Nokia E61 vs Nokia E62 versus BlackBerry Pearl vs HTC Wizard

So here is a picture of a Nokia E61 next to a Nokia E62 next to a BlackBerry Pearl. The picture was taken with a HTC Wizard (poor photo quality).

Which is the best email device?

Well, I feel the best email device now is the BlackBerry 8700. It feels different as a phone. As a BlackBerry, it does stuff much more efficiently than the BlackBerry connect on the E61 or E62. BlackBerry connect does not synchronize the contacts across from Exchange/Outlook via the BES server to the Nokia. Therefore, you will be unable to get corporate Global Address Book phones numbers and such. It does show email address, but that is it. Do note that as soon as you connect via BlackBerry connect on the E61/E62, that the security policy will apply and unless you know your PIN for the phone, you will be unable to unlock the phone.

I haven't been able to get Nokia's Mail for Exchange service working on the E61. Will be trying on the E62. However, I LOVE Microsoft's ActiveSynch DirectPush on the Cingular 8125 with the AKU2 ROM. Calendar, Contacts, Email synch up just fine, and messages come across just slightly slower than on the BlackBerry devices.

Also, the messaging application on the E61 and E62 is very slow. From the time you click on the main screen, it will take about 2-3 seconds to load the BlackBerry connect/Nokia messaging application. Then when you click on a message, it will take another 3-4 seconds as the screen goes blank, the message starts loading, the progress bar appears, the message loads, then formats.

Another annoyting thing with the E61/E62 is the messaging application does not display attachements such as JPEG. The HTC Wizard Windows Mobile device will allow you to download and view these, and the BlackBerry devices actually render these images.

Finally, regarding the E61 versus E62. It appears there is some data difference as a BlackBerry SIM will get BlackBerry and be able to browse the internet at the same time. It appears that it is using wap.cingular as the APN and not the GPRS APN. I will have to delve deeper to find the differences, but it also has MediaNet and several other APNs set by default. Another difference is that the data connecter and headset connector on the E62 are different than the E61. The E62 has a standard 2.5mm headset jack and mini USB, while the E61 has a Nokia POPPORT for data and headset. They both have infrared. Even though the E62 has a miniusb jack for data, it does NOT charge the phones. Bummer. It appears it's only used for data transfer.