Today I helped a couple setup their brand new Motorola RAZR phones. These are do-it-all phones, or at least they do a lot. They have built-in cameras, they do email and Text messaging, they have Bluetooth radios and that's about it.
RAZRs are very popular right now because they are thin and they do a lot. But they aren't very easy to use. Granted, they are some of the easiest cell phones to use, but that doesn't mean that they are easy to use.
In order to check your voice mail, you have to hit the little mail button, then go through a menu to choose voice mail (as opposed to text message, email, and about three other kinds of mail). Everything involved several menus.
To type words, you had to hit the given number key a certain amount of times to get that letter. For example, you get to the letter "C" by typing 2,2,2. This makes writing emails and text messages a lengthy process.
I love my Treo 650. It has a lot of buttons, but it is easy to use. Rather than sort through four or five menus to get to certain items, nearly every item has a button or is on the main screen.
When people see my Treo, they often say, "I could never learn how to use that, it looks way too complicated." In reality, I think that most regular cell phones are complicated. The Treo is very straight forward. You get to the addresses by pressing the address button, You check your voice mails by pressing the voice mail button. If you choose to do emails, then that is a different program all together and it has its own button and item in the main menu.
The best part about the Treo's ease of use is the QWERTY keyboard. The buttons are small, but they are far easier to press than having to spell Castellini by pressing 2,2,2,(press button to take you to next letter),2,(Button for next letter)7,7,7,7(button for next letter),8,(button for next letter),3,3,(button for next letter). . .
On the Treo you type Castellini by pressing the following keys, C-A-S-T-E-L-L-I-N-I. If you want the "C" to be in upper case, you just press the shift key first. Just like on a computer keyboard.
The Treo has to be one of the easiest multi-function phones on the market. The crazy part is that it is not only easier to use, it does more than any other phone available.
