From Bold to iPhone, n’ still lookin’
Posted: September 1st, 2009 | Author: Saleh Esmaeili | Filed under: Mobile | Tags: blackberry, bold, etisalat, iphone, palm pre, review, rim, switch | 3 Comments »
From day one of the Palm Pre launch I had it planned to be my next phone. It never happened as Palm didn’t even set plans to go unlocked or even reach to ME anytime soon. And the community of the Hackers n’ Crackers are still struggling with unlocking the Pre. So I moved on and after having a Blackberry Bold for nearly ten months, going through nightmares of malfunctioning patch from Etisalat and another Removal patch from RIM, the phone was in a bad shape n’ I had lost the love for it. I tried to Wipe it. It was good, but it was time to let it go.
Came iPhone, the phone that I used as my iPod in the car. Magically it worked all fine with the car head-unit, communicating all smooth, sending Album Artwork to Kenwood’s headunit screen. So it was what everyone else thought was an iPod Touch. But it was an iPhone 3G.
Got that out n’ put it to use as a Phone. The transition is a heck of a confusing one. Moving from Blackberry to iPhone is really like changing your left-hand-car with a right-hand one.
Keyboard
As it happens with every phone replacement, keyboards are all unique. But moving from a Hard keyboard to a Touch keyboard was a huge step. The feedback at iPhone’s keyboard is an amazing one, but yet, I had to go through a real tough time for around 10 days ’till I got the hang of the keyboard. Still, I’d be at least Five times faster typing with a Blackberry.
Phone Mode
One of the main features that I miss from Blackberry is the immediate access to the Phone. In Blackberry, and also in Nokia E series, Sony Ericson P Series and the Windows Mobiles, you get to access your Phone by typing on numbers/typing contact names or by pressing on the Send button. You don’t need to enter “Phone Mode”. Phone comes first, then the rest of the goodies. This is the hardest thing to do on iPhone. First you need to “tap” the phone icon then god forbid you were on the Recent Calls then you have to make another tap to reach to your keypads or contacts. And when you reach to your contacts you gotta’ scroll to a letter n’ then again scroll ’till you find the contact you wanna’ call.
However, with the 3.0 update and having Spotlight as a panel. This is partially solved. So you open up Spotlight n’ type a name n’ there you go. But if it’s a number that you have to dial, it’s still short.
Indicators
iPhone is a chique device when it comes to interaction with the user, but somehow too gentle. It’s so nice that it doesn’t bother you if you skipped an e-mail. You’ll only see it if you unlocked the screen. Unlike Blackberry the signal light keeps on being Red ’till you do something about the notifications. It’s in-your-face style of notification.
Browsing
No comparison at all. Safari Mobile. Can’t get better. The only advantage with using Blackberry’s browser was the fact that the Internet connection was not proxied, meaning it was wide open. That was a plus.
E-mail & Productivity
While in the e-mail business Blackberry wins easily, the e-mail client has lots o’ shortcomings such as Truncating big e-mails and hard to use Menus. The search function comes really short on Blackberry. Once you pass a thousands of e-mails you’ll see how slow your e-mail client becomes. On iPhone, you get access to your IMAP, POP3 or any other e-mails straight with no proxy in the middle. But, it ain’t as live and connected as Blackberry. Not even close to Pushmail. But then it’s all about UI. E-mails are so easy on the eyes to read on the iPhone.
Data Plans
I was on the domestic unlimited BIS packages. Even with that I’d often be charged with Data Usage?! by Etisalat, sometimes around AED 200. which is weird. Unlimited, but no YouTube. Tiny screen, slow n’ incapable web browser. What’s the point of the unlimited package then?
With iPhone I’ve been using the pay-as-you-go for now as I’m not sure which phone I’ll land with, it is damn expensive! But it’s easy to use. And I enjoy browsing on it.
Applications
Well, no comment, it ain’t no secret. iPhone beats all. To my amusement there was Need For Speed, GangStar and even Call of Duty. Now naturally I’m not a gamer, but I loved playing Need For Speed on it.
Synchronization & Computer Connectivity
Both suck! Word! If my smallest Nokia could sync it all using iSync through bluetooth, why should iPhone or Blackberry be wired. Blackberry doesn’t even come with a Mac suite. I managed to Sync using the Missing Sync and synced with Google Calender and contacts using Spanning Sync. I don’t need to do that with iPhone as it syncs all good with my Addressbook, Entourage, and iCal. All good. But still, 2009, and we’re still wired to sync??
Twitter n’ Facebook
Applications. Hands down, iPhone wins huge. It’s so much fun to tweet when the user interface is so intuitive and crying for you to scroll. Specially with Facebook 3. It’s just all there.
I’m using Twitterific & Twitterfon. And I love’em both. I keep on swinging. I like Twitterfon cuz it’s a mini Twitterfox to my eyes. But I love Twitterific because it’s done by Icon Factory and gives me the feel of the rich UI of Tweetdeck. Though Tweetdeck has an iPhone version now.
Blackberry is just out of the game in these arenas. After 10 months I still wasn’t used to Twitterberry. And the Facebook application? Nope, I was on the Web Browser instead.
Storage, Camera, n’ Music
Storage, no need to even go there, 16GB vs. 1GB. Both have lousy cameras but iPhone does a good job with lighting. Not bad at all! Music, no comparison, iPod built-in.
Speakers n’ Mic
I’m not a headphone person nor I like to look like Will Smith from iRobot with a bluetooth headset hanging on my ear. But iPhone comes short on Speaker phone.
Batterly life
Depsite what is advertised, both are lousy for talk time. If yo do Data & Talk on’em you’re down with max 3-5 hours. Bold comes short on batterly life if you keep Lots o’ online sessions open such as Blackberry Messenger, MSN, GTalk n’ Twitterberry. The vibrator kills the battery more than anything else, how’s that for a fact? iPhone is no better. After all what’s iPhone if I didn’t use Youtube n’ played my iPod music? Do that, n’ you need to plug in.
I need a combination
That’s why I was gonna’ go for Pre, but god knows when it’s gonna’ come down? This morning I came across Nokia N900 n’ now I’m actually somewhere close to what I’m gonna’ get next.
With all the shortcomings, Blackberry Bold is the phone I kept the longest with me. It’s a record, I like gettin’ new Phones so I let go really fast. But I guess, I didn’t find a serious phone in the market after the Bold. It’s Practical, but it ain’t fun at all. Think of it as n H1. You can go to war with it, but you wouldn’t be able to park it in the basement.
