I would like to get a new phone and need some advice. I use my phone for calls and texts. But I would like to be able to use apps, the internet and email.

I send texts more than making calls.

The blackberry phones, I'm interested in are the Blackberry Storm 2, Curve 8900 and Bold 9700.

Or do I get an iphone 4 or HTC Desire instead?

Any help would be good.

Thanks in advance.

Consider:

Initial payment.
Monthly payment.
PAYG?

Look at the offers available and then buy based on your needs / money available.

I have had both an iphone 3g/3gs and a Blackberry Bold/Storm 2 over the past few years. I found the novelty of iphone apps soon wore off and used them less and less. As a messaging system, the Blackberry can't be beaten. I text and email/twitter etc more than calls and I am on PAYG with Orange. I pay £10/month, the BB is £5 and I get 300texts and the £5 remaining is more than I need for calls.
(By the way, I got the Storm 2 unlocked from ebay as it isn't available on Orange PAYG)

CPU speed, screen size, operating system and importantly screen resolution.
A 320 X 240 screen of course would normally be the most useless for the internet.
Shops do not give much of this data so are often best avoided.

As per the offers available post look at the total cost of ownership to make sure it fits your budget.

First question would be whether the Blackberry messaging system is important to you - in effect it handles email better than any other phone and also lets you chat with other BB users for free. If that's potentially valuable then probably dismiss the 8900 - it doesn't stack up against the Bold or Storm.

The Bold has a proper qwerty keyboard which will make texting easier than your other options but it's screen is probably too small if you spend a lot of time web browsing etc. The Storm has a better screen but a touchscreen qwerty - admittedly it's very good. Best to try out both in a shop and see which you prefer.

Most likely if you want an iPhone you'd probably already know it's the only phone for you - ie you've bought the marketing. As you're considering alternatives this probably isn't you

The Desire. Excellent phone and it's hard to find anyone who isn't delighted with it. Excluding BB email it is a better phone on paper.

Money wise on 2 year deals with free phone, 300 mins, unlimited texts, discounts and data.
Desire and Bold effective cost ~ £16/month.
Storm ~£25/month

Bottom line. If you like the BB email/message system try out Bold vs Storm and see which you like best - or just go for the Bold as it's quite a bit cheaper. If BB doesn't sound useful go for the Desire.

Cheers,
Jon

If you have an idea what sort of apps you're going to require, that will probably help you make a decision, since your more business/enterprise apps will be better suited to the BB, and the more "play" apps better suited to the iPhone/Desire (not to say that either can't do the other).

In terms of phone calls and texting, there is nothing to separate the three. Email is a cinch on all three devices although I understand internet is better on the iPhone and Desire than the BB. But mostly it'll be apps and price that differentiate them.

Personally I think the Desire offers the best of all worlds, but take on board that that's a biased view.

After you've looked at the obvious physical differences - e.g. big screen vs small screen, virtual vs physical keyboards - and which fits your use-cases best, the rest comes down to personal subjective preference.

Asking what other people prefer isn't going to mean squat to you unless you came out of the same cloning chamber. Maybe they'd prefer the customisability and open platform nature of an Android devise, whereas maybe you'd prefer the higher level of polish and uncluttered UI of the iPhone, or vice-versa.

As such, I would suggest trying them for yourself. Go to the shop and have a good long tinker.

If the internet is one of things you want forget the Curve 8900, it doesn't have 3G.

if call/signal quality is important to you, then i would go for the 9700 hands down. best quality i've ever had on a phone. no dropped calls like i had with the original iphone.

I iPhone 4 would be a fantastic choice, It has the hundreds of thousands of apps and by far the best games. It's crazy fast doing anything on it, just happens instantly. I have tried most of the phones that you mention and I would choose the iPhone 4 every time.

totally agree. great novelty to amuse a few hours away. unfortunately that novelty very soon wears off

then you are left holding a very expensive +£600 isheep in your hands that probably has the worst call quality of all smartphones released in the past 18mths

also it's Got 3G and has the Wi-Fis.

I have the 9700 and the Desire, and unless you really really really need a physical keypad (and ok free messaging to your BB mates), then the Desire wins hands down (assuming personal not corporate use). The bigger screen and touch controls of the Desire make for a hugely nicer GUI than the BB.

However, discussing the pros and cons of the Desire and the iPhone will take a polemic thread of at least 16 pages

My 2p worth: if you are already into and happy with the world of iTunes, then the iPhone will integrate very nicely into your existing setup.

If not (especially if you are a windows user), then run away from the iPhone into the comfortable hands of the Desire. Moving content to and from it is as easy as if it were a memory stick (which it kind of is, but pricier).

Otherwise, I don't see fundamental differences between the two (cough antennegate cough), especially in terms of the GUI, so have a play and see what tickles your fancy.

If I was going to make it into a Desire v iPhone thing:

Desire - more customisable (brings with it it's own risks), more flexible, a bit 'different', speedy, a bit cheaper

iPhone - more of a status symbol, more apps (but unless jailbreaked you get what Apple want you to), nicer looking, if you have an iPod already syncing will be a piece of cake.

It's personal preference really. Each wins on different specs, it actually comes down to what you want in a smartphone I think. I've owned both and liked each, though maybe because of my expectations I've been blown away by the Desire. I own an iPod touch so am quite happy to use that for the Apple apps I can't get on my Desire.

It's worth mentioning the piss poor battery performance from the Desire, it does improve over time but still if it's going to get heavy use (browsing, Twitter, ect) you want to make sure at some point during the day your near a USB port for charging. I wouldn't swap my Desire for anything else on the market at the moment but the power consumption is a real annoyance.

My Desire easily lasts several days during the week (I barely use it for the 40hrs I'm working), but even at the weekend I can use it fairly heavily and it will happily last a day (gps/maps, camera, surfing, everything syncing and updating itself). It can get hot though...

I Tweeted through the World cup final and the battery lost 1/3 during the game, I'm far from alone, there are a lot of complaints about it on android forums.

Mine always lasts at least a day, though I admit it does eat battery life sometimes and if it's going to really irritate someone, it might be worth bearing in mind.

What I will say to qualify though is even when I'm using it heavily it will last me a day - and it really depends how you use the phone. Any smartphone will guzzle battery if it's used intensively, that's one of the circles I don't think any manufacturer has yet managed to square.

Get the blackberry bold.

A large part of it is apps that seem to be written by people who must leave theirs plugged in all the time, I can't think of any other reason they'd not think a little more about how much their power their "always on" apps are using. I gather 2.2 helps with power consumption by working faster without using more cycles, fingers crossed that that's the case and Flash 10 doesn't undo all that.


I asked on Twitter about slowing down with too many apps installed like the 9000 and I was told it did, surely it can't be as bad as the 9000 was?

All smart phones have piss poor battery life compared to "old" phones because they have larger screens, do more and you want to do more on them, so you DO do more on them. That is how it goes. Except from blackberries, whose Internet browser is so poor you'd rather go to an Internet cafe, and feature very few entertaining apps compared to iPhone and droids. This is why blackberries batteries last longer. It's a pretty clear divide between messaging and entertainment.

Blackberry are bringing out a new operating system for their phones with a much better looking web browser so hold off getting a blackberry at the moment and wait for the new phones and operating system coming soon

Mine seems to run ok - it's a great phone.

I had the 9000 and after a while it became unusable, I didn't install that much on it either.

I don't care.