Why I'm declining the shipment of 9930 from Verizon
I went into the Verizon store today and ordered the 9930 to replace my Storm2. My fiance and I are getting married in 2 weeks. The plan was to get each other Tablets as wedding gifts. She wants an iPad, and I figured the Playbook would make me happy. So, to further add to the excitement, I ordered the 9930 to pair with the Playbook. Then, as I waited for her to show up after work, I kept playing with the 9930 display model. 10 minutes later, I got pissed at myself for ordering the device before I gave myself 10 minutes to play with it. This phone, IMHO, is not worth the $230 I had to pay, plus the loss of an upgrade. First off, for all the "quality" that's supposedly been built into the phone I'm not as impressed as I expected myself to be. I don't like the scraping feel on the edge of the metal band near the keyboard and screen. And for whatever reason, I felt it too often. Yes, I know, a case will solve that problem. But should it have to? The metal band, IN NO WAY, compares to the look and feel of the iPhone. And the volume buttons aren't metal either! Cheap plastic! The touchscreen so near to the trackpad is absolute frustration. I activated the touchscreen way too often while using the trackpad. Mind you, I wasn't trying to power my way through any of the selections. I was taking my time with it. As I thought I was becoming more comfortable, I tried to cruise through a little more casually, but the screen would inevitably do something I didn't intend it to do. The touchscreen in general makes this phone much more inefficient. Another example: I loaded up a web page and played with the pinch-to-zoom. Bizarre behavior. I would pinch and it would zoom, but after landing my thumb on the page to adjust its position on the screen it became highly unpredictable and unreliable. It would zoom in too close or zoom out completely. I'd put my finger back on the screen, and again, nothing predictable. It never did exactly what I wanted it to. Absolutely the worst touch screen experience I've ever had on any device...including my Storm2. I've had the Storm series for three years now. I'm exhausted from the lack of precise navigation. And since I'm a Storm/Touchscreen user (I also have an iPod Touch, and have tried a Samsung Charge) I feel very little "need" to reunite myself with the physical keyboard, at this point. Further, as its been mentioned here often, I also have very little motivation to get a new device with a poor selection of apps. I'm not an app person to any great extent, but at least I know I won't have to wait for compatible versions of any of the apps I have on my S2. My Storm2, though from the dark ages, is still organized. I want more, not less. And, though I have to wait for the hardware to catch up to my brain most of the time, it still delivers the information I want in as little as 2 or 3 clicks.
And let's be real. The camera blows. I took a photo of the price and specs page next to the device. The blur was unacceptable. I take pictures like that everyday for work. I don't need great photos. I have a great camera for those. But, I do benefit from taking decent photos with my phone and quickly attaching them to an email.
This is so depressing, but I'll wait to check out the QNX "Superphone"...
Oh, I think I'll pass on the Playbook for now, too... I was ready to blow a grand today. You suck, RIM.