[ubizmo]

I picked up a Samsung Galaxy Blaze 4g on eBay last spring, and used it in alternation with my 9900 for a few months. I spent a week in Scotland, and used the BB for that, but when I got back in mid-July, I switched to the Blaze again, just for a change.

I've been using the Blaze steadily since then. It's certainly not a cutting-edge Android phone, but the 4" screen size makes it a device that doesn't feel too large for me, but I can still read the screen easily. It runs Ginger Bread, but I don't really care. It supposedly will get ICS at some point, but I have my doubts. The OEM battery was about 1700 mAh, and it did pretty well on it; it does even better with a Mugen 2000.

I find that I'm now significantly faster using Swype than I am with my 9900 keyboard, and equally accurate. I didn't expect that, but that's how it is, and it makes me less inclined to go back to the BB.

The Kindle app, which is use a lot, is full-featured. It supports annotation and highlighting. The way I can get at Google docs is very useful to me. I use Launcher 7, a WP lookalike, which I find to be more efficient than either Touchwiz or any of the other launchers I've tried. I listen to many podcasts, and the Podkicker app handles them well for me--better than the BB app did. I listen to Audible books, and the Audible app also works well. There is no Audible app for BBOS 7, but I was using the OS6 version, which worked, but with some difficulty.

There are some things I miss from BB, but on the whole I've settled in pretty well. I won't switch to BB10 unless it can do what the Blaze does, and then some.

[ndnoutlaw]

I left my BB Bold 9900 Sprint for an Android only because there was an app I needed for work. it was a bad idea.... I was hacked on android ttwice. I then moved to iphone 4s 16g. while I was kikking and screaming the whole time I havent cursed a phone since I was doing non stop battery pulls on the storm. Ive been begging for my bold 9900 back in my life. the only question I have for future BB's, will they be best suited for BES or will there be good support for BIS. I noticed most apps I wanted didn't work well on 9900 BIS. If blackberry 10 is good for BIS I will give a good look at it.

[dave1701]

Left my tour for an HTC Trophy, a Windows Phone. I love it so far, really simple, no spinning hourglass of death and typing on it is really not too bad. I will miss the physical keyboard, but I like the big screen. Windows Phone 7 is surprisingly stable and has a UI that is smooth like butter and perfect for a phone.

I am keeping my tour around though, as a remote for my playbook.

[BlastTyrant]

If your Droid got hacked, you don't need to change your phone.... you need to change your online habits LOL
I switched from BB to Droid 9 months ago and haven't regretted it for a second. Mostly because of work....
All those who say BB is "more work oriented than other smart phones" don't have a clue what they're talking about. Seriously....
Try sending a 50MB file from your "work oriented" BB...
Try using QuickOffice on your BB....

[cgnovelo]

I switched about 10 months ago. Even if I have no real ill feelings towards BB, it will be very difficult to go back. The one thing I miss is the awesome keyboard...

First let me say that in my country, Mexico, the main mobile carrier Telcel is worse than cancer. Expensive service and mostly super expensive devices. The phones prices are jacked up so high and with the "subsidy" you still end up paying more than the US full retail price even after commiting to a 2 year contract. For instance, the Galaxy Nexus is going for more than 800 dlls, if you get a really expensive contract, paying like 120 per month, they will let you have it for around 450, when the US people can buy it for 350 with no contract. An iphone is probably 200 more expensive and still wannabe hipsters don't mind paying this much.

So anyway, my first BB was a 8300 that my cousin gave to me, I loved it and used it for about 1 year, then decided to renew my contract and get another Curve. The 8900 was one of the cheapest, I paid about 50 for 18 months contract. At the time I was working from home so I decided to get only phone service. Right away I realized that it was a mistake because I could not use the phone at all with wifi only. Maybe for a little browsing and a couple of apps like snaptu, which later died. After a while I decided to upgrade my service to BIS only to be told I needed to pay a fine of about 80 to switch to a more expensive plan! I was furious, I would understand a penalty for switching to a cheaper plan, but the opposite? I got another prepaid line from a different carrier then that costed a bit less than the extra I had to paid for BIS in the original, so now I had to carry two phones.

This only lasted like 1.5 months and then I was transferred to China for work. Service is much cheaper here, but I realized that something changed and while in my previous visit I had been able to use the browser with the WAP service, now I couldn't. I asked around but no one seemed to know how to activate BIS without paying a small fortune. So now my phone was even more useless. Even if later I found out that I might be able to use BIS by switching to China Unicom, I was tired of the phone and its shortcomings. One thing I will always hate is the Appworld, for instance, the reception in my house was spotty and even with no BIS and wifi on, if the signal for mobile is not on, you can not use it.

So I finally went to buy an Android phone and even if the network is slow and lots of things are blocked, I have many less frustrations. At least I can use the phone fully with wifi and I can set up a VPN and use facebook, twitter, etc, which is impossible with BB.

Anyway, still like BB and hope they will survive, more options is always better...

[hootyhoo]

I left my BB Bold 9900 Sprint for an Android only because there was an app I needed for work. it was a bad idea.... I was hacked on android ttwice. I then moved to iphone 4s 16g. while I was kikking and screaming the whole time I havent cursed a phone since I was doing non stop battery pulls on the storm. Ive been begging for my bold 9900 back in my life. the only question I have for future BB's, will they be best suited for BES or will there be good support for BIS. I noticed most apps I wanted didn't work well on 9900 BIS. If blackberry 10 is good for BIS I will give a good look at it.

In what way were you hacked?

[rbenjami]

Goodbye Blackberry. It's been a good run. Over a decade.

In mid-2001 I got my first blackberry. I believe it was called the 950. It looked like a pager and was the only thing that worked in NYC following the 9/11 attacks. It's reliability went unmatched. It didnt have a phone.

I then got a 5820, which looked like a paperback book and had a phone. Well, it sort of had a phone. You had to use a wired earpiece to talk to anyone.

Next, I got a blue 7230, which is the first all-in-one blackberry. It also had the first usable web browser. I played many rounds of brickbreaker on the 7230 (some in the men's room). I kept that 7230 for a VERY long time. I remember fighting with our IT department when they tried to make me upgrade. I loved the huge keyboard.

Eventually, I got an 8900 that I used until the ball fell out. Then I got a replacement 8900 and used that until the ball got stuck and simply wouldnt turn anymore. I think I sent out an announcement of my daughter's birth from the delivery room on my 8900.

Finally, I upgraded to the 9700, which I have used for the past few years.

I bought a PlayBook the day it was announced - and held off getting an iPad for nearly a year while I waited for Blackberry to release the device I REALLY wanted.

My wife has also been a faithful blackberry user. She has had a litany of devices, including the flipphone and one of the Pearl devices with the krazy keyboard!

Like all good things, it has come to an end. My wife and I will be getting rid of our 9700s and ordering new iPhone 5s tomorrow. (We already have an iPad - I won it at a charity auction earlier this year.)

The real reason we are leaving BlackBerry is because of the apps. Sure the devices have become more and more boring and the build quality has become somewhat spotty, but the real reason is that the apps just aren't coming. RIM has kept us waiting for a very long time. And we were patient. I paid $600 for that supid PlayBook and it still doesnt have Skype, Kindle, or a working gps.

I'm simply done.

I also wanted to say goodbye to Crackberry. I have posted here over the years and helped others (and received help). It is a great resource and BlackBerry users are (generally) a nice group of people.

So, thanks for everything Blackberry. We had a good run. You just couldn't keep up.

[GingerSnapsBack]

The real reason we are leaving BlackBerry is because of the apps. Sure the devices have become more and more boring and the build quality has become somewhat spotty, but the real reason is that the apps just aren't coming. RIM has kept us waiting for a very long time. And we were patient. I paid $600 for that supid PlayBook and it still doesnt have Skype, Kindle, or a working gps.

That's the main reason I left. The apps. I couldn't find any of the apps I needed for work on my Storm. IS quit supporting BBs for email shortly thereafter due to the higher ups switching to iPhone.

[mssca]

Hay guys... I have used BlackBerries since I was 17 years old and finally now after six years, I had enough of it.

I got the new Samsung GS III and love it! However, I already missed the Email and keyboard system on Blackberries. Good buy CrackBerry nation.

[SaMaster14]

Pre-ordered my iPhone5 this morning. I'll be keeping my 9930 on hand (de-activated) for a while if I really can't live without it (LED, amazing keyboard, superior email). I loved my 9930, but I'm a college student and I really do miss the apps. And once I load apps on my device it slows down, battery life decreases immensely and ultimately, the device crashes.

I know I'll be back to BB once BB10 goes through a cycle or two.... and I'll stay active and not turn into an iOS fanboy...

[mssca]

Pre-ordered my iPhone5 this morning. I'll be keeping my 9930 on hand (de-activated) for a while if I really can't live without it (LED, amazing keyboard, superior email). I loved my 9930, but I'm a college student and I really do miss the apps. And once I load apps on my device it slows down, battery life decreases immensely and ultimately, the device crashes.

I know I'll be back to BB once BB10 goes through a cycle or two.... and I'll stay active and not turn into an iOS fanboy...

Hope you don't turn in to a fan boy because Samsung GS III seems to be faster. I test drove both iPhone 4S (Similar to iPhone 5) and GS III and found GS III to be better. Some tech people predict that Apple has let down the expectations on iP 5 and most likely Samsung and Windows Phones will take over in the next few months.

[SaMaster14]

Hope you don't turn in to a fan boy because Samsung GS III seems to be faster. I test drove both iPhone 4S (Similar to iPhone 5) and GS III and found GS III to be better. Some tech people predict that Apple has let down the expectations on iP 5 and most likely Samsung and Windows Phones will take over in the next few months.

I'm not really concerned with stuff like that. I personally just don't like the Android OS. My mom has one and quite a few friends have droids of all shapes and sizes (literally haha) and I've just never liked the OS. I respect it, I just wouldn't personally ever want to use it.

Also, in my family and friend groups... it's ALL about the iPhone. When I was in high school (now a sophomore in college), my school was split 45/45 BB to iPhone. Maybe 5% had Droids and another 5% had 'dumb-phones'/semi-smartphones. Now, pretty much everyone that I've kept in contact with from high school has an iPhone, and most of my extended family has moved to iOS as well (except for my dad who uses his phone strictly for business (email) and never uses apps. He loves the BB for it's simplicity and efficiency).

[Syrous44]

Hay guys... I have used BlackBerries since I was 17 years old and finally now after six years, I had enough of it.

I got the new Samsung GS III and love it! However, I already missed the Email and keyboard system on Blackberries. Good buy CrackBerry nation.

You will learn to love it, i left bb for a gnex 3 months ago and couldn't be happier. I got used to typing and email and its as productive if not more then all my past bbs combined. Also with jelly bean os its a dream device, your sgiii will be that much better running jelly bean if you already dont have it. Welcome to the android fold.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[mssca]

You will learn to love it, i left bb for a gnex 3 months ago and couldn't be happier. I got used to typing and email and its as productive if not more then all my past bbs combined. Also with jelly bean os its a dream device, your sgiii will be that much better running jelly bean if you already dont have it. Welcome to the android fold.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

How is the battery life on your GS III? I am looking into buying this, SEIDIO | Innocell 3500mAh Super Extended Life Battery (w/ NFC) for Samsung Galaxy S III because the juice is not enough for my 5 AM to 9 PM school and work schedules. But then again, this is super fast with LTE which will drain the battery of Bold 9900(if it supported LTE) anyway.

[matt2004]

dumping my 8520 for a 9320. just so ill get os7.1 and 3g.

[RightyTightyLeftyLoosey]

I've pre-ordered an iPhone 5. Will be selling my 9320 and PB and using some of the money to buy another Apple TV for the house, so I can use all the TVs to stream from the iPhone/iPad.

Sad but RIM are not getting the devices into the hands of consumers - I've just signed a 24 month contract for the iPhone 5 and many others will be doing the same.

The iOS stuff is interacting perfectly with my work life and social life - I'm getting things done, everything is sync-ed wirelessly and its very efficient. I've even just bought a cheap �10 app that streams my iPad to my interactive whiteboard for teaching purposes (video and audio).

I'm sure BB10 will look beautiful and I look forward to it arriving but I need my tech to be working for me now, not the promise that everything will be great in 4-5 months. Poor leadership is hurting a once great brand, which saddens me. The previous management were asleep on the job and RIM is now running to catch up with where iOS and Android were 2 years ago.

Good luck everyone, hope BB10 arrives soon and it is all that you guys hope it will be.

[Syrous44]

How is the battery life on your GS III? I am looking into buying this, SEIDIO | Innocell 3500mAh Super Extended Life Battery (w/ NFC) for Samsung Galaxy S III because the juice is not enough for my 5 AM to 9 PM school and work schedules. But then again, this is super fast with LTE which will drain the battery of Bold 9900(if it supported LTE) anyway.

No i have a gnex, i find battery life to be 8-14 hours depending how i use it. I heard people are getting 8-16 on their gsiiis. Again depends on lte use and screen run time. The display is what drains batt the most.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[SuperBee731]

I have loved blackberry's for a long time but after 10 plus years I am leaving. I always wanted the newest BB when they came out from the old side track/roller to the trackball and now the 9900. I have had to replace both my 9900's under warranty with Att 15 to 20 times. I use 2 phones and with all the issues with the 9900's I use 1 9900 and my old 9700. Hate the iphone and never been a touch screen guy but just can't deal with all the issues and slow products to market with the issues. I am also leaving Att there services has gone down hill here in North Atlanta.

I ordered 1 Samsung Galaxy III for myself on Verizon. Wife and kids love the iphone so order 3 for them. I am going to keep my other BB on Att until I see who gets the Note 2 and that will be my other phone. It kills me to leave Blackberry but there product or for me has gone down hill. I appreciate the help others would give me when phones were coming out and the info but it's time, couldn't image having this phone with no warranty which is in November.

Thanks everyone.

[anon(971570)]

This news story hurts as Yahoo! is leaving the BB fold. Still waiting for BB10... Mayer Gives Yahoo Workers Free iPhones - New CEO offers iPhone 5, Galaxy S3 ... you name it

[musiclover7]

I have a year left in my contract, and then I will be ditching my 9810 for the new Iphone unless something seriously changes within RIM. Honestly, when you compare the two, there really is no comparison, especially with the new maps app that comes with the iphone. Apps on the Iphone are vibrant, beautiful, and useful. Apps on the BB, are sometimes useful, seldom pretty to look at, and generally look like they were coded in an 8 year old object coding environment. I think that is partly why no one is writing good apps for the BB. It is a big fat pain in the arse to make them look halfway decent, where-as in IOS, so much of the graphic bells and whistles are done for you, someone relatively new to coding can write a really good looking app pretty easily. This allows an engineer to focus more on the content of their app. I know that function trumps looks, but I think IOS wins there also.

[Coachbulldog]

I have a year left in my contract, and then I will be ditching my 9810 for the new Iphone unless something seriously changes within RIM. Honestly, when you compare the two, there really is no comparison, especially with the new maps app that comes with the iphone. Apps on the Iphone are vibrant, beautiful, and useful. Apps on the BB, are sometimes useful, seldom pretty to look at, and generally look like they were coded in an 8 year old object coding environment. I think that is partly why no one is writing good apps for the BB. It is a big fat pain in the arse to make them look halfway decent, where-as in IOS, so much of the graphic bells and whistles are done for you, someone relatively new to coding can write a really good looking app pretty easily. This allows an engineer to focus more on the content of their app. I know that function trumps looks, but I think IOS wins there also.

You were a little premature in praising the new iPhone maps app.

[mssca]

I have loved blackberry's for a long time but after 10 plus years I am leaving. I always wanted the newest BB when they came out from the old side track/roller to the trackball and now the 9900. I have had to replace both my 9900's under warranty with Att 15 to 20 times. I use 2 phones and with all the issues with the 9900's I use 1 9900 and my old 9700. Hate the iphone and never been a touch screen guy but just can't deal with all the issues and slow products to market with the issues. I am also leaving Att there services has gone down hill here in North Atlanta.

I ordered 1 Samsung Galaxy III for myself on Verizon. Wife and kids love the iphone so order 3 for them. I am going to keep my other BB on Att until I see who gets the Note 2 and that will be my other phone. It kills me to leave Blackberry but there product or for me has gone down hill. I appreciate the help others would give me when phones were coming out and the info but it's time, couldn't image having this phone with no warranty which is in November.

Thanks everyone.

All the best... I also recently switched to S III after using 9900 for a year. It took me about two weeks to get used to the touch screen keyboard. But with Telus LTE speeds with no stone age BIS servers, the phone is fast. If you find the battery life bad during first week, just ignore it because I found the battery life got better after a week use.

Also the Galaxy S III is so fast that the Jelly bean update won't make a big difference in performance of the phone. The only downside of this phone is the massive data use.

All the best.

[jly.public]

I myself is looking to leave Bb for the iPhone5 when my contract is up this Nov. I take a lot of close-up pictures of documents and the lack of auto-focus is finally getting on my last nerve. I've tried workarounds for this shortcoming, but a bad camera is a bad camera. I wish my Bold 9930 came with a dual core processor, at least 1GB of RAM, a decent battery and quality FRONT and back cameras. :/

The keyboard has served me well though.

[Bobbymaz]

Our company just decided to switch the entire company over to iphone and ipads. It will be a massive change as there are about 20,000 employees who will be getting new devices. As BB keeps losing its business base, I dont see how they will stay afloat any longer.

[schiri]

Been trying out the Lumia 710 with it's WP OS and it just doesn’t cut it with me.

I'll be the first in line for a BB10 device when they are released.