Finally, my Blackberry Bold is loaded with BIS (Blackberry Internet Service). It’s not as charming as I thought it would be. But being able to run more features is not bad at all.
Simple usability check:
- Capital button and alternate keys will always be interchangeably mistaken for one another.
- The delete button doesn’t progressively accelerate as you hit and hold it.
- The ‘H’ button is not as responsive. Maybe this is specific to my Blackberry only (manufacturing).
- I can count the number of useful Blackberry apps on my fingers vs 140,000 apps for iPhone.
- The user toggle up or down button on the right side of the phone is not functional outside the related app – small scope. In iPhone, that will modify the volume regardless of the app you’re running.
- The sync sucks. Although I’m using the Blackberry Desktop Manager – the simplest of unchecking synchronize music checkbox did not remove the music that I previously synced into the Blackberry.
- Browser experience is definitely not as good as the iPhone’s.
- Scrolling from top to bottom for a long document / website is not natural. No page up or down function. Scrolling up or down the page using trackpad is as if you only have the up or down cursor on the keyboard – that’s bad.
- Selecting is ridiculous. Hit capitalize button to start – and hit Blackberry menu button, select Cancel Selection to cancel: That’s a lot work!
Steve Jobs was, and still is right. Small button on a small phone is not very appealing. Huge touchscreen surface with natural stylus and endless apps? Now that’s a game changer.
Nevertheless, I got this Blackberry for a few reasons and they’re justified:
- To test what Blackberry fuss is all about. RIM still holds the lead in smartphone market. It’s most likely because companies provide such phone for employees to run business, get notifications and emails. And not listen to music, watch movies or play games all day (iPhone).
- To test whether Digi owns up to their claim of likely average speed of 700kbps and that broadband is about consistency.
- To test the shock in everybody’s face to discover that I’m using Blackberry – since I’m such a Mac/Apple pro (pun intended)
- To throw away those who showed off the company’s Blackberry in front of me. I know la you have some position in the company. Trying to make it more obvious by scrolling Blackberry in front of me? I’m not impressed at all.
Syncing looks decent upfront.
Then it starts to feel ridiculous. I never have conflicting information when my iPhone syncs. Synchronizing is supposed to be a smartly coordinated event – not keep asking the user what to do every time it detects a glitch.
And the best part of all – download Blackberry App World first – to enjoy the rest of the apps.
In summary, Blackberry is a business machine. Full stop. iPhone and Android will continue to fly as the more complete (and yet flexible) smartphone solutions.