I have the exact same dilemma you do. Some of my clients do not permit camera phones in secure areas, and I'd rather be without a camera than be without my PDA/phone/e-mail.
Unfortunately, there is no cure for the IP-830W's atrociously bad software. Here are some of the symptoms I encounter:
- Phone is still on and accepts text messages, but incoming calls silently go to voice mail.
- Data connection silently stops working, so your ActiveSync push mail stops arriving.
- Immediately after receiving a text message or missing a call, you can't place an outgoing call for about 15 seconds. If you try to do so, the outgoing call will sit there forever trying to call, and it won't work again unless you do a soft reset of the phone.
- When someone else calls you, they hear about two rings before your phone stats ringing. Other Sprint phones don't have this disease, including other Windows Mobile phones. Combined with the fact you have to wait after missing a call, this means you are very hard to get ahold of!
- Attempting to place a call while data communications are in progress can make the phone stop working until you soft reset the phone. ActiveSync push mail exacerbates this proble, since it's often transmitting data.
- Battery life is atrociously bad. Without ActiveSync push mail, battery life is about 10 hours on standby. With push mail, five hours is lucky. This is with fresh batteries. Since you're constantly discharging the poor things, after about 200 days expect your battery life to be half or a third of what it was when new.
- If someone else calls you while you attempt to place an outgoing call, you might have to soft reset the phone. Since you get no notification of incoming calls for a few seconds, this is a big problem when you try to call someone back whose call you just missed.
Here are some things I've found that help:
- Get a desktop cradle charger. It's much easier to keep your phone on your desk charging with the cradle than with the awkward charger connection that comes with the phone. (The USB connection is also much easier to use.)
- Buy a BIG pile of batteries. I found a place selling both regular life and extended life ones for $10 a piece (smartphoneexperts or something like that, but you'll need to shop around to find the best dea). I bought 4. Now I rotate my batteries through the charger and carry a few with me. Don't be afraid to buy IP-830W batteries labelled "Sprint" or "Verizon" even if you have the opposite carrier -- a battery's a battery.
- Don't use ActiveSync push mail. Change your schedule in ActiveSync from "As items arrive" to "Manual". Forward all your e-mail to your text message address,
4145551212@messaging.sprintpcs.com for example for Sprint customers. Then, when you see an important message has come in, manually run ActiveSync. Simply go to Start->ActiveSync or Start->Programs->ActiveSync and tap "Sync".
- If you miss a call, BE PATIENT! Wait 15 seconds, and call the other party back. If you get a voicemail notification, wait 15 seconds before checking it. Placing calls immediately after getting a voicemail notification often results in a crash, needing a soft reset.
- Don't use Sprint On Demand, or any of Sprint's other apps. They make the phone even slower and less stable than it already is.
- Don't leave applications running that use the data connection.
- I can't find a way to make e-mail use my SD card for storing attachments instead of SafeStore. Same goes for Windows Media Player. So the phone's SD slot is basically useless.
- There is no way to get the flashing LED to stop. Immediately after turning off the light with the side slider switch, the LED will stop, but as soon as some status changes (and it always does) it will start flashing again. This makes this phone very hard to sleep next to in a hotel room, as the LED is so bright it lights up the whole room.
You can call (800) SAMSUNG and report these problems and they will create a ticket for you to mail your phone in for repairs. This works with getting new batteries after yours are worn out after 3 months, but my repeated attempts to send the phone results in them reflashing it with the latest firmware (which doesn't fix anything) and sending it back to me.
In short, this phone is a real piece of work, and I feel truly sorry for anyone (like me!!!) stuck with this phone!! There are only a few good things to say about it:
- I like the keyboard. It is the perfect size for my fingers and I can type quickly.
- As a PDA, the phone is quite fast. I can play videos quite comfortably with CorePlayer on it.
- I like having a lock/unlock button on the side to avoid accidental key taps (instead of having to futz around with a lock button on the touch screen).
Good luck!