Well, now that we have our winner in the Phone category, let’s look at the “smart” part of a smartphone which was originally centered around personal productivity. I’m going to focus on the three traditional apps – Email, Calendar, and Tasks.
First though, the winner in the Productivity category is:
iPhone
How’d this one break down you ask?
I have a combination of POP, IMAP and Hosted Exchange accounts. (By the way – if you aren’t using Mailprotector’s Hosted Exchange 2007 with unlimited mailbox storage, you should be!).
Blackjack I
The Blackjack I was my first experience with true over the air Activesync syncing of my contacts, appointments, and tasks combined with true push email and I was HOOKED. If you haven’t experienced it, you’re missing out. Windows Mobile did a good job of syncing my data in real-time. With full push syncing enabled I could go two nights use without a battery charge. I didn’t like though that I couldn’t increase the amount of email stored on the device. It always seemed I needed to see an older email that wasn’t on there.
The calendar function was also a bit clunky. I never could operate it fast enough to schedule an appointment while talking to someone and it was difficult to scan calendar information.
Apple iPhone Gs
Apple definitely got the email interface right with the iPhone. I love the ability to control how much email is stored on the device and to easily switch to other Exchange folders. Since most of us use our email box as a bit of an information store this comes in very handy. I can always find what I need.
All my contacts stay sync’d just like Windows Mobile but I don’t seem to access them as much and the Calendar function is awesome. The interface is easy enough to use that I can search the calendar and schedule an appointment without delaying a conversation. The other day I scheduled a follow-up dentist visit while checking out and it didn’t require a conversation pause.
The one drawback I’ve seen with the iPhone is substantial battery drain with my hosted Exchange account in direct push mode….barely makes it through a day. I’ve put in on a 15 minute fetch and don’t really notice any delay.
Lastly regarding the iPhone, I have to say that if there were a OneNote app for iPhone it would be Da Bomb! for productivity. I know there are other apps out there but I absolutely love OneNote and how it has organized all my random ideas and notes. I have heard some rumor that a couple of MS partners are working on one. If it is a true over-the-air OneNote sync app then watch out.
Blackberry Bold
With Blackberry email I’m not sure I can give you the best analysis because I was too insulted by the monthly price to send all of my mail through BlackBerry’s single point of failure that has had more than one outage. Microsoft has the model with ActiveSync. So, I used a third party product based on SyncML (which ActiveSync is as well) called AstraSync. It handled over the air contact and task syncing nicely but would not handle Notes like Windows Mobile.
The Bold didn’t display HTML email like the iPhone but I understand that is coming. It seemed the BlackBerry display was somewhat “unix”-like too. It was very boring while the iPhone display made it easy to scan messages. I have to say though I did LOVE the little blinking light on the BlackBerry. I could tell if I had a new message without picking up the device or activating it.
The BlackBerry calendar wasn’t bad. It was hard to create a new appointment but the calendar scanning was easier than Windows Mobile.
One other thing…
Finally, I have to mention the keyboards since this tends to be the place we use them most. My Blackjack ‘tic-tac’ keyboards were good. I could write an SMS or very short email comfortably. I have to say I’m still getting used to the iPhone screen based keyboard. The auto-learning auto-correct software is good but it’s still making best guesses about what you ‘meant’ to type instead of being easy to type what you mean. I guess that’s the trade-off for the screen real estate In other applications. I do have to say that the BlackBerry Bold keyboard is unbelievable. I could type all day on it. I found myself banging out long emails with ease. Definitely the best thing BlackBerry has going is that Rolls-Royce of a keyboard.
Ok, that’s it for today. I know I didn’t mention much about tasks but I just don’t use an electronic task list much. A small flip pad is still my best management there. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s take on these devices in the Entertainment category.
Related posts:
- iPhone 3Gs vs. Blackberry Bold vs. Windows Mobile (Blackjack) – Part 2: It’s a Phone!
- iPhone 3Gs vs. Blackberry Bold vs. Windows Mobile (Blackjack) – Part 5: And the Winner IS!
- iPhone 3Gs vs. Blackberry Bold vs. Windows Mobile (Blackjack II)
- iPhone 3Gs vs. Blackberry Bold vs. Windows Mobile (Blackjack) – Part 4: Make Me Smile!
- A Smartphone and Hooters?
