Blackberry 7290 vs. Treo600/650

[veryberry]

I am investigating purchasing a BlackBerry with Cingular service for the president of our company but the user is a long time Handspring Palm OS user. Having done research with my local wireless provider and on-line searches I am still not exactly sure the differences between the Palm device and the Blackberry. The most important function is mail & contact management. The user travels all over the world & I want reliable email service. The phone portion is not as important as we use a worldphone that we do not need a monthly plan with. We get billed as we use the phone, nice & simple. All I want to activate is the unlimited email. We have no inhouse server, we use POP3 with an ISP. Does anyone have a great website that pits the two devices against each other or any experience of their own to share? It is going to take time to retrain the user in the ways of the BB OS vs. Palm so I want to make sure I make the right decision.

[pctower]

I am investigating purchasing a BlackBerry with Cingular service for the president of our company but the user is a long time Handspring Palm OS user. Having done research with my local wireless provider and on-line searches I am still not exactly sure the differences between the Palm device and the Blackberry. The most important function is mail & contact management. The user travels all over the world & I want reliable email service. The phone portion is not as important as we use a worldphone that we do not need a monthly plan with. We get billed as we use the phone, nice & simple. All I want to activate is the unlimited email. We have no inhouse server, we use POP3 with an ISP. Does anyone have a great website that pits the two devices against each other or any experience of their own to share? It is going to take time to retrain the user in the ways of the BB OS vs. Palm so I want to make sure I make the right decision.

I vote for the 7290. I'm a Goodlink/Treo600 convert. The 7290 is much more user friendly, the keyboard blows away the Treo and while the screen is not a brilliant, it is larger and easier to read. The new Treo 650 has a lot of bugs.

Having said that, I am in a position where I can choose between a BES server and a Goodlink server. If you want reliabile email and Outlook synch with the Treo you will probably need a Goodlink server. I'm not sure about Blackberry if your company does not have a BES server.

There are very few functions that I had with the Treo that I now miss, and more software is being written all the time for Blackberry.

[finch]

http://www.blackberryforums.com/showthread.php?t=4019&highlight=Treo+Blackberry

http://www.blackberryforums.com/showthread.php?t=3372&highlight=Treo+Blackberry

[dozment]

One other big difference between the Treo and the 7290 is pull vs push email. You decide which is right for your case. A friend just bought a Treo 650, and likes it very much. In order to read his email he has to tell the Treo to download it. My Blackberry, on the other hand, downloads my mail real time. It works more like a pager. Someone sends me a message, and my Blackberry vibrates. The Treo (at least the way this one is configured) sits quietly until the user tells it to connect and download mail.

Having said all that, I understand that there could be a way to make the Treo work in push mode just like the Blackberry.

[jibi]

The Treo 650 is going through the last stages of beta testing in the BlackBerry Connect program.

There is an application called ChatterMail that will give you some push-like functionality. It is very fast (comparable to the BlackBerry), but does not work for the benefits of Calendar synchronization, etc that you get with a BES.

If your company's president is used to the Palm OS and simply wants to POP his email, then I'd say that the Treo 650 would be more than ideal for him, not to mention less work on you for basic OS usage training. I'd go with the Treo 650 if I were in your situation.

[NJBlackBerry]

But stock a spare so that the first time he hits it too hard and it breaks, you have a spare on hand :(

[SchmutzBerry]

One advantage of Blackberry - very reliable. Never crash, no need for resets.
The Treo does have more programs, bells and whistles, MP3 player.

[veeceeonefive]

if the critera are 'reliable' + 'email', then the solution = 'blackberry'

[bigboy]

One advantage of Blackberry - very reliable. Never crash, no need for resets.
The Treo does have more programs, bells and whistles, MP3 player.

Yeah, my fiancee's 7290 has been more reliable than my T600 -- but it never crashes or there's no need for resets? That isn't true. She has to pop out the battery every other week, and she is just using the base apps.

The problems with the T600/T650 stem from all the hacks that people like putting on their Treo. I'm guilty of that too, which is why my T600 is less stable than a 7290.

I do think that Goodlink on a Treo is pretty rock solid -- and, dare I say it, as good, if not better than BES 4.0....

[Mark Rejhon]

There are many good points in these threads, very fair comparision between Treo's superior areas versus the BlackBerry superior areas.

I do generally agree that if you use "reliable" and "email" in the same sentence, there's no question: BlackBerry!

It will take your boss about one week to get used to BlackBerry, but then he'll probably never look back. If your boss is a technical minded person, you may tell him about the BlackBerry FAQ in the link below, or at least select articles.

[mmell]

"...the user is a long time Handspring Palm OS user."...

It depends on your boss. If it's most likely he'll just focus on what he's missing rather than what he gained stick to the Treo. I mean why go through this pain? But if you're resolved to drop your pants and bend over then, at the very least, find out if he uses the Palm devices for more than the basic included stuff. If he intends to use it for only things where BB's are strong (email) then fine. If he's got a bunch of Palm apps on it that do not have BB alternatives don't even think about it cowboy.