[sturner]

Well now I'm in a quandry. I had my heart set on a BB Curve 8330 until this afternoon when my good friend, who happens to work in the corporate offices for Verizon Wireless called and said he has a brand new XV6800 Windows Mobile based smartphone ready for me if I want it. Free of charge! He gets all types of phones from time to time that he frequently gives to friends and family.

I'm going to be syncing with a Windows Exchange server running Outlook 2007 with OWA. From what I've read the Windows Mobile based units will do a wireless sync with email, calendar, tasks, and contacts without desktop installed software. This I guess is one of their strong points.

This is a pretty enticing proposition although I haven't read a whole lot on XV6800. Anyone have any thoughts, opinions? Should I stick with my initial decision and go with a BB or try out a free xv6800???

[penguin3107]

If you went with the BlackBerry, would you be on BIS, or BES?
If only BIS... then I'd say go with the free XV6800. Can't beat the price and you'd get more functionality. (Wireless PIM sync in addition to email.)

Without knowing your needs, it's impossible for anyone to help you make a good choice.
Your requirements would determine the best device for you.

[hnsimpson]

Wirelessly posted (8310 AT&T)

Free is always good.

Not always better, but always good.

I would take the free device, use it as long as I could stand it, then make a move to a new device.

You may love it...if so, it's a win for you.

You may hate it, if so, you have no $$$ invested.

Good Luck!

-simpson

[sturner]

Thanks guys for the reply. I would only be on a BIS since my office has no desire to go with a BES. My main priority is to get email pushed to my device in "real time" and be able to keep my calendar and task list updated on the fly. I never was too keen on having to "hard sync" a BB in order to sync everything other than me email. I also need the phone to be of good quality as it will be my only cell phone as well, but I really don't use it all that often.

[sturner]

One other question. I have 2 separate calendars on my pc at work, both in Outlook. One is a personal calendar which I believe is local since no one else can see it and the other is a public calendar that is used by everyone and it really is only used to see who is in the office when. I really really need my personal calendar to sync with my phone. Is there a way for me to set up which calendar I sync with? This is actually a pretty important issue for me as the public calendar is of no use to me when I am out of the office. I do all of my scheduling on my personal calendar.

[penguin3107]

Originally Posted by sturner

My main priority is to get email pushed to my device in "real time" and be able to keep my calendar and task list updated on the fly. I never was too keen on having to "hard sync" a BB in order to sync everything other than me email.

For this reason alone, you should go with the Windows Mobile device.
The BlackBerry on BIS won't meet your needs.

[customshopkv1]

I had the XV6800 from December 07 till April of this year. The bluetooth would work with my Parrot system in my car or my bluetooth headset. I got no reception in my building at work (Blackberry 8830 works perfect inside). OS is not as stable as the Blackberry devices. I spent a lot of time at xda-developers.com and upgraded the os to a custom rom that enable EVDO Rev. A and GPS. I liked the device except for the bluetooth and reception issues. It might work good for you. It's always good to get phones for free.

[sturner]

Thanks for the replies. Two things I'm concerned about with the XV6800 are the stability of Windows Mobile and the battery life. Everything I've read so far pretty much concludes that the battery life is poor. Still on the fence as I still think I would like the BB interface better. The hard sync for my calendar and tasks doesn't bother me all that much even though the advantage goes to Windows Mobile for ota sync.

[customshopkv1]

You can plan on doing a soft reset once a day. I did it more then once a day due to memory leaking. I would also charge mine all night, get up at 3am and use the phone all day and not have to charge till the evening. You can get a high-cap battery also.