Requirements for a smartphone
I am forced to upgrade my company-provided GSM phone, and decided it was time to go for a smartphone. Until now, I have used a Palm PDA and a basic Nokia GSM phone, but carrying around two devices kind of gets on my nerves. I first thought I’d get the new Nokia E70, but decided to list my requirements first.
I mostly use my Palm for
- Calendar, categorized
- GTD lists, i.e. categorized large todo lists
- Contacts, categorized
- Notes, categorized
- Outlook synchronization
- Encrypted password storage
- Occasional web surfing
- Occasional email reading
- Rare ssh connections
I use my GSM for
- Calls
- Contacts
- GPRS over Bluetooth
- Car Bluetooth Handsfree set
- SMS messaging (a lot)
- GPRS Internet connectivity over Bluetooth
The only really particular requirement is the ability to categorize items. I have over 220 items on various GTD lists. The lists are disjoint—viewing them together makes very little sense. Not to mention that browsing such a list would be infeasible.
I have also gotten accustomed to using the Nokia 6820 qwerty keyboard for SMS messaging, so a keyboard comes in high on my requirements list.
So, essentially, what I need is simply a device for a mobile professional with a decent qwerty keyboard. Can’t be too difficult?
Nokia E70 is not a GTD phone
I tried out a Nokia E70 today, to see if it fit my needs. At least it comes with a lot of bells and whistles, including an mp3 player and a feedreader.
Unfortunately, the E70 falls short of satisfying my smartphone requirements. The todo list is essentially the same simple thing that I had in my old 6820, and it just does not cut it. No categories—No GTD. The same goes for the rest of the basic data types—no categories. To put it frankly, I don’t see how any professional would be satisfied with that. With hundreds of contacts, appointments, todos, and notes, not having support for categories simply makes things impossible to manage.
Another thing I noted about the E70 was that despite its very nice form factor, the screen would be hard on my eyes in daily use. Not much fun carrying around a magnifying glass, is there?
Palm Treo 650 or 700p?
After the dismal failure of the Nokia E70 to meet my professional requirements, I decided to look beyond the familiar form factor. Much to my joy, I almost immediately encountered the Treo 650 and the newly released Treo 700p.
The “killer” application for the Treo is the fact that my Palm Tungsten T2 has a very established track record for supporting GTD well. As a matter of fact, I am quite satisfied with my T2 in general.
The downside is the internationalization issues. The T2 just doesn’t grok utf-8, neither in email nor in web pages. Unless that’s fixed in the Treo, the usefulness of the device is reduced significantly. But that’s not a major use case for me, so no showstopper. And of course, there is a chance that Palm got their act together…
Another slight drawback is the large size of the Treo. Or rather, large compared to my GSM phone. It’s not that much bigger than my T2.
There is no information yet about a European version of the Treo 700p. The major advantages of the 700p versus the 650 appears to be significantly increased memory, 3G networking, and better camera. Neither includes WiFi by default. If I could get a 700p “EU” version, I would be very happy, but my schedule for switching phones may just force me to go for the 650. Not ideal, but it would probably match my needs just fine.