used to have a Palm Centro. Man, that Centro was just tremendous - I loved it because it reliably synced with Outlook at the desktop level and didn't require a data plan. Good old days.

Anyway, the Droid is a pretty good little machine, but you would certainly have to change your business model - instead of using Outlook, you would have to use Google Calendar, etc. It's not that it is impossible to make Outlook work, but using Gmail and other Google apps is really slick and easy. Embrace cloud computing. The other thing that becomes seamless with Google Docs is use of Word, PDF, etc. on multiple platforms.

Any of those kinds of phones are probably going to require an unlimited data plan.

Mrs. Tuttle adores her iPad, and it also synced beautifully with the Googles. My kids adore their iPods. My colleagues regularly swoon over their iPhones.

It sounds like you're probably best off with a Blackberry, but I have no experience with them.

So, I take it that the Pocket PC (Windows Mobile) platform is dead to you all, then?

Don't know much about these techie devises so take this with a grain of sodium chloride, I've always understood that Blackberry's were the choice of most businesses and other phones were preferred by home users. I think it may have something to do with the security of emailing(preferred on BBry).

Hey Mark, I am actually just going through some of these electronic pains as the company I work for was bought by a larger company and I am in the midst of the IT switchover.

I use bberry and we (as of Monday) have a bberry enterprise server which keeps everything synced for me now. However prior to the BES being in place I used some Google sync widgets that actually worked really well. My calendar was always up to date within 5 minutes or so of entering events no matter where I actually did the entry. I think you can have really almost the same experience with synchronization no matter which device you choose (of course there are going to be some differences), so to me it comes down to form factor and features that you like.

In the end I chose bberry (Bold 9700) because of the keyboard, ease of use with email and battery life. Web, games and mmedia work but are not as slick as on the i products and droids.

For the record I have a mac and iPods at home, but for work organization I use the bberry with Outlook.

They company I work for is an AT&T Wireless reseller, I just checked on the number of Windows Mobile phones we have in stock: none. But there is one Sony Ericsson with Symbian OS (owned by Nokia).

Just starting out the Droid was the best choice for me since I didn’t need support for legacy software from Microthingy and the Droid is IMO a more well rounded product that is only going to improve with time.

However, given your needs it’s very likely a Blackberry will better fit them especially if you are wed to your present PC software. Also AFAIK the Blackberry is able to be made more secure, at least for now, which is the reason the Air Force uses them exclusively.

My company is cell phone un-friendly. About a year ago, a memo went around saying if upper management even sees a cell phone on your belt that you will be dismissed, without pay, for the day. So far, I've been pressing my luck.

Similar issues here in that cell phones are not allowed on the flightline. I just turn off the ringer and keep it in my pocket. Also have some rooms I really can’t take it in but there are places available to store them in those cases.

+1 for BB. I have a Bold 9700 and my wife has a Curve (8530?) Love the Bold. Hate the Curve. Half the battery life of mine. Keyboard isn't as nice to use. And it has lower screen resolution.

I love my Droid. Hated my BlackBerry. I know others here at work syncing their Droid to Exchange email with no problems. If you get a BB, get a nice one. I had the basic 8310 which was slow, had no apps really for when I wasn't "working"... As soon as I was given the option to drop the BB I did and got a smart phone that works for business as well as fun.

Thanks to everyone for their input! You guys are awesome!

Thanks for making me feel useful!

And what do you think of the rest of us that didn't help? Eh, Eh? I'm left wondering....... .

Only slightly to the left of awesome.

Okay, good to know, because I think you should get another PDA .

Useful advice for the useful advice guy. Cam for the win!!

Hey, I just wanted to follow up with an....errr....followup: I DID get a Blackberry a week and a half ago based on many of your suggestions. I haven't done crap with it yet because I was keeping it clean / fingerprint free so I could photograph it.

I'm hoping to sit down with the manual today while watching some football.

Thanks to all for the suggestions!

Which bberry did you end up getting Mark?

It's a Bold 9650....basically, it seems to be the Verizon version of the 9700 and the reviews on Verizon's site were really, really good. I haven't done anything with it yet, except make one call and send one text, but I'm looking forward to feeling "done" with the photo so I can handle the phone and learn it!

My photo so far, though I'm still testing other "concepts" and still have lots of Photoshop work to do on it:

(Original)


(So far...)

You should return that unit, Mark. They gave you an upside-down one.

I used to work for Sears portrait studio when I first got out of high school. One day, during the "selling" portion of the job, I took all the photos out of the envelope and displayed them upside down on the desk in front of the customers, with a "Oh, no.... this order, too. The lab has had problems with printing some orders inverted lately, and it looks like yours is one of them."

About a quarter of the people asked about getting them reprinted or something. Funny, but kind of sad, too!

The rest got a good laugh...

And yes, I shot the phone that way....

I think you're supposed to take the plastic sheet off the display