BlackBerry or Iphone? Or maybe something else?

[MASTERforge]

I am on the market for a 'smart phone'. It will be used for business purposes my uses will include:

Accessing the internet to log into my shopping cart admin to process orders & develop my shopping cart software.
Logging into my email. This is browser based email since my ISP (Sky) no longer allows pop or smtp.
Posting on forums to communicate with customers.
So I guess I would need Wi-Fi for free spots around the city and another setup for travelling.

Extras I would like:
GPS - Ideally street and road navigation. So when I am walking around a city such as London it can give me directions including pedestrian streets and tube directions. Also I can switch to car navigation for road travel.

Basically I need a small PC/mac that I can use when away from the office. I was on holiday last week and didn't access my work. I had a backlog of over 100 emails that I now need to process. If I had something described above I could have dealt with many of the emails and stuff quickly and wouldn't be playing catch up now.

I have been looking at the IPhone for months but the setup in the UK is really expensive when compared to what else is out there. I found Blackberry's have way more functions but I have never used them.

So I am considering a blackberry instead. I guess many people who go for the IPhone are in a similar dilemma so I would really like some advice or opinions.

[RuralWeb]

I've got both and the iPhone is miles ahead of a BB

[pinbrook]

i use a BB for email (push email not webmail) and its great.

However i probably wouldn't try to use it to run an actinic store, i suspect iphone would be superior.

if i wanted to run a store i'd be looking at the eezy PC from ASUS with mobile broadband

[RuralWeb]

i suspect iphone would be superior

It certainly is and in many respects its email is better than a BB as well

[Mark H]

For anything involving browsing the internet the iPhone is way ahead IMO. The Edge system it uses is still very patchy so most of the time you are on 2G which is slow but useable (except when you are on wifi when it flies). There are rumours that it will be developed this year to be more like a PDA as it runs a cut down version of Mac operating system.

You might also consider a data USB stick (vodafone/orange) and a small PC. Data cards have halved in price recently, I am using a vodafone stick at £15 per month for 3Gb data, often at broadband speeds.

[Duncan Rounding]

I use my ASUS eeepc for mobile access to most things and find it invaluable. I run the supplied linux in it and use the advanced desktop with mostly standard applications. I can manage my stores using Logmein to my office pc through Firefox and it gets pop mail with Thunderbird.

The Huawei E220 3G HSDPA modem (as supplied by Hutchinson 3 for example) connects without any additional software for mobile access, or of course you can use wireless.

[MASTERforge]

That's interesting you are all leaning to the Iphone.

I thought the BB would be the preferred option. The Iphone is seriously expensive if you go the standard route so I would probably be looking at an unlocked version or even possibly using an Ipod touch so I can get on Wi-Fi.

If I fork out about £100 or so more then I can get an unlocked version but then I face the prospect of being locked out if I were to update the software in the future.

Do you have any thoughts on this?

Should I get another mobile phone, and a touch to keep me in gadget heaven?

[Darren B]

the Nokia N95 is rated better than the iphone, but i guess it depends on what you want

it has a better camera
3G
GPS
and dont cost as much

there is also a E70 with a keyboard but i have never had the pleasure

D

[RuralWeb]

The Iphone is seriously expensive

Not really if you use it as a business tool it will soon pay for itself - mine has. I looked at all the the others N95, the new BB, Samsung etc etc and the iphone won hands down its browsing capabilities are out this world. My kids now have my Blackberries but they really want iphones now

[george]

How about the LG Viewty? Or the Nokia N82?

[RuralWeb]

LG Viewty? Or the Nokia N82

Yep - iphone still better imo

[pinbrook]

push email on BB is extremely efficient, i get email to my BB before it arrives on my laptop.

remember push email is a different animal to webmail

[fergusw]

Interesing review of iPhone for UK market here
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/index.cfm?reviewid=1005

The following quote made me laugh:

One of our friends curtly pointed out that the only way he’d spend £269 on a mobile phone was if it had £300 in cash taped to it

[RuralWeb]

push email on BB is extremely efficient, i get email to my BB before it arrives on my laptop

It is and it was the reason I bought a BB and what initially put me off the iphone BUT the iphone uses pop3 and when you connect it to your pc it automatically configures all the pop3 accounts onto itself. I then did a side by side trial with my bb and the iphone was getting emails before the bb so that was enough for me.

[RuralWeb]

Interesing review of iPhone for UK market here

The rates have changed since that was written. But I agree it is more expensive than the rest but it depends how much you use it - as a mobile phone it is way too expensive but add in all the other features and its cheap as chips IMO