Palm Treo vs. Blackberry

[Jeepthrills]

I am thinking about getting a phone where I can combine my PDA and phone. I don't want to spend a ton of money as I won't be doing much e-mail, web srfing with it. There are Palm Treo 600's and Blackberry 7750's cheap on ebay. Any input would be helpful. I am on Verizon and use the iPAQ for my PDA.

[joey1234]

I had a blackberry for years, then went with a palm treo for a while, ended up going backt o the blackberry. It handled my email accounts so much better.. and synchronized with my email server better. I do know some people who love the treo though.

[JumpHigh_HitHard]

I am blackberry man so certainlly I am a little biased (but for good reasons). I feel the BB has much better intuitive, and efficient user-interface. So getting to messages, or the web-browser, or appoinments only requires at most 2 thumb presses. I think I would get annoyed using a damn stylus.

[joey1234]

the stylus is a pain in the arse....

[Jeepthrills]

I am blackberry man so certainlly I am a little biased (but for good reasons). I feel the BB has much better intuitive, and efficient user-interface. So getting to messages, or the web-browser, or appoinments only requires at most 2 thumb presses. I think I would get annoyed using a damn stylus.

What about the olber model like the 7750? How will it compare to my current iPAQ? I'm not overly worried about the e-mail, it's more for the glorified calander.

[joey1234]

should get the job done for you - I have the 8700 and i lov eit.. but its a bit pricey -

[putterboy]

have had blackberries over the years 957, 6280, 7290, 8700, and now the 8300.....love them all, freakin hate the device cuz it never stops going off with new messages since my work email is hooked up to it through the BES. Love the wireless address book, calendar sync etc. Googletalk is handy to have as well

[Everardo]

I was a long time user of original Palm PDA's, then used all the of the Treo's. I recently had to switch to a Blackberry because of my other job and I'm now very happy with my Blackberrys. I have the 8100 (Pearl) and 8800

For me it was a matter of which functions do I NEED vs which ones do I WANT.

Phone: I NEEDED a phone more than a PDA but I wanted PDA functionality. With the 8100 it's a better phone with a PDA to boot, the Treo was a better PDA but a little clumsy as a phone. Plus the size is great, but that comes from the smaller keyboard too.

Email: I have multiple email addresses and while the Treo can handle this, the Blackberry service is much better.

Media: I'll give the nod to the Treo only because Palm software has been around for years so there is more music and video content for the Treo but my Blackberrys handle music and video just fine. The one thing I'd love to have on my Blackberry though is the ability to control my Slingbox, it is available for the Treo but again this was a WANT not a NEED

Battery Life: This was the cherry on the top. The Treo would suck the life out of my battery in only one day of heavy use, while either one of my Blackberrys will last 2-3 days with heavy use. And I'm using a faster network to boot.

There are many more sites of Treo vs Blackberry out there. CNET is a good place to start.

[ohiorobp]

I tend to like my Treo650 only to say that I have never tried a Blackberry(yet). My treo does the things I need it to do, but not some of the things I would LIKE it to do. Its Palm so I have to take it for that. It does email ok, using versamail. It will check my email accounts every 15 mins. The calander is just ok, needed a plugin to get it to where I wanted it. As I sit here and think about it, the software that came on/with the Treo is pretty basic.

To get it to where I liked it I had to buy and download A LOT of 3rd party software. There is a lot out there, just wasnt ready out of the box for me.

Another downside to the Treo is that it is easy to break. I have had mine replaced 3 times. Thank God Sprint offers insurance. All in all though I still have it and use it everyday.

[Silvertree]

I have owned several Treos and one (soon to be two) Blackberries. I would say as far as calendar and email use, the Blackberry wins hands down. For ease of use, the Blackberry wins.

The Treo has some nice features, but as far as every day ease of use I would say go with a Blackberry. But of course neither touch the iPhone.

[joey1234]

the only bad thing i can say about the blackberry - is it feels like your talking on a calculator while on the phone.....

[ac0403]

Being a Blackberry user myself, I would have to go with the Blackberry. I've had one for about 6 months now and I'm loving it. Of course being connected to a BES makes it that much better.

[Klew]

I use the Treo 700p on the Verizon network. Works great for work email and all the other email accounts but had to download a bunch of other software to get it to where I needed.

After reading all your comments, am curious about the new Blackberry.

I love the live sync of my calendar, email, contacts, etc...does Blackberry do that also?

[ericm]

I love the live sync of my calendar, email, contacts, etc...does Blackberry do that also?

Yes, if you use the Blackberry Enterprise Server. It can also do instant messaging if your company uses MS Live Communication Server.