Blackberry Versus Sidekick

Any opinions?

1. I prefer the Blackberry.  I like the smaller keyboard, and the fact that it does more.  The new Blackberry Pearl is a phone, computer, MP3 player, and camera.  Plus, the SideKick is only available on T-Mobile (right?) while you can get a Blackberry through several different companies.

   Posted by  on  10/05  at  07:44 AM  from 

2. What exactly are they? PDA? Little computers? I’ve always been curious

   Posted by Ith  on  10/05  at  11:01 AM  from 

3. Heh.  Depends which one.  The original Blackberry concept was a portable e-mail device, plus some PDA functioanlity, that routed everything through their own network using either your own computer’s e-mail (you’d have to leave the computer on), or a server in your company that tied to their mail server (huge part of Blackberry’s business).  You would get a copy of everything, or a copy of specified items (like just stuff from your boss, or whatever, like typical mail filtering/rules).  Even if you didn’t have it forward mail, you could have it sync your mail to the device and be able to read and compose replies offline.  It also would synchronize with your schedule, and if you didn’t have Outlook or another supported one, it came with its own software.  So you could schedule stuff on the Blackberry, or view scheduled stuff, and have it synch with your computer and, in corporate environments, your company’s Exchange server.

   Conversely, the original Palm and related PDA concepts lacked wireless e-mail, essentially doing just some of the offline and other pocket computer type functionality, like creating and viewing docs and spreadsheets with minimalist versions of those programs.

   Blackberry tended to sprout more PDA functionality with time, and the others started to offer wireless e-mail and even web functionality - thus blogs that have a PDA option to optimize reading it that way.

   Ultimately some of them, notably the Treo, sprouted cell phone functionality too, and you started seeing things that looked, no accident, particularly like Star Trek communicators.

   Now Blackberry also offers devices that work through cell carriers like T-Mobile and Verizon, which brings us to the Sidekick versus Blackberry question.  I need to go look at what each one is like, as it has been a while.  It’s going to be a matter of features and form factor and whether the costs differ.  More than, as someone noted, Blackberry being more universal, since we’ll be locked in for 2 years and likely to want a new device after that time.

   Posted by Jay  on  10/05  at  11:27 AM  from  Blogblivion, of course

4. If you go to t-mobile.com and click the phones link there you can see they also have what they call there SDA phone and and MDA.
   I havn’t used a blackberry or sidekick so have no clue what is better. Though it would seem like the sidekick is more of the cool toy thing and the blackberry more of the business thing. From t-mobile the sidekick is more money. There are aslo 3 or 4 different models of blackberry to choose from.

   I would suggest to shop around and check them out. Most of the time the people at the phone stores are more then glad to let you check them out and show you the features.

   I also find that you get better deals at the kiosks in the malls then you do at the store locations.  Also differn’t places will give you different deals. I have gone into a store in the mall and had them give me there best price only to walk to the kiosk down the hall and have them offer me the same phone free.

   Posted by wayne  on  10/05  at  05:18 PM  from  Ohio
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