iPhone or HTC Fuze

[tbloomq]

Hi All, Just getting to the end of contract life with my Cingular 8525. I am looking at a new smartphone. Either a iPhone or HTC Fuze. I do use the device for my corporate email and expect to have the same application running on either device.

 

Does anyone have experience with the Fuze and might have a suggestion on which one is best? So far, I am leaning towards the Fuze since it actually has a keyboard.

 

Thanks, Tom

[Woodie]

I personally don't care for the iPhone, particularly as a corporate device. (Disclaimer: I work in IT Security, so supposed "control" corporate data, and monitor devices that access our network).

 

Apple has excellent software/compatibility, as long as you're working with other Apple products. I've read of people having significant problems making the iPhone work w/ corporate systems. My experience has been that it's very easy to make it work with simple, insecure systems; and pretty difficult to make it work securely with (internal) Exchange.

 

I don't like Safari (the browser), and I didn't care for the soft-keyboard. Open disclosure: I've had a Treo for 8+ years, a 700P now with a thumb-keyboard. Maybe if I used the iPhone longer, I'd get used to the keyboard.

 

Good luck.

 

[OoPEZoO]

I spent all last week on vacation with one of my friends who has an iPhone. I'll bet I logged at least an hour or two a day screwing around with it in between skiing and beers. It is awesome as a phone or a gadget for scewing around and playing games, but I could never imagine trying to use it a business atmosphere. Considering how much we use our smart phones at work, I would be seriously surprised if the iPhone would even survive a whole day at the office without being plugged in. The drain on the battery was just jaw dropping. You can visualy watch the battery meter drop as you use it.

[Trinity]

My SO has had the iPhone about 45 days now...in many ways, it's a really amazing "convergence" device given all of the cool apps, music and connectivity. (FWIW, her law firm IT folks had no issues connecting it with their system.) That said, she has three "challenges" with it.

 

(1) Battery life, even with location services, 3G, bluetooth, etc. turned off, is terrible. It must be charged virtually every day.

(2) The touch keypad for messaging only works in the vertical position and requires a major learning curve to hit the correct keys.

(3) She seems to have an absurd number of dropped voice calls. (Never happened with any of her previous phones...)

 

As many folks do, she depends on the phone for client contact. Given the issues to date, she's seriously considering a new/different product.

 

YMMV

[barryNmarin]

I don't have an iPhone but am considering upgrading to one so I'll be watching this thread to see what troubles others are having with theirs. Thanks for the post.

[bakerzdosen]

Well, personally, I love my iPhone.

 

You get used to the keyboard. No, I'll never be able to type 40wpm on it but between the word replacement (educated guessing) and my getting used to it, I'm much faster at typing on it than I ever was (or am) on my wife's Moto Q or on the Blackberry 8830 I had for a couple of months. However, I would prefer a "real" keyboard for typing things that aren't normally in the dictionary (like c shell commands via ssh). The touch screen keyboard is a good trade-off for me as I wouldn't want to lug that extra keyboard around with me when I'd only want it 2-3 minutes every other day.

 

I'm curious to hear which mobile browser is better than Safari at this point. I certainly haven't found one (including the one on the Blackberry Storm.)

 

The App store isn't something to be cast aside lightly. There are a TON of applications out there and more being added daily. I'm amazed at how many I actually use on a regular basis - things I didn't think I'd be doing on a phone, but in a pinch, I really don't NEED my laptop nearly as much as I used to.

 

Yes, I wish the battery life was better, but getting an external battery solves that for those times you really need it.

 

Getting the phone hooked up to both our Exchange servers and our VPN took under a minute each.

 

For example, yesterday alone, I used my phone to find an address, get directions and approx travel time, check mail, reply to mail, a couple of google searches (using voice, not the keyboard), ssh into a client's servers to fix something, listen to music both on an airplane and in my rental car (sometimes listening to music over the internet while in the car), receive and send several text messages, several updates/responses on Facebook with family and friends, check weather reports, jot down a few notes to myself (I could have recorded the notes verbally, but this time they were easy to type), found a store nearby, played a few games on the plane, watched a video, showed my grandparents some photos of the twins, and chatted via instant messenger with someone from the office to get a hardware spec for a customer correct. Oh, and I made probably 10 phone calls.

 

The funny thing is, I've only had it for under 6 months, and already I'm finding it difficult to imagine NOT having it. Come to think of it, I'm actually amazed at how much I used it yesterday.

 

However, 3G service in the Atlanta airport just sucks. I moved over to Edge and it was MUCH faster. I think AT&T's network is just constantly overloaded there.

 

I personally haven't had a lot of dropped calls, but then again, it gets so much better reception than my last (cheap) Samsung phone that it's a non-issue to me in comparison. I did have two dropped calls yesterday, but that could have just as easily been my wife's Moto Q as it didn't drop any of my other calls.

 

The iPhone is not perfect, but for me, it's the best thing out there. I could probably get by with one of the Android phones, but at this point, the hardware isn't there yet. Mobile "smart" phones will only continue to get better, but at this point, the iPhone does everything I ask of it (albeit, it would be nice if everything were faster...). However, the more your phone does, the more "quirks" you find.

 

My complaints (no, it's not perfect) are:

• Safari crashes too much (but I haven't installed this week's new firmware which addresses that)

• I can't sync my to-do list with iCal.

• I can't background Pandora (internet radio)

• Push notifications haven't been enabled (yet) allowing instant messenger(s) to be run in the background.

• Pocket lint gets in the headphone jack and affects headphone contact (hey, it bugs me I've gotta clean that out every couple of months.)

• The speakerphone doesn't use the same method of audio out as the iPod function, so it won't run audio through my car speakers using the iPhone car dock I use.

 

Of course, the fact that work pays the monthly charges helps me like this thing a LOT more...

[David]

• I can't sync my to-do list with iCal.

 

I use iCal for appts, but I think it's really lame for a to do list. Awhile ago I switched to OmniFocus, and I love the auto syncing features. A terrific product, especially if you use it simply instead of using all the deeper stuff.

 

I love my iPhone, too. I'm much happier than I expected to be, and I love all the apps.

 

I use it in a business (using MailTrust as the provider), and had no issues setting it up.

[AZKomet]

I have sprint and am waiting for the Palm Pre to be available sometime in the next few weeks. I have many friends that have the iPhone and like them, however, ATT stinks for cell service here in az. ALL complain about the constantly dropped calls. So if that is not a problem in your area i would do it. I love the Palm Centro...it needs a touch screen though. The Pre was to have beaten the iPhone in all areas. But reviews can be skewed as we all know. Will this help you?

 

 

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/35132