Oh, I read the reviews and played with a storm yesterday and I think it's kind of cheap. The screen is wobbly and the navigation is chunky. I think the iPhone has perfected everything the storm is trying to do. So, in buying my very first smartphone, I think the question should be: Do I go all the way Blackberry, or all the way touchscreen (iPhone)?
And I'd love Jeff's opinion. Seriously, I'm stumped over here.
Jeff and I went to a store and played with one too. Jeff said that it was clear the Verizon people didn't know how to set up the floor models. He was so concerned that he came home and sent emails up the chain in RIM-he told his bosses that if he were a consumer who had never held the product that if he based his decision on his experience on the floor model he wouldn't buy one. He can explain it better but I guess its amazing when set up properly. As for the choice between the other two he'll tell you that if watching movies and music is more important get an iphone. If you do a lot of texting or emailing get the bold
See, I had issues with the floor model as well. But my biggest draw to the Bold is the ease of typing. It's a very comfortable keyboard. But here's what I absolutely must be able to do with whichever new smartphone I buy:
1) carry it in my pants pocket 2) read the NYT, DailyKos, Huffpo, Politico, TPM, and a thousand other blogs all day long 3) check my facebook, lj, and upload photos to flickr 4) find and listen to new bands on myspace, purevolume and last.fm 5) Twitter, blogger and wordpress my ass off 6) Watch videos (youtube, revver, daily motion, metacafe, etc.) 7) social networking. I want to be able to use sites like Yelp and Loopt to keep track of my friends and find new places to eat. 8) Check in to flights and buy movie/concert tickets from where ever, whenever.
PLEASE show this list to JeffLA, I'd love to hear what he has to say. Thanks!
The Bold's screen is remarkable. It's probably the best smartphone screen on the market and I'm not just saying that because I work for BlackBerry. It's insane, wicked clear. And it looks like the image is right at the very top of the surface of the screen, not under layers of plastic and glass. (It's even better than the screen on the Storm!)
1. Any phone in your pocket is going to have issues. Regardless of which one, always keep it locked or you'll pocket dial someone or open an app or do something like that. On top of that, whether it's an iPhone, Storm or Bold, you'll want to use a screen protector or keep it in a case to keep the phone from getting scratched. I have thrashed the screen on my Pearl, but I'm a REALLY heavy user anyway.
2. If you're reading them as web pages, your best experience will be on the iPhone. Yeah, I said it. I haven't used the Storm browser much, but it'll likely be similar, but not as slick. (God... chungo4 is going to see that I said that and hang me out to DRY! If you don't care about them in web format, I read a lot of blogs and newspapers through Viigo, a third-party newsreader for BlackBerry. It's tres cool and I probably use it as frequently as my email.
3. Facebook and Flickr have clients for the BlackBerry, but I think they're available for the iPhone as well. I use the Facebook one ALL the time for BlackBerry and it's great. Compact, to the point, no frills, but it gets me and gives me what I want when I want it. LJ Mobile is the best way to go on ANY mobile phone and works regardless of the device you're using.
4. If you're looking for a consumer multimedia device, the iPhone is going to be a better choice for you. I haven't used the multimedia functions of the Storm enough to give a fair comparison, but I just know that the general consensus is that the iPhone is the way to go for multimedia.
5. Twitter, blogger, wordpress... All have clients and mobile web portals, so I don't know that the device really makes a big difference here.
6. Videos... ah, yes... Go iPhone. That being said, you can now browse m.youtube.com from most any device and it works great from the BlackBerry.
7. Social networking, Yelp... Again, most have mobile sites that work great on any device. I use m.yelp.com all the time when traveling and it's compact enough to run fast and easy enough to use to get me what I need when I need it.
8. Flights... I use mobile web sites here again. ;) Most of the airlines have mobile sites now and even Expedia does (I think...) My favorite site is www.kayak.com, but I don't know if it has a mobile alternative. As far as concert tickets, I can't say too much either. Yet.
Typing and keyboards... You're going to find the Bold the easiest to type on because it has a real keyboard. The Storm is second easiest and has a bit of a learning curve. The iPhone is the least easy to use, in my opinion. This is because: Bold has a real keyboard, so d'uh, it's easy. Storm has both a QWERTY and SureType keyboard with tactile response so as far as a solid surface keyboard, it is more like a real keyboard than other solid-surface keyboard devices on the market. iPhone: I have yet to see ANYONE type on an iPhone other than to hunt-and-peck with one fingerpoint. With a BlackBerry (both Storm and Bold) you can type with two thumbs. And I find that I type much faster with the SureType keyboard than with the full QWERTY.
A note on the multimedia stuff... I use my Pearl as an MP3 player EVERY day and I think it works fantastic for music. BlackBerry also has BlackBerry Music Sync which allows you to sync your iTunes play lists to your BlackBerry and it's SUPER easy and SUPER fast. Video is a whole other ball of wax that, honestly, I don't think the BlackBerry addresses very well YET. It plays lots of different formats, I just haven't tinkered much with them yet, so I'm not sure how well it works. But like I said, video samples on the Bold are AMAZING so...
Some other things of note: the iPhone is limited to either 8GB or 16GB right now. And once you buy it, that's the limit. Both the Storm and the Bold are limited to 16GB (maybe 32, I'm not sure) but the memory is removable and replaceable as it's a microSD chip. The Storm even comes bundled from Verizon with an 8GB chip.
The batteries... Storm and Bold, if they go bad, can just be taken out and replaced. The iPhone has to be sent in for repair if the battery goes bad. This also means you can buy and keep extra batteries on hand for the Storm and the Bold, but not for your iPhone.
Another thing... the iPhones allow you to run core applications at the same time only. So you can't run a third party application while using a core app. So what?, you ask? Well, that means if you're listening to MP3s, you have to stop the core music player to run the third party app. BlackBerry devices allow you to run multiple apps at the same time with no problem. Caveat: Running to many applications at the same time can make the device run VERY slow. You might notice this if you go to the Verizon store and try out a Storm. Customers have been opening multiple apps and leaving them running. Then the next guy comes in and opens more which makes the Storm run VERY slow. It's not a PROBLEM, you just have to understand and be mindful of running multiple apps.
The same is true of any computer. If you start Word, Excel, your web broswer, PhotoShop, InDesign all at the same time, your computer is going to run slowly.
I could go on and on and on, but I think that's enough to gnaw on right now. :)
I'd have to disagree about the keyboard. I hate those annoying little buttons. They are so awkward and clumsy to press. I'm a touch typist at about 90wpm on a normal keyboard so bumbling around on the tiny little "seeds" drives me crazy!
The predictive text correction on my iPhone is brilliant. I can be really sloppy with my typing, just fly along (I use more than just two fingers), and it gets it right almost every time.
The keyboard is big (love landscape mode) and doesn't have to cram so much or so many cluttered labels in there. It also adjusts for what you are doing, like having a .com key when typing URLs or the @ symbol when typing email addresses.
But the best part? When I'm not needing the keyboard, it's not there! It gets out of the way and let's me enjoy using my phone with the full screen.
I told him to look and respond. I can say we just played with another storm at the mall that was set up properly and it worked a thousand times better than the one we played with last night
I'm assuming it's because you don't like Verizon?
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And I'd love Jeff's opinion. Seriously, I'm stumped over here.
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1) carry it in my pants pocket
2) read the NYT, DailyKos, Huffpo, Politico, TPM, and a thousand other blogs all day long
3) check my facebook, lj, and upload photos to flickr
4) find and listen to new bands on myspace, purevolume and last.fm
5) Twitter, blogger and wordpress my ass off
6) Watch videos (youtube, revver, daily motion, metacafe, etc.)
7) social networking. I want to be able to use sites like Yelp and Loopt to keep track of my friends and find new places to eat.
8) Check in to flights and buy movie/concert tickets from where ever, whenever.
PLEASE show this list to JeffLA, I'd love to hear what he has to say. Thanks!
Reply
1. Any phone in your pocket is going to have issues. Regardless of which one, always keep it locked or you'll pocket dial someone or open an app or do something like that. On top of that, whether it's an iPhone, Storm or Bold, you'll want to use a screen protector or keep it in a case to keep the phone from getting scratched. I have thrashed the screen on my Pearl, but I'm a REALLY heavy user anyway.
2. If you're reading them as web pages, your best experience will be on the iPhone. Yeah, I said it. I haven't used the Storm browser much, but it'll likely be similar, but not as slick. (God... chungo4 is going to see that I said that and hang me out to DRY! If you don't care about them in web format, I read a lot of blogs and newspapers through Viigo, a third-party newsreader for BlackBerry. It's tres cool and I probably use it as frequently as my email.
3. Facebook and Flickr have clients for the BlackBerry, but I think they're available for the iPhone as well. I use the Facebook one ALL the time for BlackBerry and it's great. Compact, to the point, no frills, but it gets me and gives me what I want when I want it. LJ Mobile is the best way to go on ANY mobile phone and works regardless of the device you're using.
4. If you're looking for a consumer multimedia device, the iPhone is going to be a better choice for you. I haven't used the multimedia functions of the Storm enough to give a fair comparison, but I just know that the general consensus is that the iPhone is the way to go for multimedia.
5. Twitter, blogger, wordpress... All have clients and mobile web portals, so I don't know that the device really makes a big difference here.
6. Videos... ah, yes... Go iPhone. That being said, you can now browse m.youtube.com from most any device and it works great from the BlackBerry.
7. Social networking, Yelp... Again, most have mobile sites that work great on any device. I use m.yelp.com all the time when traveling and it's compact enough to run fast and easy enough to use to get me what I need when I need it.
8. Flights... I use mobile web sites here again. ;) Most of the airlines have mobile sites now and even Expedia does (I think...) My favorite site is www.kayak.com, but I don't know if it has a mobile alternative. As far as concert tickets, I can't say too much either. Yet.
(continued next comment)
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Typing and keyboards... You're going to find the Bold the easiest to type on because it has a real keyboard. The Storm is second easiest and has a bit of a learning curve. The iPhone is the least easy to use, in my opinion. This is because: Bold has a real keyboard, so d'uh, it's easy. Storm has both a QWERTY and SureType keyboard with tactile response so as far as a solid surface keyboard, it is more like a real keyboard than other solid-surface keyboard devices on the market. iPhone: I have yet to see ANYONE type on an iPhone other than to hunt-and-peck with one fingerpoint. With a BlackBerry (both Storm and Bold) you can type with two thumbs. And I find that I type much faster with the SureType keyboard than with the full QWERTY.
A note on the multimedia stuff... I use my Pearl as an MP3 player EVERY day and I think it works fantastic for music. BlackBerry also has BlackBerry Music Sync which allows you to sync your iTunes play lists to your BlackBerry and it's SUPER easy and SUPER fast. Video is a whole other ball of wax that, honestly, I don't think the BlackBerry addresses very well YET. It plays lots of different formats, I just haven't tinkered much with them yet, so I'm not sure how well it works. But like I said, video samples on the Bold are AMAZING so...
Some other things of note: the iPhone is limited to either 8GB or 16GB right now. And once you buy it, that's the limit. Both the Storm and the Bold are limited to 16GB (maybe 32, I'm not sure) but the memory is removable and replaceable as it's a microSD chip. The Storm even comes bundled from Verizon with an 8GB chip.
The batteries... Storm and Bold, if they go bad, can just be taken out and replaced. The iPhone has to be sent in for repair if the battery goes bad. This also means you can buy and keep extra batteries on hand for the Storm and the Bold, but not for your iPhone.
Another thing... the iPhones allow you to run core applications at the same time only. So you can't run a third party application while using a core app. So what?, you ask? Well, that means if you're listening to MP3s, you have to stop the core music player to run the third party app. BlackBerry devices allow you to run multiple apps at the same time with no problem. Caveat: Running to many applications at the same time can make the device run VERY slow. You might notice this if you go to the Verizon store and try out a Storm. Customers have been opening multiple apps and leaving them running. Then the next guy comes in and opens more which makes the Storm run VERY slow. It's not a PROBLEM, you just have to understand and be mindful of running multiple apps.
The same is true of any computer. If you start Word, Excel, your web broswer, PhotoShop, InDesign all at the same time, your computer is going to run slowly.
I could go on and on and on, but I think that's enough to gnaw on right now. :)
Reply
The predictive text correction on my iPhone is brilliant. I can be really sloppy with my typing, just fly along (I use more than just two fingers), and it gets it right almost every time.
The keyboard is big (love landscape mode) and doesn't have to cram so much or so many cluttered labels in there. It also adjusts for what you are doing, like having a .com key when typing URLs or the @ symbol when typing email addresses.
But the best part? When I'm not needing the keyboard, it's not there! It gets out of the way and let's me enjoy using my phone with the full screen.
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