[lexnsyd]

should I dump my Treo 700xw for the 8830 at verizon? - Today, 10:13 AM

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I need advice.... I've been a palm user going back to palm pilot. I went to the 700wm last year. I'm happy with it... especially after installing a sms string text but I'm sick and tired of the brick like feeling.

I have to stick with Verizon because they offer the least dropped calls in my area so jumping to ATT (which I did as a test on their claim they had the least dropped calls...yeah...right. I tried their pearl for two days... speed was from the dark ages...exchanged it for the 750...smaller than the 700...but back to dropped calls!!!)

So here are my questions... I want to incorporate the features I like in to the blackberry from the treo.. such as...

-string sms text messaging (3rd party fine... my wife loves that)
-being able to sync over the air with outlook exchange server... inclusive of tasks, calendar and addresses (again...3rd party fine...)
-customize the start screen with commonly used phone numbers...meaning not having to go through too many steps for common things.
-ease of use...

Has anyone made the jump so they can get the best of all worlds? If they only had a palm that was thin like the Q or most smart phones I wouldn't be looking.

I went to look at it... they'll give me a 30 day free trial and I can switch back to the treo if I want...however I want to put any and all 3rd party apps in place immediately for a good 30 day test.

Any advice would be appreciated!!!!
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No Blackberry...yet... but they made me put something in.

[anon(153966)]

Without answering all your questions / concerns, the fact that you're even considering a BlackBerry, just get one, test it for yourself. Trust me, you'll get rid of that; err, 'thing' quickly...

[anon(91837)]

I have been a Treo user ever since the 600 and have owned every major Treo model since as well as the Motorola Q. So here is my advice...switch as fast as you can to a Blackberry.

[waterfrontmgmt]

ditto...had the 700p and switched to the 8830 2 months ago...love the bb.

[DonnyG2]

I totally concur with Navilyn, just get a Berry for yourself and you won't ever mention anything concerning palm. I have the 8830 and it's the 3rd best thing in my life besides God and my wife!

[lexnsyd]

Already did and I've never been happier... its perfect and does more than I expected it to you. A day after my wife started to play with it... palm who? She got one too.

[betteroffdad]

That's all awesome with the "GO BLACKBERRY" cheerleading session, lol, but there are several things I miss about my Treo. Don't get me wrong...after having the 8830 for several weeks, I really really like the phone, but I mostly got it because of its smaller size, not because of its features. The phone's cool, but it doesn't even have a camera on it, the ringer's too quiet, the vibrate feature is too subtle, and the way it logs messages drives me batshyt...

I'm hoping that some of my frustration is due to user error in that I just haven't played around with the phone enough, but after making the switch from my Treo to the BB8830, I still miss the **** out of string SMS. Is there a way to do that with my new phone?

Message logging - on my Treo, when I had some (any) type of message, I could click on the message icon and it would show me everything I hadn't yet opened. On the 8830, it almost constantly shows the message icon indicating I have messages that I haven't seen. But when I go to the "Messages" icon, it tells me I have "no messages." It's infuriating to have the phone tell me I have 2 messages and that (at the same time) I have no messages, LOL. (it's usually something like a "missed call" message that doesn't go away until I actually click on the message, even if I've looked at it in the call log).

Also - be careful if you start a call and then change your mind and cancel it before the first ring or when another call is coming in - the phone locks up and you lose the ability to dial out AT ALL until you pull the battery. This is not just me, by the way - I only figured out the battery pull thing due to forums like this one where many others had experienced the same issue.

Anyway...still a cool (small, light) phone, but it's got issues, and it's not extremely intuitive. The directions/manual that come with it are incomplete, at best, and if it weren't for forums like this one and nice people like those of you who are about to flame me , I wouldn't be able to make a phone call with this phone right now.

[blueenigma]

are you sure you aren't experiencing software issues?? Typically, the type of lockup that you are describing is highy common in your FORMER phone (which I used to have back yonder). I used to have to pull my battery from my TREO several times a day until I flung it Naomi Campbell style in disgust. But on a BB?? They have a very stable operating system, in my experience. This warrants a visit to Verizon to see if they can swap it for another.

Regarding the messages dilema, remember that for emails, you will have several "mail" icons on your screen, depending on how many mail accounts you have fowarding to your device.

One of the mail icons is sort of a catchall for all of the mailboxes; the mail coming to each of the mailboxes will be stored here, as well as to the inbox it was addressed to.

For example, if you have [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected] POP accounts coming to your BB, messages to any given box will come to that mailbox icon AS WELL AS to the catchall mail icon. If your screen informs that you have 2 messages, the two messages might have been addresed to your [email protected] email. But if you look in your [email protected] icon, it will show you have no messages because you clicked on the wrong mailbox icon. Play aroud with it and see if this is the problem.

[fprioli]

In an anwer to your question on the Treo. I have been thru the Treo 300, 600 650 & 700 series. I loved those phones for there multitasking ability. I got tired of the size of it and that fact the last one, 700w would make random phone calls for no reason. That can be embarrassing at times.

Now for the features. I am very satisfied with the switch to the BB 8830. But there is some trade offs. You cannot load spread sheets and make changes without paying high price for a 3rd party application that has to be renewed yearly. You can open the spread sheets etc in email attachments to view. What I have done is saved some spread sheets in my email to open (such as a price list for my companies products) that I can refer to when I need. I haven't even tried powerpoint yet.

But to my delight, Documents to Go is getting ready to release a BB version of there software which is a one time purchase and does it all, pdf/ pics/ sheets/ word/ powerpoint.

On the BB you can assign hot keys just like your treo for quick phone calls. This was one of the reasons I went with the 8830. I also use the keyboard and need the full qwerty size.

Hope this helped you. Try it for 30 days, that what I did and I have kept my treo 700 as a backup. Afterall I don't want to lose the 3000 names I have in my data base. Good luck. This is a great forum to find your answers.

[betteroffdad]

are you sure you aren't experiencing software issues??

I appreciate the response. Maybe I am experiencing some type of software conflict, but I actually haven't put any 3rd party software on this phone, and I ditched a couple of the pre-loaded apps to see if there was a conflict, but you're right...it might just be a buggy phone. I must have gotten lucky with my Treos...the only time they started crashing on me was when I loaded crapware onto them, lol.

It's just such a pain to take it back to Verizon after I've got it pretty much set up the way I like it, lol. At any rate, I appreciate the thoughtful response.

[Lordmichaels]

since December, Verizon traded my 700 W for the 700 wx in February. They replaced that version twice because it had problems with soft keys, losing calls with call waiting, and various other pecular issues. The Blackberry 830 seems better, just an issue with the network time connection. At least better. Fewer features but much less frustrating - and lighter.

[bullittbob]

Go 8830 with Sprint the GPS is enabled. The Treo was the worst device I've ever owned and the Moto Q is a close 2nd. I had 3 Moto Q's and 4 Treo WX's in last 90 days and never has an issue free day. My 8830 has been perfect for almost a week now and the Nav is much more useful than a lousy low res camera.

[bubbatex]

Wow, 7 devices in 90 days. I have had the same Q since January 17. Some people just seem to be unlucky.

To the OP, obviously no threaded SMS and you should look into the Outlook sync'ing. I know that going from a WM device (with free Power Vision and an Exchange host at $15/mo), my costs for the same functionality on the 8830 at Sprint went up $55/mo ($40 for the Sprint service and an extra $15 for BB service from my Exchange host). My Q works fine for now!

[kingwilly]

Just dumped my piece of #&@( Treo 700w. My buddy wanted me to try the BB along, long time ago, I just didn't like the lack of touch screen since I grew up with a Palm from the beginning. I liked the PDA/phone integration with the Treo but had no idea how much it would suck. The Friggin reset button should be put on the front along with the rest of the letters. I reset mine 1-6 times a day. Sucked, but figured that was the best I could do. I found out my 2 year deal was up and and looked into a new phone. THANK GOD I FOUND THE 8830, what a huge leap into a real phone that just works. New things to figure out, but a TON better.

I waited and now BB has done a good job. The roller ball in the middle is just awesome.

Just Do It and thank us later.

KW

[slomoui]

I also have the Treo 700 and am wondering about the GPS. I am thinking about the Sprint 8830, but wanted to understand if I need to purchase Telenav, or does the phone come standard with this sort of GPS capability? I'm assuming the BB Maps application is like Google Maps except that it uses GPS to identify your current location?

Sounds like the 8830 is pretty stable. I think better name for the Treo line would be something like the "Palm Reset".

[bullittbob]

My Treo had to be reset 3 or 4 times daily, Wireless Sync would sometimes go 4 or 5 hours without downloading e-mail and the stylus got real old.
What really pissed me off was GPS was disabled and I could not use Voice Command with Bluetooth. The only reason I endured such pain with multiple devices was the fact that the phone service and coverage was excellent but the device or windows software sucks.

Yes, in order to get Navigation capability you have to subscribe to TeleNav for $10 a month but it's better than buying some hardware that will be obsolete in 3 months.

[slomoui]

Thanks for the response on GPS. I have the 700p instead of the wx, so I know things work a little different, but one problem I've had is with incoming calls vs. push email on the Treo. I'm using Good Mobile for email and have noticed many incoming voice calls on the 700p go straight to voice mail while email is syncing. Does this happen on the 8830? Do people miss calls while BB email is being pushed? This is a very annoying feature on the 700p.

[justreboot]

The big thing I miss so far (only been a few days) is the inbox sync. It appears that all the messages are going into the root of the bb defsult sort. The only way to just see the inbbox items is to 'select folder.' This has to be done each time I look at my email. I do this about 30 times a day. Very annoying. Maybe there will be an agendus for bb in the near future. I had a 650p then a 700p (Treos) taking a while to adjust. I do like the form factor. Using the bberry theme for now...

[justreboot]

with regards to the vm going straight while syncing or checking emails off good, Verizon stated this only happened if you were not in a evdo zone. if the phone showed as 1x, this would happen all the time. that was one of the reasons i moved from a 650p to the 700p. I really got to get the inbox sorted - it's driving me mad...

[dbasham]

I'm getting my 8830 in a couple of days. Prior to purchase I heard about Empower offering the ability to split up mailboxes. Check it out at getempower (other posts have the URL, odd that it won't let me post the URL, search on empower). Once I get my new Berry I'll be downloading a couple of their applications.
--Denny

[bullittbob]

The big thing I miss so far (only been a few days) is the inbox sync. It appears that all the messages are going into the root of the bb defsult sort. The only way to just see the inbbox items is to 'select folder.' This has to be done each time I look at my email. I do this about 30 times a day. Very annoying. Maybe there will be an agendus for bb in the near future. I had a 650p then a 700p (Treos) taking a while to adjust. I do like the form factor. Using the bberry theme for now...

I have a separate folder for all my accounts (4), are your e-mails pop or enterprise?

[DjOutlaw]

I've been watching this forum for a while before switching from loser VZW to Sprint for their version of the 8830. I was originally using the Samsung i730 (good phone but the resets will get to anyone after a while), and am now extremely satisfied with my new bb.

This forum was very helping in making my decision for the switch. Keep up the good work! But in reading this particular post regarding the different options betwewn PPC and BB, it was interesting to see all the different features that are dear to people, so i thought i'd add one more.

This is an amazing device, with prolly every option i want, but if they had put an infrared sensor on it, it would be the ultimate device on the market. Calling all bb handymen/women.

[Tylerd]

Take the 30 day trial. That's what swayed my Dad's decision to getting the 8830 from another 8703e

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