[quote=“braxtonhicks”]
What I want most is the little qwerty keyboard. Although I do not access the internet on my phone (I’m online enough as it is) I do sends lots of text messages (cheaper and more efficient than calls) and often journal, make notes, make shopping lists, update expenses, access lesson plans, etc… Sure Palm might be ‘archaic’ now but I’ve probably used it for around ten years and I kinda like things to be familiar.[/quote]
If you have a lot of legacy PalmOS 4/5 apps you still would like to use, then a logical choice would be the new Palm Pre. However the hitch there is right now you can only get one thru Sprint (I believe they’re also sold $900 w/o contract), and there is no GSM model available (meaning you would not be able to make calls in Taiwan). I too have actually used Palm devices for quite a while (My first was a PalmPilot Professional). However, I think nowadays there are much better smartphone products than the Treo that are just generally easier and more pleasing to use.
Graffiti is nice for inputting short bursts of text like a to-do list, but it is pretty slow and tiring if you are going to be composing an email or anything of that sort. I think a thumbpad or virtual onscreen keyboard with good predictive text is a lot more convenient than Graffiti. Just my $0.02 there.
Not sure what capability you want your phone to have in this regard, but with most smartphone operating systems there are ways to get chinese IME (input method editors) installed. As for programs like stroke flashcards or dictionaries, i’m sure you can find them around for PalmOS, iPhone, and WinMo.
Basically what you want is a phone that minimally has “Quad-band GSM” and is unlocked. Being unlocked is important, as otherwise you will have to use the international roaming plan of whatever domestic carrier it is locked to. That could mean the difference between $2/min and $0.02/min phone calls. If you want a 3G phone, 2100MHz is the frequency used in most parts of the world (including Taiwan) except the United States. In the US, you need 850MHz/1900MHz for ATT-Cingular and 1700 for T-Mobile. Since these frequencies are used less frequently outside the US, you’ll most likely need to buy a phone branded by the US carrier in order to access it.
I think it’s been mentioned before in this thread, but remember that in Taiwan, most smartphones sold are Chinese-only. They often go as far as to prevent you from installing English interface text. Of course there are ways to get around this for the technically saavy, but you should definitely inquirer with the shopkeeper as to whether he can install English for you before you commit to a purchase.
Are your lesson plans made in MS Office suites? If so then I believe BlackBerry’s OS or Nokia Symbian 60 phones have converters readily available. You really don’t have too many choices when it comes to SmartPhone OS’es. If you have relatives in the States who’d be coming to Taiwan I suggest getting a Treo 750p from Newegg.com - it has all of the GSM bands as well as UMTS 2100MHz for 3G carriers like Vibo.
If you’re not much of an internet user I actually suggest getting a BlackBerry. If you arent going to sign up for a data plan then BB is your best bet since it needs to route all its traffic to RIM’s server and if you don’t have the proper plan there will be no internet so no surprise charges when the bill arrives. QWERTY BlackBerries have very good keypads for texting IMO, and they have most basic PDA functions built in, including sync with Microsoft Outlook.
Just so you can plan, the iPhone 3G S will be here as early as next week, the HTC Magic Android phone too. Within 2 months we’ll see a cheaper Andoid phone made by Samsung, and Google has talked about 20 more Android phones coming out before the year ends.
The 3G S won’t be in Taiwan until August 9th.
Need to have a play with the Nokia N97, as I’m curious to see as how good the keyboard and the handset is.
There is another thread here with recent recommendations.
I like the A series Samsung and it’s my go-to if I ever need an additional phone or if I lost a phone while traveling and needed an immediate back-up. Xiaomi gets really good reviews even though the are cheap. I never liked my 2 cheapo Oppo.
Here’s the other thread, but not everything suggested is under 10,000NT
@hannes if you’re signing a contract, I highly suggest the Pixel 3A (if you’re with Taiwan Mobile). I think with 999NT, 2 year contract, the phone comes to around 8000NT.
