help needed for a newbie ...

[mariov]

Hi all! i´m a long time pocket pc user and now i want to buy a smartphone, since i don´t carry my ipaq everywhere. So i have a few questions:
- I´m looking for an imate SP3i, is that a good phone? I don´t have money for the spm5. or should i buy the SP3? are there any differences or only looks change?
- can i check my gmail account on a smartphone?
- how good is the opera brower?
- are there any good ebooks readers?

Thanks in advance!!!

[Rocco Augusto]

Hi all! i´m a long time pocket pc user and now i want to buy a smartphone, since i don´t carry my ipaq everywhere. So i have a few questions
Hello mariov. Congrats on taking the plunge over to the Smartphone world! Hopefully this reply will help you in making your decision!

- I´m looking for an imate SP3i, is that a good phone? I don´t have money for the spm5. or should i buy the SP3? are there any differences or only looks change?
The SP3i is a great phone. The main difference between the SP3 and SP3i will be mostly cosmetic. Both handsets are great so it really comes down to wanting the rocker joystick (SP3) or the more commonly used joystick (SP3i). I personally would go for the WM5 device since I feel that I have greatly grown as a Smartphone user using WM% instead of WM2003SE

- can i check my gmail account on a smartphone?
You can! I believe there have been several posts here on SPT about setting up a Gmail account, if you can not find one then let me know here and I will write one up for you.

- how good is the opera brower?
From what I remember I really enjoyed the mobile Opera browser for my WM2003SE device.

- are there any good ebooks readers?
From what I read, there are few applications out there for this need. I personally have never used the phone as an eBook reader-- that I can remember. I would be unsure which program to guide you to but there are a few out there! :)

-Rocco

[Kris Kumar]

I agree with Rocco's comments.

And as someone who used the SP3i for almost a year. I can say that if you have to settle for anything less than the WM5.0 device (like 2125/SDA/SP5), then the SP3i is the best choice. Don't even think about the SP3. ;-)

Gmail works in the pocket IE browser and also you can setup the POP3 account to point to the Gmail. I wasn't happy with the latter, more because of the way Gmail does it.

[Jerry Raia]

mariov, what carrier are you with out of curiosity?

[ditch_azeroth]

yup, the sp3/i will serve you well. if not, you can get a voyager - not as fast and candy-like, but loads of fun - and a heap load of games and apps. also, its got a hot-swappable SDIO slot - perfect for you since you are a PPC user (and probably have SD cards lyin around your desk) ^_^

[mariov]

Thanks for your help guys. I live in Chile, my carrier is entel PCS, and the only phones that i can get are the SP3, SP3i, and SMP5, wich is too expensive for me. I already found an ebook reader that looks nice, so i think i´m ready to make the jump. Wish me luck! :D :D :D

[Mike Temporale]

As long as your carrier does GSM, you can get any GSM Smartphone you want. You don't have to buy the phone they want to sell you. ;)