BlackBerry Bold 9700, Storm2 Hands-on Video, Smartphone Round Robin
Week 2 of the 2009 Smartphone Round Robin sees me take on TiPb's Public Frenemy #1, the almost-diametrically opposed BlackBerry -- or is it? This year in addition to the new flagship BlackBerry Bold 9700, we officially have an actual touch-screen 'Berry in the 'Robin -- the Storm2. What's an iPhone blogger to do? Well, first go on the Cell Phone Junkie podcast with Mickey and all the SPE editors to discuss RIM's platform, that's a given.
Next, of course, I hit up the world's foremost BlackBerry lover , CrackBerry Kevin Michaluk himself, and as if that weren't enough, I enlisted the million-strong CrackBerry Nation to help me out as well!
Remember, every day you post on my CrackBerry Forums thread, you're entered for a chance to win the BlackBerry of your choice. (And there's a total of 6 smartphones up for grabs -- one per SPE site -- so check them all out!)
Now grab your hotdogs, popcorn, and spicy drink, because after the break CrackBerry Kevin gives me a guided tour of the BlackBerry Bold 9700 and Storm 2, and everything new in hardware and BlackBerry OS 5.0.
There are 23 comments. Add yours.
LOL @ Rene playing brickbreaker on both devices. :P
blackberry will go the way the old palm did using that tired os, jus watch.
i thought it was funny to see him try to press the screen on the 9700 a few times without thinking about it! LOL
in the video rene should have tryed typing on the storm to show iphone users if they can type on the storm
To hard to choose,have them both too.
Big screen is nice, but a real keyboard is very good too!
The Blackberry OS does have at least one neat thing that the iPhone could use--categories for apps!!
@Cobra302:
I have a friend who bought an LG Pink awhile back, and I was trying to help her setup some things, and I kept touching the screen also. It's funny how it's become instinctive to do so.
As for BlackBerry... meh.
If I had to choose btw the two phones, I would definately go with the bold 9700. I'm a horrible touchscreen texter and so I will stick with the qwerty layout. Overal the review was informative thanks.
I do like how you can have programs running in the background, like Slacker
Oh please stop showing pictures of the storm. I'm having flashbacks of the nightmare that device was to use! Oh the humanity!
Nice Review. It is what it is. Great device for business which tries to be more user friendly. For business users like me I wouldn't be without one. It's saved my skin on more than one occasion.
blackberry was my first love......now im onto bigger better things hahaha
I love how some fellow iPhone suckers who have no clue what BlackBerry is all about always want to give their nonsense crap. I'm sick of my iPhone that I have to jailbreak in order to get it to do what I want to do and the crappy battery life on this phone. And stop mentioning multi-tasking because I'm getting jealous of BlackBerry. And why can BlackBerry allow you to use microSD cards but us iPhone suckers have to pay an insane amount of money just for the extra memory. Apple does the same thing to us with the iPod making us shell up a crazy amount of money for cheap memory. A friend of mine has the new Storm2 and it's awesome. It's very fast and I think it's going to be my next phone especially with OpenGL and Flash coming to BlackBerry. I think I'm putting my iPhone on eBay VERY soon.
Funny watching the video near the end and Rene has the Storm2 in his hand. He's touching/clicking/fumbling around trying to get off the current screen. I think that pretty much sums up BBOS, cumbersome and out of date!
The BB has always been a superior PIM device but that's where it's superiority ends. In the end, BB is a one trick pony that has only one nitch, business professionals.
I didn't show typing on the Storm2 because I didn't think it was fair. I had a really hard time doing it because I'm so used to how the iPhone keyboard works. Dieter flew on the Storm2 but I had nothing but trouble, 90% of it was my habits, 10% was the (in my opinion horrible) auto-correct feature. (Which I didn't realize then but can be turned off).
Both Apple and RIM have done very well in the recession. BB and the iPhone don't compete on the same features. A company buys its employees BBs for the same reason why a company offers dry cleaning pickup and delivery and limosine services -- so that their employees will have no excuse to be out of touch or to not be potentially working. BB's are all about the superior hardware keyboard and the reliability of secure push email with remote device wiping. I really don't see the iPhone making a huge dent in the BB market, so any comments about how BB is going down the tubes in the imminent future are kind of pure BS.
Seeing the Bold's screen makes me feel the iPhone's screen resolution is inadequate. I want a higher resolution screen. Other than that... I have no desire to go to Blackberry.
Its amazing the contrast between the sites during this round robin thing. Most commentators here are just so snobby they bash everything without an Apple.
Whereas most on the other sites at least give good points of the other phone.
Fact: iPhone is not perfect. Get over it.
But hopping to the main point. I've used a Storm a good couple of times before. I HATE HATE HATE the screen and that SureClick or whatever. I really want to get my hands on the Storm 2 to see what this piezo screen is about. If it's good, I think they should implement that into more phones.
In my opinion, it's very fair to demonstrate what one may experience trying to type on a Storm2 (or other device) without prior practice. Isn't that one part of the purpose of the Round Robin — to compare? Dieter commented on how he kept trying to go "back" within apps on the iPhone based on his prior experience with another device... why can't you demonstrate the same frustration?
I had no trouble whatsoever typing on an iPhone demo at an AT&T store, so I bought one. If I "had a really hard time" I would've thought twice about buying it. Perhaps people here should see exactly what other devices are like when using for the first time.
Alot of you iphone people are just Apple fan-boys. I like how your "Smartphone" requires a hack to do anything, while the BB can really satisfy whatever you want to do right out of the box. iphone's battery sucks, with heavy usage on the iphone, you might need to charge twice a day. And where is the real multi-tasking??? What kind of phone on the market does not have multi-tasking??? And security gaps? Ugh.
To the idiot CJ who talks about "fumbling" to get off the current screen. I was at the Verizon store yesterday to play with this phone. It has a BACK button and it's at the bottom of the phone similar to the iPhone. What more do you need? Please explain to me how it can be any simpler?
All of the phones in the reviews have their strengths and weaknesses. I use a BB because I am in the corporate world and our company uses BB. In contrast my daughter uses an iPhone. She likes some of the attributes of my BB and I like some of the attributes of the iPhone. It is a great device, but it doesn't fit for how I use a smart phone, but it fits her to a tee. I see no reason to "bash" her choice of phone and she responds in kind. You should get the phone that suits you and your needs, and by the same token allow others to make that choice also.
My cousin is a long time apple/iPhone user and he used my Storm 1 in the past and hated it. Interestingly enough, he used my Storm 2 yesterday and his actual words were "I love this phone. I may decide to get this as my next phone." Yes, I was also shocked. I thought that was a testament to the improvements that RIM made to the Storm 2. I am also a long time BB user too so I already knew all of the tips/tricks that allowed my transition to a touch BB to be smoother. I type very fast on Storm 2. The new Bold is just spectacular but I can't give up the screen size that the Storm affords me.
As for an iPhone, the ease of use, as with just about all Mac products, is uncanny. I'm glad that both phones have very strong points. It pushes both companies to give us better products.