Blackberry 9900/9930

[james.miller]

for those interested: http://blogs.blackberry.com/2011/05...0-smartphones-blackberry-7-with-a-bold-touch/

• 115 x 66 x 10.5 mm, approximately 130 g
• 2.8? capacitive touch screen display – VGA (640×480), 287 PPI resolution
• Full, wide QWERTY keyboard, optical trackpad
• 1.2 GHz Processor, 768 MB RAM
• 8 GB on-board memory, plus microSD slot supporting up to 32 GB cards
• NFC technology
• 5.0 MP camera with flash, supports 720p HD video recording
• Orientation Sensor (Accelerometer), Digital Compass (Magnetometer), Proximity Sensor
• Built-in GPS / aGPS
• Dual-Band Wi-Fi® – 802.11 b/g/n at 2.4 GHz and 802.11 a/n at 5 GHz
• Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR support
• 1230 mAh removable, rechargeable battery
Wireless Network support:
o BlackBerry Bold 9900 smartphone: Tri-Band HSPA+, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE
o BlackBerry Bold 9930 smartphone: Dual-Band CDMA/EVDO Rev A, Dual-Band HSPA+, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE

so, 1.2ghz snapdragon (according to some sources), it's got 8gb of onboard storage and the camera is now a 5mp unit with 720p video recording. It's more of a step forward then anything else they've bought out in the last few years. Quite an interesting phone, but it is enough next to the likes of the Galaxy S2 and the rest of the up and coming dual core androids?

 

[james.miller]

my 8800 is rather good but then it should be - it's not even 3g.

I'm not sure the web browsing on the 9900 will be such a great experience on that screen. on my own phone its just far too small. although the 9900 is a higher res screen, that just means everything on it will probably be smaller. next to any 3.5" screen or bigger, its just no comparison. I also don't like the keyboard or the touch pad on the current BBs. I prefer the keyboard on my BB and i dont get on with the touch pads at all. They are better than the balls though (at least they aren't notoriously unreliable, unlike the rollerballs).

 

[james.miller]

The reason I am getting it? Because it has a real keyboard. Because it will have a battery that will last more than a day. Because it works infinitely better 'as a phone' than any android or iOS device, and that's what I use my phone as, a phone. Because it doesn't require fiddling for ages to make everything work nicely and happily. Because it has BBM. The main part is the fact that it works well as a phone, rather than an app platform.

If Motorola had launched the Milestone 3 over here I would've contemplated staying with android, but alas, the only keyboard option is the Desire Z, which is old now, and after 12 months will be well out of date. This will not.

I'll give you the hardware keyboard, but that's about the only advantage blackberries have these days for joe public. I had no regrets moving to an sgs2 from my old bb8900 and there is no way on earth any blackberry is infinitely better as a phone. in fact im struggling to think of any reason other than the keyboard.

 

[james.miller]

Have to disagree with you there, I'm tempted to sell my SGS2 and go to a BB again. The BB is far better at being a phone, its got a decent keyboard that you can type properly on, the battery lasts longer than a day, it does everything my SGS2 does like play videos and music and at the end of the day isnt the size of a house brick.

i charge my galaxy2 every 2 days. i charged my bb8900 every two days. i charged my iphone every two days as well...... you get the picture. I'm not going to get in to it too much here, but calling the second thinnest smart phone ever made the 'size of a house brick' is laughable and if you are talking about the width and height of the phone then im sorry, but you shouldnt have bought a phone with a 4.3" screen in the first place. let's just agree to disagree as i have no intention of derailing this thread.

 

[james.miller]

give up creamegg, if you want to argue about phones lets take it to another thread.

 

[james.miller]

sounds like a good choice especially if you intend to use BES

 

[james.miller]

I'm not arguing, just stating my opinion on BBs in a BB thread, you're the one that started the argument. But anyway, it appears Ev0 shares my viewpoint on apps and such, a complete waste of time 99% of the time, glad I'm not the only one..

I didnt start any argument, it was your silly 'the s2 is the size of a house brick' comment that i responded to. if you have a problem with your s2 (battery life) then take it to the s2 thread, it has no place here. Ev0 just decided BB is the better platform for him and fair enough, but you had to have a dig at the size of the s2 and other silly things. The sensible thing would have been to go play with a phone in store before buying one, instead you've had two of these and now you're complaining about the size of it?

I just hope the current price of £500 that's being thrown about isn't true, that's way too much

Well, i agree with that.

 

[james.miller]

i was never that impressed with UMA anyway, not on my 8900 or the gf's 9700. If UMA is better than suresignal as Hxc claims then they are both a pile of arse, imo.

ps love how that review says a 4.3" screen is overkill. had the torch been given a 4.3" screen, you can bet your right leg he wouldn't have said that. Don't forget the galaxy s2 has a 4.3" screen yet it's only 3mm wider and 5mm taller. Oh and 3 mm thinner.

 

[james.miller]

Well, I have never used UMA, I just assumed that as it could use any wireless network, it'd be better than suresignal which gives you perfect 3g in one location.

it can yeah. Great if you have an especially poor network signal wherever you are, but we found it just isnt reliable enough. Both the GF and i experienced call drop outs, or calls going stright to answer phone and missing them entirely. it seems quite sensitive to other wifi traffic at the time as well.

I agree with them that phones are getting too big, mind. I think the Milestone is as large as a phone should get, and will stick by that.

They didn't say that though, they were only referring to the screen size.