Been interesting reading through all the debates between the blackberry and the Blackjack.

I work for a government agency and therefore I get a gov't discount through Cingular. The lady that reps our company is giving me the following deal:

-Blackjack Phone OR the Treo 650 OR 680 each for $174.99 Brand New, no mail in rebates or anything...
-Getting out of my 2 yr contract (current phone: razr..ugh...)about 9 months EARLY!(This loophole will only cost be $15)
-450 Nationwide plan for 39.99 + Unlimited PDA data plan for another 44.99 OR the Unlimited Blackberry data plan for $49.99, depending IF i do get the BJ or Pearl or something else...
-I'll probably add a text package, but that's not too relevant.
-I also get 15% off voice and data plans....so %15 off the 39.99 and 15% off the 44.99 or 49.99, depending on what i choose.

----

The dilemma, LUCKILY i told her i'd get back to her tomorrow since i wanted to do some research..and after lcoming across the 8800, i think i may want that....Word out is it's coming to Cingular on the 12th...if i call in, do you think they'll spill anything about that?

Should i just get the BJ for now and since i have 30 days, then go check out the 8800? Or do you guys think i should just wait the 5 days?...i was just gonna bs and say like "oh i need to wait for my next paycheck to arrive before i can purchase the phone and pay the pro rated monthly plan fee." OR i'll just straight up ask her if there will be a deal on the 8800 and what she can do on that....

Here is what i plan to use my new smartphone/pda/blackberry for:
-Checking my corporate email
-ALSO checking my OWN COMPANY's outlook email and heavily using the calendar and tasks within outlook, so synch ability is a must.
-Wi-Fi is not a HUGE deal. It would be nice, but couldn't I use the unlimited data plan to access the internet anyways??


So i guess what i'm asking is, if i wait to go with the 8800, first, what is expected retail? second, will i still be able to check my OWN COMPANY's email account that is set up through my outlook at home on the blackberry? AND use my calendar and have it sync up whenever i leave or return home??

Sorry for the extremely long and un-organized post...i'm kind of in a time bind, so any advice or tips based on my needs is APPRECIATED! Thanks!!

 

I'll add my brief

I was debating heavily between the Blackjack and 8800 on Cingular for weeks...and ended up getting the Treo through Sprint.

Now, I'm guessing by your post that going with someone other than Cingular isn't an option for you, so I won't go down that road...

I didn't like the BlackJack because there was no touch screen and no Voice dialing using a bluetooth set...things that were VERY important to me, but may not be to you.

The 8800 is going to be a pretty sweet device, but again, no touch screen, no wifi, no 3G, no way to watch Slingbox and it's more expensive plan every month.

You kinda have to decide which is most imporant for you and then go from there. If I were you, I'd simply wait until the 12th and take a look at the 8800 before you decide. I would guess it's going to be around $350-$400 in stores. It's also possible that the Blackjack will come down in price so it's sales can remain steady...just a thought...

In short...wait until the 12th, take a look at the Blackjack, 8800 and don't rule out the Treo's either...the touchscreen is very helpful for people like me...

Also, having your corperate account and your personal account should not be a problem on any of these devices.

 

Thanks VERY much! I will do my due diligence and wait....I'll keep you posted....I agree, I think when the 12th hits, that blackjack price may drop 20-50$ bucks and so will my gov't price....i think i WILL at least wait 5 days....

 

Unless you love the idea of a windows phone, and you will have to use it for microsoft office related projects I would suggest the Treo. Window's is just too much in my opinion. I had the Treo 700w and after a week I wanted to shoot myself. Traded it in for the 700p with palm software and love the phone. I hate the way older blackberries feel in your hand, but the new pearl is a solid phone. I am the only person in our office that doesn't use a blackberry, but they are thinking about migrating over to the Treo's soon just because our president loves my phone and the ease of use.

 

well....thanks for the advice lembowski, i have decided on the BJ because i will be relying heavily on ms apps like outlook, calendar, word, excel..etc etc... I got the phone for 175, and 15% off BOTH my voice AND data plan....pretty good deal...and i got the new batch of BJs with the 2nd batt being an EXTENDED batt WITH cover...advantage of NOT being an early adopter...imo.

 

i have the 650 and have and have nothing but great things to say about it...i just told one of the guys at work to hook up the 700p...the ONLY problem i have had is with charging it once it gets super low...i prob need to get a new battery...thats all

 

I have the blackjack the calling is sweet and the operating system is very solid. However if this phone is primarily for business use I would recommend looking into other phones. The blackjack is more of a consumer phone then a business phone.

 

Cingular 8525 ftw. It's probably one of the best smartphones out there. 3g, bluetooh, ir, wifi, touch screen, etc etc etc. What more can you ask for.

 

a couple hundred bucks to afford the $400 price tag

 

well, if he has discounts, plus rebates, the cingular 8525 isnt that bad. i just ebayed a new 8525 for 440, so im sure he can get a good price with cingular with a plan. it should only be only slightly more expensive than the other ones, but i think it worth it.

 

x2

Whatever you do, don't get the Sony Ericsson M600i. It's got touch screen, can edit MS word documents, symbian OS.

I hated it cause it's so damn slow! It takes forever to do things on it and the phone features were harder to use than my K750i (super user friendly).

 

Thanks guys, I decided on the BJ and got 15% off both VOICE AND DATA plans each. And my final price was 174, with NO rebates, then i JUST sent out the printable 100$ mail-in rebate to see if i can get an extra 100 back..there have been ppl in other cell phone forums who did this and got the VISA 100$ gift card in 6 weeks...haha...soo HOPEFULLY i'll only have to shell out 74!

 

Okay, I just went through two weeks of hell with a Treo 750. It has a ton of known glitches that I had to deal with and got fed up with it. I now own a Blackjack and its the perfect phone.

Treo had poor battery life (you can barely make it a day with very little use). It likes to lock up at least once a day. You won't know it locks up unless your using it. You just won't receive calls. You have to do a soft reset. The ringer doesn't ring due to a bug in the voice command. Signal is good, but not as strong as the BJ. BT is worthless, won't work in any car kit out unless you only own a Toyota. BT headsets have problems with it as well. Drop calls due to the phone disconnecting itself (you actually see it happen on the screen). Like 6-10 calls would disconnect.

So far the Blackjack has better call clarity, speaker, better screen, more stable OS, and a better BT. It comes with two batterys. One is a standard, one is a extended. The extended can last me 4 days of use with no charge, watching movies, tv, mp3s, and web. I use it for my exchange server email checking every 5 min during business hours and every 15 min after that. The battery by the end of the day was only down to like 85% with a lot of use. The keys are larger and more spread out, so its easier to type. So far no bugs either.

So let me straight up and tell you. IMHO, stay away from TREO's. They are known for bugs. Great resource of information is:

www.howardforums.com and www.treocentral.com if you want treo info.

 

You can add VoiceCommand 1.6 to the Blackjack and get voice dialing. The Treo VoiceDialing is buggy on the Cingular system and does not work. At least for the Treo 750. The best touchscreen phone right now with Cingular is the 8525. Has everything, wifi, touchscreen, bigger and better screen, nice keyboard, and good battery life. Just its a bit bigger.

 

Voice dialing in general, or voice dialing via bluetooth? I was reffering to the fact that everything I've ever read about the BlackJack insisted there was no way to voice dial using a bluetooth headset. Perhaps this just came out?

And my Treo 700p has had almost no problems in the two weeks I've had it. I use it quite a bit and have never had less than two days of battery life. I can usually get 3 or more days out of it. (It's currently Thursday, and I haven't charged it since Monday afternoon) It's only froze on me once so far. Annoying, but not a huge deal. Perhaps I'm just trying to justify my purchase, but I like it so far...which is not to say the BlackJack is not a nice tool, because it is.

 

The Voicedialing on the Treo 750 caused the sounds from the phone to stop working when it was enabled. It would not ring, no alerts, etc. So people had to disable it to allow the phone to work like a phone.

VoiceCommand allows that feature. You install it and it will allow voice dialing from BT headsets and the phone itself.

The 700p supposely had a better battery life compared to the newer 750 per what I have read.

 

Blackjack FTW. This is my business phone, and it does everything I need. Can open all normal types of attachments, syncs with my exchange server, can install apps (albeit limited apps available for MS smartphone).

 

For those with the BJ...which microSD card did you get? I want a 2gb...SanDisk?? There is a Kingston 1gb for about 15$ on ebay shipped....what do you guys think?? Thanks!!

 

They all work the same.

 

Been supporting Palm Treos for the last 2 years at work...please, for the love of God, do not get one.

If you do a print out of our tickets for the Treos, you're going to get pages upon pages of issues with dropped calls, can't holding a charge, issues with syncing data...it just never ended until we changed everyone to Blackberries.

Personally, I don't mind Blackberries...most users at the office use Pearls and the review/feedback has been very positive abeit some people do miss the touchscreen aspect of the PDAphone. Personally, I use a Sony Ericsson P910i...I've had it for quite some time and absolutely love it. It's easy to use, got a touch-screen, QWERTY keyboard, decent support, and most of all, it's reliable--it doesn't drop calls or crash on me for no reason.