Background info:
Up until last week I was using the Samsung i730, a 2.8" touch screen brick with some awesome features but crap reception. Since this is a 4 year old smartphone the bar is set real low.
Besides the size, 2 hand requirement to use, and the fact that windows mobile phones have a nasty habit of hanging up when you hit the green answer button half the time and crashing after heavy web browsing, the i730 was great. It did everyting I wanted it to do which was:
1. Make & receive calls & SMS
2. Had a docking station so I could make trades at work and keep track of my stocks & options without using the company computer.
3. Huge (at the time) screen for keeping track of stocks & watching Divx movies.
I paid $500 for the phone in '06 and the phone was being phased out at the time.
I switched because I needed a new phone and ATT will give me a 19% discount off everything while Verizon is cheap and only gives 15% off voice and 12% off data for my work. I was supposed to get 15% off data too, but they only have options in their system to give 12% or 20% for data. Most of the time you have to fight to get any discount on data.
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My review will consist of a comparison between this old phone and my new BB Bold. I have never used a BB device before for more than a few minutes.
THE REVIEW:
First impression is "WOW! full bars in my bedroom, where I used to get 2 bars on Verizon", dunno if it has anything to do with the phone though.
Second impression is "WOW! not having a touch screen OR directional buttons makes web browsing suck!" When you have a large webpage and text does not fuly display on your screen it is a pain in the ass to scroll left to right and back several times on the track ball. There could have easily been 2 extra buttons mapped to scroll left and right!
EVERYTHING ELSE
Screen: Quality is amazing, just blows my Samsung i730 out of the water. It is as crisp as a LCD monitor.
Sound: Amazing, for both calls and music. Much more clear than all of the previous generation phones I have used.
Camera: I've seen better and worse. Pictures are not fuzzy, but not great. Not bad for a camera phone though.
Build Quality: Feels like a solid phone, no cheap plastic, no complaints.
Gtalk: Actually works on the BB, Amazing! I never got it to work on my Windows Mobile phone
Google Maps: Is awesome on the BB, I think it uses GPS or the cell towers to guess where you are. Its awesome.
Battery Life: pretty good, I only used 1/2 the battery after a full work day of lite web surfing and Gtalk.
BB Messenger: I never knew about this before but its awesome.
Keyboard: solid buttons, and easy to hit exactly whichever button you want.
System Lag: Sometimes I see the clock appear once for a split second and it doesn;t interfere with anything. I did see it come up for a full second today when I was having 1 conversation on Gtalk and another on BB Messenger. I kept typing and when the clock went away my words appeared on the screen.
The Red Light that flashes hen you have a message, e-mail, sms, or whatever: I can't live a life of having a phone that doesn't have this feature. It's like getting up to change the channel on the TV before the invention of the wireless remote.
The Trackball: Seriously, get with the program and transition over the the optical mouse like on the Samsung Epix!
Size: Fits in my shirt pocket easily so its a good size.
Extra $50 rebate: http://blackberry.flipswap.com/consumer/?id=back2school extra money is great!
CLOSING REMARKS: If you need a smartphone now and want to stick with ATT, get the Bold, but if you can wait a few more months to see what comes out, I would wait. I am very interested in the Samsung Omnia that is coming out on Friday on the Verizon network. Not having a left and right scroll button annoys me a lot when I have to view pages that don't word wrap.
The blackberry is great for everything else besides web browsing on large pages that don't word wrap and long web pages. The little blinking red light makes up for all of the other short comings, I can't go back to a phone that doesn't have that light for new e-mails.
Regardless of whichever smart phone you get, get a full body invisible shield from Zagg.com, make sure to search for a 20% off coupon. When applying the shield, don't be afraid to use too much spray, more = better.
Up until last week I was using the Samsung i730, a 2.8" touch screen brick with some awesome features but crap reception. Since this is a 4 year old smartphone the bar is set real low.
Besides the size, 2 hand requirement to use, and the fact that windows mobile phones have a nasty habit of hanging up when you hit the green answer button half the time and crashing after heavy web browsing, the i730 was great. It did everyting I wanted it to do which was:
1. Make & receive calls & SMS
2. Had a docking station so I could make trades at work and keep track of my stocks & options without using the company computer.
3. Huge (at the time) screen for keeping track of stocks & watching Divx movies.
I paid $500 for the phone in '06 and the phone was being phased out at the time.
I switched because I needed a new phone and ATT will give me a 19% discount off everything while Verizon is cheap and only gives 15% off voice and 12% off data for my work. I was supposed to get 15% off data too, but they only have options in their system to give 12% or 20% for data. Most of the time you have to fight to get any discount on data.
*************************
My review will consist of a comparison between this old phone and my new BB Bold. I have never used a BB device before for more than a few minutes.
THE REVIEW:
First impression is "WOW! full bars in my bedroom, where I used to get 2 bars on Verizon", dunno if it has anything to do with the phone though.
Second impression is "WOW! not having a touch screen OR directional buttons makes web browsing suck!" When you have a large webpage and text does not fuly display on your screen it is a pain in the ass to scroll left to right and back several times on the track ball. There could have easily been 2 extra buttons mapped to scroll left and right!
EVERYTHING ELSE
Screen: Quality is amazing, just blows my Samsung i730 out of the water. It is as crisp as a LCD monitor.
Sound: Amazing, for both calls and music. Much more clear than all of the previous generation phones I have used.
Camera: I've seen better and worse. Pictures are not fuzzy, but not great. Not bad for a camera phone though.
Build Quality: Feels like a solid phone, no cheap plastic, no complaints.
Gtalk: Actually works on the BB, Amazing! I never got it to work on my Windows Mobile phone
Google Maps: Is awesome on the BB, I think it uses GPS or the cell towers to guess where you are. Its awesome.
Battery Life: pretty good, I only used 1/2 the battery after a full work day of lite web surfing and Gtalk.
BB Messenger: I never knew about this before but its awesome.
Keyboard: solid buttons, and easy to hit exactly whichever button you want.
System Lag: Sometimes I see the clock appear once for a split second and it doesn;t interfere with anything. I did see it come up for a full second today when I was having 1 conversation on Gtalk and another on BB Messenger. I kept typing and when the clock went away my words appeared on the screen.
The Red Light that flashes hen you have a message, e-mail, sms, or whatever: I can't live a life of having a phone that doesn't have this feature. It's like getting up to change the channel on the TV before the invention of the wireless remote.
The Trackball: Seriously, get with the program and transition over the the optical mouse like on the Samsung Epix!
Size: Fits in my shirt pocket easily so its a good size.
Extra $50 rebate: http://blackberry.flipswap.com/consumer/?id=back2school extra money is great!
CLOSING REMARKS: If you need a smartphone now and want to stick with ATT, get the Bold, but if you can wait a few more months to see what comes out, I would wait. I am very interested in the Samsung Omnia that is coming out on Friday on the Verizon network. Not having a left and right scroll button annoys me a lot when I have to view pages that don't word wrap.
The blackberry is great for everything else besides web browsing on large pages that don't word wrap and long web pages. The little blinking red light makes up for all of the other short comings, I can't go back to a phone that doesn't have that light for new e-mails.
Regardless of whichever smart phone you get, get a full body invisible shield from Zagg.com, make sure to search for a 20% off coupon. When applying the shield, don't be afraid to use too much spray, more = better.
just a perk of working for AT&T). I'll take my iPhone to the grave since it fits my life style better.
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