Tell me why?

[stroebs]

My contract is due for renewal/upgrade and I am thinking of getting a BlackBerry but it seems that any BlackBerry within reach of my price bracket is way too expensive for the specs that you get???

I am also looking at the HTC Desire as my upgrade but I've been told to get a BlackBerry as most of my friends are on BBM and are too lazy to get WhatsApp.

My budget is not much more than R250, maybe R300 a month so what would you recommend?

 

[Rands]

Get a 9780 on MTN Anytime 100 for R249 pm and u don't have to worry about data bundles

 

[chrissy]

Bb 9105 on top up 200 for R249.

 

[stroebs]

Get a 9780 on MTN Anytime 100 for R249 pm and u don't have to worry about data bundles

Do you have the 9780 or know anyone who does? I'm interested in the phone purely because it has a bit of beef behind the screen and it has BIS included.

 

[Crowley]

I have a 9780, got it about 2 weeks ago. Phone works perfect, haven't had one lockup. OS6 takes a bit to get used to but after a day or two everything is as smooth as can be.

 

[Elimentals]

Noob question from someone that doesn't know BB.

My friend is in the same boat but also owns an iPod so the apps/games is not an issue. His budget is R200 pm and also has an existing contract. Was looking at the Vodacom Weekend deal for R135 pm + Desire HD but will be stuck paying extra for data. He uses Facebook allot.

What I want to know is does the BB allow for tether? ie: Can he use his iPod to tether via WiFi and use the BIS service?

Also how would the BIS service work when he travels international as he is going to USA for a month in July.

 

[Rands]

Do you have the 9780 or know anyone who does? I'm interested in the phone purely because it has a bit of beef behind the screen and it has BIS included.

Yeah, I got a 9870 for about 5 days now (still in the honeymoon period, so im going to be biased towards it ). I NEVER thought i will ever get a BB, but I played around with a 9800 & thought that its not too bad(didnt like the form factor of the 9800)
Looked at the 9870 & loved it. I needed a phone with a good camera & the 5mp camera on the 9870 is actually very good. I was waiting for the SE Arc but i realised that data charges will kill me(as with any other Android phone). I mostly use my phone for internet access & since BIS is included I went for the BB.
As Crowley said, its really smooth, not one lockup, & the new OS6 looks really sleek. I was worried about the 'small' screen at first, but its well optimised & u never really feel it. The quality of the screen is really good, check the vidoe clip that comes with the phone - it looks like HD

The battery life is not too bad, gets killed in about 1,5 days. I still need to optimise things like e-mail, facebook, twitter etc to get more out of the battery. I know people who are getting 3 or 4 days per charge, so im not too concerned. Also any battery improves after a few charges.

The best thing ever is BIS, cos I really dont need to worry about being raped (R2/mb)

The new deals should be out today for MTN, check if the price has come down.

 

[CranialBlaze]

Noob question from someone that doesn't know BB.

My friend is in the same boat but also owns an iPod so the apps/games is not an issue. His budget is R200 pm and also has an existing contract. Was looking at the Vodacom Weekend deal for R135 pm + Desire HD but will be stuck paying extra for data. He uses Facebook allot.

What I want to know is does the BB allow for tether? ie: Can he use his iPod to tether via WiFi and use the BIS service?

Also how would the BIS service work when he travels international as he is going to USA for a month in July.

The BB does allow tether, but only by USB cable or Bluetooth and needs to be dialed up via the Blackberry Desktop Manager, it also does not use BIS when in theater mode, it switches to standard data at normal data rates, the only way the play toy will be able to use data via the berry, and not for free, would be if the phones connected to a pc and the play toy connects to it.

BIS service only works in selected Internationale countries, depending on who the ISP has their agreements with, otherwise it will be normal data rates which work out to about R150 per mb, will have to contact vodacom to confirm, but they do have a vodafone agreement so the vodafone network will allow his BIS service, i am just not sure what their coverage will be in USA and more specifically the state as in america certain mobile providers only operate in selected states, as far as i know there is no single providers hat has full coverage over the entire USA

 

[stroebs]

I really like the 9870's specs, looks like a great phone! The fact that BIS is included with the contract also gives it a one up on other brands.

My only problem is that with a BlackBerry, I would hardly end up using the internet because I wouldn't really need to and if I had a HTC Desire or something along the lines of that, I would constantly be using the internet.

 

[Venomous]

I asked about BIS-roaming a few months back & was told that roaming rates apply. You would even have to sign a form & send it in to activate international roaming & apparently you sign to say you accept the higher rates.
(as per tele consultant I spoke to at MTN)

 

[Elimentals]

.....

I asked about BIS-roaming a few months back & was told that roaming rates apply. You would even have to sign a form & send it in to activate international roaming & apparently you sign to say you accept the higher rates.
(as per tele consultant I spoke to at MTN)

That is kind of backwards if I remember we had an international visitor a few years back that did not have to pay extra to get gprs access and get mail

Thanx for the up, will relay the information to my friend. I think it was one of the big reasons he was leaning towards the BB.

 

[CranialBlaze]

That is kind of backwards if I remember we had an international visitor a few years back that did not have to pay extra to get gprs access and get mail

Thanx for the up, will relay the information to my friend. I think it was one of the big reasons he was leaning towards the BB.

That's because MTN has no international partners, vodacom has vodafone and in vodafone countries your BIS service is valid on the vodafone network.

I remember someone on this forum from a discussion about the roaming earlier this year that went east for a few works and manually set his handset to the vodafone network over there and he's BIS worked as well as it did here and at no exctra cost. Just 1 more reason why MTN sucks.