BB or Smartphone .. what are the differences.

[Tuckster]

I cannot decide .. I will mainly use the phone for e-mails (and phone calls). I know BB offers alot but I have a friend that has a phone that can access his e-mails he doesn't pay the $29.95. Can anyone offer suggestions etc. ????

[crood]

First off, a BlackBerry is a smartphone. Blackberry's mainly focus on business users who need constant connection to their emails, although those aren't the only users. First and foremost, are you looking to get personal email or is it for a corporate email system? For corporate email, Blackberry offers the highest levels of security. If you're looking for personal email, than there are even non-smartphones that will suffice.

[Tuckster]

Not for business ... I have my laptop and air card with me 80% of the time but like the idea of a phone where I can check my e-mails easily .. without having to log in on my laptop.

[Quint101]

Originally Posted by Tuckster

I cannot decide .. I will mainly use the phone for e-mails (and phone calls). I know BB offers alot but I have a friend that has a phone that can access his e-mails he doesn't pay the $29.95. Can anyone offer suggestions etc. ????

He may be using an older model smartphone. On Verizon, most of the older (and likely discontinued) smartphones don't require a data plan. As of now, only 2 smartphones on the VZW sales site that don't require a data plan atr the HTC Touch and the SMT5800.

All BlackBerry phones require a data plan. All other smartphones (besides the 2 above) also require a data plan as well.

[MrObvious]

The Touch wouldn't be a bad phone if you tweaked it out a little bit. But it doesn't come with wi-fi being the only problem. But you could check your e-mail through IMAP, POP3, or Exchange if you have a company that uses it or you use Gmail's Google Sync.,