[Tophaholic#CB]

Hello to all crackberryites,

I am eligible for an upgrade on my AT&T plan and was looking at a few phones including the Blackberry 9800 torch.

My wife has a iPhone 3GS and I want to stay away from the iPhone since I dont fancy the iOS. Was looking at samsung Captivate for Android which is not a bad phone...except for the GPS issues.

Love the WebOS so fnally upgraded to Palm Pre Plus. Loving the phone so far and I absolutely love the physical keyboard. The big negative is the horrible battery life

But I still have 5 more days before my 30 days trial period and was looking at Torch since it has the new updated OS6 and also a physical keyboard.

I went to my ATT store and played with a Torch (probably with stock firmware) and I felt it was very sluggish. The browser was painfully slow especially compared to the super fast Captivate.

My question to all of you is has the browser performance significantly improved with the firmware updates? I spend a lot of time on the internet so browser is really important. I was hoping the OS6 browser will be at par with Android, WebOS, iOS browser but did not feel so when I played with the phone at the store.

Also, are there any guitar related apps for blackberry? I have a lot of those on my wife's iPhone and are very handy

Please advise!!

[Janye]

Its a lower quality browser but a big improvment from the days gone by. The thing is, what do you need the phone for ? Is it mostly browsing ? Is it messages and emails and txts ? Is it all about the apps ? The thing is, a phone should fit your primary need and from what I can tell here, that would be web browsing. That being said, the store phone was prob not with an updated os. I am on .246 or whatever came with the canada line of phones and it is not sluggish at all.

Bottom line, list your primary needs

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Dubdub]

I agree with Janye. Find the carrier that has the coverage you need. Then list phone your needs and wants and find the phone to match them.

There is no one device which does everything.

[Tophaholic#CB]

ok will try to list my primary needs:
- Good signal reception and build quality
- good battery life (last 24 hrs with moderate -heavy use)
- good notification system (Palm pre is great with this)
- multitasking (real.... not android like)
- RSS feeds
- News apps (NY times, AP, Bloomberg etc)
- Stock market apps
- fast brower capable of rendering full websites
- text messaging
- email (gmail and yahoo) no enterprise mail

[Tophaholic#CB]

oops...forgot to include facebook

[anon(49433)]

I think I can help you with this, as I actually got a captivate, but returned it before my 30 day return period was up, and then got the torch. Captivate's battery is way worse than the Torch, especially if you keep the Torch in 2g/edge mode instead of 3g. (When I gave back the Captivate, there was no app at that time to toggle between 2g and 3g - there may be now.) Battery was like good for 6 or 7 hours with moderate use. It REALLY sucked. I would have to charge it at my desk during the day at work - which kind of defeats that whole "wireless phone" concept.
Then there was the GPS bug. Yes, there are multiple "fixes" but no real fix yet, some claim it makes theirs work better, but from what I saw, it was an intermittent issue, and just because it worked fine one day, didn't mean it would the next.
Facebook: Seriously - I've never messed with the iphone app, but the bb app is SOOO much better than the Android app for FB. Android has no way of notification if/when you get a new FB message/comment/anything. Oh and did I mention there's NO LED notification on the captivate? No "you missed a call" "you have email" nothing. That IMHO sucked. But the BB app, if you use your blackberry.net email for notifications, it integrates into the app - and works awesomely. (yes, that's a word!)
I use gmail and my personal domain email on my torch. Works great. Never tried yahoo - I get too many v1agra emails on that acct.
Never tried any stocks apps. But if you want to buy me some stocks in something I'll try it!
If you have any other questions, shoot me a PM or I'll try to watch this thread.

[hwarchitect]

I say go with the Torch. I am a long time Apple fan, bought the first iPhone the first day. Was never crazy about it, especially the virtual keyboard. Also lacked basic features I needed, like downloading pdfs and storing files. Was excited by the palm Pre, thought it would solve all my probs (phone-wise), but the battery was always dead when I most needed it. Returned it before 30 days and decided to live w/my old iPhone. Just noticed the Torch (not even shopping anymore), played with it, bought it last weekend, and love it so far. Internet speed seems fine, phone and message capabilities are amazing. The calendar won't differentiate my different categories from iCal, but besides that, it is easier to make calls/send texts/email than the iPhone, and more physically solid and dependable than the Pre. I think this one is a keeper!

[papped]

Pretty much all of that is covered. BB has always had real multitasking. Times and AP news apps are popoular (time app is quite nice).

Rss feeds there are nice apps like BerryReader. Several stock market apps like Bloomberg. Gmail and yahoo are supported on BIS already.

[newcollector]

With all the support and upgrades that Rim has to offer, I went with the Torch over the iPhone and Palm. The one I purchased earlier this month came with .246 on it and it has worked fine. I am an ATT customer. I don't find mine sluggish, but I am coming from WM6.5.

The Torch will do all that you are asking and then some. Official upgrades will be coming out shortly and they are easy to install.

[Janye]

Its a lower quality browser but a big improvment from the days gone by. The thing is, what do you need the phone for ? Is it mostly browsing ? Is it messages and emails and txts ? Is it all about the apps ? The thing is, a phone should fit your primary need and from what I can tell here, that would be web browsing. That being said, the store phone was prob not with an updated os. I am on .246 or whatever came with the canada line of phones and it is not sluggish at all.

Bottom line, list your primary needs

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Janye]

I made that post like 2 hours ago haha. It JUST showed up.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[sleepngbear]

OP ... not sure what version of the OS is on the demo Torch you had, but every new OS upgrade had improved performance and feel of the phone. .141 was notoriously sluggish and buggy. .337 just came out yesterday and consensus is that it's the best one yet.

Of the needs you listed, the only one that the Torch and OS6 are lacking is browsing. To repeat what Jayne said (I'm done with Sergio!!) ... sorry ... the WebKit browser in OS6 is light-years better than earlier BB's; but even with the latest OS upgrades, it's probably still not quite as zippy as the iP4 or newer Androids. That's not to say it isn't good --- it's just not as good as some others. I find it perfectly adequate for the mobile browsing I do. Also, the delivered BB browser defaults to mobile pages where available, which I happen to prefer, but I know a lot of people don't. But there are alternative browsers that do render full pages quite well, such as the Bolt.

I have an iPhone 3Gs in the house, and like you, I just don't care for iOS, and I can't live without a physical keyboard. I also checked out some Android phones (Captivate in particular), and was left with pretty much the same impressions as the iPs. The Torch is solid and dependable, with good battery life (I've yet go below 50% after a day of moderate usage). I'll admit my impressions are probably biased after owning two BB's before this one, but so far the Torch has not left me wanting for anything. In fact, I'm using this phone more than any other, and I keep looking for more stuff to do with it. Yes, I'm hopelessly addicted.

My recommendation? Go for it.

[RezaBerry]

You probably get a Torch;
But check these few things when you take it out of box there:
1-check all the keys they must all click nicely, I tried two phones and their keyboards had problem especially more on the right side.
2-most of them have wobbly display try to get one with less wobble and fix it later...
3-check the charger port; my first one was playing when I plugged the charger.
4-check the battery door, it mustn't be very loose though you can still fix it if all the above are OK.
5-upgrade you OS before installing any App.
6-Enjoy your Torch!
Cheers

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Matrix Leader]

Torch is the best phone i've owned hands down.

Especially when it comes to WiFi connection, withe previous BBs, the WiFi icon always remained grey no matter what security method I used, I even tried with no security on my router, and it is a pretty recent router, E 1000.

However, with the Torch, as soon as I turn on WiFi, it connects to my router and automatically changed the browser to utilize it!

Wayyyy better than OS 5, you had to manuall change the setting in the browser to hotspot browser to use your browser and that is only if you had the WiFi icon white which never happens

[jcp007]

Hello to all crackberryites,

I am eligible for an upgrade on my AT&T plan and was looking at a few phones including the Blackberry 9800 torch.

My wife has a iPhone 3GS and I want to stay away from the iPhone since I dont fancy the iOS. Was looking at samsung Captivate for Android which is not a bad phone...except for the GPS issues.

Love the WebOS so fnally upgraded to Palm Pre Plus. Loving the phone so far and I absolutely love the physical keyboard. The big negative is the horrible battery life

But I still have 5 more days before my 30 days trial period and was looking at Torch since it has the new updated OS6 and also a physical keyboard.

I went to my ATT store and played with a Torch (probably with stock firmware) and I felt it was very sluggish. The browser was painfully slow especially compared to the super fast Captivate.

My question to all of you is has the browser performance significantly improved with the firmware updates? I spend a lot of time on the internet so browser is really important. I was hoping the OS6 browser will be at par with Android, WebOS, iOS browser but did not feel so when I played with the phone at the store.

Also, are there any guitar related apps for blackberry? I have a lot of those on my wife's iPhone and are very handy

Please advise!!

If you at least update to OS .246, many of the stock issues will be fixed or improved. I have had my Torch since launch day and have never had any issues worth noting. It sounds as if messaging is your first priority in which case the Torch probably is your best choice. I too tested the i4 and the Captivate. I thought both were great devices but since messaging, multi-tasking, great battery life, touchscreen, and physical keyboard were higher priorities than a warpspeed browser and processor with less battery life, I chose the Torch. The browser is much better especially with the updated OS than past Berry browsers. There is more customization potential and better organized, intuitive menus to consider as well with the Torch.

[Foberry]

ok will try to list my primary needs:
- Good signal reception and build quality
- good battery life (last 24 hrs with moderate -heavy use)
- good notification system (Palm pre is great with this)
- multitasking (real.... not android like)
- RSS feeds
- News apps (NY times, AP, Bloomberg etc)
- Stock market apps
- fast brower capable of rendering full websites
- text messaging
- email (gmail and yahoo) no enterprise mail

This smells like a list of Pro-Torch...well minus the web browser. It simply isn't as good compared to the other phones but the Torch will hold its own and get the job done.

[Tophaholic#CB]

Thanks for all your advise and opinions.

I took the plunge and swapped my Palm Pre Plus for a Blackberry Torch. Hardware looks awesome. I got a Mexico 5 with a green dot (.246 installed)
All buttons work fine so far. Not to happy about the buttons on the display (call, BB, escape, end call). They look like they are made of thin plastic which creaks a bit when pushed down. I am hoping they do not start falling out like some of the other folks here on the forum.

Anyways....looking forward towards getting tons of information from this forum. Will be hanging out here quite frequently.