The N80 May Be Nokia's Last Best Hope

I actually think the view that WM phones sync better is now wrong. PC Suite in its latest incarnation is much more reliable. As soon as the phone with Windows Media Sync get released I think the difference will be even bigger.

I've had a lot of problems with an i-mate PDA2k loaner I have. Syncing it reboots my PC!! PC Suite with the N90 works like a charm. Most people have a perception that Windows phones are better, until they use them.

It seems I am not the only one to think that the status of the synchronisation features on Nokia's (and SonyEricsson's) phones make them useless as business tools.
If you think that PCSuite is better than ActiveSync then I suppose you haven't used ActiveSync for a while or you haven't ever tried to sync a phone with two computers.

Just goes to show its a contentious area. Persoanlly I don't have any problems (a change from the past, PC Suite has come on leaps and bounds in the past year). The killer feature for business will be Exchange Sync in the E series phones. I'm sure that will make their appeal to business much stronger.

The out of the box experience for the new Nseries phones is very good. PC Suite supports PC based editing even if you dont sync (suprisngly popular) as well as the extras (file manager, store images etc) and works over a variety of connections (Bluetooth, USB).

For my usage pattern (mutliple phones, both laptop and PC and syncing contacts, calendar and tasks) PC Suite has not let me down recently.

I am really surprised that people in the UK can be satisfied when they must live with absurd limitations such as calendars that don't change the time of appointments when you move to a different time zone. I live in CET and do a lot of business in the UK and it's impossible to deal with appointments and conference calls just using my Symbian phones. Strangely enough my PocketPC can cope with these things very nicely. I don't want to bash Symbian phones but you must be blind not to see how primitive the native applications are compared to the Microsoft ones.
You can't cope with these things just because Symbian is "more stable"...

Utenteanomiimo - evidently a Microsoft solution works for you. I can't say I've ever come across the problem you descibe, but then I not that frequent a time zone swicther. I don't recall this problem, but this maybe because I entered meetings etc. in local time.

I don't find the applications primitive and I'm not blind (though I do wear glasses), and quite honestly for me its my opinion that matters. Making a generalisation is not a good idea. It is a bit like me saying Windows Mobile phones are primitive and you must be stupid to use them because their cameras and multimedia in general are crap, voice functionality is inferior, and most don't do video calling / 3G Data, which clearly would be a bit unfair because it ignores other apsects of the devices.

Rafe: from a feature point of view Nokia phones are much much better than HTC/Windows Mobile phones; no doubts.
BUt just try this: arrange for a phone meeting with someone in your home town at 10am; then travel to Paris, change the phone time accordingly and try to attend the meeting based on the information on your phone.

Put this in the perspective of the american market where they have 4 different time zones; I wonder if the word "smart" can still be applied to that phone!

Fair point. But equally well some people (and this is what I did without realising it) might look to put all entries in their home time (this is what I have done in the past). And some of the time I don't change the phone time. Obviously this is something that probably needs to be configurable and clearly is something S60 might want to address.
Its interesting until you talked about it I hadn't even thought about it!

I've been very disappointed and surprised with how major synchronization problems Windows Mobile 5.0 combined with the latest ActiveSync 4.1 has caused me.

I've been lately using Dell Axim X51v and Qtek 9100 (aka HTC Wizard) both running WM 5.0, but I just can't get them sync with AS 4.1 in Windows. I have tried this both with my home PC (WinXP SP2 workstation with USB) and work laptop (WinXP SP2 laptop with integrated Bluetooth).

I can't get AS connect with these, it just says no device found. AS 4.1 still works without problems with my iPAQ hx4700 (running WM 2003).

Then again the latest Nokia PC Suite 6.70.x has worked very well with the integrated Bluetooth driver of Windows XP SP2 and several S60 and S80 Symbian phones, for example 6630, N70 and 9500 to name a few.

So even though some people seem to automatically assume Microsoft's software works better with Microsoft Windows, that's not always the case.

The timezone problem mentioned by some of the users has been fixed in S0S 9.1 and S60 3rd edition is ok with that. 9500/9300/9300i has the feature allready.

tz42: great news! Thanks! Do you know if this is implemented correctly in the calendar of the new SE 990?

Nokia phones are children's toys. I am sorry but there are no other ways of describing it. The applications are primitive on the series 60. The 9500/9300/9300i are a tad better.
For those who say ActiveSync doesn't work must not have used it in a while, it's simply not true. This site is a Symbian fan-boy site, arguing about which product is superior to another is often a waste of time on fanboy sites.

I have used Activesync with an Orange C500 and an iMate Jam (both Windows Mobile 2003 SE) for over a year with no problems at all.

Unfortunately the C500 broke and I tried to upgrade to an iMate SP5 (Windows Mobile 5). The phone software if a bit better, though not as much in my opinion as most other people seem to think, but Activesync simply would not work. It wouldn't connect to the phone at all.

I returned the phone and switched to a feature phone, using the Jam as my sole PDA but Activesync has never worked properly since.

I'm now thinking of switching to a Nokia N80 or E70. From what I've seen of my mother's 3230 the phone OS is not as advanced as Windows Mobile but the voice quality is much higher. The sync software is also less feature rich but it works flawlessly, unlike Activesync 4.1

From what I read having a pocketpc with the 2003 OS version and sticking to ActiveSync 3.8 has saved me some headaches.... still I must say that my experience with ActiveSync is very positive; definitely I prefer it to the Nokia PCSuite.

I gave up on any other sync mechanism than www.mightyphone.com after using it for less than a week (for my Nokia 9500). No wires, no need to have a laptop with BT. This just works.

And appointments *do* change to my local timezone, when I travel to a different timezone in the US. I'm using T-Mobile, and I have my phone set to update time from the network.

PC Suite? Exchange? I haven't used any of them in months. And I'm happy.

--woodstock

Utenteanonimo64 wrote:tz42: great news! Thanks! Do you know if this is implemented correctly in the calendar of the new SE 990?

Agenda now has a new application engine associated with it featuring timezone support

As the underlying implementation for this is part of Symbian OS 9.1 Agenda Model you can get a taste of this feature in the emulator in the Beta Software Development Kits for either UIQ 3.0 or S60 (Series 60) 3.0. - For the really eager people with some skill at installing complicated software, (it is a developer tool after all).

ttfn

The point of using a ms device is that you are able to sync over the air with an exchange server - without any pc. If you call something a smartphone it should even support a sync for calender entries and contacts, not only pop and imap solution. Sorry guys but in every company I used to work for is a ms exchange server for email communication and meeting requests standard. I use even for private reason one. I think 99% of all business solutions are ms solution.
Dont take my wrong I dont like this ms monopoly and even their politics.
But everything could be so easy i am using a qtek 8310 smartphone with windows mobile 2005 wlan etc. i have never had problems concering sync issues - never.
When i make an appointment key it in my mobile calender afterwards i reach the office open my desktop outlook and it is already in my calender without connecting my phone to the pc.
You have all the time access to your whole folder structure including attachments. So if somebody is asking you you can check older mails with your mobile.
The n80 is going to be a pretty good mobile. But why DONT the include the MS Active Sync protocol???
The could!! Because the E60,70 (even the P990) will support this feature. Maybe for marketing reason. So no wonder that will stay with my MS device.

regards
irm

You right it is for marketing reasons - the Nseries is for consumers, the Eseries is for Enterpsie - they target different markets. Nokia have had a lot of sucess with this strategy.

I suppose if you want Excgange stuff on the N80 you can always go the third party software rouute (e.g. RoadSync).

There's also a lot of business using non-Microsoft solutions (e.g. in mobile email Blackberry is the leader not Microsoft). The Eseries with the Exchange, Blackberry, Visto, Seven etc compatibility is probably a much more attractive proposition for most business'.

i had use the imate sp5 and the imate jam wich is working with WM...i think those phone is a big problem specially in sync and the diffeculty in using the features on it also i think that it's not pracatical to use. In the other hand the nokia is better specially when you use it.it's easy and it's features u can take advantge of every singal features of the phone easly..