[pokey318]

My son is interested in getting a Blackberry, most likely the Bold with AT&T. The only thing holding him back and making him lean toward the iPhone is the internet. He uses the internet a good bit on his phone and has heard that Blackberry internet is not as good/fast as the iPhone. I have seem people mention Opera Mini and I was wondering how that compares to the iPhone.

Are there other browsers like Opera that one could use on the Blackberry? Again, he will use the phone a good bit for internet, but also does a great amount of texting. I have the iPhone so he knows how it handles. He has played with a friends Blackberry, but didn't like the internet. If Opera or some other browser is better, he would go with the Blackberry.

Thanks!!

[bt224]

I don't think you're going to get close to the iPhone with any browser. If he is mainly wanting to text and use the internet, get the iPhone. And yes, it hurt to type that.

[darna]

Opera mini is a nice, fast browser for the blackberry but nothing beats iphone's internet as of the moment.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[pokey318]

He doesn't expect Opera to be the same as Safari, just somewhere close.

Is Opera better than what is on the BB, or is it more of the same? My husband is getting his Bold this week and my son is thinking about putting Opera Mini on his phone. I don't want to have more on my husband's phone than needed as he always seems to have phone trouble.

If we put Opera on the Bold does it have to be installed on the phone itself or can we put it on the media card? I am assuming it needs to be on the phone itself, but wanted to make sure.

[bt224]

Opera is installed on the phone. I would guess that it's about an even split between Opera, the BB browser, and Bolt. It really is a personal preference. Your son needs to go to AT&T and spend some time on each phone.

[Jonneh]

I'm willing to bet the iphone is more along the lines of what he'll want, if he's after great times of browsing the internet. Other phones can do it okay, and some even good, but the iphone is currently the king of mobile browsing.

If he wants to communicate a lot, via SMS Texts, MMS Texts, e-mails, Blackberry Messenger, AIM, and all those other messengers, etc, then I'd choose Blackberry.

[pokey318]

Going to AT&T is useless as their phones will not have Opera on it. Yes, he can test out the BB browser, but he has done that with his sister's Curve as well as friends Blackberry's. Once my husband's Bold comes, he will play with that.

I was just looking for peoples opinions that have used Opera on a BB as well as Safari on the iPhone. There seem to be many people that have the Bold and an iPhone.

[Autosuggestion]

I had a curve and currently have an iPhone. I am getting a Bold in the mail tomorrow.

Nothing touches Safari.

But OM is far better than the original BB browser.

Hopefully Skyfire will be released soon or a mobile Firefox.

[cellinator]

My advice is to buy the Bold, install Opera Mini and Bolt. I use both and rarely use the BB browser. Judging the Bold strictly on the native browser will certainly drive him to the iPhone!

I use Opera Mini as my main browser. I subscribe to all my RSS feeds with it as well. It's reader does the job for me and works great!

For other tasks or sites that don't render well in Opera Mini (there are a few), I use the latest version of Bolt.

I have to access Blackboard for academic reasons. Opera Mini does a so so job. Bolt lets me do anything with Blackboard that a normal computer-based browser would do.

Bolt sometimes doesn't like certain URL's. I get error messages for them sometimes, but they render quite well in Opera Mini.

Skyfire? I can't wait to try that! I'm sure that will cover any remaining needs I have. In fact, I'm sure it will add some functionality that Bolt or Opera Mini don't address (e.g., Flash video?)

I have to say that I have used the browser on the iPhone and it is great. However, load times reminded me a bit of the native browser on my Bold. Once the page did finally render, it looked great.

My thoughts....

[pokey318]

As far as phone memory, you have enough to install two additional browsers as well as applications and other stuff? I guess I keep thinking 1G, or whatever is on the Bold, isn't much.

Is it a big deal to switch back and forth between browsers; I assume you just choice which you want to use at a given time?

Which browser is best to access the web for things like ESPN, Wikipedia, Google, Google Maps, etc.. I know one think my son likes to do is follow a baseball game/golf while it is going on. He has used my iPhone while we were out to dinner one night and he seem to be able to see a play by play on the phone; I don't know what site he was on, but I would assume something through ESPN. I think keeping up with sports in real time would be the one thing that would push him to one phone or the other. If you said he can do that with Opera or Bolt, I think he would go ahead with the BB Bold.

On another note, his iPod is acting funky which is one reason he started thinking of the iPhone. Of course, he has an 80 or 120GB iPod that is full, so an iPhone would never hold all his music! He would have to decide what to put on the phone on any given day.

[weblou]

I used both phones, before the bold i had the Iphone for almost a year. If it's Internet he cares about most then you should get him the Iphone. It's made for that. For the sports both phone's have that, it's an application you install and it gives you up to the minute updates. I think it's called sports mobile. The Bold is a great phone and if you need to go on the net here and there it does a great job, but the Iphone is made for that. I say if the internet is hes #1 demand on a phone then go with the Iphone. If he want a messaging device and a better overall phone with some internet the get the bold.

Anyone you get is a great device

[cellinator]

I used both phones, before the bold i had the Iphone for almost a year. If it's Internet he cares about most then you should get him the Iphone. It's made for that. For the sports both phone's have that, it's an application you install and it gives you up to the minute updates. I think it's called sports mobile. The Bold is a great phone and if you need to go on the net here and there it does a great job, but the Iphone is made for that. I say if the internet is hes #1 demand on a phone then go with the Iphone. If he want a messaging device and a better overall phone with some internet the get the bold.

Anyone you get is a great device

I have to disagree. Sure the iPhone is "made for that" but that doesn't make it better for what he wants to do. The combination of browsers mentioned in my earlier post will allow him to do everything he needs to do (and much faster) than the iPhone. Also, the playing field is REALLY going to change once Skyfire is released. Given the early reports of that browser, the browsing experience on a Blackberry will certainly be taken to another level. I would NOT buy the iPhone strictly for its browsing ability. You can do so much more with the Bold (and with longer battery life too!).

[pokey318]

Is there a release date for Skyfire in the near future? My son, who by the way is a grad student, not a teenager, is coming from a original Samsung Blackjack; either phone will be an improvement!!

[djiang12]

I am currently using a Bold and my girlfriend has the iPhone 3G. I'm currently an undergraduate student and I can tell you that I would not survive without my Bold. The incredible array of features and the organization it provides is superlative. I am able to take notes for certain classes on my Bold and sync it back with my laptop after. I get push email that are a godsend when doing the heavy amount of group projects required in my program. The fact taht almost everyone in my business school is using a blackberry and the convenience of Blackberry messenger. I currently commute to school about an 2 hours a day. I am able to use the Bold with Docs To Go to work on assignments. I don't care what people have to say on media on the bold. I can watch movies perfectly fine on it. I can play music and browse, do work, input meetings and everything at the same time. The browsing is perfectly fine again with multiple brrowsers that fit your needs. Its very fast and definitely not a pain to you. I feel that choosing a phone for just the internet is foolish and i would strongly recommend the bold.

as for entertainment on it, there are games that you can download that are fine for the bold. ive gotten games such as fifa 09, super mario bros from this very forum. brickbreaker is very addictive and the new os's also come with word mole, sudoku, solitaire, and texas hold'em.

as for the iphone, there is nothing that will match the safari browser. when im with my gf and i need to use the internet i will always use her phone. sure the iphone provides lots of fun apps i understand the appeal it presents. but when it comes to daily needs, nothing is better than a bold. not to mention battery life and audio quality and call quality.

hope this helps.

*edit* also forgot to mention the customizing available for blackberries. i love how im able to customize the looks and feels with themes and also how easy it to take aparat the bold and install a new bezel trackball, keyboard, and battery door. my blacked out bold looks amazing compared to the regular one and ive seen others that look amazing as well. that just ccant be done on an iphone. what my girlfriend does is designs her own designs and goes to myteego to create the stickers to put on the phone. thats the only why she can make hers look different.

[weblou]

I have to disagree. Sure the iPhone is "made for that" but that doesn't make it better for what he wants to do. The combination of browsers mentioned in my earlier post will allow him to do everything he needs to do (and much faster) than the iPhone. Also, the playing field is REALLY going to change once Skyfire is released. Given the early reports of that browser, the browsing experience on a Blackberry will certainly be taken to another level. I would NOT buy the iPhone strictly for its browsing ability. You can do so much more with the Bold (and with longer battery life too!).

I never use Skyfire on the bold. But from using BB browser and OM and Bolt, none of them come even close to the browser experience of the Iphone. The navigation of the web page is better on the Iphone and I can't see how you could say that the bold is faster in browsing? Maybe to render the page ( which i find the Iphone faster ) but once on the page you navigate much faster with the iphone. IMO the Iphone is a much better device for internet surfing. The bold is pretty good but nothing like the iphone. And i have used both phones. I do prefer the bold all around but for something the Iphone is better.