I was never a huge BlackBerry fan, honestly, and really only got the Bold as a result of my Samsung Epix kicking the bucket twice in a month. I don’t regret the decision to buy it, because overall, I’m quite pleased with the phone. I’ll list out why.
-Email: This is the reason why people buy BlackBerrys, and it’s something that RIM doesn’t really have to improve upon. They have the edge over any Windows Mobile device, and the iPhone, with plenty of space in between the competitors. I set up all three of my personal email accounts, with just my username and password, and all three PUSH perfectly, without any trouble. I never had that with Windows, and certainly not Apple. If email is something you aren’t really worried about, or just something that doesn’t matter, then this feature won’t weight too heavily, but honestly, I am a huge fan of how seamless the entire setup and operation is.
-Text/Multimedia Messaging: Here is where BlackBerry could improve, especially since Windows recently upgraded their messaging setup. BlackBerry has “threaded” texts, in the sense that all of your outgoing and incoming messages are kept in the same box, and when you open a message on a thread, it shows all the previous messages, sent and received, that were stored. However, it doesn’t save and group the texts according to the receiver or sender, as Apple and Windows do, but instead just allows all the messages to pile up, and become very tedious to scroll through. There is a search feature, but that only adds to the tedious factor, and makes keeping track of your text conversations somewhat tiring, after awhile. Nothing that’s a huge detractor, but it certainly doesn’t add anything, either.
-Media (Camera, MusicPlayer, etc.): Blackberrys have a surprisingly sharp media set-up, and the Bold only improves upon it. Music can be dragged/dropped on a storage card, and the phone will search and scan for the files automatically. The music recognizes quite a few different formats, though since I primarily use MP3’s, it didn’t matter much to me. I also create my own ringtones, and the phone recognized those without any trouble, and played them perfectly. The speakers on the phone, though, are pretty awesome. The sound and balance is great, loud and clear, and I am constantly showing off my music through the phone to other people. There is a standard headphone jack, which is really nice, especially when other phones (like Samsung) still use proprietary jacks. Pictures also transfer really easily, and can be dragged/dropped from your computer. However, if you really want a fantastic media experience, or the primary reason why you would get a phone is for playing music, then you would be more advised to get the iPhone. Nothing matches the Apple, in that respect.
-Battery life: Not bad, overall. I can get through a little over a day, maybe a day and a half, on a charge, with heavy internet and texting usage. The battery life for the media is actually pretty impressive, though what I usually do to preserve it is to turn off the network connection, which saves quite a bit. Without the network connection on, and the WiFi running, I actually had my Bold go for four days, with intermittent music playing, and reading off eReader. Not bad, really, and great compared with the battery life of the iPhone.
-Software: Here is where RIM is somewhat stuck in the past. I’ll start by saying that the one thing BlackBerry does extremely well is running multiple applications at one time. I can have Facebook updates come to me, along with texts, Myspace, and Twitter updates, all at once, continually running in the background, which is something that even Apple doesn’t do. However, though they have applications for various functions, like Facebook or Amazon, to initially get them, you usually have to just find them online, from your phone. There is an AppWorld that you can download, similar to the App Store on iPhone, but nowhere near as extensive, or easy to locate, since it isn’t included initially. Plus you have to download every application from your phone directly, instead of just putting the program on and opening it, like you would a Windows Mobile phone. No CAB files to open from the phone’s internal folders, or anything; limits the customization of the phone quite a bit. That and the pithy memory included on the phone itself doesn’t allow for very many application functions, anyway. I installed a few applications, and then tried to download a theme, and was informed that there wasn’t enough space, which I couldn’t solve by sending the program to my storage card, because there’s no default function to install programs from your card. Plus a lot of the applications, when running, seem to be throwbacks to the beginning of development, as in someone created the program years ago, and didn’t bother updating it as time went on.
-Keyboard/Screen/Layout: Awesome. The entire keyboard is spacious, very comfortable, and clicks nicely, thanks to the ergonomic design of the keys. I haven’t had any trouble with it at all. It’s a bit loud, and I’ve found that trying to type in a silent room is really not a good idea, but otherwise, it’s one of the best keyboards available. The screen is large, very bright, and has an automatic sensor feature that dims it in different light. The sensor also works for the keyboard as well, and automatically turns it on in lower-lighted conditions. The trackball is what it is, and works well, though I’m not necessarily a huge fan, though I think that’s more of a personal preference then something to do with the phone itself. The phone is somewhat wide, and isn’t terribly pocket-friendly, but the phone feels very comfortable, and is easy to grip, thanks to a leather-like back cover. Probably not real leather, but it really adds to the nice solid, feel of the phone. I get the impression that the phone is somewhat masculine, just looking at it, but it’s sleek and thin enough to really not matter.
Overall? Great phone, very solid construction with some really solid software features. I wouldn’t recommend it for someone looking for a fun interactive, media-oriented phone, like the iPhone, or a flexible-platformed and generally customizable phone, like Windows Mobile, but for a business or more serious-minded individual who will mostly use it for email or texing capabilities, and not worry about extra frivolities, this an excellent choice, with a very solid performance rating.
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