Any Crackberry Addicts Out There?

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YSSMAN

YSSMAN

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As some of you know, my contract with Sprint is ending in the coming months and I've been dancing around the idea of either getting a new phone (staying with Sprint) or switching sides, likely going to AT&T for a whole new service option. Obviously there are two sides to these carriers, the one dominated by the Blackberry devices, and then AT&T, who offers that pesky iPhone for the same price.

I've personally been looking into the Blackberry 8330 (Curve) if I stick with Sprint:

Sprint%20blackberry%208330%201.jpg


I hear good things, and I hear bad things. Anyone have any experiences they want to share?
 
We have a couple at work for when we go out to see clients and what not. I don't really care for them, especially that roller ball thing in the middle. They sound decent on international calls though, I get calls from Hong Kong and London on the one that basically sits in a drawer at my desk. I don't see much use for them as a personal phone if you aren't a business person.

I will admit though they are better than the Treo's we had but Verizon's service was awful internationally so we dropped that and tried Sprint.
 
I've never actually used one, so that's a small problem. I know RIM is trying to break into the "civilian" market with a bit more down-to-earth models to rival the iPhone, and so far, they've had some success. The big draw is that if I stick with Sprint, I can get a Blackberry nearly for free and the data charges are up-front (I won't need to work connectivity crap), but nevertheless, its not an iPhone.

I know my company issues Blackberry phones to all of our upper management and they seem to like them. I'd mostly be looking forward to it for the e-mail, Twitter and IM connectivity. Especially since I don't have a laptop and it will be a good way to pass time between classes at school. That, and my RAZR (I think) is on its last leg...
 
I've used the Pearl (can't remember the exact model) and the 8700. I hate them. Seriously, I have a HTC TyTn II Windows Mobile smartphone that is mine, a Nokia 6300-something that is my company phone, and my client uses various Blackberrys, with which I'm lumbered when I'm on call. And my wife has a 1st-gen iPhone.

The Blackberry is by far the least intuitive to use, and the least capable. And that's not taking into account the fact that the original iPhone is hobbled for business use. The keyboard is horrible to use, and the lack of soft menu keys (Nokia's greatest contribution to society) makes the system too reliant on the jog wheel/pearl, and thus devalues it. Its contextual behaviour is pretty awful.

I can't comment on the internet mail behaviour of the Blackberry, since I've only ever used them connected to Blackberry Enterprise Servers.

My view: unreservedly avoid.
 
I think Sprint offers a Palm model (800w?) that works on WiFi, but I think its their only one. The Blackberry 9000 is supposed to be WiFi-capable as well, but I have no idea when its coming out.

Part of the problem is that I haven't used most of the smart phones out there besides the iPhone, so my benchmarks are way off. That being said, I've got a while to play around too. As Giles mentioned, HTC offers quite a few good options as well, all with Windows Mobile. I've been told that its both the best and the worst OS out there (besides the iPhone), but again, not having used many of them, its hard to say which is best.
 
I think most of the Sprint Blackberry phones do it, but I may be wrong. I think they're the only company who has pushed that kind of stuff, so far...
 

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