[sghere]

OK...please don't hate on this. I'm asking an honest question here.


I have the Blackberry Storm...I've come to love it. However over Christmas (before the Storms) we purchased the Apple Iphone 3G's...but soon after arriving at home we noticed that we didn't have ATT service, so back to the store for a return. I loved the features, the responsiveness of the screen, wifi, apps, music etc.

With the Storm, you have no wi-fi, no app store (built in that isn't Verizon driven), music is a little on the iffy side and the click screen that isn't sealed is a bit unsettling. The battery (running .103) doesn't get me even 8 hours so I've had to purchase the dock to keep at work.

I've seen the Omnia - yuck. Keyboard is for 10 year olds, Windows Mobile with the overlay is really laggy and that damned widget bar is annoying.

The HTC Touch HD - Pocket PC looks to be promising, but isn't in the US (yet).


OK. With all the data outages, e-mail sync problems with outlook (no activesync that is free), Blackberry proprietary software/apps etc., what is it that makes these phones so darn appealing?

The more I use the phone..the more I like it, but there's a part of me that isn't 100% sold yet. I'm a heavy internet user because of my job, and the outage we had lastnight nearly drove me insane. Anyone have thoughts or workaround?

Thanks
Shayne

[Kebero]

The Touch Pro is available on both VZW and Sprint. However, since I have little experience with it, I'll refrain from comment.

Before my BB Storm, I had a Samsung Omnia and liked it quite a bit. Most of the complaints about the Omnia are unfounded. For example, there are multiple keyboard options, and if you use the "Samsung Keyboard" setting, you'll find it to be quite usable. Likewise, you don't have to use the "Samsung Widget" home screen. You could use "Samsung Today" 1 or 2, Windows Today, or a host of 3rd party options (Winterface, SPB Mobile Shell, etc).

I switched to the Storm mainly because I realised that I just don't like Windows Mobile yet.

[cyberbob]

If you have no AT&T service, then I'm not sure why include the iPhone in the "vs" part of your question. No matter how much you may like the iPhone, if you get no AT&T service on your home, it shouldn't even be in the discussion.

If you don't like the Omnia, then that is pretty much out but the Touch Pro is in Verizon's lineup. I assume that you might mean the Pro HD or some other variant. If that is the case, you have narrowed the choices down on your own.

I would recommend an unlocked Nokia, like the E71 but those are GSM devices and if you aren't getting GSM service in your home, that's out as well. My question would be, do you get GSM service on devices other than the iPhone in your home? If not, sound like you are going to have to choose strictly from Verizons lineup. Or Sprint, if they have coverage in your area.

If my choice were only CDMA, I'd stick with the Storm on Verizon. I don't care for WinMo at all and like you, don't care for the Omnia. The HTC Pro on VZW is not, IMHO, as good as the GSM variants. Blackberry may have some issues/outages here and there but it's far more stable than WinMo. Software is another thing. BB software can often be lackluster compared to iPhone and WinMo software and you can't really load up as much of it if you are a software junkie since it can only be stored in the main memory and not memory cards. It's often more expensive as well. The BB app store may change that, but I haven't really seen any titles or cost for that so I don't really know what to expect. I will say I'm not paying $49 bucks for IM+. :-)

Although for what you are describing, WinMo and the iPhone would be a good choice but since AT&T doesn't work in your home, and you don't like the Omnia, I'd stick with the Storm.

[Dbajpai]

I had an omnia for a month before the Storm, and I hated the POS. It has a horrible screen, and I didn't think any of the keyboards were as good as the Storm's partly because of the !*^$ resistive screen. Programs are hard to minimize because of the tiny little x in the corners, where the screen is least sensitive. I would strongly recommend against it. The touch HD might be nice someday, but it's still crippled with winmo.

[andrew1229]

Well, its not perfect, but its getting better. A real app store is on the way in about a month from what I'm told (even before that though I've got Garmin [a full functioning GPS unit; $80], Poynt, App news [my newspaper], Weatherbug, Slacker [free streamin music], Smartflicks [netflix], etc. and they are coming in at a much faster rate.

I have an itouch and the app store is great, but really there are only so many apps that you can really ever use and I suspect that in the next 6 months we will see iterations of just about all of the ones that are useful to most people.

[Lylej2k]

Touch Pro on sprint, very nice device. Touch Pro on VZW, worthless crippled pile of you know what. lol.

I had the omnia for 3 days and took it back. I used winmo for 3 years and couldn't stand that device. lol.

Touch HD is GSM and won't be on VZW(to the last of my knowledge that is), though it does look very promising.

[liquid acid]

htc or omnia are all winmo based phone, has good sync with windows based comp, office editing built in

symbian uiq, pretty nice interface, lesser crash than winmo

iphone, has good interface, beautiful fluid scrolling

storm, online all the time without worrying data bill

has been used most touchscreen phones, now using storm and will stick with blackberry

[NickyParsons]

Storm vs Omnia/Iphone/HTC

HTC: Can't comment as I've never owned one.

Omnia: Agree the stock keyboard is ridiculous. (Yes, I know you can pay for replacement keyboards. But if the keyboard is so poorly designed, it makes me wonder what else was just haphazardly slapped together?) I also dislike Windows Mobile, the fact that overlays are needed, and the gimmicky home screen. In case you couldn't tell, I was a previous frustrated Omnia owner.

iPhone: Absolutely love it. If it were on Verizon, it would be a hard call. I really appreciate the push email on the Storm (I don't have an Exchange account, I wouldn't have push on the iPhone). But the Internet, OS, and apps are superior on the iPhone.

[suzieque]

you might want to do a search on this topic, it seems this question gets asked about once per week.

[Shotine#CB]

I sell all three for verizon and i can say from experience htc if you have to have windows go for it if you dont stay far far away, the omina is a big pile of crap 90% return rate i have sold 9 and 8 were returned and went to storms and have loved them.