BlackBerry is AWESOME

[BeVonk!]

I've been on BlackBerry for 6 months now and it's been the best first 6 months on any product/platform/brand since I started with cell phones in 1994. I today upgraded my Bold to OS 5 and it was very quick and easy. Everything was taken care of in the upgrade and I got a better Bold out of the process without losing one app or piece of data. My MTN stuff came over without one hiccup. Not used to this efficiency.

The Kindle app works really well on my Bold and I buy books on the fly (takes seconds). Saw a book in a bookshop today that I wanted to read and bought it from the Kindle shop there-and-then within a minute. It's now with me wherever I go and I can read it anytime anywhere (way better than the real Kindle in this regard). Then I've also got Audible loaded and working on my Bold. Heaven!

BlackBerry handles messaging better than any other device. FULL STOP. I sit in meetings and issue work instructions as decisions are made. When I walk out of the meeting most of the urgent matters are in hand and being attended to. Can take care of work anywhere anytime ... and I find that this actually takes a lot of pressure off me (one can always switch off/silence the device when needed).

I would like to get more app storage space though. 128MB's not enough.

I genuinly can't see myself moving away from BlackBerry. I now understand why BlackBerry is so integrated in the lives of so many. The other manufacturers recognise this but just cannot offer the same all in one productivity solution. How I see things after six months in BlackBerria.

 

[CrazyMadMan]

Outside of the ultra slow BIS it could be real great. 3kb/sec is not a great experience. How do you find it? Vodacom and running on a 8350

 

[BeVonk!]

BIS speed is problematic for many, for sure, but it's never let me down in doing the core functions (messaging, incl. e-mails). Before the market got flooded with 8520's BIS worked well but it seems to be oversubscribed at present. It also is area dependent. Where I live the MTN signal is very weak and my BIS is very slow (30 - 70 Kbits/s). I did a test at the N1 City shopping centre here in Cape Town yesterday and got fantastic BIS speeds of over 1500 Kbits/s. Tethering will not work well on BIS (and that's intentional I guess).

 

[mccrack]

Tethering is actually quite fast, but I reckon that's because you're being billed so Voda/MTN wants you to pull data quickly. Well @ least this my experience over 3G with a Bold & Storm 2 .

 

[Claymore]

I would like to get more app storage space though. 128MB's not enough.

Agreed. I had a 9000 I upgraded to OS5, and while I liked the features, there was so little memory left that the phone would end up thrashing and locking up every now and again. Most annoying. The 9700 is much better in that respect: with the same CPU and double the memory, it seems twice as fast and ten times more stable - and battery life is 50% better.

 

[phoneJunky]

The MTN BIS infrastructure has been upgraded from the 5th of this month I think, so speeds shouldn't be a problem anymore. It was oversubscribed but is now currently running at something like 30% so we will have the speed for still a while atleast...

 

[BeVonk!]

I've set up my Bold on my ADSL via WiFi. I then dowloaded an app from the app store for my my favourite radio station in the States. I then connected speakers to my Bold. I now enjoy great music via the net. Bliss! My BlackBerry is a truly awesome device.

 

[Dovi]

New answer to the "If you were stranded alone on an island, what would you take with you?" question