Phone Recommendations
NOTE: Do Not Purchase a Blackberry. It does not work with our email system.
The New iPhone
Let's start with the new iPhone. The question in the air is, should I get it?
The answer is simple for this new iPhone: Yes. You might
be wondering why? Well, the reasons are numerous but the main reason
why we recommend it is simplicity. In only 5 minutes you will be connected
to our email server with full synchronization of email, calendar, and
contacts. This means that any changes you make to your calendar, email,
or contacts on your computer will be reflected on your phone and vice-versa.
The synchronization is not only perfect, but it is instanteous. The
over the air synchronization means that you never have to connect your
phone to your computer unless you want to transfer music. The iPhone
is no just a toy for young folks, it is a good fit for anybody, any
age. It's simple to adapt to it and we're sure here at the IT Department
that you will be satisfied after using it for a week. An important
part of a phone is the battery life, and unlike any other phone we have
been able to use the iPhone consistently for a full 8 hours without a charge.
The iPhone gives the ability to install third party applications written
by an average joe, which we recommend to stay away from as Apple has had
a lot of trouble with these. In fact, in some cases they slow down your
phone's performance and consume too much battery life. Without these third
party apps it is rock solid.
The keyboard is indeed a bit difficult to get used to as it's a touchscreen,
but after a two week period of struggling through the small keys you will
quickly find yourself adapting. In fact, most people don't respond to their
emails via the phone, they use it to read an email, check a calendar appointment,
or call a contact that previously in the day they entered into Outlook.
This is all possible on the iPhone and with ease. It's important to
note that if you are already an AT&T customer you are looking at $400 dollars
instead of the $199 pricing you see advertised.
We give this phone our five star IT Department rating because it has made it possible to stay synchronized anywhere, and thus far we have only had happy customers. Some of these happy customers include: Andrei Marmor, Beth Garrett, Kareem Krayton, Ray Flores, Nasi Peretz (myself), Alex Marasovich, and Lisa Mead. Give it a try, and we're sure you'll have a smile on your face shortly after the purchase.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Price | $199 for the 8 Gig Version, and $299 for the 16 Gig Version |
| Voice and Data Cost | $99/per month for both voice and data plan |
| Synchronization | Full Synchronization of Email, Contacts, and Calendar |
| Bluetooth | Yes, and compatible with all major bluetooh earphones |
| Wireless | Yes, and connects to USC Wireless |
| Keyboard Type | Touchscreen Only |
The Mogul
The next phone to review is the new Mogul. This is a Widnows Mobile 6 phone and the good news is that it has a slide out keyboard which is easy to operate. It's easy to respond to emails using this keyboard and in fact you can even write a small essay on this mini version of your regular computer keyboard. The bad news, well... how can I say this without hurting anybody's feelings? It's a Microsoft phone, so you get all the same problems you expect from Microsoft. You get the usual freezing, restarting, and akward behavior you have come to expect.
The other side of the coin is that it allows for all types of synchronization and bi-directional. Unlike the iPhone, it also allows you to synchronize "Tasks", and for some of you that use Tasks in Outlook this can be useful. It fully synchronizes your email, calendar, contacts, and tasks but about every 6 months it will give you some grief about a corrupt item. That's where we come in, we'll fix it and give the phone back to you.
We give this phone our three star IT Department rating because it has a good keyboard and good synchronization, with only an occasional hiccup. It's very easy to configure, in fact Professor McCaffery configured it on his own with just a few steps that we sent him and in under 10 minutes. He is tech savvy, but that means that you don't need us to get this phone working right out of the box!
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Price | $299 |
| Voice and Data Cost | $99/per month approximately for both voice and data plan |
| Synchronization | Full Synchronization of Email, Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks |
| Bluetooth | Yes, and compatible with all major bluetooh earphones |
| Wireless | Yes, and connects to USC Wireless |
| Keyboard Type | Slide Out Keyboard and Touchscreen |
Verizon XV6700
Who said Verizon has boring phones? Since the Fall of 2005 they've added
an impressive array of feature and PDA phones to their lineup, along with
some serious expansion of their high speed 3G EVDO data network.
The XV6700 is a compact Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC phone with a standard
QVGA display, 416 MHz processor, 64 megs of RAM, 128 megs of flash ROM, EVDO,
WiFi, Bluetooth and a 1.3 megapixel camera. Quite a few features for the
relatively modest $399 new contract price! Aside from the fact that this
phone is expensive, we have to consider that it has a LOT of features, dare
I say that almost too many features. So, if you are looking for a relatively
easy phone to use, this is not it.
We give this phone our three star IT Department rating because it has the keyboard, the full synchronization, but at times can be overwhelming with the amount of features that it offers.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Price | $399 |
| Voice and Data Cost | $99/per month approximately for both voice and data plan |
| Synchronization | Full Synchronization of Email, Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks |
| Bluetooth | Yes, and compatible with all major bluetooh earphones |
| Wireless | Yes, and connects to USC Wireless |
| Keyboard Type | Slide Out Keyboard and Touchscreen |
T-Mobile Wing
The T-Mobile Wing smart phone runs Windows Mobile 6 Professional Edition and has integrated Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. It sports a revamped design with a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard, and it offers a 2-megapixel camera and good call quality. The Wing is on the heavier side and is sometimes sluggish when numerous apps are in use. Without the backing of a 3G network, Web browsing and data speeds are on the slower side when compared with the competition.
With the addition of Windows Mobile 6, the T-Mobile Wing adds a powerful smart phone to the carrier's lineup; however, performance falls a bit short of the competition.
We give this phone our three star IT Department rating because it has the keyboard, the full synchronization, but freezes very often because it lacks the necessary RAM and processing power.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Price | $299 |
| Voice and Data Cost | $99/per month approximately for both voice and data plan |
| Synchronization | Full Synchronization of Email, Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks |
| Bluetooth | Yes, and compatible with all major bluetooh earphones |
| Wireless | Yes, and connects to USC Wireless |
| Keyboard Type | Slide Out Keyboard and Touchscreen |
LG Dare
One of the most notable fallouts of the Apple iPhone launch last year is the ever-growing trend of touch-screen phones. LG was one of the first manufacturers out of the gate with phones such as the LG Voyager and the LG Vu dazzling us with features that we couldn't get on the iPhone, like live mobile TV and 3G connectivity. Samsung then came blazing out with the Instinct, a phone that directly targets the iPhone with visual voice mail, integrated GPS, and corporate e-mail support. Yet, many of these phones still walked on familiar ground with its design and features.
The LG Dare has an intuitive touch-screen interface, an advanced 3.2-megapixel camera, a full HTML browser, EV-DO Rev. A, and plenty of other powerful features. It also has excellent call quality. The LG Dare's touch interface has a slight learning curve, and we weren't too pleased with the handwriting interface. Also, the Web browsing experience was quite disappointing. The LG Dare is an innovative and feature-rich handset with several surprises that sets it apart from other touch-screen phones.
We give this phone our two star IT Department rating because it has an operating system that is out of the ordinary, that's the "bad" out of the ordinary. The fact that a major manufacturer is not backing this operating system, means that updates are not going to be rolled out often, and it also means that bugs are going to creep up and no one will solve these immediately.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Price | $199 |
| Voice and Data Cost | $99/per month approximately for both voice and data plan |
| Synchronization | Full Synchronization of Email, Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks |
| Bluetooth | Yes, and compatible with all major bluetooh earphones |
| Wireless | Yes, and connects to USC Wireless |
| Keyboard Type | Touchscreen Only |
Q9C
The Motorola Q9c offers a Windows Mobile 6 upgrade as well as GPS, Bluetooth, and EV-DO support. The smartphone also has a 1.3-megapixel camera; decent call quality; and solid messaging capabilities. The extended battery adds an awkward and bulky bump to the back of the smartphone, and the keyboard is a bit stiff. The speakerphone produced some feedback, and performance can sometimes be sluggish. Some design quirks aside, the Motorola Q9c for Sprint is a worthy upgrade to the original Q, adding GPS and more stable performance, among other things.
All the carriers (well, except for T-Mobile) are going for their second helping of the Motorola Q. AT&T has its Motorola Q9h; Verizon Wireless has the Motorola Q9m; and now Sprint has its Motorola Q9c. Overall, the smartphone brings some great additions, including Windows Mobile 6 and built-in GPS. It also continues to be a strong messaging device and offers mobile professionals the tools to get work done on the road. It's not perfect, of course, and there are things that bother us. For example, the keyboard feels a bit stiff and speakerphone quality could be better. And you get a bit of that sluggishness that seems to plague Windows Mobile devices, but nothing debilitating or there were no crashes during our review period. That said, we think the pros outweigh the cons, and the Motorola Q9c is a worthy upgrade to the Q, especially at its affordable price of $149.99 (with a two-year contract and after discounts).
We give this phone our four star IT Department rating because it has the latest Windows Mobile 6, it is slim, syncs perfect, and is being adopted by every major provider. It's not as slick as the iPhone, but it's a viable option.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Price | $199 |
| Voice and Data Cost | $99/per month approximately for both voice and data plan |
| Synchronization | Full Synchronization of Email, Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks |
| Bluetooth | Yes, and compatible with all major bluetooh earphones |
| Wireless | Yes, and connects to USC Wireless |
| Keyboard Type | Small Keyboard On Device and Touchscreen |
Treo Palm Pro
Expected end of the year 2008. Competing head on with the new BlackBerry Bold 9000, the Palm Treo Pro is an advanced Windows smartphone from one of the oldest names in the handheld computing business. This Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional handset comes with a QWERTY keyboard, HSDPA high-speed data, WiFi, GPS and a 320 x 320 pixel touchscreen display, all wrapped up in an attractive and very business-smart package.
As with a lot of Windows Mobile devices, the camera is a bit limited being only a 2 megapixel unit with no flash, although it does at least support video capture. The Palm Treo Pro also supports GPS and A-GPS, so you can use it with your favourite personal navigation application. Although the Palm Treo Pro's display is a slightly more limited resolution than the BlackBerry Bold 9000, it is at least a touchscreen.. and at 320 x 320 pixel it is clearly better than most of the competition. Palm didn't say what size the display is, but from our measurements it is around 2.4 or 2.5 inches across the diagonal.
We give this phone our four and a half star IT Department rating because it has the latest Windows Mobile 6, it is slim, syncs perfect, and is not tied to any major provided. The Palm Treo Pro is not alone in this market segment, but it seems to be a well rounded and very attractive device which should appeal to many Law users. The reason it lost half a star is the price, it's $550!
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Price | $550 |
| Voice and Data Cost | $99/per month approximately for both voice and data plan |
| Synchronization | Full Synchronization of Email, Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks |
| Bluetooth | Yes, and compatible with all major bluetooh earphones |
| Wireless | Yes, and connects to USC Wireless |
| Keyboard Type | Small Keyboard On Device and Touchscreen |
