Stand Bold against the iPhone (Blackberry Bold 9000)

Member Name: tlmartin

Product:	Blackberry Bold 9000
Date:	16/05/09 (109 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Bluetooth, Wifi, 3G, SDHC, Camera, GPS, Keyboard

Disadvantages: Still limited applications

As I got home loaded up outlook and saw one of my clients sneding me 15 e-mails of a very simple problem that could have been fixed by sending an e-mail 5 hours earlier, Ithought to myself. I need e-mail access during the day and where ever I am. My current phone a Nokia N70 great but e-mail colelction was annoying at best as you had to delete from everywhere to get them of fthe memory card. What I needed was a new phone with decent data access, with good features, with the ability to use e-mails effectively on the move.

The only phon on contract at the time that allowed a decent data usage were the balckberry range (at the time of buying at the beginning of the year, there was n easy data usage system on other phones, except the iPhone and I didint; want to be with O2)

So I looked at the blackberrys. hmmmm the Bold or the Curve were the two choices that lloked the best. The curve had a better camera but no 3g, the Bold had an ok camera and 3G, so the bolg it was.

Ever since then this is the best phone I have ever used.

I don;t need a high quality camera on a phone, i have a digital SLR and a 12MP compact and HiDef Camcorder. My phone is for practical purposes but the ability to have fun is always good.

First thing the included data usage of 500MB or unlimited depending on deal is plenty, for all your normal uses afterall your not going to be downloading sky anytime movies to watch on it.

The 3G allows quick access online, to whatever you need and show you go out of the area 2G takes over so quickly. Websites are easily viewable and there are so many applications to be used with it. I immediately noticed Facebook, so ws using that to update my profiel and as people ad me I get a little icon showing me I have had a friends request.

I then noticed Goole, WOW, the inbuilt calendar sync up with your Google calendar, I have the ability to add into my calendar on my phone and sync it to google calendars for the Mrs' to see any new bookings as they are made. But if i need to edit hers I can from the google calendar app that is installed on the phone from google apps.

WOW not only that google Maps installed directly and easily on the phone linking straight with the GPS> I can now see where I am, where I am planning to go, maps, directiosn, all through the phone, quickly and easily, never will I be lost again as long as I have my phone.

Now the meain reason I needed this was e-mail. I set up my primary e-mail quickly, and simply, wow I get copies of my e-mails straight in as essages. The menu had e-mails hidden in a folder, so I moved it so it was on the main screen as this was a priority for me, the menus could be customised so easily. I still have more than 1 e-mail lets see how this work I thought. Added my personal business account, great thats 2, added my laptop account thats 3, thats all my main 3 all done, I can send from each and receive all as they come in, no more having to connect to check, i get alerted just like a text message.

I am a teacher and I use e-mail for giving students support as they do homework, and colelcting work in. Having an exchange server in the school allows for Outlook Web Access, which is useful as we can all see and use e-mails from anywhere in the world. But I am not always home and looking there to see the e-mail come in and provide the support, or review word documents to see if it meets criteria. So I thought lets see if I can connect to that as one of the mail type options is conenct to exchange through outlook web access. I filled in the easy to enter settings and bang it works straight off. I got all my inbox on my screen avaialble to useas just normal mail. As soon as any work/school emails come in i have it on my phone. When responding all my e-maisl come from my school email address (keeping my personal safe) in fact the only thing that gives the clue i have used my blackberry, is the "sent using balckberry" at the bottom of the mail. otherwise everything looks as if i was sat there on outlook doing the e-mail (this keeps me 100% secure e-mailing students help as its logged on the server as I am using exchange to send the e-mail still, just the blackberry is the client) So now when I am out shopping, or doing other thign I can provide support.
(Just as a Side note a collegue wanted to do it on his iPhne that can access Echange using HTTP, it was hard to set up and didn;t work, the trouble being our IT Technicians didn;t set up access through HTTP, so that wont work, where as OWA is configured by default on installation thus works easily)

The camer is good, storing pictures and takign them when I needto the, same with the video recorder, all good quality.

Buitl in bluetooth allows easy transfer of media, however reciving via bluetooth is hard as you have to be expecting it, rather than discover you have been sent some to accept (ut thats because this is a business phone, and security is important)

The screen is top quality for watching videos, and the speakers are good fro music, (the software that comeswith it integrates into iTunes nicely, so no more additional music software is needed)

The moving around using a trackball is so easy to use and be precise on clicking it adds to the functionality, as well as the QWERTY keyboard that makes typing emails and texts so easy o do. The only problem now is i compose my texts same way as e-mails.

On any text conversation you can see afull history of the messgae as if it was an instant message, making the cmmunication between you and a friendso easy to understand. You can hide your messages so everythign you send is not displayed in the list, to save clutter.

There is a free instant messenger between blackberry phones which is useful for any friends on blackberry, as its again so simple to use an drop a quick note.

The phone book is to a professional style that stores alldetails and allows you to just type the name in and depending if its a text or e-mail puts he correct part in.

Linking up the wi-fi worked like a dream, so now whenever i am close enough to my ouse or my parents or the Mrs' parents, i automaically connects to the wifi and all data access gets routed through there.

This phone is so easy to use, so functional, I would recommend to anyone to get it. It looks good, it looks smart, and it is so simple to use and pretty much allows you to do anything. So if you want a phone thats not on O2 (afterall i am an Orange customer and always will be) this is the phone for you. Otherwise you will need to compare this and the iPhone. The advantage of the Bold over the iPhone is the tactile touch of a keyboard rather than typing to a touchscreen.

As well as this being able to have micro-SDHC 8GB cards put in (16GB i don;t think will work) for media content and being free on £30 18month contract, where as the iPhone I think is still slightly more where I have seen it.

And now they have just released a huge application store with lots of free and purchasable applications for the phone.

Summary: This phone is awesome and you can choose your Mobile Operator

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