Staying on the Dark Side

So on Saturday I bit the bullet, I got the new BlackBerry Z10 smart phone. My cellphone contract was due for upgrade since December and I delayed my renewal, pondering which mobile device I should get. Studying the various deals and devices, seeing which fitted my profile the most and I made my decision. Now one would think after having a BlackBerry for little over 2 years, I would not make the same mistake again but I beg to differ. I had the BlackBerry Bold 9700, which in my honest opinion is one of the best devices made by the company. It was the perfect size, it looked stunning, its features were great but it lacked processing speed big time! The first year I had it, it was fine and worked perfectly, then the dreaded clock started showing up and the general crap followed, phone freezing, restarts on its own and eventually the battery gave in. By the end I was so frustrated with it, I wanted to throw it far away from me.

Now after hearing that you'd think I'd never go for a BlackBerry again right? Well, I'm that guy who decided to give them a second chance, you see like I said in my post a few years ago, I'm not taking sides. To me there is no "Team BlackBerry" or "Team Apple", I like good devices irrespective of whom makes them. The Samsung Galaxy S3 is one of the best devices on the market but apart from is bulky design, I know alot of people who have it and it just seems too delicate for my line of work. The last thing I want is for me to drop the phone and the screen stops working, then having to send it in for 2 weeks to repair. Yes that happened to someone at work. The Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is probably the best phone out at the moment but have you seen the size of that thing?! it will never fit into your pocket!

So realistically I only had 2 options, the iPhone 5 or the BlackBerry Z10. Just a quick look up at the specs and you'll see that the BB edges the iPhone in most departments but there is a risk involved. Over the years there have been hardly any complaints from iPhone users but BB's have had endless, so it hasn't got the best of reputations but it has a chance to prove us wrong. When I got the phone, the first thing I noticed there was no home button, in fact there are no buttons on the screen. Apart from the power button and volume controls, there isn't anything else. Everything is touch orientated, so that did take a while to get used to (when I say a while, I mean about an hour). Different way of swiping the screen triggers different things. The screen itself is a beauty, boasting 768 x 1280 resolution and clarity to rival the Samsung S3 it really is a joy to look at. The touch screen is very responsive and quite a pleasure to use,  even typing can be done with ease. Once you master the hub and the menu's the phone is a breeze to use.

Z10's interface is very user friendly, its the layout is very similar to the iPhone but has its own uniqueness with the BlackBerry Hub. The App Store, or "BlackBerry World" is being populated on a daily basis with new and exciting applications. I've downloaded about 15 so far which are great. The phone came preloaded with a few which included your key social media ones such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Foursquare. All apps work well but I have picked up a few glitches on the Twitter App which Im sure will be rectified. 

The disappointing thing for now is that I have to wait till March for WhatsApp as their developers haven't released a version for the Z10 as yet. Also just like iTunes you can now purchase music from BB World, the prices are very similar to iTunes, with a single costing R8.99 and an album R94.99. The Camera, finally a decent one for BlackBerry! I'll be honest I haven't played around with it alot but the quality is brilliant, the features are great and 1080 recording! yes please!

Now with the new BlackBerry 10 range it was announced that BIS will fall away seeing that the OS needed a faster network to operate on, thus making you buy data for it. The package I took was the TopUp 200 from MTN which costs R409 per month for 24 months. It includes R200 airtime and 250mb data. I'm new to this data thing so I have no idea if 250mb will be sufficient for me, I will however be making use of Wifi where ever possible as I don't want to take the risk. BIS in general is rumoured to be being shut down permanently in June after BlackBerry purchased RIM and made the decision, this will affect ALL BlackBerry users. Now I'm not quite sure whats going to happen to all those who have taken out contracts which included BIS but I know MTN will be releasing custom BlackBerry deals for their customers. Its yet to be seen if BBM will remain as unlimited data since hardly much gets used by the service. To end off, BlackBerry has an certain future going forward, they were slack in the past but with the 10 series its looking bright but will it be enough to convince everyone else?

Fruit of choice

If you're in the market for a new cellular phone, the most talked about devices are undoubtedly the Apple iPhone or a Blackberry smart phones. Sure theres 100's of others to choose from, like the Sony Ericssons, Nokia's , HTC's & Samsung's but the top 2 best sellers are the ones that share their names with fruit. Now if you're like me, the most important features to the phone must be:

• Fast internet
• Good camera
• Processing speed
• Good screen resolution
• Easy to use but not too childish
• Oh and make phone calls of course!

Now if you have to go through all of those key facts, one can easily find any other phone on the market that fits for what I need. It get mores technical as choice varies and so does price, plus with call rates differing from various networks it makes things even more complicated! I had the Nokia 5800 express music, and it served its purpose. The 3 megapixel camera was a major down grade from my previous 5 megapixel I had on my N95 but I learnt to live with it. The build quality is what got to me on the 5800, within a week I already started experiencing problems with the slide keylock function on the side, it worked at times, and didnt. That and the back cover clips are more flimsy than light bulb glass, the first of those broke off within the first 2 months. It did how ever hold on with the 3rd clip being more solid. The touch screen interface was simple and easy to use, it did how ever lack good app's and struggled when you installed a lot of them.

Apple iPhone4

Seeing that I already was used to touch screen one would have thought the iPhone4 would have been the obvious choice. Yes it is pricey but at the time Vodacom offered a pretty good bundle at R250 per month with 110mb data, while it had all the quialities I needed I just found it pointless as I am in the market to get the 4th Gen iTouch iPod, which is basically the same thing as the iPhone but without the phone. When I travel I like to listen to music instead of the boring crap certain airlines choose to show. So by me having this one, I couldnt make use of the mp3 player since South Africa Airline Safety regulations require all cell phones to be switched off despite what ever mode it is in. So I'd be wasting a good mp3 player. There were other factors too that weighed in, like is 110mb enough for uploads, downloads, and app use? Then there was the usual worry of my clumsiness and the durability of the LCD screen, I tend to drop things a lot. I was extra careful with my Nokia but some how that stopped but the phone it self still lives on.

Blackberry 9800 Torch

The Blackberry on the other hand meant going back to buttons, and not the kind I was used to, tiny flippin things that when first gazed upon you feel like you might smash 10 at once. There were 2 options I was looking at, firstly  the Torch which is both touch screen and has a keypad. The new OS6 it comes with is pretty good so I've heard, and it comes with a 5 megapixel camera so I could take decent pictures again. The other option was the 9700 bold, which is a fairly old model on the market but still has features that would make some of the latest androids look like a toy. The downside for this model was the size of the screen and camera being 3 megapixel. Cost wise getting the a Blackberry worked out the best in terms of internet use. With BIS I have unlimited internet, so I can tweet all day long with out wondering how much my bill is going to be, plus there major plus is BBM. Yes its a glorified instant message chat service and the iPhone has whatsapp but by my god it is brilliant! I now know why most of my friends forced me to get this phone, just for BBM. 

Blackberry 9700

Well as per that last sentence you would have made out I have settled for a Blackberry, the 9700, like I said its practical and I love how the internet integrates with most things on the phone. The tiny buttons look daunting but believe me you really have to try to press more than 1 button. The design of the keypad is brilliant with each button at a certain angle so that when pressing it, you press that one alone. The build quality is pretty good and it looks great, there is the cheaper 8520, which some say is the modern day Nokia 3310, but there is a major difference between the 2 phones besides having 3G and Edge, the 9700 has the new OS and a 3 megapixel camera. The screen resolution is much sharper as well. The camera doesnt take the best pictures, even when compared to my old Nokia but I've gotten used to carrying my cybershot around for proper pictures so it doesnt bother me that much. The internet services are quick and the trackball is very responsive. So far the phone seems like a winner in my books, there are certain bugs I've picked up like certain app's freezing from time to time but no major problems to report of as yet.

People who get these phones do tend to take sides, so you're either an Apple or a Blackberry person, I on the other had seem to be partial to the both. They both are remarkable phones and if I had the finances I would have gotten both but for now the Blackberry will have to do.