Hate BlackBerries? You're probably misinformed

[Soulsiphon]

*shrug* I like my BlackBerry. I can't speak for anyone else's experience. I definitely wouldn't want a touchscreen phone, and the options with physical buttons are becoming more and more scarce on other platforms.

Thread comes off a bit arrogant, but there is some truth in it and I hope folks will take a second look at them. They may not be the stylish, popular choice, but they're still quite nice phones. <3

You're right. In a round-about edit to my reply, I'll say that for businesses, I really don't think there is a more universally deployable and maintainable device than a Blackberry. When one company I worked for jumped off their Blackberries and provider of many years and went to iPhones and AT&T company wide, I couldn't have been more disappointed. Not even in the same universe for business purposes IMNSHO.

[MtnDewCodeRedFreak]

Used 3 Blackberries before - hated them all.

[saturnslullaby]

My company has had well over 50 Blackberries going all the way back to the 7100 and up to the Tourch - based on the recommendation of the previous IT personel. Hated them since day 1. kept trying through the years to like em, but the IT guys even second guessed their own choices since the 8330. We were going to try to roll out the Tourches after they supplied me one to test... pffft.... i wouldn't recommend that phone to ANY one. Suffice to say we are all on Androids now and loving it. Part of the reason for the hate has already been stated. Menu system [even for IT] is confusing at best. Hardware is substandard at best . But in the end we've turned from BB and have not looked back since. The company could vanish and i could care less.

So myth's be damned - i hate Blackberry simply becuase they suck at doing what they're suppose to do.

I hate Blackberry as compared to other phones for a few minor reasons:

1.) They take ages to turn on and in typical old school PDA fashion, are only truly off when you do a battery pull.

2.) Ambiguous or redundant menus and settings. Having to deal with many different types a day, it's like travelling in a city with no street signs or too many of them. You just kinda have to poke around in the dark if you're unsure of where something is or on the other hand, go into three different settings with a similar name/look.

3.) The average person hasn't a facking clue about stuff like service books, Blackberry Admin, exchange servers, Enterprise, etc. so it's really only useful for the techies, executives with an IT department, or people on a PAYG service who just need a keyboarding phone.

4.) With the exception of stuff like the Storm, Torch, etc., the looks haven't evolved. Your choices are either Vanilla, Vanilla, Vanilla, or Sour Milk (touchscreen variants). They could be on OS20 and the design would still look like something out of the early smartphone craze.

My big problem with Blackberry is that they pretty much defined the industry at one point and still to this day have technology that hasn't been incorporated into current smartphones that are more "advanced". However, their plan seems to be to rest on their laurels, hoping that slight advantage is all it takes to carry them for another decade.

Missed this post but 100% agree. Add 5.) Hardware is easily broken.

[kagaku]

I just got a brand new Verizon Blackberry Bold Touch 9930 about a month ago for work. Unfortunately we don't have a choice in work phones, Blackberry is it (I work at one of the top 3 US banks), and the only non-Blackberry options are using "Good Mobile" on my iPhone. Considering Good Mobile will not work on a jailbroken device, I had to go with the Blackberry option. Besides, having a second phone is cool right?

After living with the Blackberry for a month, I can say it's not the worst thing in the world. It really doesn't excel anywhere - email works just as well on the BB as it does on my iPhone. Calendar and messaging are nothing special as well (again, nothing different than what I have on my iPhone). The interface feels dated compared to Android/iOS/WP7 - almost feature phone like. The keyboard is nice, but I don't find that I type any faster or more accurately on it than my iPhone. Again, it's not bad - just nothing special.

Would I ever buy a BB for personal usage? No. Do I hate it? Not at all. It's just nothing to write home about.

I did find this comment from the OP sums up the BB experience quite nicely, however: (emphasis mine)

Now, what about more pedestrian concerns like camera/flash, video recording, music capabilities, etc. BlackBerries can do all of that; sure, the camera might not be the absolute best, but really -- who cares? It's good enough, and that is all that matters. If you need high-res photos, odds are you should use a DSLR anyway. Front-facing camera? Again, some people want it, most don't care. It's not a big deal. Music? BlackBerries support numerous formats like AAC, AMR,FLAC, MP3, M4A, OGG, WMA, WAV, MIDI, ADPCM2 (yes, some like MIDI are useless). Can an iPhone do FLAC? Nope. Don't know about you but I like my lossless audio.

Being simply "good enough" is why I suspect RIM is bleeding market share like a sieve. As for lossless audio - ALAC (Apple Lossless) works just as well as FLAC - and it too is open source. I too love lossless audio. :-)

[remixedcat]

vmware horizon mobile is going to change business phones.... you can have your personal phone and then have your secure work vm on it.... making it much easier on businesses so they don't have to spend money on getting everyone company phones. and this is another reason android is more appealing as well.

this technology is more important to businesses then something like BBM or whatnot.

[Muhammad Farrukh]

I don't hate BlackBerries. Its just that the OS feels, a little, only a little, dated.

The Exterior is always great

World has yet to see keybords that beat the BB ones.

Yes, I have used Palm Pre and it was awesome but not as good as Torch.

[whitebread]

I want to apologize if I came across as arrogant. It's just that for iOS/Android/WP7 people here seem to have agreed on a "it's a matter of personal choice" attitude, but with BBs they get a lot of (misinformed) negative opinions. I just wanted to try to clear a few things up in hopes that people will give BBs a fair shake -- they do some things much better than competitors, some things worse, and some about the same. RIM needs new management, but their problems can still be fixed. Their phones are not garbage, and it is just as reasonable to like BBs as any other phone.

[argonite]

Hate Blackberries? You probably have an opinion.

[Phemo]

Have had a few Blackberry devices as my work phone over the last 4 years or so. They do the job for a work phone well enough for me and I'm happy with them from that perspective. With that said I would never ever consider getting one as a personal phone. They all look much the same and as has been said already, the OS is dated. It does what it needs to do and does it well, but it's certainly nothing special.

[Rippleman]

Blackberries to me are just an old, cumbersome, non-smart phone. Just preference i guess. Seems to be most peoples preference too as of the last couple years.

[tiagosilva29]

BlackBerry plays FLAC and OGG VORBIS out-of-the-box? What the hell, bro'?

Edit: Yeah, apparently some of the Torch segment do work with these formats.

[whitebread]

BlackBerry plays FLAC and OGG VORBIS out-of-the-box? What the hell, bro'?

Yep! From here http://docs.blackber..._1018040_11.jsp :

Supported audio and video file formats

Depending on your BlackBerry? device model and wireless service provider, some media file formats might not be supported.

• AAC
  
• AMR
  
• FLAC
  
• MP3
  
• M4A
  
• OGG
  
• WMA
  
• WAV
  

To be honest I haven't tested it on my Torch 9860, but that is straight from RIM's website, so... I don't see why it would be wrong. :)

Edit: Just tested a FLAC file. It works! :D

Edit 2: And, no, I'm not using any 3rd-party software.

[the evn show]

It's good enough, and that is all that matters.

I think that quote from the OP sums up everything I dislike about damn near everything I dislike (including BlackBerry phones). I don't think good enough is all that matters.

[tiagosilva29]

They need to add Theora on that list, bro'.

Edit: I just realized that no BlackBerry comes with AM/FM radio. What the hell?

[Miuku.]

You talk about how FLAC is so important but in the next phrase you dismiss criticism about the camera.

Also most of the stuff you listed Nokia's phones had ages ago. And they still have a better camera.

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

i had a blackberry curve for 2 years through my company. i hated the thing. the 3G was super slow. there were very few apps. the OS browser sucked, so i had to install Opera mini. trying to browse or do anything on that tiny 2" screen was abysmal.

after the 1st year, RIM simply stopped supporting the device and didnt issue anymore firmware updates. there were still numerous bugs too. often times the wifi simply didnt work. you'd enable it, but data would still come through the super slow 3G. the wifi performance, when it worked, wasnt even much better.

the camera sucked - super low res, everything was grainy.

i can go on and on...

[Muhammad Farrukh]

BlackBerries FTW

[Xerax]

I don't hate BlackBerries. Its just that the OS feels, a little, only a little, dated.

The Exterior is always great

World has yet to see keybords that beat the BB ones.

Yes, I have used Palm Pre and it was awesome but not as good as Torch.

Try the Dell Venue Pros Keyboard.

[Muhammad Farrukh]

Try the Dell Venue Pros Keyboard.

I have, as a matter of fact. A friend of mine recieved it as a gift and I used it and it quickly became one my favourite devices. Yes, I don't mind the bulkiness. Its good too.

What I meant was that the keyboards on BB' are in a class of their own. Not to say that Venue Pro and Palm have bad ones. They are actually excellent.

[44MLX]

I just don't like blackberry at all. It's not because of what it can or can't do.

[remixedcat]

who uses flac on a phone though??? even on a 32GB SD card you'd only fit a few albums on there as one album is typically 1-2GB... Not to mention you won't notice the difference between that and 320k bitrate mp3's on most sub 300 dollar heaphones anyways.

I laugh at people who have flac on thier phones and listen with cheap earbuds or 20 dollar headphones.... it's just a HUGE waste of space on the SD card and prolly a little more drain on the battery.

[Apple-a-Day]

BlackBerry Playbooks can play games just fine.... and today we got all three of the Angry Bird versions available to us... oh yes my holidays are going to be totaly unproductive

[NoLiMiT06]

MYTH: If you hate Blackberry's, you are probably misinformed

Wrong. I knew everything you brought up. Still hate them.

Agreed, everyone I have every owned had nothing but problems and was painfully slow. Never going back either, Android is where it's at for me with much better phones and software options. Only thing great about a Blackberry is Blackberry Messenger but Whatsapp Messenger is better :)

[thejohnnyq]

I hate Crackberries, (used that work in an PC Week interview back in 2000 about the RIM product, it caught on). My T Support ID was T1001 then changed to T1003, so I know a little about them, and honestly, single point of failure (all email is routed through RIM servers) unless you have a exception (US congress, and few other companies). RIM does not do a lot of testing before the role out patches or fixes. They show the lack of skills in this area with all the black-outs this year.

[Southern Patriot]

Plus, I definitely wouldn't want a touchscreen phone, and the options with physical buttons are becoming more and more scarce on other platforms.

Huh? Every other platform (other than iOS) has numerous phones with physical buttons and keyboards. It seems like every Android phone out there (especially those made by HTC) come in both a model without a keyboard and a model with some sort of keyboard (some are sliders, others have keyboards below the screen like BBs).