Best Cell Phones For The Music Biz?

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Last night while waiting for a delayed flight from Providence to Chicago, I thought it would be a great idea to catch up on some overdue items that had been put off due to recent travels combined with my hatred of working from a Vista based laptop.  Unfortunately, my supreme visions of productivity were crushed when I was forced into the realization that the only available wi-fi connection was a shady T-Mobile Hotspot and that all airport power was lost due to thunderstorms.  Suddenly, I had dreams of ditching the airport security inhibiting laptop and working completely from my back pocket cellie.  This, of course, all leads to the question of the day.  What is the best cell phone/communication device for those in the music business? 

Obviously, given the nature of technology and constant changes within the music industry, device needs can vary greatly among individuals and positions, but from my experience, hardcore networking minded folks tend to be Blackberry, Sidekick, iPhone, or Treo users.  Inner circle power brokers like Jay Z have been seen using the Blackberry Curve, while DJ Clue seems to have an affinity for the Sidekick, and Pharrell keeps the Treo, iPhone, and Blackberry in his collection.

As an email junkie, my personal choice of late has been the Blackberry 8830 World Edition, which I’ve been quite happy with due to its flawless execution of push email and RIM’s brilliant insight into the wonders of copy/paste.  However, I’d really like a better browser than Opera Mobile and the release of Mobile Firefox still looks to be fairly far off in the future.  Also, I’m still searching for a satisfactory Blackberry IM client capable of supporting multiple services. 

Which devices are you rockin’, lusting over, or recommend for aspiring or pro industry people needing to stay in constant contact via email, text messaging, IM, GPS, and a somewhat realistic web experience?

268 thoughts on “Best Cell Phones For The Music Biz?”

  1. You know, I have been using the Blackberry for a couple years now and I am more then happy with it. No phone handles emails better….

    I’ve been wanting to use opera, but I have major issues connecting with it..

  2. I’ve never been one who has the fiscal acuity of having a cell
    that does email decently. I’m looking into the Blackberry as my former boss is a road warrior and he uses it 85% of the time on the road.

  3. Even though it is a little bulky the LG Voyager is my all in one. I can access the web, my personal email account, read the NY Times, use the excellent navigation (offered through Verizon), play music (expandable up to 8GB, or even get my Guitar Hero on.

    Now that’s a PHONE!!

  4. I just got a Treo 700wx last week. I do a lot of geek stuff with it (ssh/vpn/vnc/remote desktop) which it handles with a lot of work put into it (probably not worth it, but just the fact that I *can* do it appeases my inner geek).

    It handles POP/IMAP email well, and Exchange syncing with ActiveSync works well. It doesn’t have Java, so I can’t run the gmail app. One thing that I like about not using a Blackberry is that, as far as I am aware, all Blackberry mail goes through a central server/location – so if that server(s) goes down (and it has once (really, 99% success rate is something to be praised) been the victim of some network-wide downtime) you’re left without access to email. Again, this is the paranoid side of me talking…

    With a hefty amount of customization and a few 3rd party applications, you can get a pretty sweet setup on the Treo 700wx… It’s my (slightly educated) guess that, unless you have an extraordinarily specific need/requirement, then you’d be fine with just about any device you get. On a side note, however, if you’re not going the Blackberry route, it’d be good to pay attention to whether it’s a “smartphone” or a “PocketPC” because different software runs on different devices.

  5. @SoulBeats – Wow… the LG Voyager looks like an amazing phone. Gets great reviews too.

    @Jimbalaya – One thing I loved about my previous PPC 6700 was all the 3rd party software available with its Windows Mobile OS. In the end, guarding the touchscreen against damage, constant freezing, and strange Windows Mobile bugs drove me nuts. Your right about email though.. every once in a while there will be a Blackberry outage. Not a huge deal to me, but I can only imagine how somewhat common outages could effect people needing to received vital emails.

  6. i’ll choose the blackberry over the iphone or anything else, for that matter. im heavy on the cut and paste!

  7. I got a crappy little Krzr for now but was actually about to get that Blackberry World. Wifey got a Curve and I haven’t heard the end of how much better her phone is than mine since. My sister is looking at a Sidekick.

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