Yes, I'm staring another phone thread. Sue me. My Sprint Samsung A900 is getting a weee bit tired, it's almost 2 years old and has served its purpose. I don't care what service you have or what service I should use. I'm on a family plan and I'm not switching. In other words, Momma is paying for my monthly cell bill, and no way in hell am I switching off of that. So three phones have caught my eye. One is the HTC Touch. I saw BREW's report on that phone and that pretty much made up my mind about that phone (Until the HTC Touch Dual comes out). Other two phones are Blackberries. One is the 8130 Pearl, and the other is the 7130e. Has anybody used these before? Are they touch screen? I'm leaning towards the Pearl cause it has the memory card slot, which means I can play music on it right? Anything else I should know about them?

 

I had the blackberry pearl with cingular(it was the smaller choclate bar type phone) I don't think it had a memory card slot and it wasn't touchscreen. say this again, I had cingular not Sprint so they could be different. It was a really good phone though, held up well.

 

I've had several blackberries thru work and to me, they're good for just that, work. They are nice for typing e-mails and such but to me they lack the "creature comforts" of most consumer phones such as digital camera, video recorder etc.. although the Pearl does have a built in camera.

 

I have the Blackberry 8310 Curve for t-mobile and i really like it. It has a pretty nice digital camera built in, memory card slot for music or whatever, built in maps. If you like to text message, its really nice with the full keyboard. Its pretty small and light compared to previous versions, which is nice so you dont feel like youre carrying a brick around with you.

 

I didn't use mine for business. I just used it for calling, pictures, and text message.

 

I am on my third Blackberry brand phone (all with Verizon). I personally do not like the new keyboards when I try to type a fast response to an e-mail. Most likely because my eyes are getting "too tired" to see the suggestions that pop up on the screen as you type. The internet on a Blackberry is a joke and takes way too long even on the "Fast Network"

 

I've got the Pearl w/T-Mobile. Good size and features with e-mail, maps, camera w/flash, music capability, but the keyboard is a PITA for e-mail because each 'key' has more than one letter or symbol on it. Loosely translated, that means a PITA hitting the shift key to pick the right letter you want.

Have a buddy at work who just got the Curve. Loves the features, but had to get a replacement phone cause the first one had bad reception. I'd go with the Curve.

 

Crazed, you might be onto something with that IP-830W. I'm going to have to check that and the Pearl out next time I'm at a Sprint store. Also, I never use the camera on my phone, so that isn't a feature I need. What I do want is something I can keep track of things with, text (a lot), and play music.

 

If anyone here has sprint, I HIGHLY recommend the new Palm Centro. I just got mine a couple of weeks ago. It rocks. There isn't much it doesn't do.

 

Does it have the Sprint TV capability? I'm lookin around at new phones too and I do like watching the Sprint TV on my current Sanyo M1 from time to time.

 

the only problem with blackberries is the access charge. its an additional $35 on top of your monthly calling plan to do anything other then phone calls with the phone. you wont be able to text, email, voicemail, or anything els with the phone unless sprint has activated that option on your account. thats one hell of a scam IMHO

i forgot this "data charge" applies to all hand held devices (palm, blackberry, and one other i cant remember)

 

All smartphones require a data plan. Its a totally seperate service and costs are justified for what you get.

The Pearl is bad-****. Get it. It has a MicroSD slot beneath the battery and can play tunes/video. The 7100 series is last year's news. The new Centro is a futile attempt to cling to market share that is getting stolen from Palm by RIM (BB maker).

 

Yep, I was watching it (nfl network) tonight. I also looked at the Pearl, but after comparing it to the Centro, it wasn't much of a decision anymore.
I only pay $10 a month for the power vision plus. Just got to do a little negotiating.
If you are new to sprint or out of contract, you could ask for the SERO plan. Just search google for it and do some reading on a couple good forums.

 

 

More money than common sense...