Replacement for E2 - what?

[tinnews]

My wife's Tungsten E2 is on its last legs so we're thinking of upgrading it, we're thinking of one of the Treos (probably a 500) but have some questions :-

Is data transfer as simple as synchronising the E2 with Palm Desktop and then synchonising the Treo with Palm Desktop?

Do the Treos take standard SIMs? I.e. will she be able to take the SIM out of her existing phone (I think it's a Motorola) and put it in the Treo?

What's battery life like on a Treo compared with the E2 (OK, it's not comparing like with like as it's a phone as well but some guide would be useful)

Finally, what are the major differences between the various Treos, any reason for going for a more expensive one?

Or should be be considering something completely different? It doesn't *need* to be a PDA/Phone, a straightforward PDA would be OK.

[tinnews]

Oops, how did this get here, it was supposed to be in the pdas newsgroup, sorry folks.

[Andy Hall]

My major use is mobile email, text messaging, phone, GPS and occasional web browsing. I need to sync with my MacBook Pro notebook.

I've been through

- Treos (and frankly thought them to be junk - unreliable and unstable);

- Windows Mobile 5 and 6 devices. WM6 is more stable than WM5 but is still a battery eater.

- Blackberry early models and Curve.

For my use, the Blackberry Curve is by far and away the best solution that I have found. Early Blackberry devices didn't have a good phone function - the new ones do and it's well integrated. I;ve found the device to be completely stable and battery life is good - 3 days of fairly intensive use. Email is completely reliable when roaming and integrates with my other mail services properly. GPS is included and works well also, although not quite as good as TomTom that I have installed on the WM6 device - TomTom has more features that I like to use.