Ask Shanghaiist: BlackBerry or RedBerry?

A reader asked if he can hitch onto a China Mobile BlackBerry plan with his "unlocked" handset.

The answer is, we are not sure. Mobile phones work because GSM based cells use a SIM card and therefore doesn't require activation from the vendor side. CDMA handsets in certain territories use a RUIM card, which works much the same way SIM cards do, but not nearly as popular. Think Verizon and Sprint back in the US still require vendor activation(same goes for India), so portability is an issue.

Back to the topic at hand, I don't know how exactly a BlackBerry work, so when you say "unlocked", not quite sure what that means.

Besides, as of now. China Mobile's BlackBerry is only servicing the enterprise segment. Presumably one aimed at individual retail customers is forth coming. When is anyone's guess.

For what it's worth. a 398 rmb/month plan gets u 50 M of data transfer, and a 598 rmb/month plan gives u a whopping 200 M, including 2 M for international roaming.

LAT,

I have not had problems with the phone coverage, one of my only complaints would be that I wish the volume would go up a few more notches. If I am in a very noisy environment, it is difficult to hear. But that is true of all cell phones I suppose.

The other complaint is that the phone book and messaging system are not as integrated as they could be. If you want to SMS someone a contact you have to cut and paste the number. Likewise, if someone sends you a number it does not go directly into your phone book. You can do it, but it just takes more keystrokes than it should.

Yes, I'm very happy with my treo and I would not want to switch over to a blackberry.

However, if you are planning on syncing with exchange server I would check with the IT people at your company to make sure that they will be willing to enable remote access. My firm was not willing to support anything besides blackberrys because of the risk of compromising privileged information. Part of the Microsoft direct push technology that Palm licensed is something called "remote wipe" that would address this concern (it allows an administrator to remotely delete all the data stored locally in the event the phone is lost or stolen) but as I said it has yet to be implemented in palms mail client, Versamail. The windows version of the treo should be able to use this out of the box though.

Jason,

One more follow up, sorry to be asking so many: I have just spent some time reading reviews and forum postings comparing Treo with BlackBerry, and one comment that comes up a lot about the Treo is poor phone quality. Lots of dropped calls. Many of these complaints are from US users (the US has worse mobile service than most places in China), and potentially it could be a service provider issue and not a hardware issue. Have you had problems with the quality of the phone function? Is the speaker good quality? Do you have frequent dropped calls, or do listeners complain about the quality of the connection?

Jason,

Thanks for that. With a Treo and the Chattermail program you mention, it seems I would have the coverage I need. One final question: are you so satisfied with your Treo setup that you will stick with it after BlackBerry is available?

Sorry for the late reply...

It is true that the treo is not technically "push" mail out of the box. Treo has licensed Microsoft’s direct push technology but as of yet they have not updated their mail client to utilize the push feature. The treo can also sync with Microsoft exchange server, so if your company already uses exchange, all you have to do is enable remote access and you will sync with your work mail.

For personal mail, I like to use imap. The advantage of imap is that, unlike pop, you don’t have to DL the whole message to make any changes to it. This means that regardless of where you check your email, from your handheld, your home computer or via webmail, your mailbox keeps track of what you have already read, deleted or replied to. I like fastmail.net, but there are a few other imap providers

You can get a program called chattermail for about US$25 that enables you to have push-like email. I'm not sure if it is technically push mail, but when I tested it out, there was only about a minute delay from when I sent my test messages to when I received them on my phone. Basically, the program keeps your GPRS connection open, allowing it to be “seen” on the network. Because it is not necessary to send or receive data to keep the connection open, you don’t chew up your airtime. (it does not use SMS notification like some of the other push-a-likes) However, Chattermail can cause a little system instability, when I was using it my phone would lock up about once a week…was not that big of a deal though.

In terms of monthly usage fees, I just use the pay as you go system so I’m not sure exactly what my monthly bill would be. But I did not notice a dramatic difference in my phone card usage after I picked up the treo.

The other advantage of the treo, as I mentioned, is that is the abundance of third party programs like media players and dictionaries. A video ipod is certainly cooler, but it is really convenient to have your music, address book, video player, wireless web, and phone in one device.

I am also interested to know more about BlackBerry alternatives, especially those available NOW... I'm not so optimistic about RIM launching in China in May/June considering the history of delays with this project.

Jason, how exactly does your Treo work? Are emails directly forwarded to your Treo? What is your average monthly usage and bill? I admit the dictionary would be a very useful tool.

Are there other machines? I need something that keeps me connected to email with a mobile phone signal while I'm on the road, and with a strong preference for a QWERTY keyboard.

Lat, thanks for the clarification/correction.

Jason, correct me if i'm wrong. Isn't Treo just a fancy PDA/phone, so it only does pull-email as opposed to BlackBerry's pushmail, no?

I am currently using a BBerry with a China Mobile SIM and it has become a very expensive phone. Cannot even get gprs up, can see that I am in an Edge environment and cannot get connected. Frustrating

Why not just get a Treo? You can get your emails the same as a blackberry, plus it has loads of other software available. (like an english to chinese dictionary) I have one and it works fine in China.

Jay,

That is not exactly correct. Current BlackBerry owners with existing service packages, whether from North America, Europe, or other parts of Asia can get roaming service in China from China Mobile or China Unicom... not roaming via the HK network. The obscenity of the bill depends on the roaming charges of these networks, and one's own service package "back home".

Could be wrong 'bout this, but I think all BlackBerries in China are connecting to the HK network via roaming. The bill at month end is pretty obscene, unless of course your company picks up the tab.

Also good to note--you can use Blackberry in China NOW, if you already have a subscription from outside China. My visiting coworkers use it all the time!