The Quest for the Phone
As I become more active in the community, I'm realizing that it's time to get a new phone. Right now, I have a Samsung Sync, which has worked mostly well for as long as I've had it. But I'm making more contacts in the community and finding myself wishing I had more access to <insert synchronizable feature here> while I'm mobile.
So now I'm on the quest for the right phone. Just what am I looking for in a phone? First off, it needs international capabilities. When I went to London a few years back, I was able to take my phone with me and not have to change anything out for it to work. Over the next couple years, I am planning on at least two more international trips to meet family. Basically, the phone needs to be available to AT&T/Cingular and quad-band GSM.
Other things I'm looking for in a phone include: bluetooth (so that I can dial out from my laptop when needed), ability to read my email, synchronize contacts, excellent battery life, and if it happens to support other applications then even better. Physical size is an issue as well - I don't like really wide phones or really long phones. I also can't handle small phones. Its proportions just have to have the right fit for me.
During my Florida trip in February, I checked out the Blackberry Curve. My husband has had Blackberries for work, and having dealt with them in the past (handling all the company phones in my previous position), I've watched them evolve over time. I really was impressed with the Curve and its features. Its size was just right, and the keyboard presented none of the auto-complete headaches that some of the past Blackberries had.
Since I hope to have the phone for a substantial amount of time, I haven't jumped into getting the Blackberry Curve. I have some specs available at my fingertips, especially now that we've expanded the device resource center at work. Specs are okay, but I'm more interested in people's experiences with their phones and what they recommend. So, I'm tossing this out to my technologically-inclined readers - what do you have? What do you like and not like about your phone? Any recommendations?
I hope to make this upgrade soon; it's been something that's crossed my mind a lot more lately and after catching some things from what the guys were saying last night at the Lizard after the BA .NET SIG, there are definitely plenty of options to consider.
Leave me a comment, drop me an IM, show me your phone over ooVoo, send me a message on Twitter, or email me at sarah [at] codinggeekette [dot] com.
So now I'm on the quest for the right phone. Just what am I looking for in a phone? First off, it needs international capabilities. When I went to London a few years back, I was able to take my phone with me and not have to change anything out for it to work. Over the next couple years, I am planning on at least two more international trips to meet family. Basically, the phone needs to be available to AT&T/Cingular and quad-band GSM.
Other things I'm looking for in a phone include: bluetooth (so that I can dial out from my laptop when needed), ability to read my email, synchronize contacts, excellent battery life, and if it happens to support other applications then even better. Physical size is an issue as well - I don't like really wide phones or really long phones. I also can't handle small phones. Its proportions just have to have the right fit for me.
During my Florida trip in February, I checked out the Blackberry Curve. My husband has had Blackberries for work, and having dealt with them in the past (handling all the company phones in my previous position), I've watched them evolve over time. I really was impressed with the Curve and its features. Its size was just right, and the keyboard presented none of the auto-complete headaches that some of the past Blackberries had.
Since I hope to have the phone for a substantial amount of time, I haven't jumped into getting the Blackberry Curve. I have some specs available at my fingertips, especially now that we've expanded the device resource center at work. Specs are okay, but I'm more interested in people's experiences with their phones and what they recommend. So, I'm tossing this out to my technologically-inclined readers - what do you have? What do you like and not like about your phone? Any recommendations?
I hope to make this upgrade soon; it's been something that's crossed my mind a lot more lately and after catching some things from what the guys were saying last night at the Lizard after the BA .NET SIG, there are definitely plenty of options to consider.
Leave me a comment, drop me an IM, show me your phone over ooVoo, send me a message on Twitter, or email me at sarah [at] codinggeekette [dot] com.
posted by Sarah at
10:34 AM
2 Comments:
Is laptop dialout simply to browse the web/read e-mail? If so, why not consider an iPhone and do the actual browsing/e-mailing on the phone itself? Everything else works fairly well (even more so if you're on a mac, which you should be! :-).
There is something to be said, btw, for "pervasive connectivity" which the iPhone provides. You're almost never "not online" and that can really change the way you approach things.
I have an iPhone and love it. I had a window mobile smart phone before and I rarely used it to browse the net because it's pain to start the application.
If you are an email maniac, then you can't type as fast as you would on the Blackberry. In my view, that's the only pro Blackberry has over the iPhone. Oh and if you want to work on excel spreadsheets and word documents, then iPhone is out of the picture. It can view but cannot edit them. But given that you are a programmer, I doubt you need those 2 features as much as a business person would.
iPhone is a GSM phone, and you don't have to do anything when you travel abroad. I brought it with me to London, HK and China, and they all worked great.
I'd wait for the 3G model though if the browsing speed is of concern for you. But I'm not particularly bothered by that. Most of the time I have access to a hotspot, and even without the wireless the speed is bearable.
Right now it doesn't work as well with Outlook, but that's going to change in a few months.
So like I said, I'd just wait for a few months for 3G and more 3rd party apps support.
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