Okay, we'll admit, the first thought on our minds when we saw the BlackBerry 9000 in its natural habitat
for the first time was, "that's it?" RIM's been taking on increasingly sharp competition as of late -- even in its traditional corporate strongholds -- and we'd expected and hoped to see something less evolutionary and more revolutionary from these cats. On closer inspection, though, we find that the phone is leaving a
very positive second impression. The phone's lines seem flow really well (dare we call a BlackBerry "sexy"?) without losing its purpose-suited stance exuded by the
8300s,
8700s, and
8800s of yore. The real kicker, though, might be the beautiful user interface, which has been totally revamped from the ground up; gone is the cartoonish look and feel of the current lineup, replaced with a modern, warm theme with wireframe icons and slick animations. Another big win: as
Vodafone's slide deck mentioned, the 9000 features both WiFi and HSDPA, confirmed by this particular example's info display. Too little, too late -- or is this thing a genuine threat in the marketplace this year? Follow the break for a video of the hot new UI in action!
[Thanks, BaggedLunch]
posted March 28th 2008 9:01AM
I would only get such an ugly thing for free from work. I do everything i need with no difficulty at all on the iphone and with a lot more elegance. It is not only a fashion tool. It is simply the future.
I've owned an iPhone now for 9 months, and I still marvel at its interface, design, and usability. Have not had any substantial problems in all that time, too. If you're worried about iPhone's ruggedness, I saw an article on the Innertube about a guy who had an 18-wheeler run over his iPhone and it still worked!
As for the virtual keyboard, I love it. The close proximity of the "keys" makes typing faster for me, because I don't have to wander far to get "all the way" across to the other side of the keyboard. Predictive correction works like a charm so one doesn't have to worry if missing a key here and there. Try it and see!
They can take my iPhone from me when they peel my cold, dead fingers from it!
To all you know-it-alls:
If you have not used the iPhone keyboard for more than a few minutes, you should not slate it.
You sound really stooopid to those of us who use it daily. It's a remarkable input device - my big fat thumbs fly on the keyboard and with it's excellent predictive text i rarely need to make a correction. After several months of use, I'm still amazed how good the keyboard is - in fact, I consider it one of the best features of the iPhone.
Now, I'm sure BB users love their keyboards for a reason. But rest assured, the iPhone keyboard is far from useless, in spite the assertions of several clueless posters above.
Blackberry might be great and all if your only doing phone and email, but if you want to watch video or listen to music? I gotta go with the iPhone.
As for the guy that said it looks like he would break it: I have found it to be surprisingly durable. I have dropped it several times, even on concrete, and the only parts that have scratched are the mirrored apple logo and the chrome trim, and they are barely noticeable.
Are they using Podium Sans for the menu typeface? That looks AWFULLY familiar.
Don't get me wrong. I like the iphone but there are some real issues that iphone will have to surpass in order toreally compete with the bb.
1. Battery Life - Iphone doesn't have the same battery life as a bb. When u use different applications on the iphone the battery drains very quickly. BB doesn't
2. Keyboard - U can lie all you want about the iphone's keyboard but it cannot keeep up with the speed of having a qwerty keyboard.
3. Removable Battery - The iphone will start having problems by the end of this year when the battery life starts to drain. The fact of it not having a removable battery will be a problem.
4. 3rd Party Apps - Apple has only recently decided to allow 3rd party apps to its iphone. I guarantee that there will compatibility problems like Treos and their 3rd party app where systems will start crashing. I have seen this on the macs using windows programs. I know this will be a problem. BB has tested these problems on their phones and this is something BB users can always depend on. Their phones are very reliable.
I have used BB for the last 5 years and become reliant on them doing what i bought them to do,rugged devices that survied the kids, the pets and the pub,however i love gadgets so i bought the iphone, forced my IT chaps to make it work with my mail and found workarounds for most of the niggles, like being on voda in the UK.
I swapped back and forth a few times over the last 3 months and have happily come to a conclusion and it links to several of the comments listed here.
i am a 34 company director in the UK
Image and Status : i feel like a sub 30 year old music loving wanabee - hate that
Functionality : i miss every second call on the iphone and every other text, great gadget to surf the next on but much worse than my laptop that tends to be near me whenever in a wifi zone
Far to precious, smudges and stains - rhubarb
Summary : iphone is a increadibly well marketed gadget that is a shite phone, impossible email machine and bad texter, blackberries do what you ask them to do all day everyday.RIM have my custom.
i feel purged now !!!!!!
Brilliant....a video showing off a (very) new BlackBerry, and he/she/they even didn't bother to show the email/messaging interface....the most obvious thing anyone uses a blackberry for. Gimme a freakin break
The thing looks cool tho
WiFi on a phone? Count me in!!!
Many need to understand that RIM doesn't cater to the consumer first, they cater to the businesses who actually invest in BlackBerry's/BES etc. If RIM did decide to market a phone to compete with the iPhone, they would need to make sure that whatever they decide to include has to work and be stable. RIM doesn't have a big consumer market so to design a competitor for the consumer that will cost them a lot is a huge risk. I don't doubt that they will eventually come out with one, but RIM needs to find the right time.
dont hate on the bb 9000. the one on here isn't the 9000 series at all! the blackberry 9000 is a touch screen and is totally an i phone killer!
I've owned a couple of Blackberry's for work and i own a Treo 700wx and my girlfriend has an iPhone.
The iPhone virtual keyboard is not bad... i do make mistakes on it though cause of my fat fingers, but my girlfriend has no problems using it with her skinny fingers. She has medium size nails and is still okay with using it.
The Blackberry phones i've owned have had terrible feeling keyboards. They are all hard and i really have to press the button for it to register.
The Treo 700wx has probably the best keyboard i've used in a phone. The keys are easy to use and the buttons are not super hard. I just have to make sure i lock my phone or the buttons can get pressed. Haven't had a "mistake" phonecall yet.
Overall i think BB needs to make there keyboards a bit software, mind you i'm being picky here and comparing the 3 products i've used.
Also no touchscreen is a BIG let down for me.
A quick search on BELL MOBILITY's website (I'm Canadian) shows me the Blackberry 8830 for $249.95 on a 3 year term, the Treo 700wx for $9.95 on a 3 year term and the HTC 6800 for $99.95 on a 3 year term. Even the Blackberry 8703e is $99.95 on a 3 year term. So the Blackberry is not particularly cheap compared to other touchscreen phones. WHY???
MAYBE, they will get cheaper when the iPhone comes to Canada....just MAYBE!!
I'll stick with my Tmobile Dash (htc excalibur) a little longer thank you. Though this does look pretty nice compared to the old blackberries
This guy hit the nail on the head.
"They're probably stuck in the same gridlock Microsoft is; they have a bunch of brilliant engineers like Apple or any other company, but the executive branch of the company won't untie the ropes that hold them back from creating some really cool toys."
TOY - The Iphone should be called the iTOY. You cant do a damn thing on that piece without two hands.
If you want a reliable device that you can easily use for email, etc. and that has a great battery life then BB wins hands down.
If you want to look at pictures, play music, and make the occasional phone call then get the iToy. Let talk about how slippery and delicate it is. I am aware of three devices that fell less than three feet that have cracked screens on them.
Lets talk about the inability to change the battery.
Lets talk about how Apple locked the phones down after they were hacked to work on other networks. I can guarantee you that if RIM did that there would be public outrage. But since apple did it, it must be OK.
Stop falling prey to the multi million dollar marketing campaigns. If the device is so damn great why do I have to watch prime time commercials telling me how great it is. Have you ever seen a commercial for the BB or Palm....um...NO!!!!
Lets talk about how the iToy randomly loses its email configurations for no apparent reason. And how you have to completely delete the setting and start over.
Lets talk about how Steve Jobs had to get on his knees and grovel to Bill for Active Sync so that the iToy users can try and strong arm their IT departments into putting them on the EXCHANGE server. Only to have the IT Dept to say....um....NO!!!!!!!
There is nothing revolutionary about the iToy and the suckers that paid $600 for it found that out very quickly.
Oh and yes I am speaking from experience. I have had the great displeasure of supporting these pathetic toys. And I have received the late night call from the customer traveling in another country because his iToy decided to drop the email configuration. But best of all I have had the pleasure of retiring the iToy to a BB. And yes , it was a great day!!
well i for one have used BB's for a few years now. i bought my GF an iphone for her birthday and after i jailbroke it and got some emulators and programs i fell in love with it. but little did i know it was only lust. at first i had fun cracking it for days and i bought an iphone for myself and its been a few weeks and im now bored with it. yes the keyboard is really easy to get used to but it cant compare to a physical keyboard. you really cant control the iphone unless your looking at it, when i had my curve a few weeks ago i could text message in the car while watching the stoplight turn from red to green. with an iphone you have to glance at it for everything you do. yes the iphone has a really nice browser but i for one prefer a computer for browsing. way more apps on a crackberry and useful. so all in all im going back to the blackberry when the 9000 series hit. blackberry patched bluetooth stereo headphones, apple is putting their time into keeping hackers like me from cracking the iphone. interface is more appealing with the iphone. productivity is more effective on a BB. your choice in preference, but for $300+ ill take productivity
SOME PEOPLE LIKE BLACKBERRYS
SOME PEOPLE LIKE IPHONES
ITS A CELL PHONE NOT A COMPUTER
with that said, I just recently switched from a blackberry pearl 8120 to a 16gb iphone. Im never going back. Sure, typing is a tad more daunting, but the autotext feature on the iphone saves my fingers everytime.
i was walking in pasadena today and wanted to hit up a grocery store. In a matter of seconds, I had my location honed in and found the nearest famima... with the blackberry i would have been barely tapping into the browser by that time.
as far as email go, i must admit i was severely disappointed when i saw that the shortest "refresh" time on email was 15 minutes. but as a Network Admin, I find this more of a blessing than a curse. I was really becoming a damn robot, checking my BB every 5 seconds as emails would pour in. And adding people to an email is far more annoying and time consuming on a BB.
ACTIVESYNC FOR iPHONE COMING SOON
but i wish it was today. I literally spent 8 hours today attempting to get SSL to work with our Exchange Server (WINS 2003). The place I just recently started working for is hilarious when it comes to security and didnt even have OWA using SSL.... I spent time working on that as well.
As far as the calendar go, Im using Google's new kickin' feature of sync'in with outlook and have it running on my work computer (which is on 24/7). I then put a nice lil shortcut on my iphone and wallah, a calendar that syncs.
But do I need to repeat that ActiveSync for the iPhone will blow BB out of the water. I know most of you disagree, but hey, let some guy who just spent 500 on a new toy be happy.
I hope you found this post annoying and uninformative. Thanks.
Touch Screen = useless id rather have my battery last longer than use a toy screen. RIM your the man. but please release the official 4.5 so all my fellow BB lovers can enjoy the new browser that i love so much.
Its amazing the arguments I am reading over the BB and the iPhone. I absolutely love statements like Sam Winters makes in his post about moronic statements and saying things like "I have tried every phone to grace the US...blah blah blah..." yet he says someone else is making a moronic statement...his kind just make me laugh at the ignorance of some people. There really is no comparison between the two phones. I have owned both a Blackberry (Curve) and an iPhone. I would have to choose the Blackberry. The iPhone is a nice phone but thats all it is - a nice phone. The Blackberry is a great phone and I think it is better engineered. Yes I have read all the complaining that it doesnt have a touch screen....and my reply is - thats good! If your screen gets damaged,which it is easier to damage a screen than it is a keyboard - your phone is toast. Not to mention the cost. The iPhone is the new toy out on the market and it does its job well, the BB does its job fantastic and is stable. So it depends what you want your phone to do...is which one you will pick.
WOW where in the world did you people get the idea that there are no third party apps for the Berry do a quick query online and I promise you will fine more than 1000 add ons applications and yes games. I will agree the Ipone is geared more toward consumers it's a 400 dollar toy with crappy email capability but unbeatable internet surfing. So what is a status symbol a 400 dollar toy or a 100 dollar tool you tell me. The need BB 9000 is supposed to have a better CPU than the IPhone and more on board mem. All I have to say is if you love the iphone so much than why are you posting here. As for the hype on 3G its not really that big of a deal my curve runs fine on an edge network. And I don't understand the hype on the touch screen either I wouldn't want one. Maybe its just because I grew up with pcs idk but I like having a mouse and physical key board. The bottom line is the BB and Ipone should not be compared BB are tools to be used for work an fun too and the iphone is just another shiny gadget from apple like the mac book air what a joke.
If you don't like my post sorry these are my opinions and thoughts feel free to ignore them.
Possed useing BB 8300
Ok You All,
I have had a Blackberry since I had to have one for work, which is 3.5 years and I finally just bought an iPhone.
Holy Lord Above I Love This Phone!
Blackberry v. iPhone is no contest. The iPhone is so superior in everyway I can even ignore the AT&T service and still be over the moon. I don't care if I have to have my Lotus Notes copy all my new messages and send them to my Gmail. BIG DEAL. The iPhone is a Porsche and the Blackberry is a Toyota. The Porsche is hot, flashy, faster and sexy. The Toyota is functional and boring, but gets the job done. My iPhone is so cool and I can't imagine I waited so long to get one. They are worth the money because of the ability to have my music, movies, e-mail, calendar and don't get me started on the webapps. You Blackberry guys have no idea what you are missing. I used to be you, but no more. I don't care what Blackberry says they are going to do because they will never match Apple's genius.
I know a few people who love their iPhones. Good for them. I use a BB 8703e -- it's antiquated as compared to today's multimedia, slick, sophisticated phones. But it doesn't drop calls, it doesn't have any problems getting me e-mail within seconds, if not minutes, of its desktop equivalent, and I can accomplish everything I want to accomplish with it without much in the way of effort. And unlike the iPhone, I'm not embarassed to be seen using it in a boardroom.
The iPhone's a neat toy, but I'm not interested in having two phones (one for work and one for personal use). Once AT&T improves its network and makes an iPhone that doesn't drop calls and doesn't pale in comparison to BB's e-mail superiority, then it's a discussion. For now, it's a tool (BB) vs. a toy.
I have the aweful pleasure of working for a cell phone company, Its not a national company so I dont expect any of you to have heard of it. Here is my take on the situation.
First off when you compare a blackberry to the Iphone you need to compare the newest of each, not a 4 year old blackberry that has no media capabilities.
The Iphone's keyboard is not horrible like some think, though I dont think its anything to jump for joy about. The blackberry 8830 has an amazing keyboard that is extremelly easy to use even with my huge thumbs.
Obviously the Iphone is not 3g capable...yet. But the blackberry 8830 browser is not that great, but some simple installation of the Opera Mini does the trick nicely.
The Iphone has a big screen, but it will be covered in fingerprints that you'll be wiping off constantly, then again the sleek black 8830 I have gets covered in fingerprints as well.
You cannot put insurance on an iphone, and there are videos on youtube showing that if you flick an iphone screen hard enough that it will break.
My blackberry 8830 has been THROWN at least 3 times a day every day for the last 6 months (thats when our company got the 8830 and i bought one) Its a great selling method, talk about how durable it is, and chuck it onto the floor (thin carpet on concrete)
The emailing services on the 8830 are obviously better, I wont go into description. You all know that
So now it comes down to this, even if the Iphone was 10x better than the 8830...would you really like to have service with att? I have friends throughout all the cell phone companies that i've met through my years working for cell phone companies. the friends I have at ATT even complain about the service/coverage/expense/hidden costs.
For the palm, the HTC and the Q...
Palm and HTC are both great phones, and they'll have their loyal following, I've obviously owned both multiple times and I was not unhappy with either of them (except the treo 650 dropping calls) The problem with touch screen phones is they become 2 handed phones, you pull out your phone, then pull out the pen and then use the phone. You get used to it, but once you go to the track ball on the blackberry you wont want touch screen anymore.
The motorola Q...I try to never sell one of these, they are lower than consumer grade phones with more problems then hillary clinton. Our company has the Pearl for the same price as the Q...no comparision.
And Finally, Its all dependant on what you feel comfortable with, go to the stores and ask to see a working model of each, dont figure it out before touching the phone. The return rate on Palm phones is about 12%, on the HTC it is about 10%, on the Iphone i've heard its in the 15% area, and overall, blackberry claims to have only a 3% return rate. That speaks for at least something.
If you have any questions about these phones and would like any help, send me an email, Andy@Kabliga.com I'll be glad to help out, its what I do for a living, I sometimes know what i'm talking about.
-Andy
Andy@Kabliga.com
www.Kabliga.com
For a corporate user who spends at least 50% of the time typing vs. talking, a tactile keyboard is a must. My wife has the iphone, which is great for her, and the browser is spectacular. But I can't type on it to save my life. If my curve had a browser to match the iPhone, I'd be a happy man.
Most corporate users don't need the 'consumer' features everyone wants. I could care less about having a camera on my phone, etc....I just want something that's small, lightweight, has a great battery, good keyboard, and can pull in a signal even 3 nautical miles off the coast if it has too.
Wifi would be a nice bonus, correlated to the improved browser experience.
...I was expecting at least one comment about how much this thing looks like the Moto Q9s. Hardly original, but a nice touch to the aging BB look.
Are there any information about rSAP support?
the 9000 looks like the lovechild of an iphone and blackberry curve
I'm a Blackberry user. At first I loved it, now I'm sick of this ugly ass clunky piece of shit.
Apparently RIM do not believe in progressing technology. This is garbage.
The iPhone will have enterprise support in a month and I hope Blackberry just dies.
感覺很不錯說, 那請問一下size如何??會很厚嘛???
有其他的相關規格嗎???
If you can work fine on your lap top with fingure prints all over the screen
If you can watch cable on flat panel with fingers prints all over then yah sure..iPhone is great.
But it sure grosses me out noticing fingers prints on any screen of any device. It just feels and looks ugly.
I like my stuff to look and feel clean, so iPhone is sure a NO NO for me.
I am all BB, feels neat, looks neat.
I met a girl through a friend two weekends ago who is a project manager for BBerry in Vancouver. She had this very phone with her, and I was able to see it in action before she realized that I knew I was looking at a test-model/prototype. (She even carried it in a black "privacy sleeve" when not in use.)
The screen is MUCH sharper than the current models, and hers actually surfed and displayed FULL web pages at a fairly brisk pace. She confirmed this will indeed be a feature in the production model, but clammed up pretty quick and wouldn't say much more.
The red number keys look amazing in a dimly lit room!
Sorry, it's not much, but a glimpse of something to look forward to.
I love the trackball, it's the best feature of my Blackberry. I see these morons typing with one finger on their iPhones and by the time they've finished "Meet for lunch", I've sent out two 500 word emails...
I currently own an iPhone and a curve and so far the Curve is the best for what I do, email, phone and messaging.
When I use a phone it is for work and work only, the iPhone is great for playing and occasionally checking my email but the Blackberry does what is is intended for, it is for working business people but seems to have gotten lost in the recreational users shuffle and the need for more sales.
Maybe people who send and receive the odd email want more to do with the phone but as a business tool the Blackberry is the best on the market. When the iPhone can include all the functions that the blackberry does such as; search contacts, autocomplete when dialing, mark all emails open, MMS, pin messages, GPS, weigh less than a brick, it will give Blackberry a real run for it. Until then as a business user I wil have to stick to my Blackberry.
I am a hardcore Mac guy but the iPhone is just a glorified iPod for now.
Hello,
I am based in India, and want to know has the Blackberry 9000 aka BB Bold been launched in US or other parts of the world.
If so, then what is it's retail price, and where can I buy in the US.
Regards
techfundoo
I'll be trading in my Curve as soon as this hits the market.
Jody Bissoon