I’m looking at upgrading my phone from a Virgin mobile prepaid plan to a smartphone. I like either the Blackberry Storm or an Iphone 3g 16gb.
Pro’s for the Iphone-
unlimited data plan
cheaper monthly cost
it’s also an ipod.
Pro’s for the Blackberry-
it’s the one that everyone in my office uses. If I need a cell for work at some point it would be a blackberry.
What am I overlooking? Any reccomendations one way or the other?
Actually, I was just looking at both of those phones too. My contract is up and I’m going to get something new after New Years. IIRC, the Blackberry requires a data plan which is also unlimited.
As far as the technical side I think the are both 3G on the At&t network (in areas where 3G is available of course). I’m not sure if the Blackberry is 3G if you use another carrier. After that it comes down which interface you prefer. If you have a Mac you might find the iPhone interface more familiar, where as the Blackberry is geared towards work-related functions such as email. I’m personally leaning toward the Blackberry, but I haven’t really made up my mind. I have a month or so to make up my mind.
Ahh, for some reason I thought blackberry was on verizon. So the plan options should be the same then. So it all comes down to which phone I’d like better.
I just read this story the other day about Blackberry Storm problems:
I’ve never had a Blackberry, but I am in love with my iPhone. It’s an all-in-one phone, organizer, and entertainment machine. I even have movies on it for my daughter, for when we get stuck waiting. There are thousands of fun and/or useful apps, many of them free. I use one that makes it into an e-book reader, one that makes the thing into an ocarina of all things. I have 3 different email addresses pushing mail to it, my entire music collection, my calendar, podcasts, IM, a few games, the web of course, etc. I must use it for something or other a hundred times a day.
I don’t mean to gush, but when I say I love it, I mean I actually have feelings for the thing. Perhaps there is some advantage of the Blackberry for business use, because everyone still seems to be using them, but I can’t imagine the iPhone wouldn’t be better for home use.
From everything I’ve read, the Storm is getting hammered on by both reviewers and critics. It apparently has solid hardware, but the OS, from the sounds of it, is a piece of shit. If you’re looking for useablility, either a non-touchscreen Blackberry or the iPhone would prolly be your best bets. I also did try the storm briefly, very briefly, because I was intrigued by the “click” touchscreen, but it does not work very well at all.
Full Disclosure: I have an iPhone and very much like it, even though it’s not perfect. But it seems to be the best overall phone still on the market, and it keeps getting better with the frequent updates.
I would imagine that is mostly because the Blackberry has been around a good bit longer. It’s probably simpler to just upgrade those then to switch everyone to Iphone.
I have an Iphone and my wife has a blackberry. I love the Iphone. It is elegant and a leap ahead of other cellphones. It is the apps that make it so versatile. They cover so many useful functions, and are cheap or free.
I run a small company so business functions are important to me. E-mail is great, and I use gmail as my main application. It works better than my wife’s blackberry. Appointments easily sync up with Outlook. The internet browser is really useful and I often use it rather than booting up another computer.
The applications again are great. I can quickly pull up webcams of the route I am driving, I can make reservations at the restaurants that are closest to me, the movie sites are great showing me nearby theatres and previews, the stock market quotes are well organized and detailed so I can see how much money I am losing, and I can search google in the car by voice.
The iphone does have limitations, and I do not know to what extent the storm has caught up. Up to now for me the iphone was the clear winner. The blackberry still seemed to be like a dos based computer.
Just to blather on a bit more I also have 800 songs on my iphone and use it with my stereo at home and in the car. I also have internet radio, movies and podcasts. So I really don’t need satellite radio.
It has actually made me re-think which car to buy, as many of the features I wanted in a car are on this phone, and they are not locked out when I am driving. Also the applications are updated frequently as ideas and technology improve, and the operating system has been updated several times. With a car you are generally stuck with the same technology for several years.
I was already leaning toward the Iphone, but you guys are putting it over the top. Thanks!
The iPhone is the coolest thing I have ever owned in my life. I’m not all that much of a gadget freak but I love the thing. It has a GPS and a map function. It will tell me where I am and give me step by step instructions how to get anywhere in North America and it updates as I go along the journey.
You can download an application that lets you use it as a level, a compass or a flashlight.
I can be on the internet anywhere at any time and not some bullshit mobile version of the internet but the real internet.
My ex-wife was a blackberry user for years and bought an iPhone a couple of days ago. She’ll never look back.
For clarification, the Storm is on Verizon’s network, not AT&T’s.
Additional Pros
Pros for Storm:
Slightly brighter screen than iPhone
Video capture
Removable battery
True Worldphone
Great phone call sound quality
Pros for iPhone:
Virtual keyboard seems more accurate than the Storm’s
The portrait/landscape orientation change mechanism is better and faster in the iPhone
The iPhone’s larger, yet lighter than the Storm
Another plus for the iPhone is that it’s more fun, at least it feels that way to me. However, I use my Blackberry for email primarily, so fun is a luxury I wasn’t counting on anyway, and Blackberry’s are great for email. I could do without the click-screen though, which just slows typing way down, and quickly becomes annoying when composing emails of any length.
On the off-chance that you opt for the Storm after everybody’s iPhone recommendations (I agree with them, btw), definitely try one out first. I played with one at a Verizon store for a bit and the whole clickable screen thing was just really awkward and stupid.
For the record, I use a G1 and love it.
Now that y’all have talked me into an Iphone, is there a big enough difference in the 8gb and 16gb to justify the $100 price difference?
iPhone vs. Blackberry with a keypad: it all depends on how much you use email. If your main purpose for getting the phone, apart from voice, is email, get the Blackberry with the keypad. If your main purpose for getting the phone, apart from voice, is surfing the web, get the iPhone.
The iPhone offers iPod functions, downloadable apps, and syncing with Microsoft Exchange corporate networks. The Blackberry will soon have downloadable apps, and syncs with its own email service. I don’t know whether it syncs with Exchange, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t.
There are many different models of Blackberry that run on different networks.
The iPhone is available for 2G GSM cellphone networks. The Blackberry is available for 2G CDMA and GSM cellphone networks. Both iPhone and Blackberry are available for 3G GSM-descendant networks. The Blackberry is also available for 3G CDMA-descendant networks. Both will work overseas–some Blackberries handle both CDMA and GSM. I believe the iPhone will work on the 3G network in Japan even. (Not sure about Korea.)
Depends on what you use it for. I bought the 16gb model and find I barely use any of the space–I should have gone for the 8gb, Unless you have a huge music collection orplan to watch a lot of movies, I’d suggest the 8gb. It’s more than enough for most everything else (the apps are all surprisingly small).
Yes, it does.
If I had to make a choice between the iPhone and the Blackberry Bold (both on AT&T’s network, I believe), I would get the Bold, even though they’re almost completely different devices. The Bold is everything great about a Blackberry, only newer, better, and faster. You can’t beat it for typing ease and speed for email, and phone call quality, like previous Blackberrys, is great.
I disagree. If the $100 isn’t that big a deal to your budget I’d recommend the 16GB model. Mine is only 8GB, and it’s about full between my modest music collection and the 6 or 8 episodes of Sesame Street that I keep on there for my daughter.
I guess I do agree that it depends on what you use it for.
I know nothing about the Blackberry, but I will bring up one key difference I found between my iPhone and my old Treo: Treo apps are ugly and snappy, while iPhone apps are elegant and … not snappy.
I tell everyone that the iPhone is slower at everything it does, but it sure looks good while it is being slow. No matter how lethargic it is I wouldn’t go back to the Treo. I then go to show them RotaryDialer and they are transfixed, agreeing that it is a gorgeous, if cumbersome, way to dial.
I took out my old Treo a while back and was so amazed at how “instant” everything was. Hit a button and the app instantly responds. Click on the app and it instantly changes to the next screen. Oh well. The iPhone sure looks good while it is being sluggish.