What's new

Blackberry user here: should I switch?

sharke

New Member
Joined
Aug 4, 2010
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
I've been a faithful BB user for years, use my Bold to run my business and it's time for an upgrade. I was excited about the new Torch slider, but reading reviews of it has gotten me down...I wanted something with a better multimedia and user experience (slicker, smoother) but it's got a crappy screen and an old slow ass processor...disappointing! But I LOVE my BB for email and messaging. In my business I need to receive and reply to emails on the go all day and I need to send and receive instantly.

I'm right on the brink of trying the iPhone 4 and I was hoping for some objective answers to a couple of questions. Hope someone can help!

1) What is the iPhone like for email? Especially in terms of receiving. What are the notifications like, and can I see them immediately when I pick up the phone? I'm so used to having that handy red Blackberry star and the flashing red light, I do worry if the iPhone's going to make it as easy for me. I need to be able to pick up my phone and see "ah yes, I have a couple of emails and a text."

2) What's the deal with push email on the iPhone? Again, I'm totally used to Blackberry's push service, I have it set up with my Gmail accounts and when someone sends me an email I get it pretty much instantly, like a text. Can I have this on the iPhone as well?

3) Is it possible to sync the calendar and contacts perfectly from Microsoft Outlook? I do all of my business scheduling in Outlook and again, the BB has handled the syncing perfectly. When I say perfectly, I mean every appointment syncs perfectly both ways, including recurring appointments. Can I get a seamless 2 way sync between iPhone and Outlook? Even if it means a 3rd party application?

4) How is the battery life when using Bluetooth? In a typical day I'm texting, emailing, browsing and quite a few Bluetooth calls. My Bold would just about make it till home time, occasionally it wouldn't. Is the iPhone 4 likely to fare any better?

I'm totally ready to say goodbye to RIM and embrace Apple if I can be as productive on the iPhone as I was on my BB. RIM just seems so uninterested in giving its customers that beautifully slick user experience that iPhone users take for granted. I would be grateful for advice on any or all of these questions. Thanks.
 
1. The e-mail is great when it actually...well...works. I had a bold for a year and a half and while I didn't use it for a lot of e-mail I still appreciated its ease of use. Unfortunately, and I'm not the only one who's experienced this problem, when the iphone moves throughout different service areas, 3G, edge, wifi etc., it no longer pushes email from gmail or yahoo to your phone. You have to manually access it to receive new messages. I don't know why this happens but I googled it and others have experienced the issue as well.

2. When it does work its really great. No problems syncing gmail yahoo hotmail etc.

3. Not a big user of outlook but I know I used Microsoft Contacts to get my contacts from my computer to the phone and vice versa with no problem.

4. Never use bluetooth
 
I have the bold for work use and iPhone for personal. It's really hard to get used to not having a qwerty keyboard. No red indicator light on the iPhone but it will show that you have a new message or text but you have to look at the screen. As long as you charge your iPhone every night, it will last you at least a day.

My suggestion is to try out the iPhone 4 for 14 days and return it if you don't like it.
 
I would give the I phone a try for a few days and then return it if it doesn't fill your needs esp. for email. I use mine for gmail and it doesn't push it thru. I have to check it manually and then I get a number on the mail icon showing the messages left. Bluetooth plays well with sync in my car. You can assess how much you will miss the physical keyboard as well. Blackberrys have slower processors less memory etc but a great E-mail system. Try the I phone and revert to the blackberry if there is a need to.
 
Yea, you'll really like it! In almost every part it's 2 steps ahead of the BB. Just try it out if it doesn't work well for you just return it. I think the iPhone is one you need to test out for a few weeks to really make a informed decision on stuff like the keyboard/email.
 
Hmmm...if push email doesn't work properly then that's a dealbreaker for me. Throughout the day I receive business inquiries by email and if I don't respond to them straight away, one of my many competitors will take the business instead. It seems incredible to me that iPhone hasn't solved this issue, as much as it seems incredible that Blackberry hasn't taken the steps to create a phone to rival the iPhone experience. It's almost as if these companies live in fear of producing the perfect phone!

It's a real shame, because apart from the email issue the iPhone 4 has me salivating at the mouth. I think I could even put up with the virtual keyboard, although I live for the day they bring out an iPhone slider with a keyboard as good as the Bold's (and with decent push support!)

Ah well. Thanks for the info guys.
 
I use exchange as my push at work. It works great no issues. The fetch accounts fetch every 15min... Never had a problem.
 
If you have a google sync account... It pushes them to your phone. I'm not sure how the blackberry works but im pretty sure they still fetch unless the email account supports push?
 
If you have a google sync account... It pushes them to your phone. I'm not sure how the blackberry works but im pretty sure they still fetch unless the email account supports push?

I'm no expert but I understand that Blackberries do it with BIS, the Blackberry Internet Service. You set up an account by giving it your email address and password, after which all of your emails to that account are pushed instantaneously to your phone. Now granted there may be the occasional time when BIS has problems, but from day to day I'm getting my gmails as fast as I would receive a text. In fact oftentimes I will have gmail open on my desktop browser and my BB notifies me of a new mail before it appears in the browser. Yes, I presume the account has to support push.
 
you need to go try out the iphone in apple store , i wouldent listen to reviews online every one will have such different views and reasons to hate or like it and you obv will have your own you have to use and decide if its something that would suite your needs
 
From what my network admin at work tells me, iPhone has a service similar to BES which is what I currently use on my bb to instantly get emails and such. My iPhone will be here tomorrow so I will know for sure how well this actually works. My admin has been using a iPhone instead of a BB for about 6 months now and he has no issues with email, contacts or calendars appointments.
 
Mobileme Apples cloud service $99/year. I have never used it...but it also turns non-push email accounts into push ones. Pretty much apple's servers check your mail and if you get a new one they are pushed thru apple to your phone.
 
Mobileme sounds great to sync my Outlook calendars to the phone, but I'm not hearing great things about getting it set up to work flawlessly with gmail accounts. I'd quite happily pay the $99 per year if this was a perfect solution.
 
Top