vB Easy Archive - Blackberry Curve vs. Dash vs. Wing vs. Nokia E61i

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Blackberry Curve vs. Dash vs. Wing vs. Nokia E61i
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Posted by: NoodleTech

Hi, I'm stuck deciding between which of these four phones to purchase: Blackberry Curve vs. T-Mobile Dash vs. T-Mobile Wing vs. Nokia E61i.

I know that the blackberry is email oriented and thats good for me since I run a light ebay business alongside my normal work.

The Dash and Wing both run windows mobile which is good for third party apps, tweaking etc, and also comes with microsoft office mobile which I find useful when trying to stay productive while waiting for my in-n-out order or something.

The dash, wing, and nokia e61i all have wifi, which is also attractive to me because I'm not a big fan of paying for a data plan and having wifi allows me to connect to my router and surf the web/download my email without subscribing to t-zones or something.

So all in all, I need a smartphone that lets me stay productive with word processing apps and such, a fast convenient way to go online to lets say check on my ebay and gmail inbox, and also light multimedia features that enables me to watch a movie or play an mp3 on my phone when sitting at the airport.

Please help me choose between the four or recommend another phone that you think suits my needs

, thanks!

Posted by: skalogre

I am on t-Mobile with an E61i. So far I like it, my prior phone was a Nokia 6630, again on T-Mobile. I have not liked much what I have seen of WM devices but your mileage may vary. The E61i's size and thinness make it surprisingly portable.

Posted by: jsmmd

NoodleTech,

I was in the same boat as you. I bought my E61i at a premium when it was first released. Paid over $500, I still have no regrets. It's a power phone.

Here are some thoughts

Curve and E61i aren't touchscreen, not sure if that matters.
E61i has BlackBerry Connect and gets emails via push just like Curve

E61i and Curve have 2MP camera, E61i doesn't have a flash. Unless you plan to take night time pics, this won't matter.

That all being said. WM devices have more apps, and so does the E61i.

Think of the E61i is a hybird with the best of the WM (apps) and BB (push email) worlds.

I'm on T-Mobile. I have unlimited BlackBerry service. $20 for BlackBerry and unlimited EDGE / GPRS data. You CAN'T beat that.

Good luck. Msg me if you have any specific questions.

I hear buy.com has the E61i for a great price now... ~$400

Posted by: NoodleTech

thanks for the advice.. too bad buy.com has CA tax

i'll grab one off ebay for around $415

Posted by: dallastt

The wing seems to be the same thing as the MDA but w/ more apps to slow it down. I'd throw it out right away. Slow crappy clunky just plain poo.

E61i seems like a good choice because of it's wifi and it looks good. BB connect is also nice to have.

I have the curve and have had 4 other BBs and just love them to death. So of course this would be my choice.

Posted by: jonazen

Quote:

Originally Posted by dallastt

The wing seems to be the same thing as the MDA but w/ more apps to slow it down. I'd throw it out right away. Slow crappy clunky just plain poo.

-- snip --

I have the curve and have had 4 other BBs and just love them to death. So of course this would be my choice.

I've been trying to like my MDA since I got it the day after T-Mobile released it. Nice having the possibility of all the features and add-on software, but in the end, it's a "high maintenance" device, pretty much like any Windows experience. With anything beyond the vanilla OS loaded, it gets noticeably slower than a regular phone, I periodically have to reboot it to clear up all the memory that's in use, email sometimes comes in and sometimes doesn't unless I initiate send/receive manually.

The standard WM5 UI felt very limiting to me, so I added Wisbar Advance and a couple of other add-ins. Powerful now - but even slower. When I take Wisbar off again, it's a tad faster - but feels even more annoying to have to navigate through when I simply want basic phone / email / SMS functions.

I've used several different BB's over the past few years, and when I compare BB to WM, it continually comes back to the same issues:

- WM allows for more end-user tweaking and bit twiddling, as well as a myriad of interesting 3rd party apps. It's a fun hobbyist OS, and there are several variants of the OS (as well as hacked WM6 for the MDA if you're game) to try, although the experience doesn't vary a lot.

- BB is SO straight-forward as a combo phone / messaging appliance, and the UI is fast and crisp by comparison to any WM device I've tried. Browsing works well on the BB's also (8800 and Curve), although I have to admit that browsing on an iPhone redefines the experience for a hand-held (but that's another discussion).

In the end: if I didn't depend on the device for business, I might opt for a WM phone. I'm a heavy-duty techie, having lived in the guts of OS's and software development for 20+ years, and new OS's intrigue me more than put me off. But - for use as a true phone / email appliance, a device like the Curve or 8800 blows away the competition (for my own use / style of course, ymmv): it simply works, requires NO navigation to get to the essential features, never needs to be rebooted and is incredibly reliable. If they were a bit thinner and lighter, I'd still consider a Treo (not the WM version, though). In general, Windows has eaten SO many of the hours of my life, on PC's and now on smartphones. When I pick up a mobile device at this point, I just want it to work, work well, and work quickly. Despite all the experimenting, I just find WM to be too much like a Windows desktop experience - and after 20 years of that, I'm about ready to leave that behind too...

I'm hoping there's still a market out there for my used MDA...

Posted by: jontymisra

I'm a fan of WM devices only because I love the modding part of the OS, where literally everything can be customized, and there are atleast a billion apps out there for this. But then again, this all wouldnt matter if the processor on your phone is slow.
In your case, I'd get the E61i as well. You can get BB connect on it, so you essentially have a stripped down BB with wifi.
Ofcourse there's the 8820 coming out as well from BB with Wifi, but dont know if any US carriers are getting it.

Posted by: jonazen

Quote:

Originally Posted by jontymisra

I'm a fan of WM devices only because I love the modding part of the OS, where literally everything can be customized, and there are atleast a billion apps out there for this. But then again, this all wouldnt matter if the processor on your phone is slow.
In your case, I'd get the E61i as well. You can get BB connect on it, so you essentially have a stripped down BB with wifi.
Ofcourse there's the 8820 coming out as well from BB with Wifi, but dont know if any US carriers are getting it.

TMobile is supposed to have the new version in Sept/Oct, with WiFi and a higher resolution camera (I'm quoting the last rumor I heard - not from personal research).

I enjoyed modding the OS, adding different UI components and trying different custom ROM's for a while. I also used to enjoyed tweaking the guts of Windows for pcs for several years, and used to have fun overclocking, etc. But at this point, there are so many other things I want to spend my time on, and I've finally hit the point where I don't want my mobile device to be a hobby - I want it to be slick, fast, responsive and as dependable as possible, without requiring much thought or effort on my part (hope that doesn't mean I'm getting old!). Clearly a personal choice here, but at this point in my life, I just want a kick *** device that works - not another hobby. That's why I'm shying away from WM for now.