evening gurus....i'm after a new phone for work. landed a new job and they have these HTC "Bricks" which is a bloody nightmare after using a BlackBerry for a number of years. not to mention hard on the arms in lifting the bloody thing. so as an idea of what i like my most recent phones were BB Pearl and BB Bold. i have spoken to my IT man and he is happy for me to purchase my own. so my requirement is a simple one......
Must sync with MS Outlook - so i have my mail, tasks, calendar, contacts. this is how i work. i need to able to read mail, forward/reply, send out appointment requests and respond to them, etc etc....
all other extraneous crap is just a bonus to me. i just want my mobile outlook.
oh and i'm not to keen on slide out keyboards, prefer qwerty on the front as per BB Bold etc..
have seen Nokia E71, 65 etc and the new N97...
awaiting your advice
cheers all

iPhone

+1 for the iPhone

iphones ok with Exchange and MS Outlook?

bb bold > *

Came from a nokia n82 and htc touch diamond - would never go back

send out appointment requests and respond to them,

Means that responses of

iPhone

and

+1 for the iPhone

are useless.

The E71 is the phone you're after.

EDIT: To clarify, the iPhone doesn't hand calendar appointments well...at all. You see the attachment - it even has a calendar icon, but you can't f***ing do anything with it.

last edited by exo at 18:49:59 28/Jul/09

Hmm when mine was sync'd with an exchange server at work any appointments automatically got added to the calender with a reminder.

EDIT: To clarify, the iPhone doesn't hand calendar appointments well...at all. You see the attachment - it even has a calendar icon, but you can't f***ing do anything with it.

Huh? I can accept appointments in to my calendar and I can create a new appointment and invite people too it on my iPhone.

One thing I can't do tho is suggest new meeting times, which only happens rarely.

Im using it through an exchange server, I doubt syncing to outlook directly would be much different.

Yeh if you want a srs bsns phone the iPhone probably isn't it.

The E71 is the phone you're after

this and the E72 are looking good i must say.

Cal appointments work fine for me on iPhone.

Though I love the iPhone and its by far the one device I couldn't live without these days, it sounds like from what your describing, you should get / stick with your bold. Get a mate over with an iphone and play with it for a few hours, it does take a bit of getting used to, but you should be able to figure out whether its suitable.

Any other brand I wouldn't touch with a stick for a smartphone:

Pre - high hopes, but crappy keyboard and battery life

Storm - bleh, iPhone craps on it

N95/96/97 - I had a n95, great features, symbian is a dog though and the interface is honestly a chore to use, and things like email feel ***very*** tacked on, not part of the core OS. Nokia as far as I'm concerned are really out of the game unless they get rid of S60 and pick up Android.

Android - So far all very prototype'y phones, it will take them a few more versions before the phone manufacturers get to understand Android properly. That being said, HTC Hero is looking very schmick.

e71 v bold

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/08/12/nokia-e71-vs-blackberry-bold-the-qwertys-rip-each-other-to-shreds/

e72 looks like it will be very tidy indeed.

i used an old model blackberry and they are rock solid, if you like to cry about symbian.

i have no issues with symbian on my n97, and the fantastic thing about nokia is FREE exchange push service unlike blackberry which require the purchase of license (update calendar contacts tasks all at once). i don't know the situation with iphone.

so if you don't need the elite camera and just overall coolness of n97, go for e71 or e72 when it comes out (it will have 5mp camera anyways i believe.)

infi is the 3dee of nokia

Blackberry you can get free programs to do exchange push.

But yes, I agree paying for a blackberry server when you already have an exchange server which can push email to a device that supports AS is stupid.

the n97 looks very cool. it won't be a BB due to the licence issue.

does anyone know if the rest of outlook synchs (calendar, contacts) on the Nokia's? i want the whole MS Outlook package not just mail.

the fantastic thing about nokia is FREE exchange push service unlike blackberry which require the purchase of license (update calendar contacts tasks all at once)

if you use Mail for Exchange (free app).

i think the problem with the iphone is that people just wouldnt send you a meeting invite in the first place

prefer qwerty on the front as per BB Bold etc..

+1 for the iPhone

Good job reading the first post.

Actually what he said is he wants the keyboard on the front, rather than a side-slider. iPhone still has the keyboard as QWERTY and on the front (albeit virtual).

Must sync with MS Outlook - so i have my mail, tasks, calendar, contacts. this is how i work. i need to able to read mail, forward/reply, send out appointment requests and respond to them, etc etc....
all other extraneous crap is just a bonus to me. i just want my mobile outlook.

If you want a free out of the box syncing with exchange server, your choice is either Windows mobile or iPhone. Pretty much that's it, the rest of the other handheld solutions are hodge podge at best. Setting up syncing with Exchange with iPhone is really easy (even easier than Winmo ironically). I set up a work mate at work and he loves it. However, if you like tactile keyboard then new HTC range such as HTC Snap or HTC Touch Pro 2 (f***ing expensive) will do the job. Though since you don't need all the bells and whistles I'd say HTC Snap (google it a few good reviews there, make sure it's the one with track ball version and not HTC Dash for Sprint in the US..)

If you're going Blackberry router, and unless you're willing to shell out big $$$ for BES and can get your IT to install BPS edition (1 license) - I doubt that.... Or you'll need to get a 3rd party software like Astrasync, neat software, that is if your organisation has a proper SSL certificate (i.e not self-signed ... long story but it's a bitch to deal with in Blackberry), you'll get nearly all of BES features for $50 USD per year per user. I've tried it, when it worked (aside from self-signed SSL issue) it's great, synced all emails, contacts and calendar over the air using your BIS Internet plan.

Mail for exchange sucks doesn't support multi folder synced. If you're anything like me I don't just dumped everything in the "inbox" folder I actually sort my mails into folders. Again you'll need 3rd party software to get proper sync (RoadSync in this case)...

I've been researching a lot of different smartphones lately and seriously if you're after a smartphone for your Windows centric workplace, you cannot beat either iPhone or Winmo (duh) for most seemless syncing out of the box. Now if you really want a BB like keyboard, I'd seriously have a look at either HTC Snap (should be release soon exclusive to Telstra) or Samsung Blackjack II.

/my $0.02

Can't comment really but I've heard good things about the setup of Exchange on iPhone. Is it Exchange that you'll be using or just plain old Outlook?

Also, I've tried using those Nokias and the buttons kinda suck. The size is fine, but the buttons sorta wanna press real easy around the button you actually want. Same with E51.

Get a Palm Pre or something.

Can't comment really but I've heard good things about the setup of Exchange on iPhone. Is it Exchange that you'll be using or just plain old Outlook?

I would have to say Exchange. Otherwise you can't "sync" with outlook using anything but tethered Activesync desktop software. But yeah iPhone's Exchange syncing is really easy, particularly with self-signed cert, I was able to get it to accept the self-signed cert the first time around (got 1 warning) and that's it and everything just works like you'd expected.

Unlike other solutions (Winmo included) which involved a lot of f***ing around, so kudos to Apple, I really wish these other f***ing manufacturer would follow Apple - I mean f*** if I say "trust" the self-signed cert once you'd think it'd remember that option wouldn't you??? But noooooo we need to dick around with trust and stuff ... man don't get me started on this topic makes me angry.

Oh and if you're using iPhone to sync with exchgne and find your batteries life is really poor, you're not along (common occurrence on any phone using activsync push - because the protocol is, well a pig), try this tip:

http://blog.fosketts.net/2008/07/21/a-few-iphone-exchange-activesync-gotchas/

My work mate was complaining about the batteries life being really crap after syncing, and I showed him the tips now he said the batteries on his iPhone is awesome again. This is an iPhone 3G too so try that.

Nokia's Mail for Exchange work flawlessly for me.

Nokia's Mail for Exchange work flawlessly for me.

I'm saying it doesn't work properly if you have sub folders in your inbox. At least that's as of May this year. Can you see the sub-folders under your inbox or any sub-folders at all when you sync with exchange? Or are you one of these people that just dumped everything in the "inbox" folder and never sort them?

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/itdojo/?p=631

No support for Exchange folders - To synchronize the E71, and other S60 devices, with Microsoft Exchange, Nokia uses a custom application called Mail for Exchange. This application synchronizes your Exchange inbox, calendar, and contacts with the phone. Unfortunately, and somewhat astonishingly, Mail for Exchange only synchronizes the top-level inbox folder. It provides no support for subfolders within the inbox. Most Exchange/Outlook users, that I know, have dozens of inbox subfolders. I have over 50 folders, in to which I sort my mail through a series of rules. I really like the E71 but this failure makes the device a nonstarter for me.

ah i see what you mean. yeah i am only ever out of the office for max 1 day so the mailboxes don't worry me.

But yes, I agree paying for a blackberry server when you already have an exchange server which can push email to a device that supports AS is stupid.

Yes and no. If it's purely push email then sure it's stupid, but a BES gives you so much more than just push email which makes much more sense from a business perspective - mainly making you able to actually enforce policies.

Now if you really want a BB like keyboard, I'd seriously have a look at either HTC Snap (should be release soon exclusive to Telstra) or Samsung Blackjack II.

thanks Opec these do look good. And yes i do use folders.

Is it Exchange that you'll be using or just plain old Outlook?

don't know? I just want all my folders synched as per Opec's post

cheers all i think i know where i'm headed now thanks for all the input