1. I am currently w/ Sprint using a Mogul (wm6). It has served me well, but it is time to move on. I have been very pleased w/ Sprint, both from a price & service perspective.


2. My wife & all 3 kids have iPhones - and to be honest, I REALLY like the phone. Imho, it is the best phone feature for feature of any I have played with. But I hate AT&T. The dropped calls & lack of 3G is enough for me to eliminate this from consideration.

I have been w/ Vz in the past and would put them squarely between Sprint & ATT.

So - to answer this question - I am not locked into Sprint, but would prefer to stay with them if at all possible.



3. Bryan/College Station, Texas. Travel some, but not alot. Where I do travel is frequently outside of ATT's 3G coverage area (but not Spint's).


4. Kind of answered above. I LOVE the features & design of the iPhone. I have been "ok" with WM6 (I have a friend who has a Touch2 w/ WM6.5 which looks improved). But I am not married to any os (but detest crackberry).


5. Will run it mostly like it comes out of the box. Will need a few apps on it, most notably Remote Desktop. I would like the ability to record calls and/or download voicemail. Sync my Google/calendar (over the air) and Outlook Contacts (no BES, in cradle is just fine) is an absolute must.
See #10 for other app (gps)...


6. Remote desktop above will most likely require VPN. If RDC is available, I don't need access to data on the phone.

7. Viewing Office docs will be rare. It would be nice to have the ability, but not having it is not a big loss.

8. Multiple email accounts; all via IMAP w/ ssl.

9. Define "alot of SMS"? I do maybe 50 per month. MMS would be really nice...

10. yes, occasionally I need to use GPS. Note that the GPS needs to use SATELLITE gps (not just cell towers), as I am occasionally offshore and/or otherwise completely away from a cell tower... Being able to install a real GPS app - including topo maps (ie. not just the crappy little driving directions) is not a deal breaker - but would be a huge selling point....

11. The Bigger the screen, the better (without getting into netbook size).

12. Belt case

13. I love the iPhone form. Don't need (nor want) buttons on the front.

14. I have a qwerty keyboard on my Mogul now - turns out I never use it. The buttons on it are too small...

15. No games.

16. Don't really care if it does music or not. If it will sync w/ iTunes, I could get music from my daughters. Note that I DO need to be able to play various multimedia attachments from email (mp3, wav, mpeg, avi, etc). This is something my Mogal (wm6) cannot do now...

17. Yes. More mp the better. And a flash.
Does NOT need to be 'front facing'.

18. Only bluetooth would be a headset.

19. I am near a charger (my computer) almost constantly.

20. I'd like to keep the phone to under $500 if possible.

Ok, above is the answers to the FAQ questions.


Now here is the real deal - is the Droid for real? It almost seems too good to be true.

Will it be available on Sprint or only Vz?

droid is only on verizon.

if your with sprint, you MUST get the touch PRO2. period. all three phones you mentioned are for different people. the PRO2 is hard to beat and has everything you need. easily customizable, tons of apps, fast processor...

The Droid may only be on VZW right now, but there's no real reason to expect a similar Android phone won't hit other carriers in the near future. Android's an interesting platform that Google will be happy to share, and there are other hardware manufacturers that are almost certain to hit the market with it (HTC already has one Android phone out and I'd bet on them releasing better versions). The question is - are you willing to wait for them? They're very likely to be "real," but maybe not immediately.

Marc hit the nail on the head if you like Sprint - it's the TP2. The iPhone is really, really slick but that's not to say it doesn't have limitations. Like not running any apps in the background. The Droid could be great, but Motorola hasn't done a great job with smart phones in a while, so I'm not sure I'd bet that they're the ones to get it right. I'd be more interested in seeing what a Nokia or HTC does with the platform.

Of the three, the TP2 sounds like the right one for you. Slam a big microSD card in it, take a look at replacement music players if TouchFlo 3D doesn't do it for you (many love it), and load up the apps you like. Probably won't disappoint.

My office mate has a TP2. I would classify is as "just ok". Frankly, compared to the apps available on the iPhone, the iPhone would win hands down.

Which brings me to my quandary - in a perfect world, I'd get an iPhone on Sprint's network.

It would be great if the iPhone were available on other carriers in the US, but I don't see it happening any time soon, and Sprint hasn't even been mentioned in any of the speculation. The rumors about the iPhone and Verizon are for 4G when the Verizon network is using the same radio technology as AT&T... so no time soon.

I think this selection process comes down to a degree of compromise, and what is most important. Is carrier more important than the apps? One of the biggest benefits of the iPhone is the applications for sure. I had a Mogul on Sprint, then went to the Tilt on AT&T, and now the iPhone. I have a hard time imagining myself ever moving off the iPhone. I wish it did some things that it doesn't, but in many cases those things are a double edged sword. The fact that it doesn't run background applications is probably the biggest reason why its way more stable than my Tilt and Mogul. And because they've forced the developers into that box, they are getting better and better in being transparent. For example, even though no background apps, I can run CoPilot navigation now, and if I need to leave to go to another application, CoPilot remembers the route and automatically brings me back to it when I come back. Also, they have now added music controls in the application, so I don't need to leave to control music. Stuff like that is evolving.

If you want to stay with Sprint, it sounds like the TP2 or the Palm Pre are your best options. Have you looked at the Pre?

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Mike - Been Converged?

perhaps i didnt make my post clear..

android is on other carriers as well. sprint has just released TWO such devices, the HTC HERO, which i have on one of my lines, and the Samsung moment. the former has no physical kb where as the latter has plus a 800 mhz processor. the hero is a slick phone and the Google OS can easily take over iphones market. att can keep the iphony.. the android OS will give the wanna be iphony uses that type of interface and then some...

the PRO2 and the iphony are two entirely different beasts and i dont see HOW anayone could compare those two devices. the PRO2 can multitask up the wazoo.. just the other day i was on a phone coversation, fired up all three IM clients and was talking to two people on three of them all while having a BT coversation thru the phone. you do not have to "jail break" the PRO2 or break anything in it to customize it how you want. it has a goregous keyboard and removable battery and flash memory. the windows OS is a different beast. these two phones are designed with two diffferent people in mind.

apples and kiwi's my friend...

Are you sure? the installed base of WinMo PDA's has a 5 year head start on the iPhone... I think there are a great many more WM apps than iPhone apps.
Mark

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Luck is where opportunity meets preparation.