You need to differentiate your wants from your needs as far as phone options go. I pay ( well my company pays and I approve it ) $59.00 a month for unlimited data connectivity on my laptop with an embedded EV-DO card Rev. A. No data limit. It also has embedded bluetooth and WiFI and VoIP softphone ( Nortel) that I can conenct to my office VoIP network when I'm vpn'd in. My cell phone runs around $80.00 a month with essentially everything.
SInce my laptop is always with me, I have the best of both worlds when I have cell phone coverage.
Having the most gadgets does not make you the most productive. Knowing what gadgets to use when is what counts.
Well in my case I need the PIM features for work. I have hundreds of contacts,and the voice dialing feature is quite handy.
The wifi is simply because I am too cheap to pay for unlimited data, though I do use a quik2net connection out of minutes for occassional usage and email checking. I have about 1400 minutes so am already over $100 bucks on my plan. That is for two phones, and we don't have a business or home phone anymore.
They don't have evdo coverage here anyway, so it would be national access, and I can't see paying the prices for that.
The Qwerty is because I am getting tired of stylus entry.
I use the office apps fairly frequently, taking minutes at meetings, outlook for scheduling, etc. I do my company expense and activity reports in excel anyway so am thinking of doing them on there.
I would really like an Axim like cable for presentations, but they have not gotten a great solution for run of the mill pocket pc phones yet. That would be the killer app for me as I do presentations fairly often.
I don't like to carry my laptop unless I have to, as the PDA does most things for me. It lasts a lot longer without plugging in at meetings too.
As to wants vs. needs...the i700
http://www.mobiletechreview.com/samsung_i700.htmdoes everything I need, and most that I want. So there is no reason to upgrade unless I get a few bonuses
Right now the I730 looks like it would have most everything I need AND want, with the exception of a camera. The I760 is coming out soon and is even better yet wtih WM 6 and a camera, and I will just have to see if it is priced competitively The only thing I don't like about this Samsung line is the size. But you can't get full pda functionality without full size. It looks like the 1760 will be thinner at least.
I am also half-way looking at the pantech 820, since it is a flip-phone form factor, but it just may not have all the options I need.
