It was just a matter of time before I decided to ditch the Treo 750v for another smartphone. After my frustration with it while I was at CES, my confidence level with Windows Mobile has been a little strained. But that isn’t the only reason why I’m dumping my 750v. There’s also the fact that one of my primary uses of any PDA / Smartphone (other than making calls) is the ability to access reference documents / memos / text files. Until recently, I was unable to sync my collection of text files to a Windows Mobile device using OS X. Markspace’s MissingSync helped fill that void, so I was happy with WM. For awhile anyway… Then that feature in MissingSync started having problems, so I was back to the drawing board.
I tried the Nokia N73 and really loved it as a phone and digital camera, but as a smartphone, the lack of a touch screen and keyboard has kept me from totally embracing it.
I also played around with an HTC S620 and loved the form factor, but again, no touch screen and Windows Mobile Smartphone doesn’t even have a built in notes / memo pad app.
You’ll never guess which phone I’m switching my SIM card to… Give up? I’m using my old friend the Treo 650! Well, at least till early next week when the 680 that I ordered comes in. Yes, I’m going back to Palm OS and I have to say that it just feels right. I think I gave Windows Mobile a fair try these past months, but I’m just tired of having to conform to it instead of having it conform to me. Palm OS just feels faster, easier and better to me. At least for now…
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Julie,
Did you take a look at the Nokia E61 or E62?
No touchscreen but a great qwerty and all the same core phone strengths as the N73. If a camera is important the forthcoming E62i has a 2MPx with flash.
Symbian takes a little getting used to if you are coming from WM5 – but it’s really worth it.
No, I haven’t tried either the E51 or E62 yet. Do you know if they have a good notes / memo application with search capabilities? I’d also need to be able to sync the notes/memos to my Mac.
The built in memo application is pretty good. I have notes synced from my PC which are about 1.5 pages of A4.
I don’t know how you would go about syncing with a Mac as I have never used one but there are quite a few blogs focussed on Nokia E-Series that are run by Mac users. I think it’s something to do with iSync but I could be wrong.
There isn’t a built in search function but there’s a free download from Nokia that gives a global search function – sort of like the built in search in Palm OS only blazingly fast.
There’s quite a bit of 3rd party software available for Symbian S60 3rd Edition now but not very much freeware.
To me Symbian seems to have most of the power of WM5, but with the simplicity and robustness of Palm OS.
I have had my N73 for about 9 months now and I have not had a single unexpected reset nor lost any data at all.
I forgot to mention that if your documents are in MS Word, Excel or PDF format you can just copy them to the E61 (or SD card) and open them in QuickOffice or the E61’s built in Word, Sheet or PDF reader