Blackberry or iPhone?

I am tired of my phone. I’ve rocked my HTC 8525 for almost 2 years and it’s pretty much outlived it’s usefulness for me. The lack of battery life and the size of it really don’t help. It does some funny things… like I have alarms set on it that won’t stop. And it has calendar items from my time in Romeo that I can’t seem to delete. And since I’ve dropped it a couple of times, it sometimes flakes out completely. It’s been a workhorse and I’m ready to put it out to pasture.

This has caused me to do some shopping. And I’m really at a loss of what to get. I like the idea of the Google phone, but I make it a habit to never by the first generation of anything tech. And smartphones are clearly out. So that leaves me with two choices, Blackberry or iPhone?

Of course this is all tied to a bigger question. Do we finally drop our 10 year relationship AT&T? I’ve been abundantly honest about the fact that their customer service is horrid. And when you couple that with their unique ability to jack my bill up higher and higher all the time, it may be time to move to another provider… thus making Blackberry my only real choice.

But here’s what I am thinking. I know I’m a power user. I also know that I’d love to have everything in my life be on a single platform. I wonder if there is any way they’d let me test drive both before making a decision? 2 years is a long time to hate a phone.

The big thing going for the iPhone in my book is that it’s an interface I’m used to and like, I already know how much AT&T sucks, it’s a fun toy, I could sell my new nano, and I know that if I jacked it up Apple would fix it. The big thing going for the Blackberry is that it’s a proven performer. It’s a workhorse like my current phone. What it lacks in sex appeal it gains in functionality.

Eh, I’ll probably sit on this one through the holidays. If I had to chose today I’d go with the Blackberry. I think the iPhone is cool. But at the end of the day, the iPhone doesn’t seem to be for power users.


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26 responses to “Blackberry or iPhone?”

  1. Dennis Avatar

    Just a question…why do you say the iphone isn’t for power users?

    I think one thing you definitely ought to check on is battery life.

    Anyway, just wanted to ask that one question first.

  2. adam mclane Avatar

    I think, for me, it’s the keyboard and battery life worries that make me say Blackberry is a workhorse and iPhone is a little bit more of a toy/workhorse.

    I think that’s why I want to take a test drive. Give me each for a weekend and let me try ’em out. Standing in the apple store, meh… I can’t type fast enough on the touch screen. Give me a QWERTY keyboard that has buttons and I can be an email machine on the road.

    Another factor which I failed to mention, one handed usage. I’ve got to be able to do most things with one hand.

  3. Barb Avatar
    Barb

    I don’t know if this is important to you or not and I don’t know if the blackberry can do this or not: but the iPhone cannot send or receive pictures

  4. David Runnels Avatar
    David Runnels

    I went from the HTC 8125 to HTC 8525 to iPhone. With the app store I can do everything I could with the windows mobile phones. I do miss my slide out keyboard. But I wouldn’t to back.
    My wife went from HTC 3125 (amazing flip wm) to the blackberry curve. She coverts my phone but knows she would drop and break an iPhone. If I had to deal with 50 emails a day I’d go blackberry.

  5. David Runnels Avatar
    David Runnels

    The iPhone can send pics…you send them via email. But you’ll most likely use twitted or post directly to flikr account.

  6. Eli Ruggles Avatar

    Just my 2 cents… I’ve heard the blackberry for work, iPhone for fun argument a lot, but my iPhone is just as much a “work” machine to me as my laptop. I email, IM, blog, text, twitter, VPN to the company, etc, etc, etc, all from my phone. It is my laptop when my laptop isn’t handy.

    The keyboard does take a lot of getting used to, but having been an iPhone user for a long time now I wouldn’t go back to anything else.

    plink-plink.

    -Roogles

  7. marko Avatar

    we have this vs. within our marriage, as i have a blackberry and my wife has an iphone. i admit, there are features of her iphone i drool over (and use, from time to time). but the keyboard on her iphone drives me completely batty (and her at times, btw). typing is slow and it’s difficult to be accurate, even with practice. for the quantity of work emails i do on my blackberry, i can’t see using the iphone.

  8. adam mclane Avatar

    As far as pics go… i’m all about twit pic for that.

    I’m not talking about connecting it to work email necessarily. That’s a nice thing, but since I don’t have it now I don’t know what I’m missing.

    Of course, another wrinkle here is that I’m a mac-head. We have 4 ipods, 2 macbooks, and an imac. That makes me lean towards iPhone… but if I went that direction I’d wait until the next round of big announcements… January?

  9. adam mclane Avatar

    marko- the keyboard thing is a big deal to me. I love the slide out keyboard on my HTC 8525. I think my fingers are too fat for the touch screen. (kristen’s ipod touch has it)

  10. Amy Touchette Avatar

    What about the Blackberry Storm?

  11. adam mclane Avatar

    Amy- the touch screen is one of the problems with the iphone… so I wouldn’t want to buy a blackberry that wanted to be an iphone, you know?

  12. Amy Touchette Avatar

    Have you played around with it though? I did while I was in the verizon store. I liked it better than my ipod touch, you actually have to press it like a keyboard. Just wanted to throw the idea out there.

  13. adam mclane Avatar

    amy- I guess you see why I’m on the fence. I look at the touch screen blackberry and compare it to building a car with less gas economy… it’s like the opposite of what consumers want!

    Here’s a pretty solid review of the Storm: http://gizmodo.com/5060378/blackberry-storm-first-hands-on

    It’s one of those things, I love the apps and toys of iphone. But I think my head is telling me BB.

  14. Amy Touchette Avatar

    After having an ipod touch, I would go with BB too.

  15. Todd Porter Avatar

    Doesn’t turning the iPhone into landscape mode make the keyboard wider and easier to type on?

  16. Jon McIver Avatar
    Jon McIver

    Adam
    I love my BB. I have semi-fat fingers, and didn’t enjoy the times I got to fiddle with an IPhone as much as I thought I would. I live on my Curve, but I’d seriously consider the BB Bold. I have learned to live with ATT, and wouldn’t switch for anything now.
    Just my $0.02.
    JM

  17. adam mclane Avatar

    OK, I’m officially as much on the fence after these comments as ever. I love the gadget worthiness of the iPhone… my gut tells me to wait for the big Mac party in Q1 2009 before buying. But I can’t lie… I think Blackberry may be the “safe” way to go.

    I dunno!!!

    thanks for the comments. 🙂

  18. Dennis Avatar

    I’m not sure about the Blackberry, but in the time I’ve had the iphone, they’ve come out with so many new apps that make it more of a workhorse than just a “fun” phone.

    I send and receive pics all the time. The touch keyboard is fine once you get used to it. One handed stuff is easy on it.

    But you’re right, just wait and see what Steve Jobs has in store next.

  19. Gman Avatar

    What no G phone? Personally I’d go with Blackberry or Google.

  20. adam mclane Avatar

    Of course Gman would go with the Gphone. But I have a long-standing personal policy never to go with Generation 1 of anything. Car, computer, etc. The only thing I really like of first generation is music… a bands first album is typically my favorite.

  21. Gman Avatar

    I played with the Blackberry Storm Yesterday and well considering I-phone and its Service I’d go with the B.S.

  22. RJ Avatar
    RJ

    Being a mac-head, I don’t know if you can beat how great it is at syncing with your mac. Syncs contacts, iCal, iPhoto, iTunes…all seamlessly. I love mine.

  23. Tre Lawrence Avatar

    I tried both extensively. Two major things made me pick the Blackberry: cut and paste and keyboard.

    Much as I love the iPhone, it is still gonna be a while before it shakes its “mostly entertainment” rep.

    Not a Storm fan for the EXACT reasons Adam mentioned. No phone will kill the iPhone, IMHO. When I looked to move from Palm, I wanted a phone that would be the complete ministry tool: social networking (FB, Twitter, blogging, IMing, etc), MS Office suite capabilities, Google syncability, email/MMS, Bibles (Youversion, Olive Tree and Beiks), database management, Voice GPS directions and more. Toss in movies, iTunes syncability, mobile financial management and gaming, and you’ll understand why I am a BB fan.

    In any case, I still think that 8xxx series are the best all-round smartphones out there. I also believe Apple will challenge that with their next offering.

  24. Tim Schmoyer Avatar

    I strongly place a vote for a Blackberry on Verizon’s network.

  25. Tre Lawrence Avatar

    Ah hah!!! Tim Schmoyer said it!!!

  26. […] to the Apple store and finally jump on the iPhone 3G bandwagon. I had gone back and forth with the Blackberry vs. iPhone… in the end, the App store takes it over the […]

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