My 9900 Review - Wait before upgrading!
Hey guys,
I got my BlackBerry 9900 yesterday in the mail from Rogers and immediately switched over from the 9700.
Before I continue, I'm a huge fan of Blackberry and I've been using a BlackBerry since 2000 (BlackBerry 950) and have gone through all the latest models at they progressed throughout the years.
Yesterday after switching over, I really enjoyed it or the novelty of having a new blackberry. Was impressed with the new screen and speed of the 9900, but after playing around with it for a while, I started to notice things that I really didn't like about it or how different it really is from the 9700...
1. The OS (OS7) I found to be pretty buggy or just lacked certain things. For example App World isn't working properly, adding email addresses from the phone directly isn't working properly...
2. Upset to see that all the old Blackberry noises (eg. Classic Ringer, Default BBM alert noise, email alerts) we're not there anymore and have been replaced with new sounds - not a big deal
3. My pictures are organized in folders and sub-folders. The folders work, but sub-folders all open up when you get into them. For example. If I have picture folders called. Family, Sports, and Vacation the folders are listed properly. But if I had sub folders under Sports let's say, and they were called, Hockey, Golf and Baseball, if I opened up the Sports folder, I'd see all the pictures from all the sub-folders as opposed to seeing 3 folders (Hockey, Golf and Baseball) which I should have the option to go into either one of them.
4. Although it's thin, the size of the phone is big. It's hard to go from a nice small size of a 9700 to a 9900. I understand that the screen is bigger and keyboard is bigger, but still.
5. Something annoying. When you get multiple BBM notifications, the BBM notification icon doesn't display how many different people BBMed you. Where as on the 9700, if 5 people BBMed you, you'd see the #5 next to the notification.
6. The touch screen is really cool, although can sometimes get in the way and be hit by accident. Should have a feature to lock the touch screen if possible.
7. One less convenience key now ... Why? I don't know ...
8. The speaker of the phone is location at the bottom on the backside of the phone which I personally think is a horrible placement because you tend to block it with your fingers if holding the phone in your hand thus causing a muffled or muted sound if tried playing an mp3. On the 9700, the speak was located at the top of the back side of the phone not being interfered while holding the phone ... Not too mention that the 9900's speaker sounds a little weaker than the 9700...
9.Camera's auto-focus is gone.
Anyway, that's what I noticed for now unless I forgot something else and have decided to go back to my 9700 OS5 for the time being ... I'm sorry if it's not positive review you all want to hear, just being honest!
Dov