DarrenBarefoot.com

I suggest the Blackberry Pearl on Telus (8130). It’s barely bigger than the Moto Razr I had previously and the predictive text is spooky good so you really don’t need the Blackberries with the full keyboard (in my opinion). I suggest the CDMA version because it has a built in GPS receiver which the GSM versions do not, but if you’re planning on traveling to Europe, obviously the GSM version is the better choice. The GSM Pearl is also a more mature product as the CDMA version has only been out for about 6 months.

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On a side note, the Rogers website has to be the absolute worst of the four main providers (Rogers, Fido, Telus, Bell) around these parts.

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Can’t comment on Fido vs Rogers, but after using Treos for 7 years, the Blackberry for 5 years, and my wife’s iPhone this past year, and having tested Windows Mobile devices for my company last year, the full keyboard Blackberries wins hands-down for email. Also, battery life is stupendous, which is critical to me. I can easily get two or three days on a charge.

I send and receive several hundred messages a day, so I am an extreme case. I’d love to use an iPhone but the email interface just isn’t there yet if you get a serious amount of email.

The Treo’s keyboard is great, and there is some great software (especially Kinoma and Pocket Tunes), but the email programs are average at best, and unfortunately Palm seems to be walking with the dead. The battery on the new Treo Centro is average — other Treos are better.

I and my coworkers have had extremely poor experiences with the Windows Mobile devices, especially with battery life and number of messages saved on the device. Unless you have a specific need to hook into an Microsoft Exchange server, I would avoid it. My company tried to get us to switch over from Blackberries and our IT department had a near rebellion on their hands. They have given up and moved back to the Blackberry.

Watch your data plan. For some reason, Canada seems to have the most expensive data costs in the world. Hopefully the all-you-can-eat feature will come with the iPhone this summer, but until then, 25 MB is not a lot, so watch out for overage. And if you’re travelling, it’s bad regardless of where you are.

The only downside to the Blackberry is a lack of third party software, but it doesn’t sound like you’ll be dealing with that (and with Canadian data extortion rates, streaming multimedia would bankrupt you. That being said, streaming any hockey game while driving, and streaming video from my TV via Slingbox is pretty damn cool.)

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Derek and I both got the Blackberry Pearl 8300 Series from Telus (for free if we signed in blood on the dotted line). Although I adore getting the email on my phone I find the scroll ball on mine already has begun to fade, though Derek’s is still fine. Also, both devices tend to stop displaying messages and missed calls intermittently when the memory gets too full requiring you to turn the device off, remove the battery and restart (which takes a while). Also sending emails with the keypad is a royal pain in the hind-quarters unless you want to buy a portable keyboard. No complaints about the Telus Network, however, their hidden charges don’t impress me. Hope that helps.

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Ive got a blackberry pearl 8100, small form factor, typing works well for me, great voice dialing features, have gmail and newsgator apps among others.

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Hold off until the iPhone is released in Canada, you might even be lucky and be one of the first to get the 3G version in June. I have one and it is a great device. It might not be the best phone on the market but there have been numerous occasions in the last two months when I was able to leave my laptop at home and just carry the iPhone.

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Whoa, Darren thanks for stealing my idea for a post…as I’m currently dealing with a Motorola held together with duct tape, I’m also in the market for a new phone…it looks like your readers have some great comments that I’ll definitely take into consideration!

Cheers, -Parker

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Nokia N95 is supposed to rock, I haven’t used it myself though.

I’ve a BB 8300 (QWERTY). Email is great on it, web browsing is limited.

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Wait. Just wait for the iPhone. Apple Stores are opening in Edmonton and Calgary in July (http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=f49f8eb1-6ffd-46ac-9764-4e9bc67951ea&k=7571).

In the attached article it’s indicated that the iPhone is coming to Canada. With Roger’s new expanded 3G network and the mounting evidence that 3G is coming to the iPhone very soon I’d say just wait.

Everyone I’ve talked to who has one says it’s the best device they’ve ever owned. A great thing about the iPhone is WIFI. So you don’t have to bring your computer with you to conferences (or on Vacation), just bring your iPhone and use the wireless in your room (as rate plans in Canada are insane: boo CRTC).

BB is business and boring. With Firmware V 2.0 coming for the iPhone at the WWDC, a million cool apps and functions are coming down the pipeline in the next few months. With all the outages that RIM has been having I think it’s short sighted to lock yourself into their ecosystem.

I’m with Fido and my contact is up in May. They phoned and offered me a new phone; I asked, “is it an iPhone?” They said no… I said, “then I’ll wait.” I suggest you do the same.

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The easiest solution to getting a better data plan in Canada is to sell all your possessions and leave the country.

I’d suggest Rwanda as a destination;

http://www.thomaspurves.com/2007/04/09/canada-worse-than-3rd-world-countries-when-it-comes-to-mobile-data-access/

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I use a Nokia N82, I’ve found having WiFi in the phone is a huge boon for conveniently uploading photos directly to Flickr. (As a bonus, it has a good built-in GPS, so you can geocode photo locations and Flickr will recognize and map them.) It has no built-in QWERTY so not so good for email on-the-go, but I use an external keyboard and TV-out when I need to work with it like that.

I’ve written about it at

http://scilib.typepad.com/techreviews/2008/03/nokia-n82-with.html

I bought it unlocked in Canada, it works fine on Rogers.

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Thanks for all the advice everybody–very useful. It seems like the two camps are Blackberry and iPhone, with a few outliers. I have some research to do.

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… or the iPhone is actually coming to Canada legit-like:

http://www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080429.wrogersstaff0429/BNStory/Business/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080429.wrogersstaff0429

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If you’re serious about doing lots of emails on the go: Blackberry.

If you just want to be able to read all your emails all the time, and you want a device that doesn’t irritate the crap out of you, iPhone. Unlocking the iPhone is now a one-download, one-click, no hardware mussing task on Mac or PC.

TTFN
Travis

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BlackBerry all the way. I have an iPhone, and it’s a great device, just not for email.

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i would say to get a blackberry curve or if you are lookin for really cool get the motarola droid or palm pre all those phones are great for email texting but the only on that is touch screen is the droid maybe the palm pre but i do not remember

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