Blackberry Bold 9700 vs. iPhone 3GS - My thoughts.

E

Edder

New member
I recently researched quite a bit about the Blackberry Bold 9700 and the iPhone 3GS. I tried both of them out at the AT&T Store. These are my conclusions:

Screen: The Blackberry's screen is higher resolution and looks better than the iPhone's screen. However the iPhone has a larger touch/multitouch screen. Therefore, the iPhone is better for internet use. However, the Blackberry is still very good for internet use and has an excellent optical trackpad for navigation.

Keypad: The Blackberry's hard keypad is much better than the iPhone's software keypad. However, the downside is that the Blackberry's keypad takes up room where a screen could be. However, the smaller screen on the Blackberry makes the phone more durable overall (obviously a screen is not as durable as hard plastic).

Reception and Call Quality: From everything I have read and heard, there is no contest here. The Blackberry has far better reception and call quality than the iPhone. In fact, the Blackberry is supposed to have the best reception and call quality of any cellphone/smartphone out there.

Speed: From what I have heard and read, and tried out for myself, the Blackberry and iPhone are equally fast for applications. They both have very good speed.

Durability: The Blackberry is probably more durable than the iPhone overall because it has a smaller screen and more hard plastic because of this. They both have excellent build quality.

Battery: From what I have heard and read, the Blackberry easily wins in this department.

Conclusion

The Blackberry seems to be a more serious business-oriented phone. It is made for reliability (reception, call quality, long lasting battery) and durability (more hard plastic). The Blackberry is extremely well made with a very impressive screen.

On the other hand, the iPhone is more of a fun phone for consumers. It is made to be more of an entertainment device. However, the Blackberry is a very good entertainment device also, but that is not it's sole purpose and the lack of a touch/multitouch screen shows this. The iPhone's mediocre reception, call quality, and battery life point the fact that it wasn't made to be a serious business phone, but it is still a very fun and entertaining device. Personally, I decided to go with the Blackberry because I need a phone that functions well as a PHONE. Call quality and reception is very important to me, and the other great features of the Blackberry were just icing on the cake.

Comments?
 
Story is a little different when you own both of the mentioned phones.

The 9700 is terrible for browsing. The browser is inherently slow and low-quality due to the server-side compression, and the controls are unintuitive. It isn't a pleasant experience at all -- I couldn't stand browsing on it for more than 2 minutes especially compared to the intuitive multi-touch browsing experience on the iPhone's large, anti-aliased screen.

I type much faster on the iPhone's soft keyboard than on the BlackBerry's hardware keyboard. Within a month of ownership I doubled or quadrupled my initial typing speed on it.

The 9700 is more durable but it feels more chintzy. The iPhone is pretty much a slab of glass but the BB is basically just plastic and faux leather.

The 9700 definitely has better reception and call quality than the 3GS, but my Motorola Milestone (Telus) was better in this regard than either. RIM certainly isn't the best here.

The 9700 wrecks the 3GS for battery life. I could barely get my 3GS through the day; my 9700 lasted for around three.
 
Not true. The Blackberry 9700's optical trackpad is very nice! It may take a little getting used to compared to the touch screen of the iPhone, but it is still great. I browsed the internet for 10 minutes on each phone at the AT&T store. The iPhone's browsing experience was more fancy and a little more intuitive, but the Blackberry's was very good also. The Blackberry screen is better quality but smaller than the iPhone screen.


This is definitely not the norm. Most people find a Blackberry's hard keypad much more precise and faster than the touchscreen software keypad of the iPhone.


Not true. The Blackberry doesn't feel "chintzy" at all. Is it one of the best quality built phones on the market. And yes, it seems more durable than the iPhone.


You may not think the Blackberries are best for reception and call quality, but the general consensus is that they are the best for reception and call quality.


Yes, the Blackberry's battery lasts much longer.
 
Yeah, the 9700 is okay.. if you're browsing mobile websites. I'm not sure what you constitute as browsing the internet, but no BlackBerry offers anything close to a desktop browsing experience. It's a failing of the OS. I actually think the 9700 had decent browsing for a non-touchscreen phone, but it gets destroyed by most touchscreen phones that offer multitouch pinch-to-zoom and intuitive browsers with much more robust Webkit-based true HTML browsing.You'd be surprised my friend. The autocorrect on the iPhone is amazing especially after it inculcates your own frequently-used words. You'll find many die-hardware-keyboard users on this forum have migrated to touchscreen phones partially because the hardware keyboard advantage isn't as advantageous as it was in the past -- hell, in my own university the iPhone users smoke most 8900/9700 users I've seen at texting speed. The 8300 and 9000 are a different story as I've seen some kids type blazing fast on them -- they have bigger keyboards, after all. The 9700's keyboard is just too small to be an advantage, and any seasoned touchscreen texter will just do better.Sure it does. It flexes and bends, which is part of the reason it's more durable than the iPhone. If you want a quality BlackBerry, the Bold 9000 was that. No flex, actually made of metal, and substantial. It felt, well, Bold. And quite indestructible. The 9700 is 100% plastic, faux leather, and cheap chrome paint.I always thought the general consensus was that iPhones sucked for reception and call quality, not that BlackBerries were the best. Hell, my Nokia handsets besides my Milestone actually got much better reception than the 9700 and comparable call quality. I agree that the 9700's is very good, nonetheless

I've owned the 3GS for ten months and the 9700 for about three. You're quick to disagree and adamant about your "conclusions" when you've only used each phone in a AT&T store for a few dozen minutes, though I do see you've done some homework besides.
 
Touchscreen and multitouch is great, there's no denying that, but Blackberry's optical trackpad is no slouch and is more than enough for a phone. Remember, even though this is a smartphone, it is a PHONE first, computer second.Sorry, there is no way you are convincing me that a touch screen is better than a hard keypad. This is why PCs have keyboards, because nobody wants to poke at a monitor screen all day. Yes, keypads are smaller than keyboards, but it's the same idea. Blackberry's hard optical keypad smokes the iPhone's software touchscreen keypad. No comparison.Yeah, yeah, yeah....."Back in the old days.....blah, blah, blah" There is a reason why they changed the body style. Obviously people didn't care much for the bulky Blackberry 9000's body style (this is a PORTABLE phone afterall). I saw the 9000. It was nice but it's body was definitely not any better than the 9700's body. The 9700's body style is sleeker and better, and the 9700 has a better screen. The 9700 is also MUCH faster than the 9000. No contest. I also heard that pearl trackball on the 9000 was troublesome and was falling off of phones.Sorry, but I have a very hard time believing some old Nokia's (that I am guessing doesn't even use the 3G network) reception and call quality is better than the Blackberry 9700's reception and call quality. Maybe your experience is an isolated case. Reception and call quality are two of the most important (if not THE most important) qualities of a cellphone. The fact that the Blackberry 9700 (and newer Blackberries in general) destroy the iPhone in reception and call quality, says alot about Blackberries. This reason alone makes them superior to iPhones. And the Blackberry having a much better battery life doesn't hurt either.In the store, it doesn't take but a few minutes to see which phone is better. It's not that difficult to figure out. The only thing that is difficult to figure out in the store is the phone's reception and call quality, and the Blackberries in general (especially the 9700) get the most accolades for reception and call quality of any phones out there.
 
Yeah, more than enough for a phone. Not enough for browsing the internet like any touchscreen-based true smartphone, unfortunately. Why settle for a half-baked smartphone web-browsing when you can get the real deal, that has been around since 2007? Why waste six minutes trying to make make a forum post with the 9700 when a touchscreen smartphone lets you do it in two?I don't have to convince you about anything. I'm telling you the hard truth, which is something you clearly have a problem with. A computer keyboard has nothing to do with a mobile handset when you're primarily using your thumbs on the mobile handset and not your whole hand because the real estate is much smaller. The 9700's own keyboard is mediocre as far as even hardware keyboards go. If you want a real hardware keyboard, the Bold 9000 or HTC Touch Pro 2 have that. They're much easier to type on than the 9700's cramped, compromised keyboard and offer speeds much more comparable to the iPhone typing speed.Yes, that reason is because it's cheaper to make now. It uses no metal in the exterior chassis anymore. I agree that the styling is much more attractive but it simply is not built better -- it is built worse with lower-quality materials, and much much worse to boot. I actually had 2 9700s. I RMA'd the first one because the quality of the body was so poor (lock and mute keys offered no tactile feedback [they were "mushy"], and the optical keypad wobbled a LOT). This was a brand new phone as well. Clearly quality control issues pop up when you're using lower-quality parts to begin with.Actually I'm speaking of the N95-3, N85-NAM, and N97-NAM which have 850/1900MHz 3G. You're speaking like Nokia is just a no-name that has no reputation for RF.I actually really liked the 9700 and preferred it over my Milestone for its wonderful messaging capabilities and mystical battery life. But here your reasoning for its clear deficiencies is making me nauseous. The fact that you haven't even mentioned the push e-mail, BBM, or unified messaging inbox makes me think that you don't even know what a BlackBerry is about. People who want these communication features will easily choose the BlackBerry over the iPhone, and that is a respectable decision. They won't try to compare it in media capabilities or web browsing, and they won't join a forum asking people to confirm their choice.

I suspect that you will only accept positive comments that reinforce your purchase decision. If you bought the 9700 for battery life, calls, and durability (and NOT for the BB Messaging inbox, calendars, et cetera) you may as well have bought a cheap Nokia.

Don't let me change your steadfast opinions though. They are your opinions, and you're entitled to hold to them just as I am to mine. Enjoy your new phone.
 
I used 47 voice minutes total last month on my phone. And 6gigs of data and almost 10,000 text messages. Using my phone as a PHONE is so far down my priority list it almost doesn't exist.

And I can hit 55 words per minute on my iPhone keyboard. Accurately, even without auto-correct fixing what I miss (and the user dictionary in 4.0 will help me a LOT with that).

There is NO comparison of browsers between BlackBerry and anything WebKit. Zero. RIM is dropping their browser for a WebKit one because even they know it sucks, and RIM is the last to accept change as good in the cellphone world (except maybe SE and Nokia's smartphone division). There is no way to argue that one successfully.
 
In my opinion, RECEPTION, CALL QUALITY, and BATTERY LIFE are absolutely the three main criterias for a good cellphone/smartphone. The iPhone 3G is very mediocre in these regards, whereas the Blackberry 9700 excels.

The ability to text, check emails and browse the internet for phone numbers, weather conditions, and traffic conditions are the second most important criteria. The iPhone excels at the internet browsing part and is very good (not the best) for texting, checking emails. The Blackberry excels at texting and checking emails and is very good (not the best) for browsing the internet.

The Blackberry smokes the iPhone in reception, call quality, battery life (IMO, the three most important criterias for a cellphone/smartphone). The Blackberry easily beats the iPhone for texting and emails. The iPhone is better for internet browsing and looking at photos, but that's about it.

Therefore, the Blackberry easily beats the iPhone overall.
 
Some things are a matter of opinion but not when it comes to web browsing. iPhone is in a different league compared to BB.
 
Which you are entitled to, but cannot create fact with. And there lies the crux of the problem. YOUR needs are not MY needs, therefore YOUR superior device is not MY superior device.
 
Reception, call quality, and battery life are THE most important aspects of any portable phone, period. There is no debating this. It is common sense. A portable phone is still a telephone and is first and foremost a voice communication device, and that's why the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell. The Blackberry is much better than the iPhone in the most crucial communication aspects of a phone (reception and call quality). Of course the phone having power (i.e. the battery life) is crucial as well, and the Blackberry destroys the iPhone in this aspect also. Therefore, the Blackberry is the better portable phone.

You buy a Blackberry Bold 9700 if you want a better phone. You buy an iPhone 3GS if you want a better toy.
 
LOL.

Obvious evangelist BlackBerry trollboy is obvious.


Don't bother with this guy, boys! :lolup: He's partying like it's 2006 with his state-of-the-art smartphone that rocks at web browsing and multimedia apparently. No, wait, it sucks as a smartphone but rocks as a regular telephone. Just like my $20 Nokia 6010 (reception, check; call quality, check; battery life, check -- OMG it is smartphone of the YEAR!!!).

Instead of acknowledging "oh, you're right, web-browsing on BlackBerries is half-baked," the bona-fide blinded trollboy disregards the remark and continues on how the BlackBerry is better in other regards.
 
Ignoring the dimwitted response above, there is a reason why the vast majority of business executives use Blackberries instead of iPhones. Blackberries (especially the 9700 and other new models) are simply much better communication devices.
 
To many people a phone is becoming more than just a communicating device. In many aspects iphone excels. BB's are great for what they are but go ahead and check out crackberry.....more and more BB users are ditching their devices for android or iphone. I love BB's for their strong points (I've had 9000, 8900, 9700), and I love the form factor. If at least a better browser was implemented (heard it's coming soon) I might have kept my 9700....along with an android device.
 
Ouch, I'm hurt. :clapping:

Actually, it's beyond that. The main attraction is to the unified messaging inbox, great PDA functionality, and wondrous e-mail support. There is no equivalent for BES and/or BIS in any other phone platform. Once again the fact that you mentioned none of this proves that you're clueless about BlackBerries and just have a crush on your new phone. :rolleyes:

Like I said, if call quality and reception and battery life were all that were important in the equation every businessman would be rocking the Nokia 6010.

I'm also quite inclined to believe that you're not even a serious business person but are simply eager to give off the impression that you're some sort of professional. But that is extending beyond reason.

Question: Why do you ask for comments if you're just going to blow off anyone that disagrees with you? How solipsistic are you?

Hint: Maybe everyone else is actually right. Maybe people do type faster on touchscreen phones. Maybe the BB Browser isn't actually "very good." Maybe the iPhone is actually better than the BB for other reasons and priorities.

Maybe you should call it quits in your secure bubble of a thread and go check out the RIM forums. It's a shame you joined HoFo just to post crap like this rather than reaping the rewards of the knowledge base in the platform that you're clearly infatuated with.
 
Your argument to defend your beloved iPhone has failed and you know it. Therefore you are resorting to the dimwitted gibberish that you posted above. Responding to your gibberish is no longer worth my time.

Have fun with your piece of junk WinMo phone (HD2 T9193).
 
What defense? Did I argue that the 3GS was better than the 9700 at battery life, call quality, or reception? I have not once defended the iPhone in this thread. Its deficiencies are well-documented.

Bear in mind that no one really seems to be agreeing with your drivel with regard to the 9700. In fact the only two other posters that bothered with you are pointing out the defects in your own 9700-love. No one wants to participate in your "I luv my 9700" thread because they see you're not actually directly responding to any criticisms leveled against your logic (or lack thereof).

Like I said, you're just some kid who has a crush on his phone. You're simply no better than an iPhone fanboy. I'm sorry if I personally upset you since I see you're bringing my completely unrelated T9193 into this, and once again solipsistically cloistering yourself (sore loser?) from the harsh reality of your 9700 sucking at web browsing, apps, build quality, what have you.

(I keep clicking this thread expecting sound logic and a valid argument from the OP, but it seems he always falls drastically short)
 
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