I’ve had a Blackberry phone for 2+ years now and I’m the living definition of a “crackberry”. I was in absolute and passionate love with my Blackberry 8700C from Cingular. It was perfect except for one tragic flaw. The holster that came with it initially had two flexible clips on the sides to hold the phone in. It worked great except that the clips broke off within just a few weeks. Everyone I know with that clip had the same issue. Without them the phone slid out like an oiled pig. The phone fell out in the office, when getting in and out of my car, or even when I simply turned quickly it would fall out and crash violently on the ground. Fortunately the phone was resilient… to a point.
Someone must’ve finally got through to RIM and they came out with a holster made out of a solid piece of plastic, no clips on the sides. I convinced Cingular to replace the holster for free but it was too late. The damage was already done. Soon after the microphone on the 8700 stopped working, I can only assume do to the frequent headfirst dives into concrete. The phone was out of warranty and Cingular won’t insure it so I was in the market for a new phone.
I readily admit that I had been tempted by my friends Window’s based devices. In my work we use the Internet heavily and pass around Microsoft Office docs constantly. Although I loved Blackberry’s unmatched email capabilities I never liked the limited browser or the document viewers. Wouldn’t it be great, I told myself, if I could open the documents natively in a 3” screen and even edit them? So with that weak reasoning in my head and the detesting thought of buying the same device twice (I hate paying full price to replace something I already have that just doesn’t work.) I began shopping for phones. But had to do so FAST because I couldn’t make/receive calls on the broken Blackberry.
I first selected the Blackjack. I knew from testing it in the store that the thumbwheel was no match for the Blackberry’s. Either Blackberry has the thumbwheel actions patented or the other companies never bother to buy one and mimic all the cool actions you can do with that scrolling and clickable wonder. As a crackberry I can tell you the Blackjack and the software that runs on it is junk. I returned it within 24 hours. I should’ve done my research beforehand, the information was readily available on the Internet, but I had to act fast. Turns out the Blackjack runs Microsoft’s SmartPhone software. Which is like a disabled cousin to Windows Mobile. It looked the same on the outside but once you use it you quickly find that you cannot open office documents natively. You cannot even use cut and paste features. I could go on and on but it was worthless.
So I returned it to the store and examined the remainder of my options. I evaluated the Cingular 8525 and the Palm Treo 750. The 8525 was tempting, it was the same price with more features including WiFi and 2 megapixel camera. But it didn’t meet my core requirement, to be able to perform the most common functions like email, phone, and browsing with one hand (usually while in motion – walking and driving). So I selected the Treo 750 with Windows Mobile 5.0. The pic below tips my hand on the sum of the pros and cons but review the list of you want the details.
| Feature | Blackberry 8700C | Palm Treo 750 |
| Size & Weight |  Wider | Heavier |
| Recharge battery |  Once per week; Recharges fully in less than one hour; Recharges through USB cable to PC |  Once per day, takes 2 hours or more to recharge; Cannot get it to recharge through USB to PC |
| Cables | Same cable can be used for PC and electric outlet connections | Different cables to keep up with |
| Screen | Clear and rugged | Oily and fragile |
| One handed use | Awesome, unparalleled use of the thumbwheel; Every menu option is available through a click and scroll of the thumbwheel | Marginal at best; No thumbwheel, requires 2 to 3 clicks, often with different buttons, for every action |
| Keyboard shortcuts | Consistent and present in all applications Examples: T – Top, B- Bottom, R – Reply, A – Reply All | Inconsistent and often not present in core applications |
| Type ahead | Anticipates periods, @ signs, apostrophes, capitalization, misspellings, and more | Relies on the insufficient T9, doesn’t anticipate common tasks |
| Holster | Included with purchase, perfect fit, slim, easy operation | Not included; Had to buy one online from 3rd party |
| Email Overall | Easy to use but basic; Found I loved having sent items, calls, SMS, and email inbox in one list | Looks and feels just like Outlook which is both a positive and a negative |
| Email Attachments | Very limited; You could open images, PDFs, and Office files but pretty limited in you ability to make sense of them | Excellent support but serious new flaw has arisen. We converted our company to Office 2007 and Windows Mobile cannot open the new format. And supposedly it may be summer before a patch is released. Arrrgghhhh…. Why Bill? Why? |
| Email Shortcuts | Awesome support, see reasons above | Sigh. Long sigh. No one key shortcuts, forces you to use menus. Reply All includes the your own address, forcing you to remove your own email address on replies each time. Why can’t they ever fix that? |
| Contacts | Requires USB connection to sync | Syncs along with email |
| Web browser | Just “ok”; Some sites didn’t load; Used EDGE network | Excellent. Uses 3G network. Very fast. |
| Can serve as a modem | No. Not on the Cingular model. | Yes! This one feature may be worth the switch. |
| VPN into office | No | Yes! This one feature may be worth the switch. |
| Camera | No | Yes, wanted this feature but still haven’t used it yet, so… |
| Music, Videos, etc. | No | Yes, wanted this feature but still haven’t used it yet, so… |
| Storage | Limited and fixed amount. | Expandable with Mini SD card |
| Intangibles | Thumbwheel works so naturally and efficiently it’s hard to think of any better way for a phone / email device to function. | Support for thousands of programs from OneNote to GPS might be worth it. |
I dearly miss my friend the Blackberry. Although the Cons outweigh the Pros for my new phone I’m going to try and stick with the Treo with Windows Mobile for now. Surely Microsoft will add support for Office 2007 docs sooner than the summer… surely.
Curtis S