HTC Desire and Blackberry Bold 9700

Meloco

Meloco

Meloco

Associate
Joined
25 Dec 2005
Posts
1,275
Location
Kent
Hey guys,

I've done a fair bit of research on choosing a new phone and I have whittled it down to these two. So far this has mainly been because of the language support from other phones is pretty poor. I need it to be able to read thai/chinese etc.

I just can't decide between these two. I just want a phone that will be reliable and quick to use. I currently own an Xperia X1 and although the keyboard has been a joy to use, it's now making far more mistakes than ever before and the sony battery life is a bit of a draw back as well as quite frankly poor call quality!

So if anyone out there has tried both these phones, or has either. Please could you just let me know what you think of them? Or if I should hold off a few months if anything else is coming out?

thanks,
 
I used to have the Desire myself and i have the 9700 Bold...personally the Desire is an awesome piece of kit but the battery life was horrendous compared to my Bold 9700...other than that it was great but i sold it because quite simply i grew bored of it...i tend to get bored of things pretty easily...but even though the Desire was the more fun phone between the 2...i still preferred my 9700...something about it that kept me coming back along with the fact that i got a good day and half use or even more depending on my useage....apps wise the Android is probably the better one but honestly i didnt find many apps on Android that kept my interest...i dont have many apps on my 9700...the ones i do have are of use to me ie use them everyday etc.

But the biggest advantage of my Bold 9700 over the Desire i had was that if your using t he phone for emailing, texting and calls ie communication then the BB cant be beaten really....it does those things extremely well and efficiently...dont get me wrong the Desire is more than capable of doing those things but im not a fan of touchscreen phones when im doing my work ie my Bold 9700 handles all my calls, emails, texts etc etc with ease and hasnt once let me down since i had it from nov when it was launched.

Also keep in mind that with the Blackberry you need a specific bb data plan which usually costs about £5 extra from the networks.

Anyhow thats my honest opinion of both handsets...the 9700 is great at what it does along with the Desire but the battery life on the Desire is atrocious especially if you rely on the handset a lot ie calls/texts and emails etc.

The only advice i can give is to go try both handsets out...figure out what you want the handset to do for you...if its multimedia and web browsing id go for the Android...if its more of the serious stuff ie calls, texts and emails then the BB is best one...although multimedia wise the 9700 isnt too bad but the web browsing on it isnt that great compared to the Desire.
 
How easy is the keyboard to use on the 9700 ?

The thought of using a touchscreen after using a stylus for many years to write my texts makes me shudder ;)
 
Spawn said:
I used to have the Desire myself and i have the 9700 Bold...personally the Desire is an awesome piece of kit but the battery life was horrendous compared to my Bold 9700...other than that it was great .......
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thanks after that I will prolly go with the 9700, but I'm a little nervous after you said it needs an extra price plan. As I intend to use this phone abroad with other pay as you go sims from the different countries I go to. So now I'm even more confused as to what to do. The BB does seem what I need right now!
 
Meloco said:
thanks after that I will prolly go with the 9700, but I'm a little nervous after you said it needs an extra price plan. As I intend to use this phone abroad with other pay as you go sims from the different countries I go to. So now I'm even more confused as to what to do. The BB does seem what I need right now!
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As long as the phone is unlocked you wont have an issue putting a payg sim in it...just means you wont have access to any BB related stuff ie emails and BBM for a start although if you use your own sim and connect to a wifi network then you can get emails etc and shouldnt be charged...just have to make sure you have data roaming set to off.
 
duc999 said:
How easy is the keyboard to use on the 9700 ?

The thought of using a touchscreen after using a stylus for many years to write my texts makes me shudder ;)
Click to expand...

Pretty easy to get the hang of really..i couldnt really see myself sat there typing out an email/text using a touchscreen...the very thought of it makes me cringe lol...thats why with my Desire i never gave my number to anyone because i couldnt see myself typing away on it etc.
 
Having both, I prefer the desire, but the Blackberry just cannot be beaten in terms of notifications (Emails, IM, Facebook, Twitter etc). I find the BlackBerry to be quite limited and the screen size is poor. Personally I would have the desire, just because its so much more fun, but as Spawn said, the battery life is shocking.

I wish a company would come along and make a phone with the power of an HTC, the open-ness of android, the email and notifications of BlackBerry, and the "I want one"/Beautiful screen/App Store of the iPhone!
 
I personally also have both, and the Desire, other than battery life, absolutely hands down beats the bold.

I don't personally see what is so much better about the email on BBs, they don't even allow folder view, and with both phones attached to exchange accounts (blackberry via BES) notifications are instant on both?

Web browsing is spot on, where as the Bold leaves a lot to desire (if you excuse the pun :D).

Other than pure battery life, I cannot personally see why anyone would choose to have a blackberry, they are OK as work phones as they have good security policies but as a personal phone I cannot see the attraction. This is my 2nd blackberry btw, I had a curve 8900 before this, and that was next to my iphone......similar feelings mirrored on that!

Also, i can type quicker with swype than I can on the blackberry.
 
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rG-tom said:
I personally also have both, and the Desire, other than battery life, absolutely hands down beats the bold.

I don't personally see what is so much better about the email on it, it doesn't even allow folder view, and with both phones attached to exchange accounts notifications are instant on both?
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I mean all types of notifications, including facebook, twitter etc. They're all instant on BB whereas the desire takes up to 30 mins to notify.
 
jonislost said:
I mean all types of notifications, including facebook, twitter etc. They're all instant on BB whereas the desire takes up to 30 mins to notify.
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I dont use twitter, only facebook, and the email notifications are instant enough for me, but then I don't use it all that much.
 
depends on the application you use. If you use inbuilt or K9 (k9 is the best for IMAP) then it is similar to the iphone, folder view etc but k9 alerts on new emails to subfolders.

I use touchdown for exchange, and it has a blackberry view too where you can see emails for all folders in one view or per folder as per your choice. Blackberry just gives you one long annoying list with no indication as to which folder the email went to etc.

Tom.
 
so with the blackberry, if you have a payg sim can you not just connect to the mobile internet and receive emails/fb updates etc. that way? Or do you have to have a contract with BB specific features?

I'll hardly be using the internet web browser at all, I just want a phone that will put my outlook emails, texts, fb, calls etc all in one place and tell me as soon as I get them. Regardless if it's on contract or payg sim!
 
Meloco said:
so with the blackberry, if you have a payg sim can you not just connect to the mobile internet and receive emails/fb updates etc. that way? Or do you have to have a contract with BB specific features?

I'll hardly be using the internet web browser at all, I just want a phone that will put my outlook emails, texts, fb, calls etc all in one place and tell me as soon as I get them. Regardless if it's on contract or payg sim!
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Well you can get BB on some PAYG sims ie Tmobile and Orange do PAYG sim deals...not sure about O2 or Voda.

As long as you BB services enabled then you will be able to use the internet along with the emails and all other BB services ie push services.
 
Meloco said:
so with the blackberry, if you have a payg sim can you not just connect to the mobile internet and receive emails/fb updates etc. that way? Or do you have to have a contract with BB specific features?

I'll hardly be using the internet web browser at all, I just want a phone that will put my outlook emails, texts, fb, calls etc all in one place and tell me as soon as I get them. Regardless if it's on contract or payg sim!
Click to expand...

You'll need the BIS plan for emails. Not all payg networks provide the service though. Orange are advertising it the most and it's £5 from your top up credit every month, which isn't that bad. That includes emails, messenger and internet..
 
Hmm i'll ask in town today, thinking that I may have to unfortunately scrap the blackberry. As I will be using some international sims and without the use of email etc, it would be pretty useless! :(
 
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