Handset recommendations? What to avoid?

[Guest chucky.egg]

Guys

I need some help choosing a new corporate standard phone handsets, and I'm looking for horror stories to rule out the cruddy devices.

I was hoping to have a couple more months to do it in - I need to do it in the next 2 weeks!

We're replacing HTC Wizards (branded as O2 XDA Mini S), but almost nobody is using the PPC functionality so I'm also interested in Smartphones.

Must haves:

Windows Mobile 5 or 6 (Smartphone or PocketPC)

GPRS (3G optional, must have GPRS)

Bluetooth

A full day use from one battery charge

Readily available SIM-free (or on O2 UK)

Nice to have:

QWERY keypad

Mini-USB socket

WiFi

Generally I'm looking for:

Stable devices

"Good" battery life (at least a full day on one charge)

Plenty of RAM to run apps (storage space has never been an issue as we don't carry much data)

Reasonable performance (sluggish phones will get me shot)

Dust under the screen isn't a killer, but it won't win bonus points either!

No heavier than about 170g

Models no older than 6 months

At the moment I have in mind:

HTC Vox (Compact with keyboard)

Samsung I600 (3G Smartphone with keyboard)

HTC Hermes (I don't like these for some reason, but considering it)

HTC Touch (small and light)

What phones do you love, and what would you never buy again?

[Guest conan_troutman]

two of the best in my mind are the O2 IQ (HTC Tornado) and the O2 Graphite (asus jupiter i think) you can check out more of these in there dedicated forums

I would avoid WM6 for the time being as it seems very buggy but thats just my oppinion...hopefully by the next batch of handset released in the next quarter we will see a vast improvement.

I can't really speak for any other devices as I have not used them (well only older models but why take two steps back)

[Guest robertmoir]

Models no older than 6 months

At the moment I have in mind:

HTC Vox (Compact with keyboard)

Samsung I600 (3G Smartphone with keyboard)

HTC Hermes (I don't like these for some reason, but considering it)

HTC Touch (small and light)

What phones do you love, and what would you never buy again?

Isn't the Hermes over 6 months old?

I've got one personally and we're also trialling them for our "corporate" roll-out. So far the people on the trial (most junior of which is my line manager, most senior of which is the big boss himself!) seem quite happy, as do our helpdesk so far.

We've gone the whole "Mobile Data" hog, Wireless Exchange Synch, replacing pagers as well as phones, viewing documents on the go, etc.

One thing to think about with PDA functionality - did people not use it because, well, they're just not bothered? Or did they just not use it because they found it clunky on the Mini-S? Personally, I love this form-factor and my next personal phone will probably be the Kaiser, but if you're certain no one will use the PDA functionality then I wouldn't buy new phones in that form factor - why borrow trouble by buying complexity if you know it'll never be used.

[Guest chucky.egg]

Thanks for the replies folks

I've just got a Vox to try out (after a bad experience with my I600)

If the Hermes is that old then I'll drop it from the list - I need to know that it'll still be available in months to come.

The Tornado was a great phone, and probably does everything that we need (the advantae of the Vox would be the keyboard) but it's too old now.

I think one of the issues with the lack of use is that people don't know what it can do (we need to do some more user education soon), and they don't want to learn anything new. The Mini S is a bit clunky to use, but very reliable, and we've simplified the Start Menu and Today screens to make it easy for them.

Any other suggestions are welcome

[Guest robertmoir]

Thanks for the replies folks

I've just got a Vox to try out (after a bad experience with my I600)

If the Hermes is that old then I'll drop it from the list - I need to know that it'll still be available in months to come.

The Tornado was a great phone, and probably does everything that we need (the advantae of the Vox would be the keyboard) but it's too old now.

I think one of the issues with the lack of use is that people don't know what it can do (we need to do some more user education soon), and they don't want to learn anything new. The Mini S is a bit clunky to use, but very reliable, and we've simplified the Start Menu and Today screens to make it easy for them.

Any other suggestions are welcome

I think it launched about August '06, though I'm not sure it'll be vanishing soon as it's a popular model with WM6 support. But yeah it's a gamble - it might be available for 6 months more but not 12, say.

The touch might be an interesting option (and if you went with this i'd love to hear how your business got on, we're still doing 'trials' with hermes devices). Another option if you can wait might be the HTC Kasier, which is probably best described as a hermes on steroids.

What we'd love is something that supports all the options the hermes offers but in a blackberry type form factor. I can't say I 'get' that blackberry type layout myself but people keep asking for it!