Phone for birthday soon.

Ohnoezfail · 20 Mar 2009 at 16:56

Hi

My 16th birthday is in 2-3 weeks, and my parents are letting me have a choice of three phones

:

Sony Ericsson C905
Blackberry Bold 9000
Blackberry Storm

I've looked at them all and read reviews but I can't seem to get my head around which one to get :confused:

The Bold has a QWERTY keyboard which will no doubt be very useful, but according to the Blackberry website, it has no colour display nor video or audio support, hopefully these are simple errors on the website? :confused:

The Storm has a slightly longer battery life, 1GB of onboard flash memory, and an innovative touchscreen.

I have no idea about the wireless networking capabilities of these three but I have heard that they are very good.

The Sony Ericsson boasts a VERY nice 8.1MP camera, and I'm assuming it has a very decent build since my previous Sony Ericsson phones have been very tough to break without the use of liquids.

All of these phones have 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS etc

Any advice from actual owners of these phones would be VERY helpful, but anybody can make a contribution

sswats · 20 Mar 2009 at 17:21

Bold does have colour screen, video and audio support. not sure which video formats are compatible but it does play video.

Forget the storm, apparently its very buggy.
C905 is a solid phone but lacks the features of the other 2.

BigBruiserAl · 21 Mar 2009 at 00:42

those are very different phones and are made for different markets, No offence but would you actuly use the features of a bold, i know i would't. The c905 is maybe your best bet but again it really depends on how you use them mate

Yas786 · 21 Mar 2009 at 02:37

I have the Bold myself since Dec and i have to say its the best BB out there by far...the storm whilst nice just doesnt cut it sadly...far too buggy and is a royal pain in the bum to navigate with the touchscreen...if you really want a touchscreen phone then id suggest the iphone...i havent seen or used anything that comes close to it...if anything its probably the only redeeming feature of the iphone

.

The Bold on the other hand is brilliant...works well and is very stable. I have zero issues with mine but liek with all electronics people have had some dodgy ones but get them replaced with working ones. The keyboard on the Bold is the best ive used...takes a bit getting used to but once you have you wont go near any other keyboard...i tried my old k800i the other day to send a text and my god what a pain that was sending a text....far too used to the QWERTY keyboard now.

Depending on what you are going to use the phone for is what it really boils down to. The Bold has the option of getting your emails pushed to u...i have my gmail pushed to me and it gets to my BB quicker than it hits my pc gmail app. Not only that its pretty decent for multimedia useage...i have a 16gb card in mine and put all my mp3s on it...ive retired my ipod touch because the Bold is just as good if not better than the ipod touch.

If i was you id try and get down to a shop that has these models on display so you can play with them....pretty sure Vodafone shops have live units on display.

Ohnoezfail · 21 Mar 2009 at 21:18

Thanks Spawn, I'll see when I can next pop down to town and play around in the phone stores a bit. I'm not interested that much in a touchscreen phone, but a full QWERTY keyboard on a phone sounds very nice, which is why I'm leaning towards the Bold. I'm mainly looking at the Bold for portable IMing, Internet browsing, work on the go, and a few nice trimmings

Just a few questions however, if I am on a pay as you go sim card, would internet browsing and instant messaging cost, and how do I go about purchasing applications for the Blackberry in the UK, and does the Blackberry come with word/excel/publisher applications or must they be purchased?

Thanks in advance.

Edit: I'm also ruling out the Storm

Yas786 · 22 Mar 2009 at 00:57

Ohnoezfail said:
Thanks Spawn, I'll see when I can next pop down to town and play around in the phone stores a bit. I'm not interested that much in a touchscreen phone, but a full QWERTY keyboard on a phone sounds very nice, which is why I'm leaning towards the Bold. I'm mainly looking at the Bold for portable IMing, Internet browsing, work on the go, and a few nice trimmings

Just a few questions however, if I am on a pay as you go sim card, would internet browsing and instant messaging cost, and how do I go about purchasing applications for the Blackberry in the UK, and does the Blackberry come with word/excel/publisher applications or must they be purchased?

Thanks in advance.

Edit: I'm also ruling out the Storm

yup id definitely do that before making a decision on which phone to get. But you will love the Bold, typing is such a joy on it..in fact right now im typing this out via my Bold and its simply awesome. With past phones...typing out an email or even texting was a chore but not anymore...super fast on the Bold keyboard i have become lol.

If your on pay as u go then i would imagine data and IM would cost a bit...but Orange now do a pay as u go Blackberry sim...think its about £5/month if im not mistaken...best check out orange to be sure. No other provider is offering Blackberry on pay as u go at the moment. With a blackberry tariff you will have push email plus the use of blackberry messenger which is restricted to blackberry only...i got a ton of BB frineds from all over hte world on mine

.

For purcahsing BB apps, you can head over to www.crackberry.com, probably the best site out there for all things BB related...join up and ask any q's...they really are a helpful bunch even though most of them are Americans/Canadians. They also have a crackberry software store where you can buy apps...and also within the crackberry site you can get tons of free apps/themes etc.

As for Word etc??..my Bold comes with an app called Docs to go but its very basic...to get all features you would need to purchase the full copy of it i would imagine. At the moment i think you can only open and make new documents but cannot edit. But i dont use it so wouldnt be able to help u there.

good luck on your choice, i think with the Bold you will be very happy...i dont know of anyone who has one and is disappointed tbh. Also the Bold can run MSN messenger, yahoo, AIM and ICQ messaging apps if you want.

Mr-White · 22 Mar 2009 at 11:32

Don't get a Storm they're carp, it's supposed to be a touch screen but it's more like a thump screen as the screen moves like a button so needs enough force to press it. I have a bold which is better in almost every way and have found it to be a pretty awesome phone

MW

Ohnoezfail · 22 Mar 2009 at 12:53

Ah, I see, well I can't seem to find it on the Orange website, but I will try to get a £25/month contract with O2, including "Blackberry Unlimited", since I can imagine I will be browsing and IMing from my phone quite often.

Guess I will have to buy a few apps to go along

Thanks a lot Spawn, now to convince my parents to get a contract :rolleyes:

Yas786 · 22 Mar 2009 at 13:27

Ohnoezfail said:
Ah, I see, well I can't seem to find it on the Orange website, but I will try to get a £25/month contract with O2, including "Blackberry Unlimited", since I can imagine I will be browsing and IMing from my phone quite often.

Guess I will have to buy a few apps to go along

Thanks a lot Spawn, now to convince my parents to get a contract

Well good luck with the parents lol...but you wont be disappointed with the Bold. As for apps??..theres plenty you can buy and also quite a few free ones...best free app i have is Tetris for the Bold...such an awesome addictive game and the guy who ported it over has done an amazing job...helps while away time on my way to work in the morning and evening.

Ohnoezfail · 22 Mar 2009 at 13:37

Free Tetris? The only thing it needs now is to be free

Mr-White · 22 Mar 2009 at 13:48

get google maps, works great as SAT NAV, MSN and you can also get a mod that makes it look like an iphone :rolleyes:

MW

randal · 22 Mar 2009 at 13:55

Have you considered the Xperia X1? Full QWERTY KB, wifi, GPS etc...

Granted if you get it you may have to flash it with a generic ROM to get the best of it though.

Yas786 · 22 Mar 2009 at 15:35

randal24 said:
Have you considered the Xperia X1? Full QWERTY KB, wifi, GPS etc...

Granted if you get it you may have to flash it with a generic ROM to get the best of it though.

Oh dear god no..it runs on Winmo which im afraid to say just simply sucks.

Sure its a nice looking device and the touchscreen is good and all that but trying to type out a reply to a text or email is a massive pain in the bum. My bro had one and within 2 days was fed up of it...he couldnt return it so ended up trading it with a mate of his who had a Nokia E71...hes much happier with that now.

Ohnoezfail · 23 Mar 2009 at 19:21

Whilst looking at various contracts by different Network Providers, Orange has
"Email with Blackberry", which is basically unlimited email and browsing for £10-15 per month, but with no minutes or texts included, I'm assuming that depending on how many texts or minutes I use, they will be added to the bill each month, but I cannot seem to find any charge rates for it? :confused:

Can someone help please?

asakura797 · 24 Mar 2009 at 09:18

To be honest, it's really about what you are looking for and or what exactly you want the phone to do. I mean all phones send and receive calls as well as send and receive text messages and most phones today (although not all) have internet capabilites. The basics have been stated however loads of phones these days have special features for example: Sony Ericsson C905 special feature lies with it's amazing 8.1 MP camera, whereas the Blackberry Bold special feature lies with it's QWERTY keypad.
I personally would go for the Sony Ericsson best phones Sony's by far, battery life is amazing, durabilty, aesthetics (on most) and the accessibilty can not be topped. I have the Sony Ericsson K800i and it's one of if not the best phone I've ever had it's fell down 3 flights of marble stairs! had water spilled on it, cigraette ash everything! But I'm sure if there was a small nuke to go off next to it would still manage to survive (at least my ringtone lol). So overall I would choose the Sony through personal experience, although it's your choice and depends on exactly what you want your phone to do and what really floats your boat. Hope this helps

Ripper · 24 Mar 2009 at 09:30

On the other hand, my brand new C905 fell out of my pocket on to a carpet and had to be sent back. No cosmetic damage, but it ****** up something inside which basically turned the phone into a nice brick.

randal · 24 Mar 2009 at 09:43

Spawn said:
Oh dear god no..it runs on Winmo which im afraid to say just simply sucks.

Sure its a nice looking device and the touchscreen is good and all that but trying to type out a reply to a text or email is a massive pain in the bum. My bro had one and within 2 days was fed up of it...he couldnt return it so ended up trading it with a mate of his who had a Nokia E71...hes much happier with that now.

Oh I dunno, it's a lot better now than in it's previous incarnations. The hardware on the X1 is well up to task, and it zips along quite nicely. The addition of the SE panels and such make it possible to use the phone without ever having to dip into WM.

If you're coming from a candy bar phone to a smart phone then there will definitely be a period of transition, knowing this I persevered for a couple of days and now can navigate it as quickly as my N81. Horses for courses though.