iPhone 4 vs. Blackberry Bold 9700

Desert

New member
Hi there,

I am stuck. I believe this is simple decision for many of you, but it's not that simple for me.
I want to get iPhone 4 or Blackberry Bold 9700, but not sure which one.

First of all, I really love new design of iPhone 4. And I believe build quality is amazing. Bold 9700 I know has issues. Plasticish, wobbly trackpad, etc., etc... Touchscreen doesn't bother me at all, it has it's cons and pros, but I don't think I even weight it for me. Speedwise I believe both phones are pretty much the same. What really annoys me sometimes is that because of fancy animations and stuff iPhone seems to work slower. I am doing a lot of emails, and iOS 4 finally allows multiple Exchange accounts with Push, so again, on this side phones are pretty much equal. Though, say to see if I have new email, on iPhone I have to click, swipe, tap. Just to see. Blackberry shows me everything with LED light. Conveniency for me. To reply to the email, again, it's much faster to do with the Blackberry, than iPhone. And text messages (I don't do many, but still) are separated on iPhone, and on Blackberry I can have them alltogether with other messages, which is still a convenience.
I do also a lot of IMing, and while there is Beejive for iPhone and Blackberry, I should say that Beejive on Blackberry really rocks, very stable, almost never loses connection; while on iPhone it takes literally less than 30 minutes to get "... account is disconnected" message from Beejive. Which sucks. Not even talking about when I receive new message, to reply, I have to tap on Beejive app, then wait till it loads and connects, then wait while it shows the message, and THEN reply. Crap!
Now, the browser. Hands down, Blackberry sucks big time. There are options like Mini Opera 5 and Bolt (now with HTML5 support), but certainly, browsing on touch screen with Safari which iPhone has is MUCH nicer and easier and better.
Calendar. For some reason it's not too fast on iPhone, and again, it takes few more taps/clicks then it should. On Blackberry I feel it much easier.
I do not use many apps, and the ones I do use they are on Blackberry too. Music? I do listen to music in gym, but both seem to be well enough for my needs.
As much as I don't like that Blackberry seems to have outdated OS, same way I don't like that there are thousands of limitations to what can be developed for iPhone, thus, it does give disadvantages to both platforms.
I work in tech, but I don't want too geeky phone. I need thing to do the job. And again, it's not even money question. I know a lot of people who can afford any phone, they choose iPhone or Blackberry. They pretty much the same price anyway.
So, which one? As much as I don't need a lot from the phone, sometimes, you know, you feel like it's weird that you don't have the phone with everything-everything-everything available :-) even if you don't use it :-) May be it's just me. However, this front facing camera... I have absolutely no idea why would I use it. :-) So, it's not even an advantage for me. It's like... color of the button. Silver or white. Simply doesn't matter.
 
This is a very simple decision.

I am a Blackberry 9000 user. This is the best phone I've ever had for the reasons you mentioned. BB 9700.....meh

Can't really compare these 2 phones. The iPhone 4 runs circles around Blackberry. Everything is better. I understand what you mean about messages. Remember, there is always an app that will extend the out of the box features. IPhone 4 is the best smartphone out there. From the display (which puts every single smart phone to shame) to the camera, and the hundreds of thousands of Apps. There is no comparison with any Blackberry.

Anyway. It seems I can give up Blackberry features that you can't. So your solution is simple.

The answer is NONE.

Wait for the Blackberry Bold 9800. This is the touch slider. BB OS 6 at least will give you a somewhat closer experience to an iPhone and you still have all the things you like.

Check the Blackberry OS6 on YouTube and you can see what I mean.

BB 9800 will give you the touch and the keyboard when you need it. BB OS6 was built for touch.
 
The iPhone 4 runs circles around Blackberry. Everything is better. I understand what you mean about messages. Remember, there is always an app that will extend the out of the box features. IPhone 4 is the best smartphone out there. From the display (which puts every single smart phone to shame) to the camera, and the hundreds of thousands of Apps. There is no comparison with any Blackberry.

So true..

iPhone 4 all the way!
 
I have a Macbook Pro, two iPods, and prefer to use Mac OS as much as I can. I'm definitely a "Mac Person" and love the wide range of features, screen, OS, etc on the iPhone. In fact, I'd be using one right now if it weren't for the lack of physical keys. That alone has kept me using my Blackberry.

You said the touchscreen doesn't bother you, though. If that's the case, get yourself an iPhone!
 
If you've used a touchscreen keyboard (a good one at least) for a few weeks, you'll never want a physical keyboard again. I held off for the same reason, and with the 3GS I had no issues at all.
 
There maybe an app for everything, except if that everything is Blackberry Messenger.

Basically if your purpose on the phone involves a lot of email and instant messaging, plus social networking, you maybe better off with the 9700.

If you're looking for a phone to achieve a better web experience, go with an iPhone or an Android.
 
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