R3DH3AD

I have had this phone for a little over a month now and I have to say that I’m loving it.  Before I get into the phone though a little background on my mobile history and why I chose this phone.  I have used mobiles for 12 years starting with a brick of a Motorola, During this time I have found that I do not like touch screen phones in general and prefer a button I can press to do what I need to do.  I had a Motorola A1000 a few years ago on 3 and although I liked the look of the phone, I soon found that that in the real world I had to use 2 hands to do everything with this phone.  I then went back to normal style phones using the Sony Ericsson K750i, a W810 and finally a W910i,  I had no problems with any of these phones and with Opera mobile installed on the W910i I found it did most of what I wanted although not always with the ease and style I would like.  I always felt that I wanted a smart phone with a bigger screen but not one that would bring me back to the 2 handed operation or a slower UI.  I started looking at new phones about a year ago with the iPhone being a front runner until I used a friends and found the 2 handed problem was back and that texting on a touch screen was not for me.  I the waited for the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 thinking this could be the phone for me and when release the reviews disappointed me hugely having all the same problems as other windows mobile phones before it,  It had slow UI and buggy as hell, but it looked so good I almost got one any way. I then saw the 8900 when a friend at work got one.  This made me look at BlackBerry for the first time.

Liking the BlackBerry I decided to look at the different options available.  I like the size of the 8900 but it did not have 3G which disappoint me.  I looked at the Bold 9000 which has the 3G is a bit bigger but the camera was only 2MP instead of the 3.2 Mp on the Curve.   I also found a storm and had a good try of that as well with the clicking tough screen.  I quickly discounted the Storm due to the touch screen and then discounted the bold due to the camera not being as good and wanting the best I can get for Twitpic and Blog Updates.  This left me with just the 8900 and no 3G.  I decided to go with this and the following is my experience of using it in my day to day life.

Having never used a BlackBerry before this and never thinking I would want one I now do not know why I would ever want anything else.  The phone works brilliantly as a phone but also allows you to stay in touch with people in so many ways.  I can use SMS, MMS, Email, BlackBerry Messenger, MSN, and others I don’t use, but it’s always nice to have to option.  This has meant I now keep far more in touch with people that I normally would and if people email me I can reply with a few seconds.  This helps with the problem of having 20 emails to go through when I get back to my email as I can clear them all when they are received.  I have also found I now update my Twitter feed and Facebook status on a much more regular basis so people can always find out what I’m up to (I think my mum sometimes looks at it).   The final major thing I have found is using a program called Viigo for RSS feeds.  I like many others can not access web sites that interest me due to the Proxy server blocking games.  No longer do I miss the latest gaming new as everything is updated automatically to my phone.  So in short I am very happy with my new phone.  The lack of 3G doesn’t cause me any problems and even my other half who usually has no interest in tech wants one.  I will update more as I find new Apps to make my BlackBerry do even more in the future so keep checking back.