I am needing a phone to do email and calendar based stuff..

I am being offered 600mins and unlimited texts for £19.50 on a 18 month contract for any handset – Vodafone. Sound any good?

Also, which is the best one to go for?

Cheers

Sounds pretty good, i pay £25 for that. Make sure you get unlimited internet.

I’ve got a Bold, had it about 6months and i’m impressed with it so far but if you read reviews the new Curve or the Niagra are the ones to go for. You can install a full Google suite, Maps etc, for free which will sync with Google calendar without any trouble. Blackberry app store is opening in a few months too, it’ll be like the Apple one but actually useful.

Avoid the Storm, it’s awful.

My mate had a storm, but not for long!

What is so bad about the storm?

I have a Curve (new one) and a Pearl. I like the Curve. Lots.

Ive had a Bold for about 2 months and 100% happy with it. Check the internet useage limit first for you’re provider. I’m with 02 and its unlimited.

Ah – bollocks. I would need to pay for t’internet stuff.

Back to the drawing board.

I have a Pearl on O2 & I like it

Not sure of the tariff as it’s a company phone but internet is included & unlimited & so are calls to other O2 phones

I had a Pearl and found it difficult t use, predictive mobile phone text on a QWERTY layout was a bit odd, also struggled with writing URLs or peoples names.

If you’re going to do alot of email go for the Curve, also bigger screen for web browsing, although its still not very good.

I’ve got a curve and think its rubbish. Everything that’s easy to do on a proper smartfone is harder to do on a blackberry.

My Orange SPV is better, but they don’t do them any more.

I’ve got a Storm and I like it. Also got a Bold which is the works phone and I like too. No problems here.

They seem to be the popular choice for corporate use, I heard (from an unreliable source) that they’re easier to integrate with enterprise email systems. If thats the only real benefit, as an individual user I’d look at a smartphone (I get my BB through work) and play about. The iphones are very cool. Unfortunately not many shops allow you to try them out properly, they tend to be dummy units don’t they?

I read the storm was flaky and is nowhere near as good as the iPhone its designed to compete with.

Ask about a deal on the Blackberry, play a bit of hardball and get a few £££ off the deal price.

Its not like you can’t get one from someone else!

curve? storm? pearl? bold? niagra? sounds like a list of charlie brooker style pisstake product names

My Orange SPV is better, but they don’t do them any more.

Orange still do SPVs. its just they no longer brand the phones as Orange SPV, but are sold as HTC. 🙂

I’ve had a Curve for a year and it’s not half bad, but I can’t help think that I’ll be going the iPhone 3 route next time. I’m doing more browsing and less typing these days. And as long as I can sync my google calendar with my $phone and iCal I’m sorted.

I like my Nokia E71. Normal Nokia phone with full proper keyboard for emails. Screen slightly smaller than a blackberry but much nicer IMO

Blackberry app store is opening in a few months too, it’ll be like the Apple one but actually useful.

Out of curiosity – what’s not useful about the iphone app store?

Thank you M’Lord that might be useful to know.

sending my storm back tomorrow, got it last monday, not for me, think il get the i phone, storm a bot awkward to text, wrong letters getting highlighted, spent more time correcting text than writing/sending.

Is Blackberry still the only way to get push email?

Orange still do SPVs. its just they no longer brand the phones as Orange SPV, but are sold as HTC. [:-)]

Call me pedantic:

Orange no longer badge HTC phones as their own.

I’ve got a Curve and a Pearl. I prefer the Pearl lots more than the Curve.

I have a pearl, I think it’s pretty good. URL’s are a bit fiddly though for some reason but the rest is fine. Yes, blackberrys work best with enterprise email systems. I’ve been involved with blackberrys at our place since they arrived and we set up the blackberry servers to talk to RIM via vodafone a long time ago and it works great most of the time. I’d say we have around 1000 blackberry users. For lots of people it’s the primary contact method for email. The pearl is our most popular device by far with the curve the next. The pearlis more like a phone so I guess that’s what attracts people to it.

However, security considerations aside, if I was recommending a handheld device that does just about everything you would want it to, I’d say try for an iphone. Absolutely streets ahead of a blackberry. The above about the apps store is laughable, it’s probably the most inovative method of getting apps onto your handheld device ever.

Stu – I think Orange smartphones support push email. I could’ve got it on my SPV, but I didn’t want to be drowned in Scruff & Snakeys drivel.