[barjohn]

You don't mention the Moto Q but it is really an awesome phone, loud earpiece and loud speakerphone. Good noise cancellation so it is usable as a phone in the car wihtout a headset (just like a real phone). In two weeks of use since I replace the first unit it has not crashed or locked up once. In two weeks it has only dropped a call once and that is in a known very weak signal area. It has a camera, music player, video, EV-DO, Mini-SD and a lot of other bells and whistles. However, it currently lacks push email except from Goodlink. So if you need your mail sooner than every 15 minutes it may not work for you. If every 15 minutes is soon enough to spend your life looking at email you will be fine (you can alswasy SMS if you need instant messages). When the upgrade comes out you will have instant email via MS or I suspect BB Connect will become available.

My testing show no comparison between my 8700 and the Q, with the Q winning hands down in the phone department.

[Aroc]

The Moto Q does look like a great device. With MSFP for Wm5.0 and MS Exchange Server 2003 SP2, this will be killer (when and if MSFP is released for the Q). At least as far as corporate email is concerned (we'll need MSFP or goodlink). Assuming the service comes with some sort of Carrier push email (VersaMail or XTND Connect, etc) this would be comparable to BIS2.0 using Gmail filters to forward (no pop delay).

[alphasports]

Dunno what to say that hasn't already been said. Like a million others I happily dumped my POS Treo 650 within the first 30 days: phone sucks, OS sucks, stylus interface sucks (my opinion!). My 8700r has a good phone and great speakerphone. My main uses are phone/contacts/calendar and the 8700 does these very well. The Q is cute but the OS (WMo 5) is not ready for prime time, plus it doesn't even have WiFi (the BB doesn't either but the Q, being brand new, should certainly have it). If some of you are looking for BB alternatives like the Q, check out Nokia's brand new and very slick all-in-one E series (E61 Q-killer and E70 hybrid). I will go for an E70 as backup/wifi phone but will keep the BB for sure.

[MajSingh]

Originally Posted by msk

My 8700g gets way better reception than the T-Mobile MDA (when it could get reception, there is a big problem with this device, it takes sometimes over 15 minutes to regain signal once its lost), my 8700g even gets better reception than a T-Mobile RAZR. In my house the reception was very spotty with both the MDA and RAZR, wth the 8700 I always have a usable connection. Sound quality is great as well.

I'm in the same situation as u....coming from a MDA and a Ravr before that...and i agree 100%, the 8700g blows them all away (at least in TMO's network...) I'm enjoying having a strong signal, and loud audio...things i didnt have in the MDA.

[h-town8]

My 2 cents:

Last week I evaluated an 8700c. This week I'm evaluating a Treo 650.

Regarding the PHONE portion only, to me there is no comparison, the Treo wins hands down. Keep in mind that this is largely just a matter of personal preference. Others up here love the 8700c as a phone.

For me there were 2 differences:

1. Form factor. Treo just feels like a regular-sized phone. The 8700c felt like a calculator. Something I would've probably gotten used to though if I'd stuck with it.

2. Sound quality. Mediocre on the Treo, inconsistent (and sometimes awful) on the 8700c. If I do end up keeping the Treo I'm going to need to purchase a third party program to "boost" the audio. But with the 8700c there were times where I could barely hear the person on the other line; it was particularly bad when I was outside.

Also, for what it's worth I have not had a single lockup or reset or sync problem on the Treo. This was my #1 concern in even trying this device b/c so many have reported these issues, but I have yet to experience this and I have already loaded 4-5 trial versions of third party software on there. So take some of the anti-Treo stuff with a grain of salt.

Also, I know you were asking about the phone portion, but for what it's worth I've found the e-mail on the Treo to be very solid as well. No it's not "push" e-mail (but it IS coming with Cingular), but you can set the client (Versamail) to automatically "fetch" e-mails at whatever time interval you would like (e.g. every 5 minutes, 15 minutes, every hour, once a day, whatever).

Both are great phones, both will require that you sit down and learn how to maximize all that they're capable of doing. The only thing that motivated me to try something other than the 8700c was that I was having troubles with the audio, plus I just didn't like the form factor. Again, personal preference.