Blackberry Roots Grow Deep
For many of us the first smartphone we owned was either a S60 or Blackberry. For the business users that demanded real time email there was no other option than the Blackberry. For those that demanded a more fully rounded operating system that excelled in media production and full web browsing on a mobile you were a S60 user. Times have changed and so have preferences towards how we setup and use our phones.
I was a an avid Blackberry fan for close to 5 years before I dropped my crackberry habit and moved to S60/Symbian and now that has been combined with iPhone as well as Android. You could call me well rounded, others may think I don’t know what really works for me. Personally I know exactly what works for me and currently no one phone can offer me that. My ideal setup allows me to mix my personal and business requirements into one device and still be productive with both. I had all but given up on Blackberry as a platform of choice but felt the need to give it one more try to see if has matured over the years of my absence.
With a new Blackberry Bold 9700 in hand and zero time to spend learning the new features I jumped right in to see how it fit my lifestyle. Like S60/Symbian and Windows Mobile, Blackberry is often criticized for its clunky old school user interface. The Bold 9700 runs Blackberry OS 5.0 which offers significant improvements over the last Blackberry I used as my daily device, however it is still far from what users are used to using in the modern high resolution touch screen world we live in now. The question I had to ask myself is do I really need that in device aimed at high productivity, rapid real time communication, and balance of personal and business interest? My answer was no. Like most of you I love the eye candy but does it actually distract from what the entire idea of a smartphone should be?
After about 10 minutes I had all of my email accounts setup and being pushed to my device. The initial feel of the device was strange because I kept finding myself wanting to touch the screen. Once you acclimate yourself to touch screens going back to full qwerty feels strange yet oddly comfortable. The first thing I noticed about this particular Blackberry was that it was fast, very fast. I was able to switch between applications faster than any other platform period. The multitask interface is simple, painless, and just works. There is no fancy transitions or push technology under the hood it all runs at the same time and performs very well.
The emails started flooding in and that surreal feeling of oh man I’m on a Blackberry began to hit me. I was instantly more on top of email than I had been in a long time on a mobile platform. In my opinion the only thing that comes close is Nokia Messaging which also offers a great way to keep on top of your email. Both the iPhone and Android have excellent email viewers but lack when it comes to actually performing daily management of email. With the iPhone in particular the emails looked fantastic but I constantly found myself behind and missing emails due to its lack of good notification and painfully over simplified email experience. Some love it but I can’t stand it. With the addition of a unified inbox in iPhone OS 4 maybe my opinion will change but as for now I leave the email off on my iPhone.
Most of us are so far addicted to being in the now that we are constantly loading Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Google Buzz and more, looking for the latest news. Checking the “status” of all of our friends and posting the most random bits of information that we can find. The problem with this is we are left with a dead phone come 8PM or earlier on busy days. With Blackberry I have 6 email accounts setup and running, Facebook and twitter running in the background and still couldn’t manage to eat through the battery on this thing. I was working until 3AM Friday night and I still had 2 bars remaining on the phone. That alone put a huge smile on my face. You may be thinking well you didn’t touch the phone but if you know me you would instantly realize that isn’t a possibility. I was tweeting all day, answering emails, replying to Facebook comments and even snapped about 5 pictures with the decent camera. Impressed yet? Bottom line is the battery life on this phone is incredible. For the first time I can head to work and not have to worry about carrying a charger in my backpack.
IPhone user? Think you have the best platform for social media? Think again, with the iPhone you have to open and close applications all day long to stay in touch. Yes there is the push technology but if you were to be honest you would have to admit that very few applications implement this properly. Even with push you have to stop what you are doing and open the application, perform the task, then flip through your apps, or search, and open the previous application you were working on. That seem like a good workflow to you? It sure as heck isn’t for me. Again this should be resolved with iPhone OS 4 but at the sacrifice of battery no doubt. With Blackberry you can set majority of the Blackberry social applications to push all important social information right into your messages application. With this level of integration you will easily stay on top of your social addictions without sacrificing workflow flaws. When I get a reply or direct message on twitter it shows up as a message in my messages application and you will see a notification icon on the top of the screen. This also means if you have indicator lights setup properly that will see a blinking indicator letting you know somebody has attempted to communicate with you. Seems productive doesn’t it.
The number one reason I still carry around my iPhone 3GS these days is not to be cool but for some of the best applications that no one else has. Android is catching up fast but still only has a fraction of what can be had on the iPhone platform. Symbian has so many wonderful applications however for those that are in the U.S. you will find that most applications aren’t yet available including banking apps from your bank, insurance, or things like Fandango that you can use to buy tickets on the way to a possibly sold out movie. With Blackberry I have found that there isn’t the selection like on the iPhone or even Android but there are plenty of great applications to meet almost any business or personal taste. Sure they aren’t as flashy but they work and in most cases are very efficient.
Blackberry has been a pleasant surprise for me as I wasn’t expected to be very impressed. Some consider Blackberry behind the times. If you base your decision on smartphones based on user interface you would more than likely look right over Blackberry. If you want a high performance, extremely efficient platform that will allow you to stay in touch both socially and on the business side I think you should give Blackberry another try. I am impressed and it takes a lot to impress me.
BTW this post was typed 100% on the phone I’m describing. The gates are open let me know your thoughts.
