Go with Iphone or Blackberry?? HELP FAST

[minimo3]

I have both an iPhone and a BB Curve 8310. I have to add some caveats to the email prowess of the Blackberry.

1. A BB is only a fantastic email device IF you use it in conjunction with a BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server) account. If you however use it as a BIS device, it falls short. With BIS depending on your type of email account POP/IMAP etc you may not get instant push, deletes on both sides etc.

2. Emails are timestamped at the point the Blackberry receives the email, NOT when the email was sent. So if you turn off your BB at night, the next morning when you turn it on it will go ahead and retrieve all your emails that were sent while the device was off. The emails will all be timestamped when you turned ON your device. If you're on a plane and travelling to the other side of the world, your last 24hrs of emails are all time stamped incorrectly. Very irritating!

3. Inability to view rich text emails. I know this can be fixed with an add-on, but I'm not about to spend my own money on a company device. OS 4.5 is supposed to enable this but it only works with BIS for now. You'll have to wait for your company to upgrade your BES servers in order to work with it.

4. Attachment handling is stone age compared to the iPhone. It takes ages to "Open Attachment" because the RIM servers have to first convert it to their format. Formatting is ugly and zooming in/out is a real pain.

On the application front, there is an ugly truth that no one wants to hear about BB's - i.e. you can only install applications in the built in RAM. That means on a Bold you are limited to 128MB. It doesn't matter if you have a 32GB MicroSD card, the card can only store images and videos. You also have to leave about 10-15MB of the RAM free for operating purposes. So realistically you are limited to about 20-30 apps on a Bold. On my curve I barely install 10 apps before running up against the RAM limitation. Compare that to an iPhone with a 500MB (/) partition. The iPhone partition can also be resized with PwnageTool if necessary.

 

[5linedan]

This is one of the most fun questions ever, and one I have been obsessing about for months. Frankly, I don't believe the iPhone=media Bold=business tagline is terribly fair. I chose a Bold, but I clearly read theiphoneblog.com because i love my iPod Touch.

What I can say is that the real difference,for me, is not to do with the nuanced differences between hardware (i love the Bold's screen and keyboard), browser (iPhone all the way), or applications (AppStore has lots of fun stuff) but rather some critical differences that you notice right away.

1. iPhone messaging is unusable compared to Blackberry. Even Beejive IM doesn't touch Blackberries. Try carrying on a Google Talk conversation from an iPhone then checking mail and coming back to the conversation. I promise you'll understand the difference right away.

2. Blackberry apps tend to be more aware of the cost/scarcity of wireless connectivity. In other words, you can save stuff from the browser easily for offline use, and most blackberry apps tend to recognize that either a) data costs you, or b) you may not be online. The best example is that BIS mail supports ways to reduce data consumption when you roam/travel, and always-on messaging means you don't have to pay through the nose for SMS when you are abroad.

3. Lock-down. Apple locks down certain things, like saving files from the web to your local filesystem. Now you don't sound like jailbreak-material to me, so be aware of this. On my blackberry I can save files from the web for later use. Apple makes me use other apps like Instapaper or AirSharing which seem to protect me, from, well, myself.

But I love zombie attack, the look of iPhone mail, guitar simulators, etc... and I think the Apple mobile platform is really really cool and holds lots of potential.

So I say if you want a real communications device, Blackberry is a better choice until Apple comes out with push notifications. Then it'll be a level playing field. So I think your choice comes down to guessing whether Apple will get your current iPhone these features, or whether you'll have to wait around for the next-gen hardware.

Good luck!

 

[Nick9283]

step one buy an iphone
step two jailbreak it
step three never look back

 

[Wyatt]

BB's are nice but they are not truely versitile devices. Without a BES it's just not worth it if you need more than email which is the only thing they are really known for.
iPhone works with exchange and has a good amount of software available for it. If all you need feom your phone for work is to respond to email then the iPhone is more than enough. At this point in the smartphone game BB is no longer the "King" it's just the most used because it was first out the gate. Just about every smartphone made now can compete with BB and do so much more.

 

[Jeremy]

I posted this in another thread but it applies here as well.

What really has me stumped is how some people claim the iPhone is a "stop and go" phone. That is something I'd expect to hear from a first time user. And that can go for any new device. For me WM is the slowest OS out there. The past 2 months I've had the BB Bold and HTC Fuze. It was my first BB but not my first WM device. Hands down the iPhone beats both at speed. There are way too many steps with the BB - there are some shortcuts sure but over all just a pain to me. You are ALWAYS hitting the BB button which became a hassle. Good example was to simply send a text. You could just not hit a simple keyboard button like enter. You had to hit the BB button, then scroll down to hit send. Just not very convenient.

And for the poster above who said that BeejiveIM does not compete with BB messaging? You are kidding right?

 

[Tunnelrunner]

I was just thinking: I still stand by my opinion that the 3G and the Bold are the 2 best phones out there but I think there's at least one area where the iPhone really has a huge advantage: the Apps store. Apple has set up such a simple, easy system, that even the most tech-retarded users (such as myself) can download apps (like cooking apps, movie times, radio station streaming apps, etc) with the press of a button. This allows you to really accessorize your iPhone with lots of nifty, useful 3rd-party apps. Brilliant on Apple's part.

I don't believe RIM (or anyone else for that matter) has something that even comes close to the Apps store - except for the G1/Android maybe?

Just thought I'd reiterate this point for anyone sitting on the fence between a Blackberry or an iPhone.

 

[tstirling22]

iPhone handles emails just as well (if not better) than the BB, end of story

 

[minimo3]

Now while there were things about the BB that I didn't like, there are some things that the Blackberry does very well though.

a) Its a fantastic phone. Great RF, clear calls, no drops, and real keys so dial without looking (like when you're driving - not that I condone driving and talking on the phone)
b) speaking of driving, you can also program the shortcut key to launch voice dial so if you're in the car a lot you just hit the voice dial key, say the name and it dials for you. No need to take your eyes off the road
c) of course while driving you should always use a bluetooth headset and the BB's have a rock solid bluetooth stack. The headset & phone have never lost their pairing. The iPhone is ok, but its lost the pairing once or twice
d) With real keys you can answer the phone or dial with gloved hands in winter (not possible with the iPhone though if you have a sharp enough chin it works to hit the answer button)
e) Many BBs have a rubberized casing on the back/sides so its not as slippery to hold when you fish it out of your pocket
f) When you're on the road and run out of battery you can easily pop in a replacement. If you don't have a replacement, it charges via a standard mini USB which is available almost everywhere. I use my RAZR charger or the miniUSB cord for my digicam to charge from the PC
g) The BB is designed as a one-handed device. Other than typing (which you can do slowly with one hand) you never have to use 2 hands.
h) If you are an IM (instant messaging) addict the BB is fantastic. Using either the free IM clients from RIM or BeeJive you can be connected 24x7. It runs in the background too.

 

[happycamping]

Haha guys guys giver her some time...she is obviously in that "I-just-got-my-iPhone-and-cannot-stop-playing-with-it-and-trying-all-its-awesome-features" mode like we were when we first got our iPhone

WELL GUYS/GALS.....I have come to break the news.....MrEClass was right! I chose the Iphone and am VERY VERY VERY happy that I chose it! Even with a newborn in the house I am addicted to my darn phone! I love the app store!

I have not used the phone for work email YET but I have used it for personal emaill and am very happy with it.

Questions for users:
1- WHAT APP TO USE FOR POWERPOINT, WORD, AND EXCEL?
2- ANYONE USE A PROGRAM FOR VIDEOS??? LIKE WMV FILES?
3- ANYONE FIND A CONTACTS MANAGER PROGRAM, IE-PERSONAL CONTACT, WORK CONTACT

Thank you to EVERYONE for all your advice. So far I feel I have made the right decision and probably won't look back until there is a new Iphone!

 

[JustinHorn]

Questions for users:
1- WHAT APP TO USE FOR POWERPOINT, WORD, AND EXCEL?

I know word docs open by default, not sure about powerpoint and excel.