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by
katefields
, 01-07-2009 at 02:14 PM (3926 Views)
For the past four years, I have cherished my Palm Treo 650. I've enjoyed its simple user interface, the productivity I gained from it, and even the occasional game or mp3. It was part of my whole persona. To people I know, I am the lady with the Palm.

But the news of the day is that Palm is on its way out. Garnet is apparently old and crotchety, and Blazer is beyond inefficient. Upgrading became an obsession to me, and I eagerly dove into website after website to see what Palm had come out with since the 650's heyday. I was surprisingly disappointed. No new developments to speak of and Verizon seems to take pleasure at stripping their phones down to nothing so the consumer has to pay them for things like internet browsing and GPS. The phones have gotten smaller, but the thought of typing with my fingernails doesn't appeal.

I decided to venture into the world of Windows Mobile. Having had limited (and disappointing) experience with a Windows Mobile device of yesteryear, I was eager to see what Microsoft had come up with recently. I saw--and liked--Windows Mobile 6.1. It has threaded text messaging, it reads and edits Office documents and it has a generally friendly look to it.

After weeks of studying each and every Windows Mobile phone available from Verizon, I decided to jump the good ship Palm (it was sinking, after all), and I settled on the HTC Mogul. One thing that it has that no Palm phone on Verizon in my price range has is a Wi-Fi adapter, and that was just about reason enough for me.

But now the honeymoon is just about over and I'm wondering if I made a big mistake. Comparing the two, Palm is like the Macintosh of PDA phones--far more user-friendly on the surface, and no need to worry about all those internals in there. It does what it does well--it just doesn't do everything.

Windows Mobile is just like anything Microsoft puts out--difficult to use, highly involved, but you can explore through every file on the device to your heart's content and third party software is amply available. But while you get more bang for your buck, that doesn't mean it's done well. For instance, as near as I can tell, I have two different audio programs on the Mogul--and neither of them operates efficiently. One doesn't allow me to control the volume. The other won't create a playlist.

Small things like that are what make or break a device's favorability, but no amount of research can give a prospective buyer that information.

Will I go back to the Palm? It would make life easier, that's for sure. But the advantages of having free Wi-Fi and the other technological improvements that came since the birth of the 650 make me not quite want to go back...yet. This week Palm is announcing a brand new product, and we're all guessing it's a replacement for Garnet. Not that I would want to shell out $500 for yet another phone, but it will be interesting to see what they've come up with.

So in the meantime, I'm going to continue to weigh the benefits and disadvantages of both devices, but I think Palm is going to win out. Whether their ship is sinking or not, they still made a better product.

Updated 01-07-2009 at 02:27 PM by katefields

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