[Rootbrian]

Guys/women: If you want the best camera, a digital camera always will beat that. A smartphone will never be a substitute for a great camera, regardless how "good" it is.

Posted via CrackBerry 10 (CB10) application using my BlackBerry Q10.

[chalx]

Guys/women: If you want the best camera, a digital camera always will beat that. A smartphone will never be a substitute for a great camera, regardless how "good" it is.

Posted via CrackBerry 10 (CB10) application using my BlackBerry Q10.

I agree, but phone camera should at least offer some basic functionality.
In my work I often have to identify motherboard components and since chips are smaller and smaller every year, the easiest way is to take a photo of a chip. I could never use camera on 9900 for that purpose because of fixed focus.
I don't have problem with Z10 camera. For me it's more than enough powerful.

Posted via CB10

[Soul_Est]

I agree, but phone camera should at least offer some basic functionality.
In my work I often have to identify motherboard components and since chips are smaller and smaller every year, the easiest way is to take a photo of a chip. I could never use camera on 9900 for that purpose because of fixed focus.
I don't have problem with Z10 camera. For me it's more than enough powerful.

Posted via CB10

While I do agree, the cost of a 9900 now is <$100 CDN/US making the added cost of getting a quality camera to help you with your work a bit lower. Besides, for your work, I'd stick with an MILC with a large enough sensor and quality glass that can resolve the lettering on the chips and circuit boards.

[anon(6038817)]

Guys/women: If you want the best camera, a digital camera always will beat that. A smartphone will never be a substitute for a great camera, regardless how "good" it is.

Posted via CrackBerry 10 (CB10) application using my BlackBerry Q10.

I agree that a dedicated camera will produce better quality pictures, but the reason people want good cameras on their phones is for the convenience of being able to easily share them via email, text message, IM, social media, etc.

[Q10Bold]

And I wish the 9900 had a camera like Q10. Its all I need

Posted via Q10Bold

[Tatwi]

I agree that a dedicated camera will produce better quality pictures, but the reason people want good cameras on their phones is for the convenience of being able to easily share them via email, text message, IM, social media, etc.

Something to be said about those mobile connected Nikon cameras. I suggested a while back that BlackBerry should partner with Kodak for "connected" Kodak cameras and better software / hardware on BlackBerry devices (as well as corporate backend stuff the movie and media industries).

But yeah, cell phone cameras are so popular and important, because they make it easy to share information quickly. Quality takes a back seat in this respect. In most cases quality isn't needed to convey the idea. When quality is important, it's best to use a specialty device. For quickly sharing pictures and videos, smartphones ARE the specialty devices. The 9900 is great for its speed of use and ability to share pictures, but the quality is not great, but not awful either.

When more high-end and mid range cameras are SIM and media software equipped, we may see more people carrying both a phone and a camera. Until then, many a crappy picture will be shared by smart phone users.

[anon(6038817)]

A Bold Experiment: Day 14 - Web Browser



I prefer using apps to using the browser on a smartphone whenever possible. This is true of every smartphone I've owned, even my Z30.

If I need to do some serious web surfing, I prefer using my PlayBook or a laptop/desktop computer. Maybe that's "old fashioned" of me, but I just don't think the smartphone web browsing experience is good for much more than quickly looking up websites/info. Give me a keyboard and mouse over a touch screen any day.

Considering the Bold 9930 represents 3-year-old technology, I think the web browser is surprisingly good. Does it hold up to the BB10 browser? Not even close, but that's to be expected. The BB10 browser is widely regarded as one of the best - if not the best - browsers on any smartphone. It's completely obliterated the competition in tests (BlackBerry 10 Browser Test: BlackBerry beats iPhone, Android | BGR).

Here's what I don't like about the BB OS 7 browser on the Bold 9930:

No Flash support. Yes, Flash is a bucket of bloat and fewer websites seem to be employing it than in days gone by. But there are many webites out there that still use it, and it's nice to be able to have the full website experience on my PlayBook and Z30.

It's slow compared to modern mobile browsers. There's no denying it, some pages take a loooooong time to load, especially over 3G.

It doesn't render some pages correctly. Obviously, some websites are not going to do extensive testing for compatability with BB OS 7 devices. There's just not enough of them being used compared to other platforms to justify it.

The small screen makes viewing some pages difficult. I find that in some cases I actually prefer viewing the full website over the mobile website, because the mobile websites are optimized for all-touch devices with a 16:9 aspect ratio, not the 4:3 aspect ratio of the Bold 9900/9930.

Here's what I like:

Embeded YouTube video support. It is nice to be able to watch videos without having to switch to the media player.

The ratio of the screen actually seems more conducive to viewing web pages - especially those not optimized for mobile. Whereas, with all-touch smartphones it's usually better to rotate the screen and view in landscape mode.

The combination of physical keyboard and trackpad with a visible mouse cursor on the screen makes it closer to a desktop browsing experience than with an all-touch device. This is a plus, for me, as that is the kind of experience I prefer. The touch screen interface makes the experience even better and more versatile, as touchscreen or trackpad may be preferable over one another depending on the website.

It does support tabbed browsing:

This comes in quite handy when you have more than one website you want to view and toggle between as needed.

It does have a share feature that lets you share URLs via text message, email, IM, and social media apps. Quite convenient when you come across something you want to quickly share.

You can add a link to a website as an icon on your home screen.

Opera Mini

I do also have the Opera Mini browser installed. When a page doesn't render properly in the main browser, I'll usually try to load it up in Opera and see if it's any better. I don't like to use Opera Mini as my primary browser because it usually renders pages worse than BlackBerry's, but there are some cases where it has come in handy for me.

Most people use Opera Mini because Opera pre-loads websites on its servers and serves up an optimized view to the browser, requiring less data usage on the part of the smartphone. This is helpful for people who need to closely watch the data caps on their smartphone data plans. This is not a concern for me, so Opera is not as crucial to my smartphone web browsing experience. But it's certainly a good option depending on your needs.

Conclusion

I know this isn't an exhaustive review with in-depth testing against other platforms, but I've already conceded the point that this is 3-year-old technology and it shows. Such a comparison at this stage in the game would be a waste of time.

Is the web browser unusable? No. I find it to be adequate for my own needs. But I know some people practically live in the browser and it's one of the most important parts of their smartphone experience. For them, the Bold's browsing capabilities will be sorely lacking and quite painful.

For me, it does the job adequately and its limitations are not a deal-breaker.

[chalx]

My wife loved my 9900 - it was a phone that I put on a cabinet when I come home and I pick it up tomorrow morning for a work. In between I'm all hers. Now with Z10 she has to share me with a phone.

Posted via CrackBerry App

[mnc76]

I have a 9810 (same CPU, GPU, and browser software as the 9900 -- just with a 3.2" inch screen versus the Bold's 2.8" screen).

So other than screen size, the browsers work and perform exactly the same.

I would have to agree that for a phone released in 2011, the browser still holds up surprisingly well.

Posted via CB10

[flyingsolid]

I wanted to know how beneficial the trackpad has been for interaction during web browsing, assuming the browser was up to par.

[anon(6038817)]

I wanted to know how beneficial the trackpad has been for interaction during web browsing, assuming the browser was up to par.

From my perspective, it's fantastic. it functions much like a trackpad on a laptop in that you actually see a mouse pointer that turns into a pointing finger when you hover over a link or a cursor when you hover over text. It's much more precise than using a touch screen.

Selecting, copying and pasting text is a breeze with the trackpad. It's so much easier for me than trying to tap and select with a touch screen interface.

Sent from my BlackBerry Bold 9930 via Tapatalk

[anon(4077577)]

From my perspective, it's fantastic. it functions much like a trackpad on a laptop in that you actually see a mouse pointer that turns into a pointing finger when you hover over a link or a cursor when you hover over text. It's much more precise than using a touch screen.

Selecting, copying and pasting text is a breeze with the trackpad. It's so much easier for me than trying to tap and select with a touch screen interface.

Sent from my BlackBerry Bold 9930 via Tapatalk

and....... here's why the BlackBerry Classic will be much loved.....

from an australian Z10...

[Ray III]

I also prefer viewing the full site, but because it offers the full content. Mobile sites are dumbed down enough that you can poke on things with a touchscreen, whereas with my trackpad equipped 9930 I can click on any of the eleventybillion tiny links on the CrackBerry forums page. Even that microscopic dot (well, on a phone screen it's microscopic) that takes you to the last page you viewed in a thread.

Also use Opera Mini due to the way it handles data, but I have an unlimited data plan and only care about the speed at which I can view pages. However, I don't like the interface much and for pages that don't render correctly I copy-and-paste the link into the native browser.

[Mr4aces]

From my perspective, it's fantastic. it functions much like a trackpad on a laptop in that you actually see a mouse pointer that turns into a pointing finger when you hover over a link or a cursor when you hover over text. It's much more precise than using a touch screen.

Selecting, copying and pasting text is a breeze with the trackpad. It's so much easier for me than trying to tap and select with a touch screen interface.

Sent from my BlackBerry Bold 9930 via Tapatalk

★★★★★

Posted via the Android CrackBerry App!

[parbrook]

Since when did a camera become the most important thing for a business communications device?

[anon(8063781)]

Since when did a camera become the most important thing for a business communications device?

The camera is very important to me in my day-to-day work. One of the most important things for me is to be able to take clear, legible pictures of documents. I view them later on my laptop. The iPhone 4 my employer provides (it has to be due for an update soon, right?) is very good at taking sharp close-up pictures. Of course, it has auto-focus. I'll test out the 9900 at some point today and report back as to whether it compares.

[Tatwi]

I use opera mini mainly for the word wrap (column view) and larger font size than the BlackBerry browser. It totally messes up the page layout, but it is great for reading. Also I often turn off pictures and/or Javascript in opera to speed up the reading experience. By no means is it pretty, but it does make for easy reading.

[chalx]

Since when did a camera become the most important thing for a business communications device?

Its not the most important thing, but if phone got one, it should be able to make at least decent pictures.

Posted via CB10

[anon(6038817)]

Since when did a camera become the most important thing for a business communications device?

Who said it was the most important thing?

[Lefty724]

Man, great thread! Just read all 9 pages and you are (OP) awesome.

I go thru more devices than anyone I know and always come back to BB.

Right now I am using a Q10 as my daily driver, Bold 9900, iPhone 5s, and Galaxy Note 3 (which I'm typing on now). For my needs, the 9900 fits the bill and the track pad is amazing.

Because of your write up, I'm going tomorrow to get a sim put in the 9900. It'll be my new daily driver until the Q20 comes out. The tool belt is just that important to me!

Posted via the Android CrackBerry App!

[anon(6038817)]

Man, great thread! Just read all 9 pages and you are (OP) awesome.

I go thru more devices than anyone I know and always come back to BB.

Right now I am using a Q10 as my daily driver, Bold 9900, iPhone 5s, and Galaxy Note 3 (which I'm typing on now). For my needs, the 9900 fits the bill and the track pad is amazing.

Because of your write up, I'm going tomorrow to get a sim put in the 9900. It'll be my new daily driver until the Q20 comes out. The tool belt is just that important to me!

Posted via the Android CrackBerry App!

Thanks for the positive feedback! I'm glad you are enjoying the posts.

I really didn't think I'd like my 9930 nearly as much as I have. This is proving to be a very interesting experiment!

[anon(6038817)]

Here's a preview of what tomorrow's post will be about (assuming delivery happens tomorrow as promised):

[Lefty724]

Whenever I get a used device, I always buy a new/fresh battery to charge myself.

I just bought my used 9900 myself, and just ordered a new battery, battery cover, and charging cradle.

Good luck!

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[Coffee Shampoo]

I feel like buying a 9900 after reading this thread haha, awesome device.

Star Wars fan? Come join us C00121E8E

[goodayeh]

Whenever I get a used device, I always buy a new/fresh battery to charge myself.

I just bought my used 9900 myself, and just ordered a new battery, battery cover, and charging cradle.

Good luck!

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

Ooh , now I feel like buying a charging cradle !