Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Hmm?
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I upgraded from the iPhone 3G to the new Bold, and thought I'd give you guys a little write-up, since I know there are some die-hard RIM fans on here as well as some people who like to know where the competition is at!
I was sick of a few things on iPhone which I didn't see being fixed with any great urgency: 1. The OS becomes sluggish too often, especially when I lose carrier signal. As I commute between the bowels of the South of England and London weekly, and lose my data connection seven or eight times on the journey, that's a real problem for me. Freezing from springboard, stalling over loading anything from emails to SMS, ugh! 2. Lack of consolidated email actually is a big annoyance as I run five email accounts simultaneously. 3. The carrier I was on (O2 UK) were pretty awful. Poor signal, slow 3G and extortionate prices on the 3GS (if I wanted to upgrade it was going to run me an 18 month contract & £185.) 4. The actual quality of the phone part of the iPhone isn't so great, and it used to annoy me that everyone sounded like they had a cold. 5. This is a small issue, but even on the 3GS, the camera is piss-poor. I'm sure Apple will include a flash on this year's model, but to not put one on the 3GS was annoying. 6. As someone who uses their telephone as more than a paperweight, I demand to either have a battery which lasts out the day, or the option to replace the battery. Neither of those are an option with iPhone. I got sick of taking my charger everywhere with me. So with this in mind I began looking at BlackBerrys, and eventually settled on the 9700 on Orange. I've had it for a month or so and here are my thoughts: 1. Phones 4 U bought out my O2 contract and gave me a great deal on Orange. They also gave me an unlocked / non-Orange unit because I moaned that there was an Orange sticker on the model they gave me at first. Kudos 2. The form factor on the 9700 is better than the iPhone IMO. It's a more solid build, more compact, fits better in the hand, and the faux-leather panel on the back feels great. 3. Katie Holmes has one, which is a shame. 4. The OS is much more stable than iPhone on the whole. I've been really impressed by how snappy everything is, from Google Maps to SMS. Email in particular is lightening fast. 5. It's a lot faster to boot, and a lot slower to reset. 6. The web browsing experience is not as bad as I thought it'd be. It's not as intuitive as iPhone, but it's snappier and not as sluggish. 7. Having multiple apps running at once is great after iPhone 8. The. Battery. Kicks. Ass. Something like 39 hours of continuous music playback? It's phenomenal. 9. There is a perceptible, dramatic increase in call quality. It's much clearer. The girl has noticed it too. "It's like you're standing right next to me " (choice of emoticon hers ) 10. Camera has a flash and digital zoom for stills and video. Overall I'm really pleased with it. It feels like a phone built to be used, rather than a phone built to be seen like iPhone. The downsides: 1. I need to restore the OS (beautiful irony), because every five or six text messages, I'm getting a showstopper which means I have to reset the device (battery pull.) A Java error which prevents me opening the SMS/MMS app. 2. Not as many neat-o apps in AppWorld. I've covered all the time saving utilities I had on iPhone, but I'm struggling to find all the time wasting apps 3. BlackBerry community = not as good as Apple community. 4. Katie Holmes has one. I think I'll probably go back to iPhone if they fix the battery life and beef it up a little (and no, the 3GS didn't do anything for me. I used it continuously at work for a long time and it was faster but still prone to sluggishness and needed reboots), but for now I'm very happy with the Bold! I'm Joseph Fritzl, and no windows was my idea. |
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Formerly Roboman, still
awesome Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
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Yay you are back!
I heart the 9700. It's easily the best BlackBerry ever. I like that it actually seems to take after the Curve 8900 more than the original Bold 9000, because the original Bold was huge. They should have called it the BlackBerry Boat. But the 8900 had a very nice form factor. It just needed 3G, and now it has it in the form of the 9700. I'm glad that they ditched the trackball, too. Trackballs drive me nuts. I still feel like RIM is really due for a big leap ahead with their OS, and 5.0 wasn't it. Continuing to make only incremental updates is a good way to end up irrelevant...but that's really long-term stuff. For now, BlackBerries are outselling iPhones, but we'll see what happens when the iPhone goes multi-carrier (in the US). I agree that BlackBerry apps seem to skew toward productivity apps rather than fun apps, but hey...at least you've got Block Breaker, right? BlackBerry just turned ten, so maybe we'll see some of that future-vision stuff at CES, hmm? and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Hmm?
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Ish Been ridiculously busy for a few months. Feels like I haven't used the internet properly in forever. People are looking at me like an out-of-towner.
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Having said that, the SMS/MMS app bug is really getting to me. Yesterday I had to do five battery pulls because of this one problem. Going to install Windows later to do an OS restore. Quote:
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I'm Joseph Fritzl, and no windows was my idea. |
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Formerly Roboman, still
awesome Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
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It is rather hard to believe that until a couple months ago, there was no (official) BlackBerry software for Mac.
BlackBerry Desktop for Mac is great -- it's a simple, small-ish app, but I prefer it to the Windows BlackBerry Desktop for perhaps that very reason -- but you're right, allowing people to restore the OS really is a pretty basic thing that should be covered on either platform. and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Hmm?
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I'm Joseph Fritzl, and no windows was my idea. |
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Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Chicago
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I about had a stroke when you guys mentioned Blackberry Desktop for Mac, I didn't know this existed and was living sans phone/computer syncing. I downloaded it immediately after reading this thread and....
It doesn't work. :/ It freezes in the middle of the backup EVERY time. This requires me to force quit Desktop Manager and pull the battery from my Curve. I guess I'll continue to live without my phone and my computer getting along until the iPhone finds its way on to a carrier that actually allows me to make a phone call from my house (right in the middle of one of the largest cities in the country...AT&T should be embarrassed ) Any tips on getting it to work? Come waste your time with me |
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Formerly Roboman, still
awesome Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
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It was launched more or less alongside the 8520, so it should work with those ones pretty much out of the box. For the older ones, idunno...in any case, you could ask around on HoFo? and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong |
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Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Chicago
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I think I got it figured out after about an hour of frustration and sadness.
It seems to work now, but extremely slowly. I'll take slow over completely functionless any day though. I'm trying to update my applications again, syncing worked, but the app update has been giving me trouble now. I guess it's not imperative that I update everything, but I'd rather be running the most current apps and version of the OS if I can. Edit: I have the Curve 8330 for Verizon Come waste your time with me |
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Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Chicago
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Update: I was successfully able to update the long list of applications that were avaiable for my Curve, when the phone finally rebooted, all my texts and contacts were gone and my calender is hopelessly screwed up. If I can't fix this I'm going to flip out. I have over a years worth of texts and e mails on my phone, some of which are very meaningful to me. I REALLY need to get this fixed
I did a backup before I updated anything, I'm trying a restore now. This is not good. Come waste your time with me |
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Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Chicago
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HoFo? I tried restoring SMS by itself and it keeps telling me that the SMS database can't be restored.
Edit: HoFo = HowardForums. Google is my friend. |
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Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Chicago
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I got my texts restored, but the calendar is still really messed up. It took me almost 4 hours to get everything straightened out and I'm still working on it. I'm glad to have my texts back, but trying to survive without a calendar for the last few days has been challenging to say the least. Thanks for asking!
Come waste your time with me |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Hmm?
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Just thought I'd update you guys as I went on my first road trip with my Bold over New Year (happy new year by the way ), and have some more observations:
1. The quality of the audio is exceptional. Streets ahead of the iPhone. The headphones included with the unit are really good if horribly ugly, and I found that the quality of audio still seemed superior through the standard Apple headphones too (that might be my mind unwittingly compensating, as I listened after I'd tried the RIM ones.) 2. The battery is incredible. I'm keen to know how exactly the battery is so much better than iPhone. It strikes me that the larger screen and touch-screen element probably drain a lot. For me Apple simply has to come up with a smash hit battery in the next serious revision of iPhone. 3. RIM are very good at attention to detail. The volume bumpers on the side of the device, when held down rather than pressed, skip tracks forwards and backwards. Apple has missed a trick there. 4. The RIM OS seems smarter than iPhone OS. Little things, like if I put 'etc.' into a sentence and it starts the next word with a capital on my behalf, all I need to do is go back and delete the letter and re-type it, and BB OS knows what I mean. The non-invasive corrections, too, seem better. Any UK users who have typed Reading (the place) a few times will know what I mean. I use the verb, reading, more than the noun, Reading, but reading is invariably corrected by iPhone OS. Not so on BB 5. Chicks everywhere have this phone. I'm such a fucking pussy. I'm Joseph Fritzl, and no windows was my idea. |
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Formerly Roboman, still
awesome Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
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I'm glad that you like it! Yeah, the Bold 9700 is my favorite BlackBerry ever...but I think I'm going to go with the Nexus One (or whatever comes after it) when I switch to T-Mobile. I'm spoiled by teh embiggened touchscreen, and we're still waiting for RIM's WebKit browser.
But who knows what could happen this year? and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong |
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Formerly Roboman, still
awesome Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
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It's kind of like (I know you're going to hate this example) webOS. Some people have complained that it lags, especially on the Pixi. But I guess that's because the OS was designed with the future in mind, to give them room to grow, no? We're just waiting for hardware to catch up. That reminds me of the first iPhone (which wasn't the speediest thing out there), but the best example would probably be the first OS X, right? When that first came out, that was slooooooooow. Tech at the time could barely handle it, it seems, with all the huge icons and transparencies and genie effects. But that's because Apple wanted it to look nice, and they new that the hardware would catch up eventually. And it did. and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Hmm?
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I'm Joseph Fritzl, and no windows was my idea. |
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Are devices from two or three years ago ever going to get BlackBerry OS 5.0, and eventually the Torch Mobile-derived browser? Because, in the same timespan, Apple has provided iPhones with several major new software features. |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
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I think my basic problem with the iPhone is that I don't have any self-control, and the compulsion to run the latest software with terrible performance would override my desire to have a phone which functions as intended. The problem with that is that on many, many occasions when I needed my iPhone in the past year or so, it failed me: battery, apps crashing, lag, refusing to unlock after swiping, etc. Quote:
I'm sure the mismatch between iPhone software/hardware will eventually come into balance (probably as a result of Apple developing hardware components themselves), but I don't see that happening in the lifespan of my next phone contract. I'm Joseph Fritzl, and no windows was my idea. |
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As a matter of fact, I do.
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Hmm?
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Maybe it was just me, but I found that it really struggled with 3.0. There were many small improvements (JavaScript performance; the contacts app, y'know, actually loading), but overall it just felt very sluggish and half-asleep. As always I move at a million miles per hour (even Pages lags when I type on it at full speed), but the difference between the 9700's responsiveness and that of 3.0 on the 3G is marked. As you say, though, that may not be the case for long depending on what RIM decide to ship in the future. The Opera Mini browser is fabulous to use compared to the crappy built-in one, but it has to display a progress bar to load with. Even on 3.0/3G, Mobile Safari was never anything less than instantly on screen.
I'm Joseph Fritzl, and no windows was my idea. |
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Formerly Roboman, still
awesome Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
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I have an iPhone 3G that I got in April. I wouldn't quite say it "struggles" to run 3.x. It's not exactly speedy, but it wasn't on 2.x, either. I am glad that Apple decided to focus on performance with the "S" processor upgrade (and more RAM), though. That might not get the attention of whiz-bang camera or screen upgrades, but it shows that they really care about the user experience.
I'm excited for the Nexus One, though. I mean, SnapDragon + 512MB RAM = awesome, right? (Maybe not for battery life... ) Android's been stuck on ancient 528MHz MSMs for too long. and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong |
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Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
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I had the bold 9000. It was great until it drowned in a shallow pool on my kitchen counter, where it sat for a couple of hours until someone noticed. IT gave me an surplus replacement 8000 or some such (black slab, chrome sides, no camera...) a few months ago, but I've just been lazy about getting my replacement. I Just couldn't be bothered most of the time. Going backwards, it seems to me like the battery life of non-3G phones is substantially better. I would be almost be tempted to turn off 3G, since email is the main thing anyway...
That said, corporate now offers the Bold 9700 and will soon offer the Storm 2. The original Storm had a number of issues according to the media, and confirmed by our IT. Most of them were exchanged for bold 9000 models, but they're going to offer the sequel nonetheless... Any users out there of the Storm 2? I like the idea of a bigger screen - my eyesight isn't so good and I spend so much time reading and looking at screens, that I have to seek relief wherever possible. Also interested in the media playback abilities of the newest BBs. It would be nice to use it as an MP3 player at the gym... Finally, a good GPS would be really great, I wonder if Rogers (our carrier) will hamper it somehow... ......................................... |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
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GPS isn't as good as the iPhone. Even the Google Maps app. I'm Joseph Fritzl, and no windows was my idea. |
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Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
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Is it possible to make Wifi calls with the Bold 2
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Formerly Roboman, still
awesome Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
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I'm sorry, I'm just *really* going to have to disagree, regarding media playback. I think the iPhone is the better media phone, hands down. That's Apple's strength. and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
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If you're not using the headphones that came with the device, the only way to change tracks on iPhone is to get it out, double tap the home button and press the "next track" button on the screen. You could probably make a stab at guessing where that button is in your pocket. With BlackBerry it's just a case of holding a physical button for a second. Much easier. Even easier than reaching up to a button near your ear Quote:
For video I'd say iPhone is better, but the overall audio experience with BlackBerry has outstripped iPhone by quite a distance. It was the thing I worried about the most when switching, and it's been amazing to find something better Oh, and 38 hours of continuous music playback doesn't hurt either I wonder how long iPhone would last with 3G and push enabled... I'm Joseph Fritzl, and no windows was my idea. |
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