Which direction to go in......help!

[animbug]

Greetings all!

I am trying to make up my mind on whether to go for the Siemens SX56 Pocket PC Phone with AT&T, I am already an AT&T customer, or just get one of thier cool phones and buy a Pocket PC seperate that has wireless capability.

Here's what I want and need:

1. Obvously, because I have no home phone, I need a good phone with nice functionality like vibration, voice dialing, speakerphone, voicemail.

2. I would like to be able to get email and possibly IM on the run from wherever I am. But, I don't want to pay through the nose to do this.

3. I need organization. I have a Palm m130 right now and need to expand the capabilities from it to a PPC. I am more and more using MS Office files for organization, presentation, tracking, etc. Palm just doesn't lend itself to these very well at all.

4. I work from an office and from home at times for the corporation I work for, I have my own business with clients, and are very active in the community and church I go to. As you can see, I have a hefty amount of information, contacts, appointments and information to organize and keep track of.

So with all this in mind, what would you all suggest, a seperate phone and PPC or a combined tool, like the Siemens SX56 Pocket PC Phone?

Any input would be greatly appreciated. :D

Help! 8O

[Mark Kenepp]

1. Obvously, because I have no home phone, I need a good phone with nice functionality like vibration, voice dialing, speakerphone, voicemail.


That in itself tells me that you should look for a phone that is comfortable to use for voice calls foremost, then get a Pocket PC that will connect to it. The Siemens SX56 you mention looks like it would be a little cumbersome as a phone for my tastes. Ultimately, you will need to decide yourself if you find it comfortable and it has all the features that you want. I personally use the separate phone and PDA combo and I much prefer it. There are times that I only need a phone so the smaller handset comes in handy (pun intended :wink: )


2. I would like to be able to get email and possibly IM on the run from wherever I am. But, I don't want to pay through the nose to do this.


The cost of data service would be the same if you use a Pocket PC Phone or a separate phone connecting to a Pocket PC. The initial hardware cost may be greater with the two devices and the set up headaches will be greater with two devices.

I would guess that the rest of your criteria would be met with either choice you make.

[Cortex]

i typically recommend the t-mobile pocket pc phone to friends without reservation since you can get it for 299 from amazon.com with a new contract activation.

if your paying the full price for the at&t version its a little harder to justify -- especially since samsung is coming out with the i700 on sprint and will probably cost close to the same price.

i personally like the htc9500 (the xda/o2/at&t/t-mobile) and am quite pleased with its ability to function as both a wireless pda and a phone.

in fact, i dont think ill ever go back to a separate phone and pda.
as far as IM goes, if you are using yahoo IM, you can get the CE version to work -- but the provider needs to offer a proxy server. t-mobile just happened to do this and i was suprised to finally get it working. im not sure if you can use it with AT&T.

as far as the cost of the data plans, i found that i typically use 5mb per month with moderate usage which costs about $20. the good news is the data plan from t-mobile is not bound by the phone contract so you can change it or cancel it at any time. also t-mobile recently cut their data plan rates by 50% in europe and the rumor was they are going to do it in the US but not sure when.

i would recommend really considering going with t-mobile and the 200 rebate. it will probably cover the cost of switching from at&t.

> HERE < (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/wireless/B00006IIRQ/glance/qid=1050718333/br=1-2/ref=br_lf_w_zr_2/103-6869184-2153458)