My cell phone is dying, I’m not due for a replacement for about another year, and as long as I need to pay for one, I’m thinking about getting a Blackberry.
I don’t know much, if anything , about them, though. Here’s what I think I do know:
They cost more than a normal cell phone–but how much more? Is it just the upfront fee, or do you play a monthly fee? If so, how does the monthly cost compare to a bare-bones cel plan? Is there a lot of variation in pricing, or is it pretty much standard?
Is there a huge difference between various models? What’s good to have? What’s pricey and not worth it? What’s vital? What totally sucks?
Far as I know, a Blackberry is a cel phone with internet capacity. How wrong is that? If you’re out of range of a wireless connection, what can you do on the Blackberry that you can’t do on a normal cel phone?
Throw in anything else, please, that a newbie wouldn’t even know to ask. Thanks.
FWIW, I looked into upgrading my current cell to a blackberry, with my current carrier whose name rhymes with Rare Bison. I was dismayed to learn that just to have the blackberry service is a $30/month add-on, so, as Rare Bison is already getting enough pounds of flesh from me as it is, I had to decline.
If you just want Internet access, you could look into a Voyager, or even just a phone that has web access. While a lot of sites won’t load, you can still get a lot content, including some Web-based email, news, and some message boards. I have such a phone, and to give you an example of what I’m talking about, I can’t load Wikipedia’s welcome page but I can google a topic and “Wikipedia”, and then I can get to the article. With my provider, this level of access is quite inexpensive, except that it does cost me usage minutes, the same as it would for talking to someone. Since I never come close to using all my minutes, this isn’t a problem for me. YMMV.
Having had a Blackberry and a cell phone with internet access, a big part of the attraction for many people is the way that they can integrate their work or home email into it seamlessly, and that there’s an interface explicitly designed for emails, unlike most internet-capable cell phones.
That said, make sure and think at LEAST twice before you consider getting your work email on it. That damned thing was the most intrusive, evil piece of technology I’ve ever had the misfortune to have to deal with. Imagine having a workaholic New Yorker boss who knows you have a blackberry… 9:30 pm - I’d get emails wanting me to work on something before I went to bed. I’d have emails waiting in the morning… I’d get them at lunchtime, I’d get them anywhere and everywhere I had the damn thing, and I was expected to be constantly caught up on them, since, well, I had a blackberry!
There’s several different models of Blackberries, the general conscenious about them is that the Storm isn’t quite ready for primetime, yet. The Bold, Curve, and Pearl, have all gotten high marks in reviews. All of them are basically minature PCs and can do more than just take pictures, surf the web, and make phone calls. You can’t do anything like video editing or really intensive processor type stuff, but just about everything else you can think of, they’re capable of doing.
Depending upon who your cellphone company is, will determine what your costs are in terms of things like plans and phone. No matter which one you have, they’ll probably want you to get a new two year contract for the thing.
I carry one for work, and work pays for it. I call it my leash, which will give you some idea of how much I like it. It is very handy to be able to send and receive e-mails in addition to receiving phone calls. Honestly, I don’t think I could keep up with the volume of e-mail I get, given how much I’m on the road, without it. But I wouldn’t have it if I had a real choice about it. As always, the problem with being always instantly available is that people think you’re always instantly available.
Most providers will give you the option to either add on the Blackberry data plan to an existing voice plan, or to get a bundled voice/data plan that will save you a bit over the cost of getting the two separately. Prices vary per carrier… here in Canada, you can get the add-on starting at $20/mth (which is what I have - it’s more than enough to cover my 10-15 emails per day, and the occasional browse or mobile Facebook session)
Some models are wifi enabled, which would allow you to browse and receive email outside of the cellular coverage zone, but AFAIK you wouldn’t have any voice service without a cell signal. With the non-wifi models, if you’re out of network range, both voice and data will be unavailable - but the PDA functions will still work, so you’ll still get meeting reminders (assuming they were already in your calendar) and can still access cached emails (anything you received prior to going out of range). You can also compose replies to emails, which will auto-send once you’re back on the network.
I’ll second the motion to avoid the Storm, as they still need to work out a lot of kinks with their touchscreen functionality (plus it’s rather expensive, being the newest model and all). I’d probably suggest a Curve, which has been on the market for around 18 months now, which means the price is pretty reasonable for a full-feature Blackberry. The Pearl flip model is pretty cool if you want something compact, though.
I’ll second that. At my last job everyone was issued Blackberries or Treos. You pretty much had some jerk on your ass 24/7. I would occassionally just smash them or crush them or stomp them with the heel of my shoe when I got frustrated. I went through 3 over two weeks one time, shortly before I left.
That’s okay. On my job, I’m the jerk who gets in touch with people at home and pisses them off with unnecessary histrionic e-mails at all hours of the day and night. I just need the right tool so I’m not technologically unable to initiate contact at all times.
If you need to be in contact all the time, then a Blackberry is probably right for you. I have had a variety of “smartphones” over the years and I haven’t had one that works as well as the Blackberry OS works in terms of general connectivity to the rest of the world. IM, Text, Email all work really really well with Blackberry.
I currently have a Storm, and while I don’t regret it (I mostly use my phone for internet these days and the Storm does internet better than most other Blackberries) if I was willing to change carriers to AT&T I would probably own a Bold instead. It’s a better machine, and the touch screen can occsionally be a pain in the ass (but only occasionally) and I miss having physical keys sometimes. But the Storm isn’t anywhere like as bad as the press on it would lead you to believe.
Who is your carrier and what would you be using the phone for primarily? The perl is a good phone, but a tad too small (IMO) to use media (movies/pictures and internet) comfortably. It is the most like a phone. If you aren’t with AT&T the Curve would be your workhorse machine that allows you to email/IM/Text and generally type with the most ease. So if you are using the phone for primarily business reasons that is the way to go, unless you are with AT&T and then the Bold is more or less the same thing but with better hardware and sorfware. The Bold works a little faster and smoother than the Curve.
If you plan on mostly using the phone for the things IPhone users like, (internet/light email use/light texting) movies, music, photos and the phone aspect isn’t any more important than any of the above AND you are with Verizon, the Storm is probably the best phone for you.
I have a Curve with a Verizon plan. My unlimited data plan (Verizon requires you to have a data plan if you have a Crackberry) costs, if I recall correctly, $15/month. I love the functionality - integrated email, decent browser, and the planning (calendar, notes, alarms, etc) functions are all pretty integral to me being able to function from day to day. Email is my primary contact for business, so having emails come to my pocket is very, very handy - as is having them locally archived so I can reference them if need be, even if I’m out of the coverage area.
Questions to ask your provider:
How much are data plans, and what do they cover? (i.e., unlimited, certain number of kb per month, are you charged minutes for data usage, etc.)
What’s their replacement/repair policy? (my Curve has a couple of known issues, and having to have Verizon corporate send out a replacement that takes up to a week to arrive when my phone doesn’t function is a serious problem)
What’s their upgrade policy? (smartphones are generally a different upgrade category than regular phones, with different timelines for promotional offers and like that, so it’s good to know what you’re getting into if you sign a two-year contract but won’t be eligible for another smartphone promotion for three, or something similar.)
Overall, I’ve really liked the Crackberries I’ve owned, and they’ve given me good service. Just make sure you have all your ducks in a row before you make a purchase, and you’ll probably be pretty happy with it, given the information you’ve provided here.
I can’t comment on price plans and whatnot as I am in the UK, but I will tell you this - the Pearl needs a memory card or it randomly deletes all your text messages. Every now and then, it would just delete all of them. And while it was having this period, it would not receive any new ones - I would see a new one appear on the screen and watch it instantly disappear.
So I bought a memory card.
Now, it switches itself off during calls.
And it forgets its service packets or whatever they are that let it connect to the internet.
It drives me mental, because there are some things I love - getting my hotmail straight to my Blackberry inbox is awesome. I don’t use it for work because unless I’m on-call I do not want work stuff disturbing me at home.
It also has a game called BrickBreaker which I was always a bit addicted to but this weekend I went radio rental on it and beat my high score by five times as much, and then felt depressed about my wasted time(I did have a cold though and not well enough to go out…ummm yeah?). Not sure if that is a good or a bad feature.
Camera is pretty good as well. Everything else is shite. Don’t bother. I think they are riddled with flaws, a number of people I know had the same problems as me. In summary - I will not get another Blackberry, they are too much hassle.
In contrast to Denim’s complaints, I’ve been using a Pearl for over a year now without any issues at all. All my old emails/texts are archived going back to day one (except for the ones I’ve deleted).
It should also be noted that the memory card in question is a MicroSD, which are actually quite cheap nowadays. I paid around $20 for a 2GB, which is more than sufficient for my needs.
Sounds like you got a dud, Denim. Have you considered contacting your provider to arrange for an exchange?
(The replacement process is standard across the board, AFAIK. The manufacturer, RIM, uses an RMA model where your provider ships you a refurbished replacement unit, and you then send back your defective unit to RIM via the provider. This is in contrast to cell phone manufacturers, who usually offer a mail-in repair program and temporary loaner phones)
I’m a very lazy individual, and a bit petty. :o I did call them and they said they could do something to it if I switched it off and on again, I said I don’t need to do that as it does it by itself(!), the conversation went nowhere…and this thread has been the kick up my arse to call them again.
I didn’t mind forking out for the SD card, I suppose, I just thought it should have been advertised that it doesn’t have much memory. I think it stores about 10 photos. If I take the SD card out to put on my laptop, it deletes all the text messages. About that kick up the arse, yes I resolve to call them tomorrow :smack:
I just got a Blackberry Curve last week, replacing my Palm Treo.
I like the device – it’s small and the keyboard is easier to use than the Treo (thank goodness – I prefered the stylus).
The software for syncing to your computer sucks rocks. If it works, fine, but I still haven’t been able to get it to sync media files. It comes with Roxio media. Now, Blackberry is known for terrible desktop software (the software runs on the taskbar and does not minimize to the system tray, which is idiotic), and Roxio is the software you take off your computer if you want your CD burner to work properly. The Roxio won’t work at all – it crashes at startup. The Internet indicates this is a common problem, and with dozens of “solutions” that haven’t worked for shit. I spent two hours yesterday with Blackberry support to try to get the damn thing to work properly, and the best they could come up with was to uninstall and reinstall (which I have been doing daily for five days).
If you can use them without the desktop software, fine. And some people have had no problem getting up and running. But if you do have a problem, remember, the software is the cob job to end all cob jobs and could be better designed by a half-witted dog.