My experience with BlackBerry Torch (9800)

As expected in my post titled Android, no more..., when my mobile phone contract was due an upgrade I didn't go with an Android device, many factors affected my choice, mainly "out of the box" Arabic support - I got myself a BlackBerry Torch (9800) ! If you want a list of its specs you can check them here.

 Below is a list of factors that made me go with BlackBerry.

1. Arabic support out of the box. Having suffered from lack of Arabic support on my previous Android device, it became the first thing to check when choosing a new mobile phone. I was happy when testing the device in the store, I browsed to Arabic web site, and it displayed as expected, no more squares ... I could read Arabic emails, websites, tweets, etc... without having to install anything at all.
2. Push technology. This meant I receive emails instantly for any email address I setup. On the other side, this will save battery life as email was "pushed" to the device, rather than the device "pulling" emails.
3. Webkit browser. When it comes to mobile web browsing BlackBerry devices with OS 5 or earlier, aren't the best, but with OS 6, Webkit based browser (same browser used on many platforms, including Android) was introduced, though still lacks "Flash" support, but it's way better than previous versions, especially when used with the touch screen.
4. Response time. As we're talking about my experience, honestly, the response time on my previous device, there was about a second or so lag between when I press a button and actually get the response; whereas on the Torch, it was so fast that it felt as if it responded before my finger touched the screen!
5. Battery life. Again, switching from Android device, where I had to charge the device at least once everyday, this was definitely an advantage.
6. BBM. I ran Instant Messenger on mobile phones before, but having an IM application running in the background (keep pulling the data), your battery won't last long, with BB it didn't really affect the battery at all. 
7. Touch screen / slide-out keyboard. This is one of the things I liked most, as you can use the "on screen" keyboard (portrait and landscape), which is useful when typing in Arabic (or any other than non-Latin character language), and or the hardware keyboard, which once used to, it is so comfortable, and the typing accuracy rate is high.

The above list is only some of things I liked about BlackBerry Torch. There are many other things that I like that aren't listed above, and I'm more than happy to share my experience if you ask.

What I didn't like about BB 9700 - SW

Continuing from my previous post, this one is about what I didn't like about the Blackberry 9700's software.

In general, it was good, but there were few things to mention:

- Internet connection is required for some applications to launch. Twitter, WeatherBug, etc...  won't launch if no connection is available (i.e., no signal or WiFi)

- facebook Blackberry client too slow, receiving notification was OK, but getting News feed update was too slow (could be related to the proxy - see below), opening pictures was slower, even if connected through WiFi.


- Proxy: I didn't like the fact that even I was using my own WiFi connection, it was going through proxy server, that I didn't set it up (it was set by default), and I wasn't able to find a quick way of changing it.

- Only one row of shortcuts: Though shortcuts are customizable, you can only have one row on your main screen (mine contained 6 shortcuts - this is the Blackberry OS 5) but the good this is in the new version Blackberry OS 6 to be released soon), you'll have more.

This was the last  post in this series, I hope you'll find it useful, my next post will be my overall user experience with the Blackberry 9700.

If have any question regarding this, please leave a comment and I'll reply ASAP.

Thank you for reading.

What I liked about BB 9700 - SW

This is the third post about my experience with the Bold 9700; if you haven't done yet, you might like to read the first and the second post.



The software

The social media software were available (for many reasons, I didn't expect them on a Blackberry) like Facebook - Twitter, etc...

- "Auto on/off" feature; with this feature I even got the battery to last longer; the phone will go into "sleep" mode with minimal battery usage, and will it turn itself on automatically, on the time I specified.

- Push, email, Twitter (mentions and DM), Facebook notifications, etc... Arrive almost instantly (though it depends on the connection I had at the time, there were times where it took about 15 minutes...).

- Interface - I changed the main screen background image and put the most used shortcuts /icons on the main screen; it was so easy to figure out, even without reading the manual.

- Sending emails/SMS: I found sending messages from Blackberry so easy, I had multiple email accounts setup, selecting a new email from the menu is easy, writing it was also easy (once I got used to the keyboard), to select who to send it to, you start typing first few letters, and it suggested names from my contacts, if I had a contact with multiple email addresses, I'll get a prompt to choose which one I want to send to. what I liked most about it, is sending an email n a "non signal" area (i.e., on my daily train journey, the signal is bad); I just write the email and send; it acts as my desktop email client, the email goes to the outbox, and once signal is back (connection is established), the email will be sent automatically; unlike many other email clients that complain about "connection not available", etc....

- Sound Profiles: I setup a "Sound Profile" that gets the device to ring only when incoming call was from a specific person, and the device was in its holster (I can setup the profile to ring/vibrate/"do nothing" differently if it was out of its holster). I could control the number of vibrations (1, 2 .... up to 10), sound level (high / low / silent), ...

With so many notification the phone can generate (from Facebook, Twitter, calendar reminder, emails reception -btw I had multiple email accounts and I can specify the notification on each one separately- SMS, Instant Messages, .... the list go on.... this level of notification customization is great.


- Windows Live Messenger: Always online, (the desktop version in your pocket, so convenient to stay in touch), yet doesn't affect the battery much; the only 2 things I couldn't do on the mobile version (but can on the desktop) are: video call and audio call. Other than that, everything is the same. ah.. one option that's not available on the desktop, I can specify an "alert" for an offline person, so that whenever they get online, I get the notification. (note this application is developed by RIM).

- PIN messages: As every Blackberry device got its own PIN number, this functionality is very similar to an Instant Message client (where you can send a text or MMS or even a voice note to any Blackberry user anywhere in the world). Honestly, with this device, the line between text messages and emails is getting blurred.

- Search: being able to search emails and text with "advanced" criteria was really nice (and unique) experience on a mobile device.

What I didn't like about BB 9700 - HW

Continuing from previous post, here is what I didn't like about the BB 9700 hardware. Again, this is my own personal experience / view.

- Screen size, relatively and compared to most smart phones, it is small.

- Trackpad, while I was using the device, I wished I had other ways to use the device than the trackpad. 1st: unless my fingers are totally dry (I.e., just washed my hands, or had to catch the train so I ran and now on the train but sweating; in both situations my fingers aren't totally dry) using the trackpad is difficult and won't point to what I intended accurately, sometimes I had to try few attempts before I could select what I wanted. 2nd given the screen size, even though my fingers were dry, using the trackpad in applications such as twitter or facebook for BB wasn't easy, for example, in facebook, I pressed "like" many times when I didn't intend to!

- The speaker is located on the back, above the camera and the word "Bold"(in the middle). I think every speaker has to have a magnet, and most phones do. I noticed this by chance. I put the device down next to a coin and when I pulled it back up, the coin was attached to it!

I think this is related, not sure though... I answered a phone call with the device on my ear (i.e., not using earphones) after about 5 - 6 minutes, I started feeling uncomfortable in my ear; few minutes after ending the call, the feeling in my ear got back to "normal", (this might be related to me only).

What I liked about BB 9700 - HW

What I like about the Blackberry 9700 Bold (hardware):
Please note this is my own experience, for the official specifications please visit Blackberry site.

- Battery life (I only had couple of apps installed on top of what it had pre-installed; I guess if I installed apps that run in the background, it will affect the battery life). With WiFi turned on, on average usage (Twitter, MSN Messenger, Facebook, etc... running in the background / receiving notifications) it lasted 3 days.

- Keyboard keys; though they are tiny, but once I got used to them, I typed quicker and more accurate than before.

- Shortcuts; having a keyboard with more than 30 keys "customizable", I don't think this feature is available in any other phone.

- Camera; photos quality is amazing compared to many other phones with 3.2MP cameras, I didn't verify, but most probably, the lenses used are of a higher quality than other mobiles.

(updated)
- 3.5" Audio Jack, though it's becoming a standard in all new smartphones, to have it on Blackberry I consider it as a plus.

- microSD Card: it came with 2GB card, which was enough for me to have few MP3 and MP4 files.

- Holster: The device came with a holster. It has three functions: 1- it protects the device from scratches. 2- it saves battery life; apparently there are some censors installed; as soon as I put the device in its holster, it turn itself into "sleep" mode; obviously I could put the device in "sleep" mode by pressing a button, but I found this very convenient. 3- Notifications: I customised notifications (ringtones, vibrations, etc...) based whether the device is inside or outside its holster.