1. metllicamilitia's Avatar
    For the last few years, I've been switching between BlackBerry and Android, but the last 6 months, I've been using iPhone. There are so many things I love about each platform and things I don't like either. I'm now to the point that I really need to decide which platform to keep using and sell the other two. And I'm also going to write a paper (for lack of a better term I guess) on my own little platform tour. So I just want to know, in as much detail as you can give, why choose BlackBerry, what makes BlackBerry the best choice?
    06-25-12 03:15 PM
  2. jthep's Avatar
    First off it was more a matter of liking certain builds for smartphones. I cannot stand all touch slabs that seem so fragile and cheap and I really like typing on my phone, so initially thats what got me into smartphones, the emailing, messaging, texting, etc.

    I am on my third Blackberry, the Bold 9900 and it has the best keyboard I have ever used in a mobile device. Over the years though I have seen Blackberries lag behind in tech specs, media, browser, app functionality, and buggy OS updates. So while not perfect, through the years, I stuck with Blackberry through a Curve 8320 in 2007, Torch 9800 in 2010, and now a Bold 9900 in 2012.

    The Bold 9900 is the closest I have seen a Blackberry come to perfection though. OK, its minor flaws, obvious the little screen but it suits me for web browsing and has a good enough resolution to be seen well enough. Also no autofocus in the camera that I hardly use. And while the battery life is good, its not as good as previous Blackberries I have used. And it doesn't run Adobe Flash. But if you focus on what it does well rather than nitpick its limitations, it is one beast of a device.

    Many of the more popular phones now are closer to be tablets and are a nightmare for me personally to type on. If I wanted a tablet, I will buy a tablet, which I did, a Playbook. So I get to use my great Bold 9900 keyboard on my tablet through Bridge remote control!

    The Bold 9900 is what smartphone should be, but I realize isn't the build most people here in the States prefer currently.

    I am familiar with iOS in owning an iPod Touch, but I couldn't see signing a two year contract to own the same device except it can make phone calls as an iPhone? But it is good for cheap mobile gaming and other things which I might try once and delete.

    Android, I have played around with my brothers Droid 1,2, and 4, all have horrible batteries but were good phones with good keyboards. People I speak to with Android phones tend to complain about poor battery life in general with few exceptions. OS is good enough, but at times seems unnecessarily complicated and buggy. But the Blackberry OS updates have been buggy over the years too, the only OS I have used that isn't buggy is iOS.

    As for Windows phones, I cannot comment on them since I have never used one and only know 2 people that have one. Both complain about battery life, but like the OS. But I have no experience whatsoever to comment on a Windows phone.
    06-25-12 03:44 PM
  3. sleepngbear's Avatar
    1 - gotta have a keyboard. Have tried touch-screen typing for years and it doesn't work for me. And among phones with keyboards, nothing touches a BB.

    2 - ease of use and access to frequently used functions and features.

    3 - easy to organize the things I do just about any way I want.

    4 - 2nd to none communications.

    5 - 2nd to none user community (hear that CB? I'm talkin' to you.)

    6 - not cluttered trying to be all things a PHONE has no business trying to be.
    06-25-12 05:05 PM
  4. _StephenBB81's Avatar
    Well I am using a BlackBerry and an iPhone side by side right now.

    Why I prefer my BlackBerry

    Physical Call answer button, today I hung up on 3 people answering the iPhone because 1 the decline button is on the wrong side, and 2 they are too close together so when fumbling in my pocket while running from place to place resulted in my hanging up on people rather than answering. never happens to me with BlackBerry's

    Notifications: BBM, SMS, email all have their own notifications on my BB including LED notifications key people also have their own notifications, by seeing a specific blinking colour on the device I know if the message is important enough to excuse myself from the room to check, no such silent option for the iPhone

    I HATE SLIDE TO UNLOCK, I can't stress this enough, I went and asked at iMore if there was a way to remove it, slide to unlock takes longer and is far more cumbersome that the button to unlock on my BlackBerry, then Passwords, it takes longer to unlock and enter my 4 digit password on the iPhone than it does my BlackBerry and my 6 digit password. and because of the lack of silent secret notifications that unlock process is amplified as I have to do it twice as often

    Now for me I love the physical keyboard, and just can't get the softkeyboard even to a respectable speed level, I've given the iPhone 10,000 words of typing before I really started talking about having it, because my first week was far more swearword filled than it has been lately, though still a lot of arrggss!! the Home Button location sucks, when holding the phone with my right hand I can not go from Home Button to backto inbox arrow without shifting the entire phone in my fingers, this is very clumbsy, and in these summer months I'm not worried but as my phone gets frosted in the winter, which does happen to BlackBerry's and I can only image will happen more to a glass backed iPhone 1 handed use with gloves will be impossible.

    Universal connectors, it is way easier to find a MicroUSB connector at any place for a few dollars if you're in need, it isn't so easy to find iPhone connectors.

    Now the iPhone has Skype which is nice, I use Skype chat to talk with staff around the world, I couldn't do this with BlackBerry as the costa rica team are all desktop bound so any tool would need to be desktop usable with video and Skype seems to be the software of choice, so the iPhone does 1 up my BlackBerry, except I never really know when I have a skype message unless it comes in when I'm paying attention, again it comes to the lack of the LED, and the skype app not being in my primary app screen so I don't see the little red dot.

    the iPhone browser is just stupid when zooming, when you zoom a page on the BlackBerry browser it zooms and fits the text for the most part centred, the iPhone zooms in on the section you zoomed too, and you have to scroll an centre yourself. sucks for 1 handed operation!

    Phones are meant to be used with one had, and should not be designed to require ones complete attention to use, the BlackBerry device understands this, so much of how you use it is so natural with 1 hand, and it makes you not need to look at it, you glance and do, the iPhone requires my attention, every email after writing I need to read to see where the mistakes are and correct them if I am doing emails my usual way without looking at the device and just going to town.

    over all BlackBerry works best for me because of design layout for 1 hand, easy to manage notification profiles, LED, and keyboard.
    shaleem, Frosty_Power and DocDRM like this.
    06-25-12 05:45 PM
  5. eve6er69's Avatar
    I have always been a big fan of the text wrap when zooming in on a berry rather than just zooming in on an iphone.
    06-25-12 05:53 PM
  6. flash24's Avatar
    I love my blackberry because of the keyboard. Touchscreen is just not for me.
    06-25-12 06:31 PM
  7. o4liberty's Avatar
    The notifications is the big one for me but also the UI of a blackberry is like no other device. With the new OS 7 devices it has been easier to deal with since a blackberry lacks some of the more popular apps and goodies other platforms have..

    Sent from my BlackBerry 9850 using Tapatalk
    06-25-12 07:59 PM
  8. omi10468's Avatar
    Blackerry is the best man, the keyboard, push email, BBM, and the form factor of the 9900 is amazing. In terms of using it for work I find that the BB helps me enormously with my profession. I would be lost without it!
    06-25-12 08:39 PM
  9. BoldPreza's Avatar
    I love that its Canadian.

    I love its build quality.

    I love its reliability.

    I love its messaging options(it offers every IM service except iMessage)

    I love that it was cheap to buy.

    I love that it has a real Trackpad. Some days I don't know what I would do without it.

    Its just the best phone for me! I was considering iPhone as an alternative, but realistically I can't stand the idea of having an iPhone. If I need to switch, I managed to get myself a free used Palm Pre on WebOS with an amazing UI and I will be more than happy to use for the time being. Thats how little I like the modern options aside from Blackberry.
    06-25-12 09:54 PM
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