HTC's "full" Exchange server support?

[phositadc]

I've read in a few different reviews that HTC phones fully support Exchange syncing, but haven't been able to find any details.

Can someone please confirm that HTC Android phones natively support Exchange sync, including real-time push email, contacts, and calendar? Is there anything strange or special about it that you can only find out by using it?

I ask because I will probably switch from a BlackBerry to an HTC Incredible. My company supports ActiveSync, so theoretically this should work, but I'm just curious if I will be disappointed with the Outlook syncing abilities.

Thanks.

 

[kehanra99]

I've had great luck setting up and using the Exchange support on the Hero for the last few months. I've used Windows Mobile, Blackberry, and Palm phones in the past and the functionality is as good if not better. I don't think you'll have any problems with it.

 

[phositadc]

Cool, thanks for sharing your experience.

I would also be curious to hear how a good experience with HTC's Exchange app compares to say, Touchdown. I've read good things about Touchdown.

 

[Cory Streater]

Cool, thanks for sharing your experience.

I would also be curious to hear how a good experience with HTC's Exchange app compares to say, Touchdown. I've read good things about Touchdown.

One of the reasons I use Touchdown, is because you cannot reply to calendar requests in the native mail application. You have to actually open the corporate calendar and reply from there. Touchdown allows me to reply directly from the email. Also, the HTML formatting in Touchdown is much more robust that the standard mail app. Last but not least, you cannot manage (like deleting) multiple email messages in the standard app, like you can in Touchdown.

 

[kehanra99]

One of the reasons I use Touchdown, is because you cannot reply to calendar requests in the native mail application. You have to actually open the corporate calendar and reply from there. Touchdown allows me to reply directly from the email. Also, the HTML formatting in Touchdown is much more robust that the standard mail app. Last but not least, you cannot manage (like deleting) multiple email messages in the standard app, like you can in Touchdown.

Corey, that multiple deletion just made me want to download touchdown. I get status reports every night that I usually just have to delete from different network systems...getting rid of them all at once would be nice.

 

[Cory Streater]

Yeah Touchdown is worth the money IMHO. They have a 5-day trial that you can use to test it out yourself.

 

[wakawaka99]

You may also consider the level of security that your organization enforces for your ActiveSync. I am a huge Palm fan, but I considered going with an Android device because of some uncertainty about Palm's future as a company. When exploring the Android option, I found that Android (even 2.1 from what I understand) does not natively support certain security features such as remote wipe and pin lock for ActiveSync (my organization requires it). I believe the Touchdown application others have discussed will add those capabilities, but it is not native and has some vulnerabilities from what I understand.

With that said, my wife works for a non-profit that does not enforce PIN locking or remote wipe, so several people in her office use Android devices w/ ActiveSync and love them...although she uses a Palm WebOS device

I ended up going with my first instinct, which was the Palm Pre Plus. WebOS is awesome, but so is Android. Thre are tradeoffs with both, but consider this ActiveSync limitation before you switch.

 

[droidsquire]

touchdown is awesome and totally worth the $$. it's a work around to synch via exchange w/o having to have the higher priced date plan with VZ.

there's usually a work around with the adroid group as there are a ton of apps....so it will be able to do what you need it to.

have fun

 

[takeshi]

I ask because I will probably switch from a BlackBerry to an HTC Incredible. My company supports ActiveSync, so theoretically this should work, but I'm just curious if I will be disappointed with the Outlook syncing abilities.

Well, you won't by syncing with Outlook. You'll sync with Exchange. Nitpicking aside, IMO ActiveSync and Android (particularly with Touchdown) > BES and Blackberry. I really prefer having true sync versus push-and-reconcile.

One of the reasons I use Touchdown, is because you cannot reply to calendar requests in the native mail application. You have to actually open the corporate calendar and reply from there. Touchdown allows me to reply directly from the email. Also, the HTML formatting in Touchdown is much more robust that the standard mail app. Last but not least, you cannot manage (like deleting) multiple email messages in the standard app, like you can in Touchdown.

Custom email notifications (so I don't end up with notifications for every single email) are a big reason why I'm using Touchdown. I thought there were some others as well but I can't recall off the top of my head.

touchdown is awesome and totally worth the $$. it's a work around to synch via exchange w/o having to have the higher priced date plan with VZ.

Not sure what you mean. My stock app syncs just fine without the higher priced data plan. Touchdown just offers features that the stock app doesn't.

 

[mikenycom]

is anyone's exchange on their incredible FULL HTML using the native app?