Advice on Exchange ActiveSync, iPhone Memory

[smoked]

I want to upgrade my wife and I from our dumbphones to iPhones. She uses Exchange for mail, and has the ActiveSync option available. I'm not entirely sure if I want to enable that. The concern I have is the volume of email my wife has: currently she has 3.1 GB of email, and most days she gets about an email a minute from work, with the day's data volume at around 100 MB. Can someone who uses an iPhone with Exchange with similar data volumes please help/advise on the following?

1. When ActiveSync is activated, is the iPhone going to essentially lock up while it downloads all 3.1 GB of existing emails from the server?

2. How much memory is actually "free" for use on an iPhone? (Do you get the full 8/16/32 GB from the get-go? I'm wondering if 16 GB would be enough.)

3. Do you have to switch to Mail to get the new mail to download, or does it run constantly? (If she only uses Mail occasionally on the iPhone, then she would have to wait for it download a few hundred messages, or have it constantly ping at her as new messages come in.)

4. Do you have a preference on using Outlook Web Access through Mobile Safari versus ActiveSync?

Thanks!

-smoked

 

[stevespa]

1. When ActiveSync is activated, is the iPhone going to essentially lock up while it downloads all 3.1 GB of existing emails from the server?

2. How much memory is actually "free" for use on an iPhone? (Do you get the full 8/16/32 GB from the get-go? I'm wondering if 16 GB would be enough.)

3. Do you have to switch to Mail to get the new mail to download, or does it run constantly? (If she only uses Mail occasionally on the iPhone, then she would have to wait for it download a few hundred messages, or have it constantly ping at her as new messages come in.)

4. Do you have a preference on using Outlook Web Access through Mobile Safari versus ActiveSync?

Thanks!

-smoked

1. No, it won't download your whole mailbox. By default it downloads the last month (I think), but that is a setting in the options for mail.

2. I think mine shows about 14.6x or so.

3. Activesync is push, meaning that it will get mail immediately. Sitting at my desk, I usually get the ping from my phone almost simultaneously as my desktop client. You don't have to open the mail application to get mail pushed to you.

4. With how good Activesync works, I wouldn't even dream of using the OWA client.

 

[smoked]

Thanks!