Find an Active Sync Mobile Phone

How do you find a new cell phone that can sync well with Exchange?

I love my Qtek 8500 (HTC StrTrk). Even though it has now been over two years since I first got it I haven’t been able to find anything like it to replace it. And it needs to be replaced. Not only because I like new gadgets but also because the front panel came off and I had to glue it back on myself, the extra memory card has stopped working, the signal fails all the time, it hangs and last week a sat on it so the external display is now broken.

So what’s so great about it? I would say three things

  • Exchange synchronization, i.e. Email, Calendar, Contacts and Tasks
  • The small clam shell/flip flop form factor. Before this phone I had never had one but now I would never want to go back
  • Windows Contacts navigation – I love the way results show up as you type. This must be a Microsoft patent as no one else uses this great navigation/look up functionality

Why is it so hard to find a replacement? Well, first of all I want it to be a Windows Mobile which directly limits the choice. Then add that I want it to be clam shell and this limits the choice to almost nothing.

There has been rumors of a 8500 successor, a 3G version – the HTC S420 Erato. But the rumor has been going for over a year and the expected release date has been postponed time after time after time… And there is yet to be an official announcement from HTC.

So, I have decided to give in on it having to be a Windows phone as long as it has good Exchange Synchronization.

But why is it so hard to find out what phones are Windows Mobile or support Active Sync?

  • On Microsoft’s Windows Mobile Homepage you can search for devices but it is far from complete (at least for Sweden)
  • Samsung have Windows Mobile phones, but I cannot find a way to find out which from their home page (Swedish market)
  • I know Nokia has phones with Active Sync but how can I find out which?
  • It is the same with Sony Ericsson, they have Active Sync support for some phones, but how can I find them? They have also announced their first Windows Mobile phone, the Xperia X1 which should be available later this year.

I emailed Sony Ericsson and got a reply where they in fact confirm that this information cannot be found for all models on their home page. But they also gave me a list of current phones with Active Sync:

That last one – the z770 – looks like something I might actually want.

The only question that remains – is Active Sync on other brands as good as it is on Windows Mobile?

4 comments

  1. Hi,

    Could you please send me the steps to configure Exchanghe Active Sync for Z770? I am having tough time configuring it?

    Regards,
    Waseem

  2. I’d love to see an overview of all makes and models of phones that support Active Sync. Can’t see to find one anywhere unfortunately?

  3. Cannot upload

    excel to mysql with special characters

    Dear All

    gone through many articles on uloading excel to mysql

    excellent code in

    http://phpexcel.codeplex.com/

    http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpexcelreader/

    MY issue is i cannot upload following (this is cut and pasted from an excel file)
    where in t1 is actually t and subscript 1 opposite to (n² i.e. n and superscript 2)

    I am unable to copy ∴ , tn (sign ∴ and t subscript n)

    QUES Find the first 3 terms of a sequence whose nth term is n²/(n + 1) Q
    Given: For a sequence, tn = n²/(n+1) AS1
    To Find: t1, t2, t3 AS2
    Solution: tn = n²/(n+1) given AS3
    ∴ t1 = (1)²/ (1 + 1) substituting n = 1 AS4
    ∴ t1 = 1/ 2 AS5
    ∴ t2 = (2)²/ (2 + 1) substituting n = 2 AS6
    ∴ t1 = 4/ 3 AS7
    ∴ t3 = (3)²/ (3 + 1) substituting n = 3 AS8
    ∴ t3 = 9/ 4 AS9
    Ans: t1 = 1/2, t2 = 4/3, t3 = 9/4 CA CA
    With this text with mathematical symbols cannot be uploaded

    Please help

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