I said this 18 months ago when the iPhone was first announced.  I thought it was all drool worthy - then I learned more and didn’t get one.  The wife did (a 4GB model after the price cut) and so did a few of my co-workers but I didn’t.

If my previous phone hadn’t gotten smashed when it did I might have bit the bullet last year - but when I needed a new phone last April the Treo 750 seemed the best of the smartphone lot.  Honestly I like the 750 a lot.  Initially it was extremely unstable and I ended up returning my first one, but my second one was better and upgrading it to Windows Mobile 6 helped a bit too.  However my 750 isn’t without it’s flaws, not the least of which is that it has the annoying ability to suffer random memory leaks - severe enough that I can actually watch the free memory tick away in the resources window.  The only way to stop it is to reboot - and the 750 is slow to reboot.  I could almost understand the memory leaks if I ran a lot of third party apps on my phone - but I don’t run any.

There were four things about the iPhone that made the decision to pull the trigger on the 750 easier:

  • Locked to AT&T
  • Can’t use it as a modem
  • No voice dialing
  • No 3G Data

The first one could actually be chalked up as an annoyance.  We do travel overseas and have pre-paid SIM cards for when we travel.  Since the iPhone is locked we can’t use it with our SIM cards - but we have several “retired” phones that are unlocked and work which could be used overseas if need be.  But still, if I didn’t have to swap phones I’d rather not.

The second one is a little bigger.  While I don’t do it often, it is nice to be able to tether my laptop to the 750 and use it to connect to the internet - especially where there’s 3G data service.  I don’t do it enough to justify getting an PCCard modem and plan, but for the few times a year when I’m on the road and there’s no free WiFi around it’s nice to have.

I think the voice dialing is also more annoyance than anything else.  I used to use it a lot with my bluetooth headset and my 750 but since I haven’t been using the headset lately I haven’t been using the voice dialing.

My big reasons for wanting 3G data is related to the second issue - in large part so I can tether my laptop and use the phone as a modem.  However it is exceedingly convenient to have a speedy internet connection in the palm of your hand.  One plus of the iPhone is the browsing experience - on the other hand while the 750 has a fast connection - Pocket Internet Explorer pretty much sucks.

Of my list - the only one for sure that’s going to be met with the new iPhone is 3G data.  There’s no word that any of my other issues have even been looked at.

But everyone I know who has an iPhone raves about it.  I’ve used The Wife’s iPhone and it’s not bad.  The screen is gorgeous, the sound is good, and it synchs with iTunes - the 750 can play music well, but doesn’t synch with iTunes.  Heck except for 3 of the four issues above - the iPhone does everything I want in a phone.

So, do I make the switch or not?