First Week with Bold 9900
Hello to all and sundry. Buying the Bold 9900 is my first experience with a RIM product. Previously I've owned iPhones - 3g, 3gs and most recently a straight 4, I enjoyed them all but dreaded typing on them, so I figured I'd give a Bold a try. Well a week in and I have to admit, aside from a few teething problems (one which persists it seems, I'll detail this below) I really, really dig the handset.
First things first � activation, a few issues during this process which I�d put down to my unfamiliarity with the process and partly a result of Optus, my carrier. It took several attempts to set up BIS and I�m still having problems with syncing my contacts, never mind this is be resolved soon I expect.
Typing was difficult initially but I�m slowly getting the hang of it, the phone weighs next to nothing so holding it even in one hand and typing is a comfortable experience.
Contacts synced from my Gmail account perfectly to begin with but now it seems they magically duplicated themselves in a fit of asexual reproduction, I think, I hope a sync with the desktop client will stem the outbreak.
Browser is a little disappointing but not a deal breaker.
Can�t seem to sync my Facebook contacts with the native contacts app, again not a huge deal and something which could be addressed with a workaround, any tips would be met with gratitude.
Calender and task manager integration is superb, but I would love to be able to email or SMS calendar or task items, maybe something a sync may solve, maybe not, again tips if you�ve any!
Social feeds manager is good too albeit a little simple in the looks department. Coming from iOS where almost everything is designed to startle and amaze BB in comparison seems a bit wanting, not to worry not an issue, it works and fundamentally this is what matters.
BBM � well don�t have any friends that use Blackberry I have no idea what it�s like.
Media � Video player works well with a slim but well provisioned player, format selection is pretty good also, no longer do I have to convert to this or that, welcomed change. Music player is good, and the sound quality, I think is on par if not better than iOS. Navigation could be improved. Not being able to configure the menu as I could in iOS is a shame but no big deal. As this and the email and Text apps are the ones I use most often I noticed that when I switch apps and re-enter the music player it takes me to the main menu and from there I have to select �now playing�. From here it take me back to the main menu whereas I�d have thought it better if it took me one step back to the album�s song menu instead. Well RIM I assume know what they�re doing so I figure there must be some logic to it. Deleting song, albums, playlists is as easy as adding them after a copy to an SD card, bewdy. Picture gallery has about as much functionality as I would every need, change names, add folders that�s about all I would need and it has it.
For all the times I�ve mentioned the words problem and issue please keep in mind, for me at least as a novice I was surprised there weren�t more and the ones I had aren�t nearly enough for me to throw the phone against the wall.
No cloud, no matter, I don�t care because I don�t have an unlimited data plan and much rather my important documents are kept near my jocks rather than the ether only accessible when I have a sound connection or enough data left on my account. Blackberry are a good bridge between the �you do whatever the **** you want� Android and the �you do whatever we want� Apple. For now I�m pretty chuffed.