Samsung SCH-i730 (Verizon Wireless)

Pros: form factor, power, sophistication, speed, expandable

Cons: camera (if you need one). verizon's price plan.

Summary: I just tried the treo 650 and the audiovox 6600 for over a week. When I heard that this was on the way, I made an appointment to get one to try as soon as possible and add it to the mix.

Not to bash the treo (it too has a great form factor and a camera), but the amount of software needed to work for a true power user could not emulate what the i730 could do out of the box. The ability to use multiple browsers, read pdf files on the device (and not have to worry about opening it on my pc first and then send it to my treo)was a big plus. I used software on the treo that allowed me to create an alias on the internal memory (forgot the name) and transfer the actual program to the sd card. Well, let's face it, 23mb of ram (or whatever is left) is not enough considering that I installed only 3 programs (they had to go in the internal memory) that I had less than 7mb left. Plus, it never worked like the pocket pc. I use both mac and pc environments and the palm os would work out of the box on both platforms. (I have to use markspace software to sync my mac with the i730). Once again, loved the 650 phone. Great for my kids. Not a true mobile device for the power user who needs as much of his/her office and various email protocols to send and receive all email on the road at all times (treo was buggy with my email. even with snappermail installed).

The 6600 had a nice size screen, but I could not use it for true one-hand operation. Although the i730 screen is smaller, it does offer higher quality over the 6600.

The Picsel browser is great for reading pdf files (native. on the go. you do not need a pc to read them first!). I also have the Netfront browser on the machine. It supports so many standards and the last thing that I am trying to get to work is the flash player that it claims will work on flash sites.

My cradle works fine. I called verizon and they made sure that the cradle worked correctly. I have used the extended battery and it gives me treo-like battery life. I get a full day+ of use (normal business use) with phone, email, internet, etc. and it does a nice job for a phone with all of these features.

Unlike the 6600 and the treo 650 i returned,there is the well-documented non-camera version of the i730 on the market at this time. I have complained about it from the time I placed my order last week and a few things came out of my concerns: verizon data rep said that there is no camera so the wifi could have enough room (?) -and- how many of us have taken lousy pictures with one of these phones/pda's only to realize later that if you really want to capture a moment, use your multi-megapixel camera and not one of these?! I deleted all of my photos when i returned the treo and the 6600 due to the very poor print and lighting quality.

Pick your poison. If you want a camera, wait for another version. I have read that other carriers may bring a camera version out but it may lack the qwerty keyboard (or something on those lines)and possible wifi. Who knows when you only have 15 days to make a decision on one of these.........

It is a lot of money. I took out three phone lines and had the treo650, the 6600 and the i730 for face-to-face testing.

The 6600 was a great device if you do not like the form factor of a smaller phone and if you like poor battery life....the treo 650 was wonderful with a little bit of everything...but falling short when you need the power-end functionality.

The keyboard and input for the pocket pc's provides many ways to get your data on the screen. The small keys of the 650 got on my nerves after a while. It was the only way to get text on the screen as well.

Good luck. Give all of these a full test run before your trial ends and you are stuck with these for up to two years.

EVDO is up to 500+k on the i730.....77k was the max on the other phones on a non-verizon network.

The internal memory config seems to be geared for windows mobile (200)5 ?? I guess we will see...

If you settle on the i730, it appears that it will handle the best that technology has to offer for the near future. Good Luck! I hope this helps someone who was in the same state of confusion that I have suffered over the past two weeks!

I am very pleased with this machine.