BlackBerry review from a Windows Mobile perspective - Smartphone Round Robin

An e-mail powerhouse with an crumbling operating system whose shelf life may or may not be slowly ticking down. Slightly iterative hardware every vi months or so. Adored past business concern users. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

But, no, we're not talking about Windows Mobile. It'southward BlackBerry week in the third annual Smartphone Circular Robin, and CrackBerry Kevin brought us two of his platform'south best -- the Bold 9700 (CrackBerry review) and the Storm ii (CrackBerry review). The quondam, a front end-facing QWERTY device with a new navigation feature. The latter, a follow-up to Research in Movement's much-maligned first touchscreen device, and the starting time without a physical keyboard.

So join united states as nosotros jump into the world of the CrackBerry. A conform-and-tie device for people who are more than than arrange-and-tie people. Who knows ... nosotros might even surprise ourselves.

And remember, we have a forum thread running at CrackBerry.com, and a mail service could exist worth a free smartphone of your pick (up to $1,000).

Earlier we swoop into it, it's revisit our sit down-downwards with Kevin Michaluk, shall we?

The hardware

Storm 2

Oh, no. Not the Storm 2. Seriously? With as bad as the Storm 1 was received, we're giving it some other shot? OK.

And, truth be told, I was pleasantly surprised with the sequel. For the unaware, the Storm line is RIM's starting time foray into the touchscreen market, and it was an obvious reaction to the introduction of the iPhone. Equally if somebody in Waterloo said, "We will accept one of those, besides!" and rushed information technology out the door. And with the Storm came the introduction of SurePress. Yeah, information technology's a touchscreen, but it'south a touchscreen build on peak of a behemothic button. Impact the icon on the screen to select information technology, so physically printing the screen into the phone to activate.

That in itself isn't a horrible technology -- though you probable either love it or hate it. Problem was responsiveness. The screen was resting on top of one button, in the middle of the device. Then when you got to the edges, well, things weren't so responsive.

Simply that'southward changed with the Storm two. The new 3.3-inch SurePress screen (at an odd 360x480 resolution) now rests on 4 buttons, i in each corner of the device, and they're electrical, not mechanical. That means no moving parts to break down, and information technology also presents a very cool style to lock the screen. When the screen is dark (aka turned off), the SurePress machinery is also turned off, and thus you lot tin can't inadvertently click on anything. It physically volition not click. Very cool.

OK, so that's the elephant the room when it comes to the Tempest 2. The other important specs of the Storm 2: Qualcomm MSM7600 processor, 2GB storage memory, 3MP camera, 256MB RAM, WiFi b/g and ll the usual bells and whistles.

Buttons and icons on the screen are big and easy to hit. I'm not crazy about the default wait, kind of a neon ghosty sort of thing. But that'due south hands fixed with 1 of the iii million themes available for BlackBerries.

With the larger screen of the Storm 2 comes the ability for real multimedia playback, and it does so with ease. Video was shine crisp.

All in all, if you're looking for a nontraditional BlackBerry that can truly do more than just messaging, the Storm two is a pretty skilful bet and a much amend contestant than its predecessor.

BlackBerry Assuming 9700

Equally you lot saw in our easily-on video, we got a fleck nostalgic with the Bold 9700. Front-facing QWERTY phones were our Windows Mobile bread and butter for a long, long fourth dimension, even though we're more and more giving ourselves over to the earth of touchscreen phones and on-screen keyboards.

The Bold 9700 is the quintessential BlackBerry messaging device. Information technology's what yous think of when y'all call up "BlackBerry." The keyboard -- solid as a rock. They keys have excellent spacing and travel, typical for a BlackBerry phone and better than just about anybody else out there.

And the screen has an incredible resolution for its size -- 480x360 pixels, crammed into a space just ii.four inches in diagonal. That. Is. Sick.

But none of that's actually new with the bold line. For the most part, the Assuming 9700 is much similar its predecessor (and first in the series), the Bold 9000. Merely the newer model is noticeably more narrow (a full 6 millimeters), and gone is the trackball. For as cool as the trackball is (or was), information technology'southward a moving role. And moving parts break. Then, gone is the trackball, replaced past an optical trackpad. Nearly the size of a small fingernail, information technology senses the movement of a thumb (or finger -- practice BlackBerry users nonetheless take those?) across information technology, and then moves through the icons on the screen. And one time you go used to the sensitivity of the thing -- it's fast! -- information technology'due south a darn efficient manner to movement around an operating organization. It's still not the same as a mechanical D-pad, only let'due south promise we meet it on more devices in the future.

BIS, BES, BBM and Exchange

We like to poke fun at BlackBerry anytime (and every fourth dimension) the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) goes downward, cut off the crack to millions of users. OK, it's not a daily occurrence or anything, it's just that and so many people going through withdrawal at the same fourth dimension tend to make a lot of noise.

And and then nosotros like to point out that routing an entire platform'south blood through a single heart (the BIS) presents a unmarried betoken of failure that'south outside users' control. And that's the case for well-nigh "normal" (read: not-corporate) smartphone users. Shut downward the BIS for an hr or two (or six ... or ten) and BlackBerry users are forced to (GASP!) go outside or something. OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but not grossly so.

But while we poke fun at the single signal of failure, it's really not that different than on any other platform, is it? If your Pop mail goes downwardly, it goes down. If your business' Microsoft Substitution server is on the fritz, well, no e-mail for you lot either. (The BES, by the style, essentially is RIM'due south version of Substitution). The long and short of it is this: Don't expect the single point of failure argument to drive people from their BlackBerry.

We have, even so, seen a bit of a corporate shift away from the BES and to Exchange and Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager. Chances are your business is running Windows (on a volume licensing bundle). And and so in one case you lot're supporting that, you might as well run Exchange more cheaply. And that'due south where Windows Mobile (electric current and future) should continue to accept a leg up.

Then at that place's BlackBerry Messenger. Meet, at that place's a footling club all those BlackBerry users vest to, and the cost of admission is your soul acceptance of the BlackBerry Messenger. At its core, it's really no more IM/SMS exclusively for BlackBerry users. But it's fast. Information technology's easy. And it's addictive.

1 of the questions I asked in the CrackBerry.com forums was "Would y'all similar to see BlackBerry Messenger opened upward to over smartphone platforms?" Overwhelmingly, the respond was "No." Information technology'south an sectional club, and they like it that mode. Open BBM (as it's called on the streets) to the rest of us, and it looses what makes it special -- yous have to have a BlackBerry to utilise it. I'chiliad pretty sure they're having jackets fabricated.

What makes it a CrackBerry

Chances are f yous're reading this, yous're probably an information whore, also. It'due south the same on Windows Mobile every bit it is BlackBerry or the iPhone or Nokia or Android or any. Nosotros want our email, we desire our messages, and nosotros want them at present. These days, however, information technology's non simply RIM doing the push matter. Obviously Microsoft Exchange opened things up to a very wide audience. And with Android, gmail users are in pig sky. Simply RIM was the first. E-mails received virtually instantly. BlackBerry Messenger keeping the one-liners going long before Twitter.

Oh, and one more addiction: That pulsating red light on each telephone that signifies you have a message. In that location's no sense in having a BlackBerry if you get few e-mails, so it'due south safe to assume that there'south something ever coming in. While notification signals are naught new on smartphones, there's just something about the piffling red blinker on a BlackBerry that'due south like a porch light for a firefly. You tin can't assist but be fatigued to it. Another question asked on the forums: "How long tin can you ignore the light before you lose it?" The best answers, from iii addicts and ane very dauntless soul:

It has never gotten to 2 blinks. Ever. - BoardRider53

Forever. I have 800 unread messages on my phone and I'chiliad non flinching. - Mashka

Put it this manner: I can "sense" when my light is blinking without fifty-fifty looking at it. Kind of like how they say mothers have ESP with their children and can sense their thoughts, the aforementioned applies with me and my blackberry haha. Scary stuff. - Kneeland24

Information technology depends. If I'm having sex activity or watching baseball it's pretty piece of cake to ignore. - OCD SS

That about sums that upwardly.

History catches upward

The trouble for a consumer HoloLens was always the lack of Windows Phone

What is the future for Microsoft (and Windows) mixed reality? The latest report from Business Insider sheds some lite, merely this all comes dorsum to one major trouble for Microsoft: No mobile Windows OS. Merely what about a future headset that is cloud-based? Some thoughts on what could happen for Microsoft mixed reality.

What a mesh

Connect your dwelling to the all-time mesh Wi-Fi router organisation

For home networking, mesh Wi-Fi systems provide more than reliable coverage than a unmarried router. Check out our pick of the best mesh Wi-Fi router systems to ensure you lot never bargain with indicate dead spots again.

Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/blackberry-review-windows-mobile-perspective-smartphone-round-robin

Posted by: farmerwithent.blogspot.com

Share this post