vB Easy Archive - touchscreen 3/4-band GSM ActiveSync QWERTY

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touchscreen 3/4-band GSM ActiveSync QWERTY - which phone?
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Posted by: libove

My wife wants to upgrade from her years old Samsung SGH-N105 (very simple, reliable basic 2-band GSM phone) to something that...

* Has a touch screen
* Is ActiveSync compatible for seamless integration with our hosted Exchange service
* Is 3- or 4- GSM band compatible
* (wet dream: is ALSO compatible with Japan's WCDMA implementation for our trips home!)
* Has a full QWERTY keyboard (not the e.g. Pearl QW/ER/TY kbd, one actual key for each actual letter)
* Can be trained to voice dial a few specific numbers (she speaks with a noticeable Japanese accent, and untrained voice response products such as VoiceCommand on WindowsMobile don't react well to her)
* Ideally will be a clamshell, but she can learn to live with other form factors as long as it's on the smaller and lighter side.

I have a WM6 based HTC S620 (branded as a T-Mobile Dash) which I like quite well for the above items... except that it has no touch screen, and frankly its CPU power and RAM are simply too little for all of the functions that it tries to perform. If I could add touch screen and more RAM and speed to my S620, I think it would be ideal for me and also for my wife.

So, what phone comes closest to this wet dream recipe I've described above?

Thanks!
-Jay

Posted by: dimsum05

Most of what you are asking for can be handled by most HTC slide-out WM6 Pro devices. I would wait for what is announced at MWC before making any haste decisions right now though...

Posted by: bachviet

HTC TyTN II aka AT&T 8925/Tilt (tri-band 3G thus compatible with Japan WCDMA 2100Mhz with 128MB RAM & 256MB ROM)

Posted by: libove

Thanks, both of you.

While no doubt cool new toys will be announced in a few days at the GSMA conference, my wife doesn't want to wait for vaporware announcements to actually show up for real world sale...

On the AT&T Tilt / HTC TyTn II, it looks like AT&T crippled the second (user facing) camera. That doesn't matter to us, but ... what ELSE did AT&T disable compared to the OEM HTC TyTn II?

Thanks!
-Jay

Posted by: jontymisra

Quote:

Originally Posted by bachviet

HTC TyTN II aka AT&T 8925/Tilt (tri-band 3G thus compatible with Japan WCDMA 2100Mhz with 128MB RAM & 256MB ROM)

As far as I know, Japan's WCDMA is quite different from what HTC has employed

Posted by: libove

According to this AT&T Wireless international roaming web page:

http://www.wireless.att.com/travelg...241.69&x=55&y=6

.. an AT&T wireless provisioned UMTS 2100 capable phone should roam successfully on major networks in Japan.
It might not be 3G/3.5G for data, but it looks like the phone should work, with an AT&T SIM in it. Not sure if any of the other worldwide GSM operators have roaming agreements with the Japanese mobile operators.

Jontymisra, do you have information to the contrary?

-Jay

Posted by: bachviet

Quote:

Originally Posted by jontymisra

As far as I know, Japan's WCDMA is quite different from what HTC has employed

The WCDMA 2100 used in Japan is identical to the one in Europe thus the Tilt should work in Japan. GSM part won't work in Japan since it uses CDMA and WCDMA.

Posted by: karibOS

you want a treo 750

Posted by: libove

Thanks for the recommendation of the Treo 750, karibOS.
I see that it has a smaller (240x240) screen and a slower (300MHz) CPU, and I think it has less RAM than the TyTn II / Tilt device.
It is smaller and lighter - good; it has the non-flip/non-slide keyboard (fine with me; not a design my wife likes, however). It's also quite a bit cheaper than the Tilt/TyTnII.

karibOS, can you offer pros/cons of the Treo 750 vs the Tilt/TyTnII other than what I've noted above?

Thanks,
-Jay

Posted by: karibOS

I have only owned the Treo so it would be unfair of me to offer an opinion of the 750 versus the Tytn.... but for me it was nice convenient device and never gave me any trouble I did not create myself

If I had not gotten the Touch, I would have certainly kept the 750.