1. Stein357's Avatar
    Had to stop by the Apple store today to get my one day old iPhone replaced because it had a bad headphone jack and stopped by the AT&T store to play with the new Torch.

    A little background on me, I've down every iPhone and the Bold 9000 and 9700. My main complaint about the BB OS compared to the OS was the lack of refinement compared to the iOS, as well as a few other nagging problems.

    I loved my 9000, my main complaint on it was that the battery door didn't fit properly and I had to put tape on the back of the door to make it fit without wiggling. Loved the push email, LED, and the customization of the device. On the 9700, with 5.0 it was a good step up but the last character of some text messages would be cut off and it bugged me to no end, I'm anal. Another thing that bugged me was that even if you formatted numbers in the (xxx) xxx-xxxx, they wouldn't appear in the call screen like that compared to 4.5 (or was 4.6 on the bold).

    To the 9800, first off, lets get this straight, the phone's response is not as instantaneous as an iPhone 4 or 3GS, from what I remember, the original 3G was about the same moving around the phone. That being said, would it deter me from buying the phone? No. Do I think MOST people will notice it? No. Also, although the phone took a split second to respond to commands, it didn't lag when it actually did it. When I have used my brother's Droid Incredible (which has a 1GHz processor), it was laggy and jittery moving between the screens, at least the Torch was smooth.

    Another complaint I've heard was the screen. In person it's surprisingly good. Yes, the screen of my iPhone 4 is clear, bright and vibrant. However, the Torch's screen seems on par with the 3GS that I used up until I got my 4 yesterday, not bad at all. I do not use the video watching capabilities of my phone very much, so the screen isn't really a problem to me. Bottom line, the screen is great for all but most the picky people.

    OS6 is a huge step up as far as refinement goes compared to OS5, i think it was CB's own review that said it seems bigger than the screen, and yes it's true. The menus that popped up that gave you different options were a very nice touch. RIM is definitely moving in the right direction.

    The main improvement on OS6 was the browser and it definitely delivers. I only tried ESPN.com's mobile site. Rendered exactly the same my iPhone 4, although it wasn't as fast. Do I think most people will notice/care? No.

    On the hardware side, the phone felt fine. Couldn't really judge the weight or the comfort because of all of AT&T's security on it. On the keyboard side, it felt great and very familiar to me from my 9700 months ago. On a side note, I was impressed on the software keyboard, worked really well. Didn't fell cramped at all.

    My main complaint is that I don't think RIM has the "little things" figured out. I know I'm nitpicking, but on the call screen, no matter how I would format a contact it would always show up as +1xxxxxxxxxx on the call screen. I really wish it would have been formatted like (xxx) xxx-xxxx or xxx-xxx-xxxx like I tried when creating a contact. I also thought I had seen xxx-xxx-xxxx on some of the call screen promotional images, I'm hoping I was doing something wrong and they weren't just trying to make it seem more refined than it is. In the big scheme of things is this specific problem a BIG problem? No, but if RIM can't pay enough attention to the details to fix this, I'm worried about them compared to Apple, who ALWAYS sweats the small things. Apple may have F'ed the 4 up, but they'll be back with a vengeance.

    So the million dollar question, will I buy this phone (at a non-contract price)? Yes, I will in the coming months because I love BlackBerries and they appeal to me more than Androids, but it won't replace my iPhone .
    08-10-10 10:55 PM
  2. danballard87's Avatar
    Nice...
    I can agree on a lot of angles you presented here, but I will say this: I am putting my 3G away and returning to blackberry with this release. It has the MAIN things we asked for.. OS updates can fix the rest.
    08-10-10 11:09 PM
  3. Mikey52's Avatar
    lol.. well done!
    08-10-10 11:10 PM
  4. Erandhawa's Avatar
    nice review man...would def have to say its very unbiased you told it how you experienced it...downs and ups
    08-10-10 11:29 PM
  5. dwadwa's Avatar

    My main complaint is that I don't think RIM has the "little things" figured out. I know I'm nitpicking, but on the call screen, no matter how I would format a contact it would always show up as +1xxxxxxxxxx on the call screen. I really wish it would have been formatted like (xxx) xxx-xxxx or xxx-xxx-xxxx like I tried when creating a contact. I also thought I had seen xxx-xxx-xxxx on some of the call screen promotional images, I'm hoping I was doing something wrong and they weren't just trying to make it seem more refined than it is. In the big scheme of things is this specific problem a BIG problem? No, but if RIM can't pay enough attention to the details to fix this, ...
    +1
    08-11-10 12:09 AM
  6. Stein357's Avatar
    +1



    On the call screen issue, I think I found was I was looking for. On BB's initial preview of BB6 in the video you can see the man in the business suit calling someone, the numbers are spaced out. As far as I could tell there's no way to do that. Why must you tease me RIM??!

    And thanks guys, I love technology in general, not just BBs or Apple so I call it pretty much how I see it.
    08-11-10 12:14 AM
  7. dwadwa's Avatar



    On the call screen issue, I think I found was I was looking for. On BB's initial preview of BB6 in the video you can see the man in the business suit calling someone, the numbers are spaced out. As far as I could tell there's no way to do that. Why must you tease me RIM??!

    And thanks guys, I love technology in general, not just BBs or Apple so I call it pretty much how I see it.
    Yeah. I agree. Put the number in XXX-XXX-XXXX or ()- format is better cuz sometimes I need to read the phone numbers to my friends and got lost between the XXXXXXXXX digits...

    Details project quality...
    08-11-10 12:28 AM
  8. Stein357's Avatar
    Exactly makes my head hurt looking at it in the call screen. In the call log though it appeared how I saved it FWIW.

    What pisses me off is that 4.5 put it however I had it formatted in my contacts on the call screen and they took it off with 5.0! WTF!
    08-11-10 12:35 AM
  9. zensen's Avatar
    nice review mate. wish I had the money to replace a phone as often as you do, haha.

    Enjoy your phone and if you get the 9800 soon. I hope you enjoy that too
    08-11-10 07:49 AM
  10. mark_rivers19's Avatar
    he knows what he's talking about!
    i wish i can say the same to most of the "critics" or mobile reviewers out there.
    08-11-10 07:57 AM
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