I'm trying to find a good wireless email device/service for my wife. She doesn't need it to be a phone, in fact she'd probably prefer to have a seperate phone. It needs to have text input better than T9 (QWERTY keyboard preferred) and it needs to be able to retrieve from POP email accounts. T-Mobile doesn't work at our house and I'm not sure about Sprint. Verizon and ATT/Cingular are fine.

I thought I would be able to find a device for under $200 and service for around $25. It looks like I was wrong on that one. Blackberry was my first choice but plans seem to be at least $50. That's more then we are willing to pay.

I think Sprint's data plan is a $15 add on for the Treo 650. But I don't see a standalone data service for the Treo. The device is $310 after rebates from Amazon. This seems to be the best option but not ideal.

Cingular has a $20 data plan though I'm not clear whether that can be used with PDA phones and whether it requires a voice plan. They only have the Treo 600. They also have some new LG phone with a QWERTY keyboard but it's marketed for teens to do IM and it's not clear whether it has an email client. It claims to run Java but I don't think it's an open platform otherwise.

Am I missing something? I expected this to be an easy thing to find. But everything seems to be marketed at teens doing IM/SMS or if it is designed for email it is priced for corporate accounts. And, BTW, is it illegal or something for wireless providers to make good web sites?

Cingular's $20 data plan is something you add onto an existing account. Standalone, they want to charge much more for Blackberry or data-only plans. The cheapest way to get a Treo 600 going would be $20 for unlimited data on top of the $29.99 calling plan. Things get better if you've already got a Cingular phone. You can get a FamilyTalk plan, getting plenty of minutes for one phone, and pay $20 for unlimited data for the second phone. I don't see any easy way to buy a data-only plan.

T-Mobile offers a $30/month unlimited Internet plan that is what you really want, pricewise, but you have coverage issues.

Verizon wants $50/month, either for a PDA or a Blackberry.

So, when you say "T-Mobile doesn't work", do you mean zero coverage or just poor coverage? It may be the case that the data service is usable, even if/when voice service sucks. You're getting best-effort, which may be good enough for the price you want to pay.

Well I do have an Audiovox 5600 on ATT. I haven't had any reason to switch to Cingular so I haven't. Plus, I'm not sure if Cingular will officially support my phone. But maybe it's worth doing so now. It's too bad they only have the 600 and not the 650. Do you know if their Blackberry phone can be used as a generic data device without the special Blackberry service?

TMobile gets no coverage at all at my house. TMobile won't even let me initiate service from my zip code and friend's phones get no service.

I believe Sprint has the Ogo, but I dont have one to say if its good or not. ( ogo.com )

I know it's not what you're looking for, but I thought I'd just throw it in. Eventually I'm planning on getting a bluetooth PDA for this very reason. I have a Sprint phone and a $15 per month unlimited data plan, and I can use it as a wireless modem if I have a PocketPC PDA with bluetooth. Of course, this seems to only be possible with the SE T608. Boy, that's a lot of hurdles.

I will, however, say that I've had a positive experience with Sprint so far. I had TMobile for two years, I think. I would NOT recommend them. The best reception areas on TMobile have been as good or better on Sprint, and I've been in several places where TMobile gave me ZERO reception, but Sprint gives me FULL reception. That's just poor, if you ask me. I'm not talking about the middle of nowhere, either. I only live 15 minutes outside Washington DC.

I didn't think sprint did, but I know AT&Cingular has the ogo. It's supposed to be exactly what you're looking for (cheap email (and IM) device). It's supposed to be cheap and plasticky, but there are rumors of hacking its bluetooth support, but I havn't gotten to the bottom of them yet.

Matthew

Ooh..go.... this looks promising. $100 for the device and $20/month for unlimited messaging. That's precisely what I was looking for. I'll have to do some research and see if people like it.

I love this forum. I appreciate all the replies but the Ogo is the winner. $80 and $15/month since I'm an ATT customer. That includes unlimited email/IM/SMS. The IM is a real bonus since my wife's company blocks AIM and she misses it.

No no, my friend. It's $80. And the base plan is $18 a month. That is one cool looking device. I may be scrapping my initial plan and going for that thing!

*edit* Scratch that question. You can supposedly use any POP3 account *edit*

The one addition they could make that would push me over the edge would be a basic calendar or scheduler.

*edit*
The last thing I have to wonder is why there isn't an internet browser built in. Oh well.

I received the Ogo today. I could nitpick about a couple of things but overall it's a nice device for what it's designed to do. Both the hardware and service are about 1/3 the price of any other option I found so I think it's a fantastic bargain.

Certainly, a browser would be desirable. I'm guessing it's omitted because they wouldn't be willing to give that much GPRS bandwidth at the $20ish price. Then once you get into metered plans you lose the fixed cost aspect that makes it appealing for parents to give to their teenagers.

Oh, regarding the bluetooth and hacking. The device will pair up as a modem and you can use a laptop/PDA to retrieve email without any special configuration. But ports other then 110 are blocked. So someone set up a proxy on port 110 that works if you change your browser's settings. See details at www.ogomatic.com .

I personaly _love_ my Sprint Treo 650. It is a lot more than just a hand held email device.

If you have AT&Cingular in the area.. the Nokia 6820 might be a good choice.. it's also a decent phone. and at $99.. it's cheap.

Treo 650 is out for Cingular now.

The Ogo has been a huge hit with my wife. She is usually luke warm towards technology but adores this device. It chirps and makes little happy sounds. It's easy to use. It reminds me of the TiVo in it's design philosophy.

Admittedly, it's limited and isn't the device I would choose for myself. But it's very well designed for it's intended purpose and audience. The only significant complaint she has is the battery life. It won't make it through a full day of heavy usage. But it charges through a mini-USB port which is convenient. (She's been bored at work and I get the impression she's been spending most of her day tapping away on it.)