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iPhone vs Blackberry Storm ?

OldManJimbo

OldManJimbo

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 1, 2004
415
1
California Coast
I have an iPod Touch and love the interface. Would like to switch my PalmTreo for an iPhone but need to stay on Verizon for work issues.

Does anyone have experience with the new Blackberry Storm - it appears to have many of the features I am attracted to on the iPhone.
 
Storm is great. I like the way it handles email a lot better than the iphone/ipod touch. Also, the march app store seems promising.
 
I had both iPhones and then switched back to Verizon because I couldnt deal with AT&t anymore. I got a Blackberry Curve on Verizon and love it.

I have a week or two to play around with a Storm to see if I liked it and I must say I did not. It has all the cool functions of the Blackberry OS, with all the great "push" technology. However I feel the phone is just crappy. Compared to an iPhone or iPod touch. I went back to my Curve and am fine with that. The Storm was very bug ridden and was not ready for release at all. It made the initial 2.0 iPhone software look perfect. Which we all know it was not.
 
OldManJimbo said:
I have an iPod Touch and love the interface. Would like to switch my PalmTreo for an iPhone but need to stay on Verizon for work issues.

Does anyone have experience with the new Blackberry Storm - it appears to have many of the features I am attracted to on the iPhone.
Click to expand...

I tried it out at the store - didn't seem anywhere near as good as the iPhone. Much more clunky and less intuitive. Maybe a personal thing that you need to try first....
 
My dad just got a stormand though it's not a phone you pick up and can use well intuitively. I will say that I was impressed with it and thought that it was the 2nd best touch screen device and the verizon network is simply amazing. It may not be perfected like the normal BB OS but it's still a solid phone, BB is like the IBM of smartphones
 
I own a blackberry storm and an ipod touch. so i get the best of both worlds without att crappy service. :)


blackberry had an os update so its not that slow. overall its ok. honestly i play with my ipod touch more. so many more applications and games for it. no way id go to att though just for a cool phone. ive had both att and verizon and att is a joke.
 
BB Storm is a Flood

Had it for a week , it was the biggest piece of **** I have ever owned .
HEY RIM WHY DON'T YOU MAKE A REAL TOUCH SCREEN !!!!:eek:

I had to trade my wife back for my iphone that didn't go over at all,
I had to buy her one !! oh well.
 
I can't justify switching to an unreliable network for an iPhone. I have an iPod Touch, and love it. I just got a Storm yesterday. While the screen is something to get used to, and there is no wifi, I've found a huge benefit in the clicking touch screen: no unwanted keystrokes. This is a rare but frustrating problem with my iPod, that I really couldn't tolerate with a phone.

As for wifi, again, I have my iPod. I don't need it on my Storm.

So I guess I have the best of both worlds. I have a phone on the best network, from (arguably) the best smartphone manufacturer and the most email-friendly smartphone OS, and I have my iPod Touch for everything that doesn't cover. I even have apps to let my blackberry sync with my MBP. In my opinion this is the only way to go, unless you're just that hung-up on the apple image... In that case go ahead and switch. You probably don't have many friends to call anyway.
 
shanshor said:
Storm is great. I like the way it handles email a lot better than the iphone/ipod touch. Also, the march app store seems promising.
Click to expand...

Nokia 5800 "Tube". I can't type on an iPhone. It's not good for that at all. It's not available in America yet, but it's probably coming in a few months. Pretend that the Hong Kong-ese, Norwegians, and Finnish users are guinea pigs for the Americans. ;) You just have to be willing to wait a bit.


It has a better camera with a dual LED flash, camera on the front face for video conferencing (I've never used it), WiFi, a nice headphone remote you get for free. The remote works as a hands-free kit as well. Landscape keyboard for texting, emails, etc. It also works while wearing gloves, which isn't true of the iPhone. This is handy in the winter. You can also use a stylus that comes with the phone (there's a slot for it on the phone's body), which is great for clicking links on webpages. Fantastic music player and LOUD external speakers (it's LOUD!), which has been surprisingly useful.


If you can't wait, I'd get the Storm. The Storm will definitely improve. I can't imagine Blackberry messing this up. They will get it all sorted, although to be honest, I think excluding WiFi was a mistake.


How about an LG or Samsung touchscreen? Are those out in N. America yet? :confused:
 
Own and iPhone 3G, Friend has a Storm.

Used the Storm quite a bit, the Click screen is one of the worst idea's ever, typing is horrible on its double character keys, the menu isnt as clear, and it feels like it takes so much longer to do anything. No WiFi means slower browsing all the time.

It also looks Fugly next to an iPhone, and is bigger in every area other than screen.
 
The click thing is horrible, I hated it. But other than that it's not terrible. Typing is very very slow but accurate, I guess as a result.

It's no iPhone, but may be the best Verizon touchscreen phone. Actually, now that I think of it, my friend has the Dare and it's probably better than the Storm.
 
buffalo said:
Will you go into a little more detail about Mac compatibility?
Click to expand...

http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/desktop/mac.jsp

you can get desktop manager for mac, and apple has apps to sync your bb with iCal, iMail, etc.

**Also,
In general, a smartphone is just something you have to use for a week or so to get used to. The first few hours I had my Storm I was really considering returning it, but after I messed with it for a couple of days and learned my way around the new OS it was great. You will read a lot of negative reviews on it from two types of people: Apple fanboys, and people who have never used a smartphone before.

Typing IS slower than on a phone with actual buttons, but no different from any other touch-screen. If you text and email all day long, or a lot while you drive a car, I'd stay away from touch-screens altogether.
 
I have an iPhone and my wife has both an iPhone and a Blackberry Storm. The Storm handles email better, but the os takes some getting used to. The iPhone was easy to use out of the box. However, you should look at them both closely and see which works best for you. To the people who say AT&T service is crap, do not pay them any attention. The service quality is all dependant on where you are. Here in Alabama, Verizon is awful if you are away from Birmingham or Mobile and not following I-20 or I-65. My son is at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and his friends with Verizon all say it sucks there but works great in Atlanta. Check your local coverage with people you know and whose opinions you trust and don't have an ax to grind with either carrier. Get the one you like with the carrier that has the best coverage where you will use it the most. Do a little homework on coverage before you decide and you will be happier in the long run.
 
BanjoBanker said:
To the people who say AT&T service is crap, do not pay them any attention... Here in Alabama, Verizon is awful
Click to expand...

True^^ Check it out in your area.

FYI banker, I have no ax to grind. I travel for work, and had AT&T for 7 years (part of that time it was Cingular). It was phenominal, until one day they sold off a big chunk of their towers. They seem to be too busy courting Apple for the iPhone and not too worried about the actual function of a wireless carrier. Throughout the year, I work all over the Southeastern US, up and down the east coast and Los Angeles. It's actually places like Decatur, AL where I had the most trouble with dropped calls from AT&T. When I was in civilization, it wasn't such a problem. But Verizon has served me best everywhere so far.
 
whatwereusaying said:
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/desktop/mac.jsp

you can get desktop manager for mac, and apple has apps to sync your bb with iCal, iMail, etc..
Click to expand...

Do you need to have the $45 data plan to get this extra synchronization? Looking at the Verizon website they have 2 BB data plans...

$30 Email and Web for BlackBerry®
$45 Blackberry® Solution Unlimited Data Usage

Blackberry® Solution Unlimited Data Usage
BlackBerry® is an end-to-end wireless e-mail solution that provides quick, easy access to e-mail, contacts, calendar and task list while on the go. Service available within the NationalAccess service area.
Click to expand...
 
I live in Alaska, which seems to be the only state ignored by Verizon, to whom I was a customer of prior to moving here. I had a Blackberry, which cost me about 130 bucks a month. When I came up here to Alaska, I lost connection every few minutes on the phone, and had tons of issues with ringtones, etc.

So I canceled my service, sucking up the cancellation fee. And then I got the iPhone 3G when it came out with AT&T.

I love it. I have nowhere near the trouble and the signal is great. Though there is no 3G in my area, the EDGE network is still good enough for me out here in the boonies of Alaska.:D
 
buffalo said:
Will you go into a little more detail about Mac compatibility?
Click to expand...

Syncing to your computer doesn't require any services from Verizon, its just you and your USB cable.

Pocketmac stinks, Missingsync stinks and costs money, and there's new software coming out from RIM Blackberry in the near future that doesn't stink. At least they say it doesn't stink, and the video of it on crackberry looks good.

As long as you don't want to install apps with Pocketmac, its fine. Its contacts import isn't always thorough, but it gets names and numbers. iCal, Mail, Entourage, and so on all sync fine. You can sync iTunes playlists too.

I have a Pearl with wifi, wouldn't trade it for much. Wouldn't give it up for an iPhone, or the Storm. I'd like it to have GPS, but it doesn't - you get GPS or wifi with it and not both on GSM, and google maps location services are ok. Blackberry Maps is the worst first-party app ever though. If the phone was 3G, that would be nice too...

I really like the Storm's browser, very iPhone like, but you can tweak the older Blackberries, at least the ones with names, to display pages similarly.

If I was going back to Verizon, I'd stick with the Pearl. I got it solely based on the form factor, its very compact. I do see the draw for the Storm, and I do like the Curve, but they weren't for me. The Pearl is actually smaller than my last phone, a Nokia flip.
 
buffalo said:
Do you need to have the $45 data plan to get this extra synchronization? Looking at the Verizon website they have 2 BB data plans...

$30 Email and Web for BlackBerry®
$45 Blackberry® Solution Unlimited Data Usage
Click to expand...

You don't need a plan at all to sync, just the phone and a USB cable. Then it's really just a PDA though. Desktop manager has nothing to do with your mobile carrier, it's just a way for your blackberry to talk to your computer.

***
Edit

If GPS and wifi are a must for you, the Storm isn't your phone... or at least Verizon isn't your carrier. They neuter most of their smartphones so that you have to buy their extra services. But if you're okay with throwing in a couple of bucks for VZ Navigator and subscribing to a data package (no blackberry is worth anything without the latter, with any provider) you don't really have to have either one. I don't have VZ Nav, but I have a GPS in my car... which is really a lot easier than tying up your phone with navigation of any kind when you're lost somewhere.
 
buffalo said:
Do you need to have the $45 data plan to get this extra synchronization? Looking at the Verizon website they have 2 BB data plans...
Click to expand...

Why would you need to pay BB to sync your phone with Apple applications like iCal, Mail, etc? That is definitely free.

If you pay the BB plans, that is for data, which is what they call "internet access". You don't need the internet to sync with your computer. You just need to either activate the Bluetooth in both your Mac, and your BB. Use Bluetooth, or perhaps the USB cable.
 
whatwereusaying said:
You don't need a plan at all to sync, just the phone and a USB cable. Then it's really just a PDA though.
Click to expand...

Verizon requires data plans on all smart phones, including BlackBerry phones, so you can't even have one without a data plan. :(
 
Palm Pre: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRnlzbuLRwM


There's also a 25 minute video on Crackberry if you are really into it.

All I have to say is "holy ****". I've seen all the touchscreens I know of except the HTC Android phone, and this Palm OS looks polished.



Someone posted this list of possible advantages at Engadget:

*removable battery
*wireless charging
*real keyboard
*mms
*copy & delicious pastnicous
*love the "deck of cards" look with multiple apps
*browser is just as slick as iphone, possibly faster??
 
buffalo said:
Do you need to have the $45 data plan to get this extra synchronization? Looking at the Verizon website they have 2 BB data plans...

$30 Email and Web for BlackBerry®
$45 Blackberry® Solution Unlimited Data Usage
Click to expand...

The clue is more than likely the word "Unlimited" the $30 plan probably has a certain amount of data included, and once you go over that you get charged per MB.

Also, they may have a way of removing OTA calendar and contacts from their BIS service on the $30 plan.

If you want to use the device for Enterprise use you will need to speak to them about Enterprise data plans as these are normally different rates (At least in the UK anyway)

I have a Storm and think its really good. The screen does take some getting used to but most people don't realise why RIM have made it this way. By just slightly touching your finger on the screen t highlights the key your about to push. If it is right you push the screen down on a mechanical click. This then provides some feedback to the user. If you finger is about to push the wrong key then you can slide your finger (lightly) over the screen until the correct key is highlighted.

Unfortunatly an iPhone is out of the question for me as my employer has got Exchange security polices which the iPhone can't handle. If it could, I would have both
 
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