Is That A BlackBerry In Your Pocket, Or Are You Happy To Not Be Paying $600 For An iPhone?

BlackberryI’m a big Apple guy. I have two Macs, two iPods, the Hi-Fi, and assorted other Apple stuff littering the home and office.

And I really want an iPhone. But after hearing about a sloooooow internet connection, being generally wary of pricey first gen tech, and still being stuck in my Verizon contract for another year, I opted to chuck the old phone and move up to a BlackBerry.

I’ve read that RIM has actually been quite pleased with the iPhone’s release, as it’s been pushing people like me into the mobile email/web category.

Anyway, after a few weeks with the thing, I gotta say, I’m not one of those CrackBerry people, but I do love my BlackBerry.

I took it on vacation with us, and checked in on my email a few times a day. It was great; I felt like I could keep my finger on the Andertoons pulse, and my wife was ecstatic that the laptop stayed in the bag all week.

Upsides –

  • Email on the go saves me a lot of time. I’ve also read that BlackBerry users gain an extra hour a day by taking advantage of small snippets of time. You spend a minute or two checking and responding to emails while waiting in line at the bank, etc… I’ve also already had two emails that needed urgent attention. Before the BB those would have been lost revenue.
  • The phone is nice and clear, and, for the most part, the signal is good.
  • The auto-type and other features makes it easy for even a sausage-fingered giant like me to get short emails out quickly and, mostly, accurately.
  • $250 on Ebay is WAY cheaper than canceling my contract and $600 on a phone!

Downsides –

  • The wheely-clicker thingy (it’s SO not a clickwheel) on the side is kinda clunky and gets me around menus slower than I’d like. I know that there’s better options on the newer models, but I wasn’t quite ready to go whole hog on this thing.
  • The internet is only OK. (I know, I was worried about this with the iPhone, and now this?!) Still, it’s reasonably fast, but the browser? Ick…
  • I’ve only synced it with my Mac once, but I had to buy another program to do it, and so far I’ve only gotten phone numbers and emails over. The calendar will have to wait until I have more time to tinker.

So, all in all, a welcome addition to the business, and, I have to say, it makes me feel all cool and techy!

I still want an iPhone, but I’m content to wait now.

Technorati Tags: , , , , , ,