BlackBerry 7100t - Siemens SX66 - Treo 600

Many of you don't know what I do for a living, and when I tell people, they still don't really seem to understand. I do web design and phone support for Texas Instruments. The only real design that I do for them is internal web pages that are used for our Mobile Solutions Website. That might sound like something simple, but our website consists of three different service providers, coverage maps, international calling plans, Installation manuals, Frequently Asked Questions, and over 40 different phones and handheld devices to choose from.

I didn't design the website from scratch, my job, and only a small amount of my job, is to keep the site updated with new information. And, as you can imagine, new phones come out almost on a daily basis, so the site has to be updated frequently. We constantly test new phones, car kits, BlueTooth Headsets, and Symbian phones that have email capability.

I have had the opportunity to own and test the BlackBerry 7100t, the Siemens SX66 and the Treo 600. Of all of them, the BlackBerry 7100t is my favorite. It allows me to check my email quickly, it is lightweight, it has BlueTooth so I can connect a wireless hands-free earbud, it has GPRS web browsing capability, and it can browse internal web pages that are only accessible from within TI. Price: ~$200

BlackBerry 7100t

My second choice out of the three devices is definitely the Siemens SX66. It has a Windows Pocket PC operating system, an internal WiFi wireless card, GPRS, a large color touch-screen with high-resolution, and a keyboard that slides out from the bottom. You can read Microsoft Office files, download Quake, and even a utility that will allow you to use it as a remote control for your television! If you want a mini-computer that has all the bells and whistles, then this is your handheld device. Price: ~$600

Siemens SX 66

My least favorite of the three handhelds is the Treo 600. It has the Palm OS installed on it and so it works the myriad of Palm applications that are out there on the market and downloadable for free from the web. It has a full QWERTY keyboard at the base of the device below the screen, but I found that my fingers were just too big to type on it comfortably. It also comes with a camera, but the quality of the pictures are so bad that they shouldn't have bothered (The new Treo 650 is supposed to have a better camera). It is also bulky, and the screen resolution pales in comparison to the SX66 or the BlackBerry 7100t Price:~$399

Treo 600

So, that is a brief overview of these devices and what I do at work. I order these devices, I design internal websites for these devices, and I support any problems that happen with these devices such as email setup, operating system installation, etc.

Hope this didn't bore you to tears.