Should I get a Blackberry?

Cheetah Designs

Cheetah Designs

Cheetah Designs

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I've been through all sorts of phones.

I started the year on a iPhone 4S, then used an android, now using a Lumia 710.

Now I don't really mess around on my phones anymore and I just need a phone that has the best battery life and does the following really well. My Lumia doesn't last 12 hours.

- Whatsapp - currently whatsapp has to reopen everytime I get a message as there is limited multitasking on WP7.5
- Spotify streaming
- Emails
- Text messages
- Phone calls
- Maps for navigating (on foot)
- Facebook
- Little bit of internet browsing whilst on the bog to check the news.

Now I used to love the blackberry 9700 I used to have simply because of the hardware qwerty keyboard. One other gimmick I REALLY miss is having a dock which I can just drop the phone in.

Another thing to thing about is that I got the One Plan iPhone 4S at ~£35/month....will I have to pay for a blackberry addon aswell.
 
Well, the top BlackBerry is the Bold 9900. It's decent enough overall but the battery life is not good. It's actually pretty poor.

They keyboard is great as you'd expect (though I can type faster on a touchscreen one!).

As for your uses:

Whatsapp - fine
Spotify - There's an app but I haven't tried it, should be fine
Emails - nice to write, but not so great to read due to the small screen and dodgy formatting
Text messages - yep, fine
Phone calls - excellent
Maps for navigating - this should be okay, but it's not going to be as good as other phones
Facebook - the app is rubbish
Browsing - surprisingly good, but generally not a great experience due to the small screen

Is it just the battery life you don't like about the iPhone really? Can you type on it okay? The 4S battery life is quite a lot weaker than it should have been, but the 9900 will probably be worse!

The HTC One S and Galaxy S III would both do everything better, give you a bigger screen to type on and most essentially, they both have excellent battery life, with the S3 battery being user replaceable as well so you could always keep a spare. They are Android phones but require no tweaking to work properly, you can just use them as they are.

Swiftkey 3 on the Galaxy S III makes touch screen typing absolutely amazing, it has to be tried.

And finally yes, you would need a BIS (BlackBerry Internet Service) addon for it to work.
 
What do you mean by "fine" for whatapps....is it fast? (Ie opening...any laggyness?)

Screen size: I have a lumia at the moment which I find fine for reading emails and browsing the web...would I struggle on a blackberry?

Maps: what I find most annoying is waiting for the maps to load...is there an offline option?

Facebook: whats wrong with the app...all I want to do is check a few things whilst on the bog/train

Browsing: see screensize

Battery life: the battery life on the iPhone is ok...the only reason I brought it up now is that on the lumia I don't even get 12 hours! All I need is 24 hours with some light browsing, few news apps, little facebook, about an hour of spotify streaming, instant email/contact/calendar sync (Google) and whatapps/text messages.

With regards to the BIS addon...will I need to pay for that with the "One Plan"? (Really dont want to talk to some foreign CS rep)
 
I haven't used Whatsapp much myself and it was refreshed recently, so you might want to look for some videos/information on it: http://www.bgr.com/2012/01/12/whatsapp-for-blackberry-gets-refreshed-heres-a-first-look/

The Lumia 710 has a 3.7" screen, and the Bold has a 2.8", so there's quite a big difference there. You probably wouldn't 'struggle', but I did. It's not such a good experience.

It comes with BlackBerry Maps, which does the job but it's not even remotely in the same league as the map software on other devices.

The Facebook app, unless it's changed, is like a poor version of a mobile website. It works but it's far from good.

I doubt The One Plan include BIS, so you'll have to add it on.

Give this review a read: http://www.gsmarena.com/blackberry_bold_touch_9900-review-645.php
 
I previously had the Blackberry Bold 9900 and it was a great phone for what it does, including the best keyboard typing experience I've had so far. Then I moved to an iPhone 4S because I wanted the more apps varierty, and while I'm waiting for the iPhone 5, I'm currently using the S3.

Now while I will never use a Blackberry again as my main phone, if I had to pick one to use for work, I would go for the Blackberry Bold 9790 because it's the perfect size for me. I had the 9780 before and while that gave me screen faults, it was the perfect balance for me between size and comfortable enough typing.
 
No phone in the world does streaming in a battery conserving way, Spotify streaming nails every handset in existence.
 
No.

The 9900 is dire, out of the 4 we've had in our company, 2 have bricked and had to be replaced, one refuses to connect to BES, and one keeps locking up and needing a battery pull (on a daily basis).
 
By the way, Whatsapp doesn't have to re-open every time you get a message. Only the first time, and then hold the back button, select whatsapp - quicker than opening Whatsapp!
 
I have a 9900 as my work phone and I hate it.

The battery life is awful, it freezes quite a lot, 2 died without cause and now I'm on my 3rd, browsing is garbage, BB maps is rubbish, the app selection is awful and even the e-mail client (which is good btw) feels dated when compared to the Gmail client on Android etc etc.

There is nothing I can't do better and faster on my personal phone and there is no way on earth I'd be touching one for personal use.
 
Guess I'll have to get an Android then?!

But there aren't any androids that have a qwerty keyboard that I don't have to pull out.

With regards to the streaming spotify...I know its bad, all I want is a days use of my phone before it runs out of battery and I don't use my phone very often so I don't think its too much to ask.

EDIT: Don't fancy spending loads either...so can anyone recommend me an Android phone...guess it'll have to be touchscreen again
 
Robbo said:
You're pretty limited on Android if you want a hardware keyboard.

Do you have to have one?
Click to expand...

I guess I don't have to....but I would very much like to have one.

EDIT: The Samsung Galaxy Chat would have been great if it wasn't such a slow, **** phone.

bam0 said:
You want a smartphone with the best battery life? Motorola Razr Maxx?
Click to expand...

No after the best battery life, I just want something that can do what I want in the OP with no lag and the battery to last a days use ~18 hours.
 
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From my earlier post:

Robbo said:
The HTC One S and Galaxy S III would both do everything better, give you a bigger screen to type on and most essentially, they both have excellent battery life, with the S3 battery being user replaceable as well so you could always keep a spare. They are Android phones but require no tweaking to work properly, you can just use them as they are.

Swiftkey 3 on the Galaxy S III makes touch screen typing absolutely amazing, it has to be tried.
Click to expand...
 
Best battery life, the HTC one S then ;) :p (excluding rzr max)

See some SS/battery usage here:

http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1071937-htc-one-s/page__st__15__p__594921067#entry594921067

And here:
Much the same usage as listed before in the above link but slightly less web browsing and a lot more camera usage (photos and 1080P videos):

3NPmJ.png
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LxTBY.png

EDIT:

My usage is pretty heavy, so with your usage you will get longer battery life from one charge.

EDIT:

If you really don't want to spend that much then your only option is the GS 2 with the extended battery.
 
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