[Andrew-NYC]

Still usilng & loving my 9700, since December, 2010! Of course, I will look at BB10, but you really can't beat the 9700 for size, quality, ease, and with QuickLaunch & several other 3rd party apps, customability.

[pantlesspenguin]

The 9700 will always have a special place in my heart. It was my first bb, and it lead me here. After the Great Sidekick Outage of 2009 left me needing another platform, I had narrowed it down to the Motorola Cliq and the 9700. After some research, the 9700 was a no-brainer .

[wu-wei]

I've had my 9700 since it was first released on T-Mobile here in the US. I believe the purchase date was November 16, 2009. Prior to that I had an 8800 and an 8820 (and a 7290).

I had to replace my original 9700 once under an insurance claim. When I was doing that, I specifically requested a 9700 and not a 9780. At that time the 9780 was the most likely device in stock. I made the request because I wanted the option to roll back to OS5.

I have spent a small amount of time with the 9900, but I don't see any new devices that could persuade me to leave the 9700. It will take something really special to do that.

[belfastdispatcher]

It's retro enough for me. The 9700's functionality is perfect for my needs therefore fit-for-purpose. If I go back to some of steam-driven donkeys you clap on about, I'll get nothing done.

My soon to be 8 year old boy uses my 9700 with a payg sim that keeps bis working without paying, gotta love carrier's mistakes

I do have a love for older BBs tho so I have a 7230, 8707v, 8800, 8310 & 8320 in my collection

[antheauxny]

My old 9650 was great. Nice little work house that got everything done.
Of course, it had its problems.
But at the end of the day it did what I needed it to do.

If I would have known I could downgrade to OS 5 on it I would probably still have it today.
OS 6 was very buggy imo.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9930 using Tapatalk

[T�nis]

... OS 6 was very buggy imo.

Interesting that people say this. I haven't noticed that it's buggy except for the missing send PIN message feature on my Bold.

[jbeal43]

My 9900 took a swim on Easter, so I had to blow the dust off the 9700. If the bridge wasn't slower I'd be 100% happier. The keyboard on the 9900 is awesome, but overall the 9700 form factor is hard to beat. Tried 6 several times but was buggy for me as well. 5 on my 9700 is where I'll be until 10 hopefully lives up to the hype.

[Nismotic]

The 9700 was #2 right behind my 9900. But I got my wife a new 9700 a few months back and miss using it. LoL, I went to use her phone and tried to maneuver through the touch screen the battery, size, and form factor was great

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[OLY-JIM]

My 9700 is now my primary spare...but wow...what a phone, I love it. Nonetheless, I've moved on to the 9900 and it's doing the job in grand style...no problems whatsoever out of the phone and the battery life has proven good (OS 7.1), but certainly not in the same arena as the 9700. The 9900's keyboard has already spoiled me, but my trusty 9700 stands ready to assume duties.

Another good workhorse is my work 9650, this phone is as tough as nails! For that matter, my old work 8800 series did a fine job when it stood the line.

I think my 9900 with its OtterBox Defender case and Class 10 32GB micro SDHC is a keeper...I dig it. Afterall, here very soon, the 9900 will apparently be old school retro as well. :O

[jono212.]

Reading all these posts is really making want to buy a 9700 - 9780. I love my 9900 but do miss the 97xx form

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[BoldPreza]

My 9700 was a great phone. Fantastic workhorse as you put it. But somehow, it never grew on me. I enjoyed owning it don't get me wrong, but at the end of the day I was always left wanting for my previous 9000 and its extra heft.

That said, glad you got yours BNIB and I hope it lasts you a long time.

[MissoulaMarinerFan]

I just put my 9930 away....again...and took out my 9370. My satisfaction with the 9930 continues to diminish. My Curve is more trustworthy than my Bold, and that's a sad state of affairs when I trust an entry level device more than the flagship.
I am also considering moving away from VZW over to TMO. If I do, I will get either the 9360 or the 9780. Wish I could get a 9790...that would be wonderful.
Maybe when I go across the pond I'll get an unlocked 9790.
I loved the 9700. It was a great device. Loved it.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9370 using Tapatalk

Well Ms. Qbnkelt, I am also on vzw and if you don't want your 9930 anymore, i'd gladly take it off your hands! Seriously. If you aren't happy with it, pm me or just reply back and i'm sure we can figure something out!


Sent from my BlackBerry 9850 using Tapatalk

[jon4400]

IMHO that was the problem with Rim, it released near perfect phones but could have made them perfect if they wanted to and get much more profit for having less models.

Curve 8330 - Great keyboard, flash, light and very capable. Too bad it had 64mb but only 32 of it being usable
Bold 9000 - Perfect but the 128mb killed it
Storm 9550 - Great typing experience, very well designed. Many complained the UI didn't live out to the expectations.
Tour 9630 - Excellent Phone great keyboard and design (No wifi) X_X
Bold 9650 - A 9630 with wifi, twice as much ram but much less battery efficiency.
Bold 9700 - (Upgrade to 9630) Very Efficient phone, powerful workhose, but the 256 mb kept it from operating os 6 fluently without the inevitable memory leaks.
Bold 9780 - What the 9700 should have been (released 1yr later.) Specs weren't surprising enough against competitors.
Torch 9800 - Great Phone, decent browsing experience. Best slider I've ever known. Decent battery Life but not what abusers are used to.
Torch 9810 - Awesome specs but no NFC capability nor upgrade to the battery
Torch 9850/60 - Awesome specs + big screen. Downside : not enough battery life, still no nfc (mixed reviews for plastic screen and raised buttons)
Bold 9900 - Best keyboard in history (typing on clouds ) - Very Bold , classic form factor, NFC capability(finally), great resolution and pixel density. Downside: Not the best battery for a Bold. removal of the auto-focus
The torch 9810 and 9850/60 + 9900 all had 768mb of Ram but less application memory usable compared to the os 6 devices.

Blackberry was always considered as the Cadillac of smartphones. If those phones were released with the additional features, I believed Rim would still be in a good position and wouldn't be playing catch up right now.

Hopefully with BB10 on the horizon and Thorsten Heins making the right decisions, no core users shall be left behind !

My 2 cents.

[karaya1]

I have 2 9700's. One of them a friend used after he broke his IP4 and he has converted to BB because of the speed of messaging/email and integration of the social media. He loves it.
My other one was dead because of a solder issue that killed the trackpad, which has been a problem with these phones. I finally heat gunned it today in the right area per this video
and i am pleased to say it works 100% again and is going back in service tomorrow for my sig other who came back with me for the summer from Slovakia and doesnt have a phone here. She will be converted haha.

[jivegirl14]

Now on my 11th BB. Now, one would assume the natural progression would be to move up the BB models as time goes on, which, to a point, I have. However, I cannot compare (on a personal basis) any BB to my all-time favourite BB, the 9700.

Until recently I had moved about 4 models on from the 9700, but always in the back of mind were the thoughts "I still don't like this as much as my 9700"!!!.

Well, after much grieving for my old 9700 mate, and to be honest, they are getting harder and harder to obtain BNIB, I decided to sell my 9860 and 9900 and buy myself a lovely, spanking BNIB BB Bold 9700. It came yesterday and in a perverse way, I feel as happy as a pig in sh*t.

What I'm going to do when you can't get hold of them anymore is anyone's guess, I suppose the natural progression would be the 9780.

Thoughts?

The "problem" with RIM is that it makes phones that are workhorses and some (most?) models that simply go on and on and on...doesn't bode well for future sales - unless people are going to buy several models. They simply keep going on their old phones because they work for them Not that phones should fall apart, just that the longer people keep them the fewer new models they will buy.

Personally, after using the 9900, despite the relatively lack-lustre battery life (and now the touchscreen bug) I am not sure I could go back to a previous model because I like it and I do find the keyboard easier to type with compared to previous models. But, if, as some say I could get used to typing on a touchscreen device,I wonder if the pull of the 9900 keyboard would perhaps not be quite as strong for me.

Looking through all the posts though it's interesting to note that the keyboard is the top feature that sets the 9900 apart.