Best smartphone for sysadmins?

I need a cell phone that will help me keep an eye on my servers and services when I am away from my computer/desk/workplace.

Which smart phone would you recommend for sysadmins?

• An SSH client is a must.
• I haven't used an iPhone, but I guess having a keyboard would be better.

Currently I'm looking at this alternatives:

• iPhone would be the "default" smartphone.
• Nokia E71 has got good recommendations, including from Joel Spolky's.
• The Android platform looks good, but I'm not sure the few models (HTC G1 / HTC Magic / HTC Dream) are mature enough.
• I'm not sure about Blackberry.
• WinCE / Windows Mobile phones?
• Any Nokia phone better than an E71?

Which choice did you make? What would you recommend?

I like my iPhone. There are some nice sysadmin apps. But besides the obvious email/calendar/contacts clients with Exchange integration, I primarily use it for note taking (EverNote), which is also very important in our job. The web browsing experience is great if you had to research something and last, but not least for my personal education: reading RSS feeds, listening to podcasts etc.

This question here on ServerFault.com contains lists of nice tools for the iPhone: What are some “must have” iPhone/iTouch apps for IT people?

This is the "Tools Page" on my iPhone:

alt text http://img53.yfrog.com/img53/9003/fj8.jpg

I like my Nokia N810. Not really a phone, but has

• big screen (800x480)
• linux inside
• SSH, RDP client, VNC
• network tools like nmap and tcpdump
• cut-down firefox browser
• comms like skype, gtalk, SIP phone
• wifi or you can connect through a bluetooth onto a 3G cellphone.
• good battery life - couple of days from a charge
• fits in your pocket
• good sized slide-out keyboard.

The standard keyboard lacks some keys you'd want, like tab, pipe etc. You can remap the keys anyway you want. Edit /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/nokia_vndr/rx-44 to remap the keys, e.g. this remaps Fn modifier for m and ; keys (pound and Euro) and adds to the + and ' keys

   key <AB07> { [ m,          M,        Escape,  Escape   ]  };
   key <AC10> { [ semicolon,  colon,    bar,     bar      ]  };
   key <AE12> { [ plus,       equal,    Tab,     Tab      ]  };
   key <AC11> { [ apostrophe, question, grave,   grave    ]  };

Are you in a hurry?

Google says at least 18 Android phones will be on the market by the end of the year, and most US carriers have announced they will carry one or more.

There is a good market for apps, the current one (T-Mobile G1) has a nice keyboard, my wife is fairly happy with it, but I don't know how well it fits into what you need.

I would be inclined to sit tight for a few months.

Considering a sysadmin's level of access, there's very little attention paid here to security other than SSL as a minimum standard. The device is far more likely to be compromised than the data path. Phones get misplaced and stolen. A 4-digit pin is pretty weak security, and even that is sometimes not used.

Are the data encrypted on the device, and can the device be erased from the server if it goes missing? Yes for a managed WM6 device attached to an Exchange server, yes for a Blackberry attached to a BES, but NO for most iPhones (3G S now supports hardware encryption, but remote wipe from Exchange servers is still inconsistent). In a healthcare environment where users (including admins) are likely to receive Protected Health Information (PHI), encryption is required by law (HIPAA).

Sysadmins have the keys to the realm, and security should be the first consideration. Humans lose phones.

Blackberry is kind of "the usual". midpssh is an absolute crap SSH client by any reasonable standard, but it'll do for emergencies. Where Blackberry usually wins is its Exchange integration.