First BlackBerry - Advice Needed!

Hi everyone,

About to purchase my first BlackBerry, and looking forward to it. At the moment, I'm trying to choose between the Storm and the Bold. I'm in Australia, and would be using the Vodafone network for the Storm and Telstra for the Bold.

I'm not looking for something for business at the moment, but work functionality might become more important in the future. At the moment, I'm wondering whether the touchscreen is on par with the proper QWERTY keyboard, whether a lack of WiFi is all that important, and whether there are any other differences I haven't heard about (I read somewhere that the browser on the Storm is inferior to the Bold - is that true?).

Anyway, any advice you could give me would be much appreciated!

Welcome.

The best advice from me would be you need to somehow try the devices and see which you prefer. Some like the touchscreen and/or can easily adapt. Others detest it and have gone back to a keyboard.

As for WiFi, it really depends on your use of the device. Having WiFi can save your data usage with your respective carrier. As for a "need" for it, some factor it into their purchase (for example, those who don't want a data plan but want to be able to latch onto a WiFi signal to use periodically versus those whose systems and device restrictions don't allow them to use WiFi making it a moot point).

Welcome to Crackberry.com

QWERTY keyboard... the are plenty of reviews and the physical keyboard usually has a lower rate of mistakes made and faster to type on. This is a preference call here.

Lack Of Wifi... How good is Vodafone's 3g abroad? Are you ever near wifi? Would you benefit from it? For me, unless I'm at home, I don't really have wifi networks to connect to.

The cam on the bold is 2mp while the storm has 3.2mp. I honestly don't mind the 2mp as it is enough to take that quick shot I need. The other difference is more real estate when it comes to the screen for watching media or surfing the web on the storm vs. the bold.

I would go into both store and test them out a bit and see what you prefer.

I would recommend that you try them both out before you commit. Most carriers give you a 2 week grace period to decide if you like the phone. If you decide it's not working, then trade for the other.

Personally, I like the quick accessibility and navigation of a Trackball, so I'm for the Bold.