Upgrade from Nokia N82 to Blackberry or iPhone advice

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undesign

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Another upgrade thread, sorry. :o I've only used Nokia in the last 15 years or so - currently on a N82. To be frank, I'm now quite gatvol for it - dated interface, dated email function, dated screen etc. etc. etc.

I had my heart set on an iPhone - either 3Gs or 4, but yesterday I played with my brother's Blackberry Bold 9700 and WOW!!! Fantastic interface, the screen is unbelievable, even the 3.2 megapixel LED camera looks better than the Nokia's 5 megapixel Xenon (OK, it could be the screen).

So my question is really between the two, any advice to offer on which one to choose. Important functionality to me is really only the calender, email and web browser. Occasional games and watching a video. I'm not too big into applications and fiddling with the operating system.

Thanks!
 
If price isn't an issue then the iphone 4 is probably better but the blackberry is better for typing and obviously the free browsing is great too. The 9700 is getting OS6 so it will have a good browser by the end of the year. While the iphone and android are better looking os's the one thing they can't beat Blackberry on is speed of doing things because you have up to 26 shortcuts in every application once you learn them you can do stuff faster than any touchscreen user could dream of.
 
oronte said:
If price isn't an issue then the iphone 4 is probably better but the blackberry is better for typing and obviously the free browsing is great too. The 9700 is getting OS6 so it will have a good browser by the end of the year. While the iphone and android are better looking os's the one thing they can't beat Blackberry on is speed of doing things because you have up to 26 shortcuts in every application once you learn them you can do stuff faster than any touchscreen user could dream of.
Click to expand...

The BB's qwerty keypad is very appealing. I have no experience with touchscreens, but a real keyboard seems better (?). The iPhone's bigger screen, on the other hand, is also very appealing.
 
It's a choice you have to make, although the Blackberry torch has both a touchscreen and qwerty (as a slider) but far lower resolution than the iphone and it's only expected around december in SA (not official date just an estimate).
It depends on whether you do more typing or if you need more screen space for browsing/multimedia (personally I need both but the blackberry data plan won the argument for me).
 
If you are considering an iPhone 4, then you should also check out the Samsung I9000 Galaxy, which will be out at about the same time. Or even the HTC Desire, which is out now. All three are great phones, and since you haven't really specified what you want the phone for it's difficult to say which of those, or the BB would be your best choice.

On the touchscreen note, I way prefer the touchscreen keyboard on my Desire to the physical qwerty on my old phone. The keyboard is much bigger (and therefore the keys too) and your thumbs don't start to hurt as much after typing out a long email, especially if you are holding it in landscape mode. Two-thumb typing is also much easier and faster. The accuracy on the latest touchscreen phones is very, very good and the predicitive text is good enough that the odd mistype is almost always corrected.
 
The quality of hard qwerty keyboards varies, the only good ones I've encountered are on Blackberry, specifically the Bold series. No strain on my 9000 and I type long messages and notes. No doubt the keyboards on newer touchscreens are good but they'll never match the Blackberry keyboards. The reason is each key has a kind of spring that pushes you to the next key (which is why they tried to copy that on the Storm touchscreen but it can't be replicated). The bold series is the closest I think any phone has come to an actual PC keyboard (in terms of physics).
 
Thanks guys, I'll have a look at the different options mentioned.

The only one I've had in my hands was the BB 9700, and it impressed me a lot! Will be used mostly for business purposes. I imagine, with a better interface and screen, that I will be using less of my PC/laptop and more of the phone to surf and mail. So the BB data plan seems worth it.

In practical terms, how does the iPhones virtual keyboard perform? The only thing stopping me from getting BB right now is the allure of a bigger screen - and I don't want to wait until the Torch comes out.
 
SiriS,

Want a phone that's better than any of the above? Wait a couple of months, the N8 is coming...no jokes, Nokia is FINALLY coming to the party. You tube it, check out the reviews. You'll be surprised.
 
If it's so good then why have nokia now abandoned its os (Symbian) for high end phones? I wouldn't want the last high end symbian phone ever made personally. And hasn't this phone been 'coming soon' since February?
 
go for the BB if you like it because you don't need to pay for data.

If money is no option though, get the iPhone - much better browser.
 
Sure, it will be the last time Nokia may use Symbian for high end phones, but this -nevertheless - is new, ie. Symbian 3. It most certainly gives iPhone and BB more than a run for its money -fact. I speak under correction but, the N8 will most probably not only be restricted to Symbian. Once MeeGo is up and in proper use the two os's will be able to interact.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/23/nokia-n8-to-be-final-symbian-device-in-n-series-all-meego-from/

http://mynokiablog.com/2010/05/29/v...rres-nokia-evp-meego-computers-at-openmobile/

Different strokes, different folks. If you need a phone RIGHT NOW then the iPhones and the BBs are your choice. If you can hang on a couple of months or so your choices will be so much more and -dare I say it - better than what is currently on offer. Use it, don't use it.
 
Sl8er said:
Different strokes, different folks. If you need a phone RIGHT NOW then the iPhones and the BBs are your choice. If you can hang on a couple of months or so your choices will be so much more and -dare I say it - better than what is currently on offer. Use it, don't use it.
Click to expand...

I don't think I'll be able to wait that long. Plus, to be honest, I'm up for a change from Nokia...
 
With regard to your comments on the physical keyboard, i believe until you have used a touch screen keyboard (not just once or twice) you wont know how good they actually are.

I think iphone, htc desire screen keypads are much better then the physical keypads on the currently available blackberrys. Only exception i would make is when driving.

For current balckberries vs Iphone, i would make the call based on whether you want/need the free e-mail and internet. If you do need those, go blackberry. Otherwise, the iphone will be better.
 
Not really a great comparison, I've had more time with androids and iphones. It also takes a while to get used to the keyboard, it took me a month to get as fast as I am now (and I'm pretty fast). Blackberry's also include word completion now.
 
Hmmm.decisions...thanks for all the input. Currently deciding between the iPhone, BB Bold 9700 and the HTC Desire - although the HTC's battery seems to be the worst of the lot.

I currently only download email headers on my N82, and with a better interface ideally I'd like to download the complete mails. Which makes BB appealing. Although a bolt-on data package could also suffice. Leaning towards BB atm, will visit Vodacom during the week to have a look at the others.
 
BB just seems primitive compared to iPhone or Android, my personal opinion. Only plus is the cheap BBM and internet plan (which works because the browser is so crap, they know you can't browse much on it)
 
SiriS said:
Hmmm.decisions...thanks for all the input. Currently deciding between the iPhone, BB Bold 9700 and the HTC Desire - although the HTC's battery seems to be the worst of the lot.

I currently only download email headers on my N82, and with a better interface ideally I'd like to download the complete mails. Which makes BB appealing. Although a bolt-on data package could also suffice. Leaning towards BB atm, will visit Vodacom during the week to have a look at the others.
Click to expand...

Those are probably the best phones on the market right now (assuming you're talking about a 3gs), but if you aren't in a hurry the iPhone4 and Samsung Galaxy would be definitely be better choices than the 3gs and Desire respectively. Not sure what new BB's will be hitting our shore in the next month or two though.
 
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