Ask Engadget: What's the best business phone out there?
By Darren Murph 
posted Sep 24th 2009 11:27PM
posted Sep 24th 2009 11:27PM
"I'm in the market for a new phone and money isn't a limitation. I'm also not partial to any particular US carrier, but here are some of the features I'd like to have: WiFi, GPS, good coverage in lots of places, push Gmail (a must!), physical keyboard (a must!), a touchscreen, decent battery life and a relatively slim body. And please, nothing that has a fruit logo on it. No offense to the fruit fans, though. Thanks!"We've a feeling you started something Jimmy, and we're not so sure we're going to like the outcome. At any rate, we'd ask the dear readers to chime in here with a little help, and if you really had "iPhone 3GS" on the tip of your tongue, feel free to list it anyway -- but your reasoning better be really, really good.
Shame about the fruit -- the Mango SL501 would have suited you perfectly.
Touch Pro 2 meets every single one of your requirements.
iphone hands down.
Nothing can beat how easy/simple/fast it's
@Dr. House.
You are obviously still struggling with your hallucinations from your drug induced mental break down.
Btw i did read post duh
"WiFi, GPS, good coverage in lots of places, push Gmail (a must!), physical keyboard (a must!), a touchscreen, decent battery life and a relatively slim body"
But if he prefer a keyboard+touch screen he is doing it wrong, first of all physical keyboard+touch phone with slim phone design does not compute.
Iphone full keyboard in landscape mode is unbeatable, no matter how fast you get touching is always faster than "pressing" real buttons
emails is faster than any other phone specially viewing/uploading pictures/data/etc
Everything else he listed the iphone does it and it does it fast and simple "wifi/gps/good coverage/push gmail/touch screen/slim design/decent battery life"
Instead of asking us not to mention apple "logo" he should list us reasons why he doesn't want the the iphone so we can look for something else that fit his needs.
I was wondering how the no fruit request stopped all of the fanboys, then I looked closer and saw that the iPhone comments were faded into oblivion.
@House: Apple themselves say that the iPhone is not for business: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/24/iphone_apps_not_for_business/
If Apple does not want you to use apps for business use, then perhaps people should not be using the device for business use.
@Dr House
I believe the word is literally not literary and also although the iPod is popular it is not the only device out there, choice is still alive (for the time being.
@nohoe
First of all APPLE have never said that
Secondly what does business users do? fly to the outer space? all what they require the iphone does it best
Thirdly who cares what does APPLE says? if they told ya the iphone make you a coffee would you have believed that? the iphone is out and we already knows it will take over the world once it become contract free and unlocked at 2011 when Apple and AT & T contract is over.
So in the mean time ENJOY your last 2 years with your stupid phones.
@House
First of all, they did: "(ii) Your license of Products as authorised hereunder permits you to use the Products only for personal, non-commercial use, and not for redistribution, transfer, assignment or sublicensee, to the extent permitted by law." You can find these words yourself in the Apple iTunes EULA: http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/uk/terms.html#SALES
Second, what they do is want to use the software for business. But, as given above, they are not permitted to use software downloaded from their store for commercial use, only personal use.
Third, So what you are saying is that we can ignore what Apple EULAs say? Does that mean we are allowed to make unlimited copies of OSX for distribution? Companies like Psystar can build Hackintosh computers without fear of being sued by Apple?
Actually, I have 5 months left on my iPhone contract. I am not sure if I will be upgrading.
http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_e55-review-396.php
http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_e72-2831.php
I agree with WindowsFTW, the touch pro 2 is by far the best business phone out there. It is a little on the chunky side, but the battery lasts 2 full days of very heavy usage (4 hours average of phone calls, 3g surfing, wifi in office, listening to music etc) the keyboard is the best I have used, with a fantastic layout (although you have to get used to using the FN button instead of [shift] for special characters) After one months use I have now managed to get up to an average of 30 words a minute on it. The support of xda and ppcgeeks forums means that the phone can be enhanced pretty much anyway you like. The reception is fantastic and the conference call facility is a life saver.
WiFi Check
GPS Check
good coverage in lots of places I'm in the UK so not sure about US
Push Gmail Check (works flawlessly for me)
physical keyboard Check (best keyboard out there)
a touchscreen Check
decent battery life Check
a relatively slim body Semi Check
To balance out this praise I do have a few personal gripes with it:
1) the built in memory is a bit poor to say the least (512mb), but you can quickly add a 16gb microSD to sort that
2) Its a little slow at first, once you apply the xda patches then it can speed up by as much as 40%
3) to get some of the best features of this phone, such as bi-directional phone conversation recording, you have to unlock the feature
4) no 3.5mm audio jack
But over all it is a fantastic phone and perfect for business use. It also comes with a fantastic little app that allows you to take a photo of a business card which it then OCR's and dumps into your contacts. Sounds sad, I know, but you get some serious phone envy in large meetings when there are lots of business cards flying around.
@WindowsFTW
Screw paying more for the TouchPro2: Why not get the AT&T FUZE/HTC Touch Pro (1st gen)?
They're both the same identical hardware under the hood - however the TP2 does have a bit larger of a screen.
There is no question the best business phone's are blackberry's. Touch screen phones are great toys to play with but that's it. Try making 50 calls a day on a touch screen phone and then try it on a Blackberry Tour and you will see what I mean.
@ Hoss
I agree Blackberries are much better phones for power business users, particularly in corporate environments with the infrastructure to exploit them... but I don't understand your "50 calls a day" argument. I don't see how a touchscreen would hinder you at all when you need to make a lot of phone calls. I thought the point of touchscreen vs. physcial keyboard for business users was easier/faster typing for e-mails and business apps.
Actually, as a business user AND an iPhone 3G user, I must say I am very happy with the iPhone 3G. Have never used BB etc so I cannot compare the mail clients but I feel Apple did a commendable job. It's fast, push gmail now, simple navigation. Widescreen touch keyboards are much easier to type on then hard keys (although not so much in portrait, I will say).
So, I am not sure what you have against touch keyboards, other than knowing that I was against them as well until I tried using one.
Seeing as the keyboard requirement is the ONLY thing keeping an iPhone in the running, I would say, before you buy, hit up an Apple store (if one is nearby) and just try the landscape keyboard out for 5-10 min. That's really all it takes (or took me) and you might be pleasantly surprised.
People who say "no Apple" without even looking at or trying the products are closed-minded. They probably don't eat anything but McDonald's hamburgers because they're too scared to venture out to something as wild as Chinese food! C'mon people...
Palm Pre
Touch Pro 2 is a good option, as is the Hero. I'll just throw in the G1 here because he wanted a physical keyboard. Some people are put off by the G1's looks for some reason, but I really like its simple utilitarian design.
At any rate, I'd say Android is the best business phone out there. Multiple flavors of email support, document support, very useful net apps like FTP, and all the other goodies like GPS and what not.
Both Palm Pre and HTC Touch Pro 2 would be your best bets. It's just a matter of choice and function.
Blackberry Hands down.
It's easy to find anything and everything you receive from multiple people. Contact organization and searching.
ex) E-mail from billy 3 weeks ago or the txt Melissa sent last night or the final revision of a document from a client sent last week.
Multi tasking
ex) You can check business and personal emails, while making final revisions to a business document before sending it out, while checking engadget on the browser, listening to pandora, and running a GPS program so you don't get lost on your way to the new meeting site.
Office use
ex) custom sound profiles and vibration modes for in and out of holster for different office environments.
ex) Easily lockable keyboard with 2 types of lock modes (Standby and locked)
ex)Long battery life, so phone can be in active use throughout a full workday without touching a charger
Blackberry Messenger
3.2MP camera w/flash and video for documenting all those important events and information.
And Crackberrys come with and without camera so people in sensitive fields can use them.
There's a reason the President of the United States uses a Blackberry.... (or did).
it's obviously going to be the blackberry. don't think there's ONE be all end all blackberry that takes the cake. but pretty much all the curves and their younger siblings.
Dude, he said no fruit!
Ok, enough of the blackberry is a fruit too comments. Easy joke, mildly amusing the first time, sure, but he said nothing with a fruit logo.
Except he wants a touchscreen, and the one touchscreen Blackberry that's currently out is a total POS.
Blackberry.
Could the answer be more obvious?
It has to have a touchscreen and a physical keyboard. Read the post.
A blackberry is as close as he will get.
Notice how he said "I'd liked to have" and how he did not add "(a must!)" when he said touchscreen. Read the post.
The post also said no fruit phones. Engadget assumed Apple, as they always do, but isn't a blackberry a fruit as well?
I think he is stuck with a Nokia or Sony Ericsson. Your limiting a lot of stuff by not going fruit logo's.
That eliminates Palm as well. (Google "palm fruit" if you must :-P).
Is there anything more sexier than Nokia E series?
He mentioned no fruit logo's. Blackberry has a bullets from a shotgun logo...
bullets from a shotgun? ever seen an actual blackberry up close?
http://www.assuredproduce.co.uk/resources/000/145/727/blackberry_main.jpg
Touch Pro 2 (whatever carrier you like)
Includes all of the features asked for, including a large touchscreen and generously-sized keyboard (for a phone). Battery life is very good considering all of the capabilities of this phone, and what I use it for on a daily basis (calls, email, web/wifi, gps w/google maps, music, etc.) MicroSD slot for expanding up to 16gb of storage, and all of the apps you care to find on the interwebs. It's not the thinnest of phones, but considering you want a hardware keyboard, they tend to be a bit thicker.
Another plus is that if you don't mind waiting a month or so, every US carrier will have it, so you can pick and choose for which coverage you want. It'll be launched/upgraded with WM 6.5 (also, there's all of those XDA devs' upgrades)
Physical Keyboard + Touchscreen + Wifi + GPS + Push Support + Customizable = Win
If money is not an object, I would say this device meets your requirements best.
HTC Touch Pro 2 (Verizon)
I think that this person wants a GOOD phone. No offense to HTC. It's windows mobile that messed this one up. As much as I love Microsoft (AND I DOOOO!!!!) I just can't stand WinMo 6.1.
Um, it's winmo 6.5. And what stops that from being a great business platform? The HTC touch pro 2 is a GREAT phone. How did winmo mess that phone up (and all other HTC phones besides the android devices it recently released, which is NOT a good business platform). Have you even USED touch flow 3d? It's GREAT, and makes the winmo experience touch friendly, cool looking and fun. Have you ever USED the TP2? Obviously no. Nice of you to clarify you like Microsoft to make your comments seem legit though. You have clearly never used the device and are in no position to recommend any phone, for anything.
HTC TP2 has EVERYTHING this guy is looking for and does a great job at executing it.
what about palm pre? =D
win mo 6.5 will be good, free upgrade :)
I think phones that crash frequently should be disqualified. Right now that's just about any WinMo phone you can name.
I've got to second the Touch Pro 2 nomination...
- best looking Touch Pro 2 imho
- EVDO rev A plus quad band GSM (so business boy can take it around the world)
- great keyboard for a phone
- 3.5mm jack (always important)
- and while I understand disgust or trepidation directed toward WinMo... you can always tweak the system with different apps, UIs, and cooked ROMs to get the most of out the phone
- decent size for all of the capabilities... though may not be small or thin enough for the guy in question
Just my two centimes,
FraggleRock
Yeah I think it is going to be the Palm Pre or HTC Touch Pro 2, for some reason people ignore that you wanted a touch screen, wifi (which excludeds Verizon BB's) and something small with Push Gmail. That is Palm Pre for sure. I don't know if the Touch Pro 2 has Push Gmail, and still we don't know how good WM 6.5 is so who knows. And iPhone just is NOT a business phone.
Another vote for the TP2. I have the TP right now and it is a great business device.
As for crashing ... I reset my phone about once every 2 weeks. I turn it off about once every 3 days just to clear things out. It's a great phone - especially now since it is running 6.5.
That gets my vote too.
Best business phone currently on the market, bar none.
And yes,
Touch Pro 2 Has Push Gmail
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/09/get-push-for-gmail-on-iphone-winmo-via-google-sync.ars
Get push for Gmail on iPhone, WinMo via Google Sync
Another vote for the TP2. It's not your slightly older cousin's winmo.
I have the Verizon TP2 and it's great. Quick phone, you can ignore an incoming call and have it automatically send a txt letting them know you'll call them back. Great speaker phone with noise cancellation. I don't get the "I can hear myself talking" from people anymore. You can link your contacts facebook accounts so it updates their pictures and status automatically, also saves their birthday to their contact.
Bluetooth 2.1 is nice but I have problem with slide-answer and my car's navi so I set it to automatically answer when connected to hands free. The camera takes nice pictures but I wish it had a flash.
Complaints. The phone needs like 5 seconds to recoup after hanging up a phone call, you can't just hit end and start doing stuff. Also when it connects to my car's navi it pauses for 5 seconds as well. Basically it seems like it lags when turning a radio off. Also the VZW version has a stupid "message sent" popup when sending a txt but that can be fixed with a cab install over at XDA http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=517
Looking forward to HSPL and some Manila 2.5 soon. http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/forumdisplay.php?f=98
HTC Touch Pro 2 (SPRINT)
I agree with the Touch Pro 2 as well. I bought mine from T-Mobile the day it came out and I have been quite impressed with this phone.
The obviously best fit is the TP2 (especially Verizon). Only place it doesn't quite work is the "somewhat slim" category. It looks much bigger in pictures than in person, though. When I got it it genuinely surprised me with how small it is.
Pre maybe, but he asked for good coverage (Verizon>Sprint) and said "business." I'd say about 80% of the big corporate guys I come in contact with use Windows Mobile (rest use BlackBerry). Not sure where the Pre fits in with business.
Love Engadget's weird little ending here: "We've a feeling you started something Jimmy, and we're not so sure we're going to like the outcome."
-Why? It's not going to be Apple? Probably going to be WinMo?
"...and if you really had 'iPhone 3GS' on the tip of your tongue, feel free to list it anyway."
-Thanks a lot a-holes! I'm pretty sure Jimmy didn't want that, since, you know, he put it directly in the question. Way to mess up the results!