[Reaver221]

I disagree I do not feel the OS on the Blackberry is slow and buggy. It is nowhere near as slow and buggy as the OS I had on a Palm recently. I changed from Palm to Blackberry and will never use another smartphone again. I have been reading a lot on the Essex. I find it hard to believe that within a years time Sprint is going to have 3 new berries. The Tour, The Curve 2, and the Essex, that is just unheard of. I want to hold out for the Essex but I am eligible for an upgrade now and am bugging for a new berry

I was in the mall and got a few minutes to play with the Bold's trackpad, ooooo, that trackpad is really nice. I've played with the trackball as well and I really like the trackpad better.

[sbkeep]

Not only is the feel of the trackpad better, but I've got to believe the durability is a vast improvement over a trackball... at least my 8330 trackball.

[eelk]

Finally comes with a wifi and better camera. Alos looks very nice

[Bettermost]

Its alread out Its called the Bold2 Looks like the same phone only CDMA

[Barredbard]

Better camera? How's that? I read the reviews and it said that the camera was the very same at 3.2 megapixels. And that does the job nicely. I already have a Tour, and in all likelihood, I will be keeping that beyond the release of the Essex. Usually, I am pretty cautious purchasing electronic devices. Time and again, my patience has paid off. For example, the first batch of Playstation 2s had something wrong with the wiring. The first batch of Xbox 360s had a system susceptible to the 'red lights of doom.' I broke my rule with the Tour. After my glorious experience with the 8830 WE, I couldn't wait. I ordered it on the very first day it was available.

Needless to say, I have had good reason to regret my decision to buy the Tour so quickly. I should have waited my usual 6 months for the manufacturer to iron out all the kinks before purchasing. The various hardware issues: trackball issues, audio jack issues and battery cover issues are bad enough. When you add the software issues featured by OS 4.7; a relatively weak battery life, sporadic ringtone issues, Error 552 problems, etc., the wisdom of looking before leaping appears to be doubly emphasized. To make things even more chaotic, not every Tour owner is experiencing these issues. Some Tour owners seem to have purchased the perfect device, while others have returned their Tours several times and are still encountering problems.

I love my Tour, but I love it more for the phone it could be, than for the phone it currently is. I have no doubt that as RIM tightens up the OS, and perhaps emerges with OS 5.0, it will be one of the best Blackberrys out there. But the point is that I don't like being a guinea pig. My contract with Sprint for the Tour is only for one year, so I will be eligible for an upgrade in July of 2010. I will, however, wait the prerequisite 6 months for the Essex to be refined before buying it whenever it comes out. Also, my decision to buy the Essex will be contingent on a number of factors, such as: 1) Whether OS 5.0 is released for the Tour in the meantime, and whether it proves to be the OS we are hoping it will be. 2) Whether the Essex, like the Tour, is a World Phone as well. 3) Whether there are any significant hardware changes, other than the trackpad; the inclusion of a trackpad is not enough to make me abandon the Tour without more. 4) Whether there are really any significant benefits to the inclusion of wireless capabilities for CDMA users in general, and Sprint users in particular. Since Sprint currently provides free mobile to mobile, the ability to make UMA calls is as useless as an extra nipple on a bull; I haven't come close to using even half of my 450 anytime minutes since Sprint began that program. 5) Whether the release of a better World Phone than the Essex becomes imminent in the meantime. 6) The opinion of Essex owners, as expressed on Crackberry.

Etcetera. That's my two cents, hardly in a nutshell.