Windows Mobile Smartphones

Review by J. Golton:

NOTE: This review is long and detailed, especially relevant for heavy users of Google services.

This is my second Blackberry, obtained from T-mobile at an upgrade discount (soon to be possible through AMZN). My first Blackberry was the T-mobile Curve offering (my review on the 8320 may prove helpful to provide context for this review and for first time smart phone buyers). Last time I purchased a phone, I was just looking for a really high quality phone, and the 8320 certainly delivered. However, over time I gradually used more and more smart phone features until by 2009 I was totally hooked. While the 8320 was great as a phone, its limited memory and sluggish processor made it painful to use for certain apps – and impossible to use for more than a handful of apps.

So this time around my goal was to get a smart phone that made good sense for my current desired usage. Here were my requirements:

Keep costs down

Great phone (sound quality, speakerphone, quick dialing, coverage, vibrate options, international use, etc.)

Alternative reception if needed (WiFi UMA or femtocell)

Great e-mail (must handle Gmail well)

Sync contacts/calendar with Google and otherwise works seamlessly well with Google

Works seamlessly with other cloud apps I use heavily (Evernote, Dropbox, etc.)

Media player with 3.5mm jack

Camera of high enough quality to use in conjunction with Evernote OCR

Easy to use (configuration, speed of device, shortcuts, etc.)

Popular model with many accessories available

Long battery life

Enough memory so I don’t have to manage it

Feels good in hand

Able to charge by putting in a cradle

Tethering possible (Bluetooth preferred)

Optional but nice:

Great browser

Maps

Turn by Turn navigation (free preferred)

The 9700 with T-mobile strongly delivers on most of my requirements, and surpasses the 8320 in almost every respect by a wide margin. One by one:

Costs: Was able to keep my grandfathered T-mobile Blackberry contract for 40/month for voice (1000 anytime, unlimited nights/weekends) and 20/month for unlimited data (but no text/SMS). Our family also has the hotspot home service for an additional 10/month to provide an unlimited domestic calling home line. And a 12% AAA discount off the bill – so this is far less expensive than we could get for these services than from any other carrier. On the other hand, for users who require few voice minutes, heavy data, no tethering, and no home phone, iPhone with AT&T could be only slightly higher in cost.

Phone: Terrific – just as good as 8320 which was also great. I find the phone quality I experience to be better than using an average phone with a land line (cordless or corded). The speakerphone and internal phone is of higher quality but lower volume – so may be more difficult to hear in very noisy conditions, though ear buds or headsets can be used in such circumstances. The alternative UMA reception works just as well on 9700 as it did on the 8320. The quality of the speakerphone is so good that I often use it for music if I’m not in reach of my earphones – while of course not as good as what you get over a high quality headset, it is the best speaker quality I’ve heard from a cell phone – and I thought the 8320 was good.

E-mail, Google apps: Built in Email function is great but is not geared for IMAP Gmail so I downloaded the Google Mobile App and then the individual components Gmail, Sync, and Maps. Gmail and Maps are outstanding, Sync is adequate. The search by voice feature of Google Mobile App is amazingly useful in so many ways I could write a couple pages just about this one feature (watch what happens when you do voice searches for “Phillies” or “Black Widow” or “3+11″ . . .). By using Gmail I give up push E-mail (it checks every 20 minutes or if I force it to with “refresh”) but is otherwise better – including the ability to search g-mail very quickly. None of this is any different from the 8320 – except that everything is much quicker – and I can use Maps without having to reboot the phone to get memory back. The Google Reader icon merely invokes the Blackberry browser with Google Reader RSS – and it is so tiny that it is unusable. I did figure out that I could use Google Reader reasonably well with the BOLT browser (which I had to download and then set to 3x Large font rendering). I also use Google Voice to replace T-mobile’s voice mail and it works great, though you have to wait a few minutes for voice mails and their transcriptions to show up on your phone. Of course, all of these things work way better on Android and the iPhone, but with the exception of Google Reader, they are plenty good enough on the Blackberry.

Other Cloud Apps: Unfortunately, Blackberry is harder to develop for than the iPhone (and probably Android too), partly because Blackberry has so many models (too many, IMHO). The result is that Evernote for the iPhone is fantastic while it is passable on the 9700 and downright primitive on the 8320. The screen is bigger and the browser is better and faster on the 9700 (OS 5) than it was on 8320 (OS 4.5), and this accounts for why I’m actually beginning to use Evernote do search within the app and it brings up the notes with that term in the browser – you have to wait 5-10 seconds but it works. On the 8320 this was too slow to be workable. Dropbox doesn’t even have a client yet for Blackberry. Roboform has a primitive Blackberry client that doesn’t sync wirelessly – I have to manually copy over my passcards every once in a while. Blackberry is a major platform so I am assuming these apps get better over time, but they will always trail the iPhone.

Media Player – the media player functions (mp3, pictures, video, voice notes, etc.) works just as well as it did with the 8320 – there’s probably been some changes but I didn’t notice them. However, the Pandora app runs much better on the 9700 than the 8320 due likely to some combination of 3G coverage and a faster processor. On the 8320, the application paused often in weak coverage areas and had a tendency to stop in the middle of a song and skip to the next on occasion.

Camera quality – I am a huge fan of Evernote but the 8320 camera was not able to take pictures of regular size text that could be recognized as text by Evernote’s OCR. The 9700 camera specs are better and this proved out with Evernote in my initial tests. I found that with bright light and a distance of at least 11 inches away, I could take pictures of restaurant menus and Evernote was able to index most words in the picture. So I will have access to the menus of all of our favorite restaurants through Evernote once I take pictures of them all. This could also be done with business cards, wine bottles, white boards . . .

Ease of Use – This is where Blackberry’s fall flat. It took me many many hours of fiddling to master the use of the 8320. While most of this knowledge transferred over to the 9700, it still took many hours to set up the phone as I downloaded apps, set preferences, etc. The iPhone is obviously much better in this regard, and for a heavy Google services user like myself, so is Android, from everything I’ve read. The menus of preferences were moderately better laid out than the 8320, which helped some. But here are some of the issues: The Apps store experience is frustrating (i.e. Quickpull is an app that worked for 8320 and appeared on the 9700 app store so I installed it but it froze up my system – why does this appear at all if it hasn’t been updated yet for the 9700?). Installing apps is slow and requiring rebooting. Some apps are NOT in the app store (Google mobile app, Bolt, etc.). The profiles system for setting alert preferences is powerful, and a bit easier to use than the 8320, but still complicated. The initial layout of icons on the phone screen was so cumbersome that I spent quite a while rearranging them so I could more easily find what I was looking for. On the bright side, there are many handy shortcuts available on Blackberries. I especially like having each letter assignable to a speed dial, so I use the first letter of last names for home phone speed dials, and the first letter of first names for cell phone speed dials. As you learn the shortcuts, the phone becomes very fast to use, far faster than a computer for some things.

Popularity – Blackberries in general are among the most popular smart phone brands and 9700s in particular appear to be a big hit. Within months there will be a flood of accessories but the phone is so new that there’s not too much yet. Many apps have not yet been updated for the 9700 or the OS 5.0.0.330 which powers the phone. However, it is harder to write Blackberry apps, so I am expecting iPhone to always have better and more up-to-date apps, and probably Android as well as that platform matures.

Battery/Memory – Battery life is amazingly good – I have been unable to use more than 30% of the battery in one day despite a lot of fiddling, syncs in the background, Pandora use, etc. There is enough memory for apps that I don’t have to worry about it any more. This is a vast improvement over the 8320, which was a pocket computer in theory but in actual practice memory limited to less than a dozen apps, and required constant fiddling to manage memory if you used it like that. However, as application developers start increasing the size of apps, it’s easy for me to imagine 256MB of memory getting to be a problem a year or two from now . . .

Phone in Hand – The 9700 is the perfect size for my larger-than-average adult male hand. The 8320 was very slippery and I kept dropping it until I bought a Seido protective cover. It was already thick and the cover made it thicker, so that I didn’t like holding it for long phone calls. The 9700 is only thinner by a few mm, yet it is much less fatiguing to hold, and it is not slippery so I will probably not use a protective covering. There are a few very minor things I like less than the 8320, though: The right convenience key is so low on the phone that I have to contort my thumb to reach it. This is especially problematic when using the autofocus feature of the camera to focus on a specific distance – which uses that key. The battery cover and micro SD cards are both a pain to take off. Both require using two thumbs to push away from your body with a lot of pressure. The manual does not explain this – took lots of trial/error and online googling to figure this out.

Cradle – I bought the Blackberry Charging Pod for Blackberry Bold 2. I dock the phone each night and while charging it goes into bedside mode, which is a customizable alarm clock (which gives you options to turn off every kind of alerting if you want, including phone rings). Assuming you buy the dock, you won’t need an alarm clock any more.

Tethering – It’s a bit cumbersome to set up but I had done it on the 8320 before so knew how. It works – and it is much faster than the 8320, likely mostly due to 3G. I did not do speed tests but some who have claim to be getting 3G speeds (which are 10x-20x faster than the EDGE tethering that happened on the 8320). I don’t plan to use this feature much – only while traveling and no WiFi is near. I am hoping people don’t heavily use this feature because if they do, T-mobile will be forced to stop allowing it or maybe charge for it. But having this as a backup internet connection (especially traveling) is a huge plus for me.

Browser – The 9700 Blackberry Browser is significantly better than the 8320 browser, partly due to more screen real estate (in pixels) and the faster processor. Disabling images makes it even faster. I didn’t try to analyze what all the changes are, but I do know that I can now use Evernote, where as it way too cumbersome to use Evernote with the 8320. Less busy web sites are now usable. But the browser is still nowhere close to what you get on an iPhone or Android device. I downloaded BOLT and it seems better for single column sites where I really need to reflow text, such as Google Reader. But clearly something better is possible. Opera Mini 5 is in Beta and is getting reviews so that may be available in a few months. But the big leap will likely happen with the webkit-based browser that was acquired a few months ago and is likely to be incorporated with Blackberries by the end of 2010. Based on what I’ve seen in the week I’ve played with my 9700, I’ll likely only use the browser for certain specific things like Evernote and Google Reader or the results of a Google Voice Search – but avoid general browsing as much as possible.

Maps and Voice Navigation – I tested the Maps App for a few minutes and it did the job quite well when outdoors. Note that GPS can be used not only in Map apps but also in many other applications such as weather, search, geotagging pictures, etc. and all this comes in handy. To get high quality voice navigation you’ll generally need to pay /month, which is much more than I’m willing to pay. If I’m walking, then voiceless navigation is good enough, and if I’m driving I’ll use my Garmin Nuvi – which I would want to do anyway as it has a much bigger screen and is much easier to use while driving. I would use such a feature if I had it – and I’m sure users of Android 2.0 devices such as the Verizon Droid will greatly appreciate it. But this was not a critical feature for me.

Summary:

The Blackberry 9700 with T-mobile is a great phone and communication device that is also a pretty good pocket computer, all in an attractive, easy to hold and use form factor – all at a very reasonable monthly plan cost for the heavy phone and data user. It is a huge improvement over the 83xx series in almost every respect. The only significant disadvantages compared with other smartphones are a barely usable browser, a cumbersome setup for third-party apps, and the general complication of customizing the device. For those who value a browser and ease of use above all and are willing to pay for it, the iPhone is better – but for those who want a great smartphone on a budget – this is a great choice.

UPDATE (1 month later): After owning/using the 9700 for a week, I wrote the above review. I intentionally said little about the the keyboard, screen, and trackpad because I felt these kinds of things may take getting used to, so I didn’t want to be too hasty to judge. I now have enough data to comment:

Screen: The screen is very high resolution which means that it is very easy to read text in 8pt type. Unfortunately, this sometimes means the browser or certain apps decide that they can cram more text in at 5pt or 6pt type, which requires that I use my reading glasses – those with better eyes than mine may appreciate cramming in more text with a smaller font. Pictures are crisp and vibrant. The backlight brightness is extremely bright – too bright for night in fact. I do have the “Automatically Dim Backlight” feature enabled which dims the 9700 automatically at night and I have screen brightness set to the minimum setting of 10. It is still too bright to me for use in a room with no light on. Furthermore, the unit occasionally has an abrupt change of brightness – getting brighter all of a sudden for a few seconds or just staying that way. It is impossible for me to know if my unit has a defective light sensor or this is an O/S issue – I’ve read that others are experiencing similar issues so perhaps it’s the O/S and it will be fixed some day with one of the O/S updates. Another brightness issue is that the difference between maximum brightness and minimum brightness is pretty narrow. I never have viewing problems in even the brightest sunlight so it’s the lowest brightness setting which I think is not low enough.

Keyboard: I do not use the Blackberry extensively for typing – The rare e-mail I write or reply to is usually less than 10 words, and I don’t use text messaging in any form. So it took a while for me to conclude that the keyboard is slower for me than the 83xx keyboard, which had spacing between the keys. I actually timed myself and found I did around 30 WPM (words per minute) with the 83xx and 25 WPM with the 9700. If I try typing faster (say, 30 WPM), I hit several double keys per minute which needs correcting and ends up lower than 25 WPM. So the result is I purposely type slower and more cautiously to avoid hitting two keys simultaneously. For the way I use a Blackberry, this is not a big problem – I use the keyboard mostly for things like speed dial, quickly looking up a contact, navigating the menus, etc. and there is no speed hit that I can notice for that. But for those with big hands who type a lot, the Bold 9000 is going to be faster, and probably the 83xx series as well. Note that my fingers/hands are slightly larger than normal for an adult male.

Trackpad: Most people rave about how great trackpads are on Blackberries but for me it’s a mixed bag. I find it to be sometimes jumpy with applications that require frequent moving around – particularly with the game Ka-Glom, which I tried both on the 8320 and the 9700. I have better control on the 8320 and can score significantly higher as a result. Also, any form of moisture on your fingers – sweat, water, lotion, etc. can have in impact on the responsiveness. Nevertheless, I find it easier to use than the old trackball style when my thumbs are dry and I’m using a typical app – it is easier to use a light touch to move just a tiny bit, and it is very easy to swipe it all the way to one side or to the top/bottom. The trackpad is harder to accidentally press than a trackball. And it is quiet. Overall, I prefer the trackpad because it is yet one more little thing that reduces the weight/bulk of the unit and is much less likely to go bad than the trackballs on all older devices.

Update 2/14/10: Battery life is possible to kill if you get too adventurous with your phone. I have found three ways to kill it so far: Themes, heavy syncing, and tethering. The theme I tried for a week caused sluggish performance and battery to deplete twice as fast. Tethering caused me to go all the way through the battery in less than 6 hours while using an EEE PC constantly during that time. Syncing is not a big deal if you just have two or three apps syncing every 2 hours or so, but some apps will sync every few minutes if you let them and if you have a few of these running the battery can drain quickly and the phone becomes sluggish during syncs. If you keep things simple on your phone you’ll have no problems – just use one of the preloaded themes, don’t tether much, and sparingly set up syncs.

Update 2/26/10: Around mid February (2 months after I purchased the 9700), my external speaker began to go. At first I (incorrectly) thought it was glitch in the profiles settings but then it went out for 20 hours straight. After thorough testing I found that the internal phone speaker and headsets still worked fine – but the phone did not ring for incoming calls and I could not play music without a headset. I called T-mobile. After 15 minutes of troubleshooting and verifying that the phone was not water damaged, a replacement phone was authorized. I had to pay .95 for shipping, but otherwise no cost to me. I received the replacement phone yesterday, made sure it worked, and shipped my old phone back today. T-mobile customer service was terrific for this incident and in every other instance I’ve contacted them over the past 2 years.

Changed Summary/Conclusion: Overall, my conclusion about this device has changed slightly over the past month, so I here’s a rewrite of the Summary incorporating my extensive testing of the physical features:

Summary: The Blackberry 9700 with T-mobile is a great phone and communication device that is also a pretty good pocket computer, all in a slim, light, attractive, and easy to hold and use form factor – all at a very reasonable monthly plan cost for the heavy phone and data user. It is a huge improvement over the 83xx series in terms of speed, memory, and connectivity options. However, the keyboard is slower for me to use than the 8320. For me this tradeoff is worthwhile, as it is no longer a noticeable lump in my shirt or pants pocket and does not fatigue my hand on a long phone call.

The only significant disadvantages (compared with other smartphone brands) are a barely usable browser, a cumbersome setup for third-party apps, and the general complication of customizing the device. For those who value a browser and ease of use above all and are willing to pay for it, the iPhone and certain Android-based phones (such as Google’s Nexus One) is better – but for those who want a great smartphone on a budget – this is a great choice.

Review by Always Samsung:

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RYXE5ZFJZZA51 I’ve been a long time AT&T costumer. I thought I could live without having an actual keyboard when it comes to texting, but after a week without my Sidekick Keyboard – I decided to ditch my Samsung Eternity for the Blackberry Bold 9700.

I was hesitant about purchasing this smart phone because I was never a fan of Blackberry’s (RIMM). I had a BB during their initial boom in the early part of the new millennium. However, the poor browser, poor cell phone network, lackluster screen color, non desirable keyboard, awful battery life, whack OS, & lack of T9 predictive text just couldn’t win me over.

After I realized that I couldn’t text on a touch screen phone, unless it was the iPhone. I decided that I must have a cell phone device with an actual qwerty keyboard, if I expect to survive my text message & email addiction.

I picked up the Blackberry 9700 with my corporate discount and walked away with a nice high end phone at a very reasonable price. I have to say that I really enjoy the web browser on the new BB. You can zoom in & out with ease. I thought no browser could compare to the iPod Safari besides the Android G1, but after getting this device – I can safely say that this browser is also one of the best. Its right behind the safari and G1. Prior models were confined to small screens, thirty-five dollar internet only data plans, and no ability to zoom in or out. You were subjected to a small screen and reading small text till your eyes was squinting like grandmas.

Pros:

3G

New Optical Trackpad (Over the old Trackball)

Big vibrant screen

Threaded Text Messaging

3.5 MM headjack

New OS (Runs a bit quicker without the lag time)

Decent call quality

Excellent new broswer

Mini SD up to 32GB

Use your songs as ringers

Wi-Fi

Personal Email (Up to 10 accounts can be added)

IM

Themes

App Store

My Favs

Full HTML Web Browser (Sometimes)

Excellent Multimedia Player (Accepts every format possible)

Includes 2 chargers (Wall Charger & USB charger)

Includes ear phones and carry case

Cons:

For long time BB users, this device is really just a cosmetic upgrade with a new OS (Flashier Icons)

Micro USB (No more Mini USB)

Video & Camera (3.2 Megapixel as oppose to 8.0)

Cheap plastic rubber casing

Non RIMM Consumer Changes Mind!

For anyone who has wanted a BB but held off on getting one and want an entry level Blackberry at a decent price – this is the model to get. Everything about it is an upgrade. The device is basically the BB Bold with a different casing. The battery life could still use some more juice. With excessive email checking & non stop texting, the phone usually needs a charge after a day and a half of usage (Sometimes i can go a charge for 2 days before a charge so thats not bad). I did set the brightness of the phone to the lowest brightness available and it has lasted for a little over 2 days with no charge needed. Even on the lowest brightness, the screen is still very bright, sharp, & crisp. And i still do unlimited texting & web browsing. However, AT&T doesn’t offer the best mobile minute plans on earth & their data plan is probably one of themost expensive around. They are fully aware that their signal is one of the best & in doing so, make up for it by charging their non-friendly services at non-friendly prices, which usually doesn’t offers an abundant amount of minutes, unlimited data, internet, email, text etc will end up costing you a lot!

I pay under seventy bucks a month for a decent amount of mins & unlimited everything else. My friend has a similar plan on Verizon, its not unlimited, and her bill is always over a hundred each month.

Review by J. Hartlove:

Well here we have it. The HTC Droid Eris from Verizon Wireless. This phone was openly criticized on electronic review sites such as [...] because it’s going to be released with the Motorola Droid when the Motorola Droid offers Android OS 2.0 and this HTC model only offers 1.5. After owning both the phones for about a week and switching back and forth (yes, Verizon hates me), I’m overly satisfied with the HTC Droid Eris too. The phone does everything you could ever want with a very large app store and overall beautiful interface. The only 2 negative notes on the HTC Droid Eris would be that it could have a slightly faster processor and the battery life isn’t exactly the best. When it comes to the comparison between the Motorola Droid and the HTC Droid Eris, the operating system shouldn’t be a major concern because HTC does plan to offer a free upgrade to Android 2.0. The major differences are the processor speed, the amount of RAM, and the battery life. All of those categories the Motorola Droid slightly edges the HTC Droid Eris. They’re both very good options, but if you’re looking for something simpler and you’re not going to be using your phone constantly throughout the day the HTC Droid Eris is for you!

Review by D. Fawson:

I had been watching the Droid for a while, and so when I received an Email notifying me of it’s release, I headed on over to the Verizon Store on launch day. All of the employees were wearing shirts that said, “Droid does,” and there was a small, but significant crowd in the corner right beside the entrance. There I saw a stand where some redneck was eying this blocky, shiny black phone. Abandoned, on the same display set-up, there was a lonely, small, much sleeker, touch screen phone I did not recognize. Still eager to take my turn with the Droid, I decided to play with this other one to pass the time.

It was not long at all before I realized that the unadvertised, un-hyped Droid Eris was vastly superior.

Let me start by comparing it to the Motorola Droid (MD) (Motorola Droid A855 Phone (Verizon Wireless)). The MD Has hard edges, corners, and an unfriendly box shape. It has a thin slide-out keyboard, the keys of which have very little tactile feedback, and the rows aren’t offset like a real keyboard. Also, on this slide-out panel, is a d-pad, which is almost completely unnecessary given the touch screen. The entire phone has a shiny smooth finish, making it really susceptible to scratches and fingerprints. The tech specs are a little better, with a faster cpu and a beautiful high resolution screen. Also the camera has a flash.

The Droid Eris (DE) on the other hand, is quite smaller, and has rounded edges (much like the iPhone.) It uses only the on-screen keyboard, which is not the best of all input methods, but most problems are averted by its handy correction feature. Also, like the iPhone, you can turn it on its side to enlarge the keyboard, making the problem of hitting the wrong key nearly disappear. The DE has a trackball, much like the Blackberry Pearl (BlackBerry Pearl 8130 Phone, Pink (Verizon Wireless),) and while this almost never comes into play, it’s much nicer and has less of a primitive feel than the MDs d-pad. You can also have it light up for notifications. The phone has a silky smooth rubber coating on the back. That combined with the rounded edges makes it much easier to hold. The tech specs aren’t on the mark with the MD, but thus far, I have yet to encounter any serious problems with speed. And, while it would be nice to have the higher resolution screen, this one does the job just fine.

They both run on Verizon’s network, which, from what I’ve heard, is the best. Both use Google’s Android OS, which is fantastic and wonderfully customizable. Although the MD uses a newer version, the DE is going to be supporting it soon.

These are the only problems I have run into with the Eris.

>The battery life isn’t so great, especially if you are constantly browsing the internet and stuff, like I did the first couple of days. It’s never gone out on me though, even once when I didn’t charge for two days. But I recommend charging every night.

>The cracks around the edge of the screen seem to attract little bits of dirt, crumbs etc. which can take away the beauty of the phone, and it’s hard to get them out.

>The music system isn’t the best. Especially considering the battery life. Keep your iPod.

These are the things I LOVE about the phone:

>Accelerometers detect the orientation of the screen.

>Browse the internet anytime. Also, browser supports pinch zoom.

>Electrostatic (finger electricity detecting) touch screen much better than the pressure sensitive ones seen on cheap touch screen phones.

>Move icons on main screen anywhere. Put exactly what you want on main and sub screens and nothing else.

>High quality camera. With the highest settings, the picture is too high quality to send in a mms message. No flash, but hey. I didn’t get this phone for the camera.

>Hundreds of free apps in the store (that can be made freely by anybody) to keep me entertained forever.

>My screen still has no scratches, despite being dropped into and pulled out of my pocket countless times since I got it release day.

>Although the port looks different, a standard Mini-USB will fit it. This means it is easy to find a usable cord for it, if you lose the provided one.

There’s probably more, but why don’t you find out for yourself? Buy it. You won’t be disappointed.

Review by Dr. Dan:

Once upon a time, I was a major iPhone fan. Like many others, I had grown tired of ho-hum smartphones and wanted something new and fresh. Initially, I loved my iPhone. There was simply nothing like it, with its beautiful touchscreen interface and great packaging. Best of all, I’d been assimilated into a fun “iPhone culture.” Yeah, I guess in a way I’d even look down my nose at others who did not own one. ;p

But as time went by, my happy relationship began to sour. Don’t get me wrong… as a MEDIA device, it was beyond compare. It STILL IS. But as a PRODUCTIVITY device, it STUNK: the virtual keyboard drove me bananas, the calendar was hardly usable for my purposes, and the constant dropped calls in south Florida were infuriating. As the months dragged on, I began to resent my phone and despise AT&T. There was a glimmer of hope when the Apple’s App Store made its debut, but instead of productivity apps I needed, it was flooded with junk with no easy way to sift through all the noise to find the quality apps. Though I must admit I was DEFINITELY addicted to a game or two!

I wanted a phone that could serve me well as both a PRODUCTIVITY and PERSONAL device. So when the Palm Pre came out, I took a deep breath and signed on with Sprint to get one on launch day (June 6th).

Put simply? …………..

I.

LOVE.

THIS.

PHONE.

When writing this review I made the assumption that you, the reader, already knows the features Palm Pre’s features. What I did was just jot down my real-world experiences with the Pre to illustrate how freaking AMAZING it is…

IT AIN’T PERFECT, THOUGH! I’ll definitely address those issues (caution, I’m pretty blunt).

————————- FIRST, THE THINGS I LOVE ————————-

1) MULTITASKING:

Here’s what I think Palm’s slogan should be: “Multi-tasking. We do it on our computers and in our everyday lives… why should our phones be any different?” Sadly, their commercials feature some creepy chick talking about jugglers and mind reading. Oh, well.

When I read about multi-tasking on the Palm Pre, it looked cool. When I played with the mult-tasking feature in the Sprint store, I thought it was really cool. But when I LIVED with multi-tasking, I realized I would never own another phone that doesn’t do this. It doesn’t always work perfectly… sometimes there are issues with lag but once you learn which apps are resource hogs you get the hang of how to operate with it.

Here’s some real-world examples of how I use multitasking…

“Day-to-day”

I consistently have email, texting, Twitter, phone, and my Palm OS emulator (for my medical apps) open at all times. No need to search for buttons or menus. Just flick and I’m there.

“The Drive”

A while back my boss drove me down to New Orleans. I SIMULTANEOUSLY…………

– Ran turn-by-turn navigation with spoken street names (thru car speakers)

– Ran Pandora (also thru car speakers)

– Sent MMS messages to my folks

– Tracked my wife’s flight to Puerto Rico in real-time, using FlightView

– Viewed a PowerPoint presentation

– Sent that powerpoint presentation via email to a colleague

“Ordering Pizza and a Movie”

Just the other day my wife called me from the road to ask where she could get a movie rental and pick up a pizza in her area. I SIMULTANEOUSLY……….

– Ran my Google maps which found the nearest Blockbuster and pizza place to her,

– Ran Flixster and read Rotten Tomato reviews of different movies

– Texted my wife back and forth with my recommendations.

“Email + Messaging”

I can have both my email and texting apps open, and copy/paste from one into the other

“No Wifi headaches”

Here’s a big one! I can enable/disable Wi-Fi without leaving the web page I’m on or the email I’m trying to download. Just touch the top of the screen for the menu and I’m done!

Here’s an interesting Palm Pre vs. iPhone Twitter comparison I read: If you’re tweeting on the iPhone, and want to email a post, you have to:

1) Click the email hyperlink.

2) Twitter app closes.

3) iPhone email app opens.

4) Send email.

5) Close iPhone email app.

6) Open Twitter app.

7) Navigate back to the Twitter post of interest.

On the Palm Pre, you can simply leave Twitter open, and simply flip over to email and back.

2) REAL KEYBOARD:

When Steve Jobs told me I’d get used to my virtual keyboard on my iPhone, I believed him… but after a year and a half of ownership, I came to this realization: nothing beats a real keyboard. I’m 6′3″ and 200lbs, and while the Pre’s keyboard is small, after a couple weeks I got very quick and accurate on it… MUCH faster than I ever did in all the time on my iPhone. It’s worth mentioning that the a virtual keyboard has already been created for it, adding the convenience of BOTH. iPhone will always be stuck with just a virtual keyboard. There’s also a homebrew app called “AutoCorrect Edit” that allows you to customize your autocorrect dictionary and make typing shortcuts. Killer.

3) CALENDAR:

You can sync multiple calendars to the Pre, and view them all simultaneously if you want… Google, Facebook, Exchange, etc…. they’re all there. In addition to my personal calendar and my wife’s calendar, I keep track the schedules of no less than EIGHT physicians in my fellowship program… all on my phone! Best part is I can view them all together, manage them, and update them from my device and send them to all the fellows and faculty in my program OVER THE AIR.

Also, there’s calendar app integration… From my phone, I can add a flight directly to my calendar from Flightview. Or a movie I just purchased tickets for. Or dinner reservations I made using Open Table. All without opening my calendar. Easy. I can’t wait until more apps offer this kind of functionality…

4) USB FLASH DRIVE ABILITY!

A couple weeks ago, I needed to email some documents and spreadsheets to my boss. My laptop had an erratic Wifi connection, so I was stuck. What did I do? I simply plugged my Pre into my computer via USB, dropped the files onto my phone, and emailed them to by boss using Sprint’s network! Plain, freaking, AWESOME! This is not mentioned enough in the reviews I’ve read.

Another cool thing: who needs iTunes? With drag and drop, you can easily transfer music and videos back and forth on the Pre. Seriously. A monkey could do this.

5) AMAZON MP3 MUSIC STORE!

Love this place! Almost as much variety as iTunes, which is good enough for me. You can preview and download all the songs you want! I do wish you could see the duration of songs as well as the full title (for remixes and such), but overall I’m smitten with it. Not only that, they often feature entire albums for DIRT cheap. Best of all, UNLIKE iTunes, you can do whatever the heck you like with your music, and it doesn’t have to be converted to a proprietary format! Beautiful.(P.S. I realize that music sold on iTunes is now DRM-free, but I still resent the fact that a good number of songs that I BOUGHT are stuck on iTunes unless I “upgrade.” Hogwash.)

6) TOUCHSTONE WIRELESS CHARGER!

This is basically a hockey-puck device that you set your Pre onto and it charges it using a magnetic coil… no wires! This is particularly great at night right before I get into bed: rather than fumbling with wires and the Pre’s (I’d like to smack the Palm engineers for that last one), all I do is just set my phone down on the charger. Easy. And I have a full charge in around 2 hours. The Touchstone does more than just charge my phone, though…

- If the Pre rings while on the charger and I press “TALK”, it instantly goes to speakerphone.

- If I’m talking on the Pre and then set it down on the Touchstone, it instantly switches to speakerphone.

- If I want more privacy and take my phone OFF of the Touchstone during a conversation, it instantly switches speakerphone OFF. Nice.

7) CAMERA:

Outdoor shots are amazing. Shutter has almost no lag. Although my iPhone used to take better pictures in low-light conditions, when there’s NO light, the Pre has a flash… my iPhone did not.

NETWORK AND PRICING… DO YOUR RESEARCH!!!!

My wife and I are saving a ton of money with Sprint. I know coverage varies from city to city, but for me, Sprint’s been great. In my opinion, AT&T cannot support the deluge of iPhone customers. They pay a high premium to maintain iPhone exclusivity, and take another hit by heavily subsidizing the iPhone to entice new customers. Subsequently, improvements to infrastructure move at a slower pace than they should. Not only that, but iPhone customers have to pay a lot more per month than say, Palm Pre customers on Sprint! All Sprint plans for the Palm Pre include UNLIMITED data, UNLIMITED texts, and TURN-BY-TURN GPS NAVIGATION! With AT&T, you have to pay out the nose for those kinds of goodies. Do. Your. Research.

9) HOMEBREW!!!

This is certainly one of the best aspects of webOS that I am saving for last. The Palm Pre has an OUTSTANDING homebrewing community. Best part is, you don’t have to be a techie geek to be a part of it.

You may have heard of people “hacking” their phones in order to get them to do what they want. But unlike Apple, where “jailbreaking” is necessary to “hack” their phones, webOS users merely “homebrew” to “patch” their phones. This isn’t just semantics: unlike Apple’s constant Gestapo policies, Palm has chosen to embrace the homebrew community and welcome their innovation. The result? I can change the way the Pre looks and behaves. I can make it look just like an iPhone or a Blackberry. I can have homebrew apps like custom AutoCorrect dictionaries for my typos. I can change the appearance of the launcher. I can easily switch my phone radios on and off… the list goes on and on. Currently there are hundreds of homebrew apps and patches, and over a thousand themes. It’s really exciting stuff and really fun to be a part of it.

————————— MY MAJOR COMPLAINTS —————————

1) BATTERY LIFE.

Suuuuucks. No two ways about it. I’m lucky if I’m able to make the day during heavy use or extended periods in areas with bad reception. Luckily, the battery is REMOVABLE, and extended-life batteries are available. If your battery ever dies, you have the option of slapping in a spare… this is actually a WONDERFUL feature… I just wish the stock battery was better.

****** UPDATE (1/10/09) ******

Since the Pre was updated to 1.3.5 a couple weeks ago, battery life has improved substantially. I can now get through an entire day of moderate to heavy use on a single charge. Keeping things in perspective: my wife is nowhere near as heavy a user as I, and was able to get through an entire day on a single charge BEFORE the update.

2) LAG.

Here’s what I don’t get: the Pre has the same processor speed as the iPhone 3GS, yet there are times I want to throw my Pre against the wall. Don’t get me wrong… the Pre is usually quick and multitasking makes this less of an issue. But sometimes? The times it takes for my Pre to “think” and process my commands are unacceptable. Palm has made inroads on this: with the latest update, the calendar speed is much, much improved and I am now satisfied with it. And soon, Palm will give us an update which will directly access the Pre’s Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), which will mean much faster scrolling and graphics rendering in browsers and games. Still, I’m left wanting faster performance overall.

3) 8 GB OF MEMORY, NON-EXPANDABLE.

This turned out to be less of an issue than I anticipated, but when I first read about it, I was upset. I feared I’d fill the memory very quickly. Well, not so much! After 6 months, I’ve got 3 GB free. Also, the USB drag/drop function on the device makes clearing space so easy. Finally, Palm released the Palm Pre Plus recently, which has double the internal storage (16gb, non-expandable) and double the RAM. If memory is a big issue for you, then perhaps the Pre Plus is worth a look.

————————– MY MINOR COMPLAINTS —————————

1) NO VISUAL VOICEMAIL… YET. C’mon Palm and Sprint. Update this. Yesterday! (I’m hoping they will.)

2) NO VIDEO RECORDING… YET. Palm has stated that video recording will come to the Palm Pre in February! This will include video recording, editing, and direct posting to Facebook and YouTube! I can’t wait. (As a reminder, the iPhone took TWO YEARS to do this, and you had to buy a WHOLE NEW PHONE, the 3GS, in order to get it!)

3) APPS…

At the time of this writing (***updated 2/18/09***) the Palm Pre’s App Catalog has over 1,500 apps (plus hundreds of homebrew apps and over a thousand themes). This is certainly dwarfed by the thousands of iPhone and Android apps, but they’re really starting to become a steady stream (no longer a trickle) of new apps. My complaint is that I’m still missing some very important apps, namely Docs2Go with full EDITING capabilities. It’s supposed to come to webOS in early 2010, but my patience is wearing thin. I also wish we had Shazam, though I know we’ll get it as soon as Palm releases its mic API’s. I am currently beta-testing Epocrates for webOS (a medical app) an it looks very, very promising.

But if it’s apps you want, the App Catalog as grown substantially since starting with 30 apps. I’m still quite peeved we don’t have Docs2Go (right now you can only view but not edit Office files), Shazam, or Epocrates… but they’re coming. Plus, a lot of big names are here now, like Direct TV remote DVR, Slacker Radio, Pandora, Flixster, etc… and we now have awesome 3D games like Need for Speed, Assassin’s Creed, etc.

… I guess that sums things up! In short, I’d say the Palm Pre is a great blend of the iPhone and a Blackberry, with the added ability to multi-task. If you’re between either of them, I’d highly recommend it. I love it.

********************* UPDATE 10-07-09 **********************

It’s confirmed: Palm Pre is coming to Verizon in 2010.

********************* UPDATE 10-15-09 **********************

To save money, my wife joined me on Sprint. She initially went for the HTC Hero because she wanted a virtual keyboard. She didn’t like it, and got a Palm Pre instead. In her words: “it’s just so much easier to use.” She also has grown quite fond of the Pre’s keyboard.

********************* UPDATE 11-19-09 **********************

It’s been almost 6 months since I got my Pre and, with caveats, I’m still in love with it. There have been a couple issues like the flimsy USB door falling off but I repaired it myself.

Also, since I’ve owned the Pre, Palm has sent SEVEN over-the-air updates. It’s great to see they’re continuously refining and improving it. Subsequent updates have added new features… to name a few:

- SMS Emoticons

- Text forwarding

- Copying text and images from the browser

- Speed improvements

- Yahoo! synergy and instant messaging

- E-mail search capability

- Ability to send contacts as .vcf files via SMS or email

********************* UPDATE 12-09 **********************

Palm updated to 1.3.5, which removed the silly app limit and significantly improved performance of the Pre. All the love lost is back again.

********************* UPDATE 1-10 **********************

The Pre now has 3D gaming! I’m not talking silly games… I mean 1st person shooters, Need for Speed… just like the iPhone. Awesome.

The Pre gets video recording in February!

The Pre gets Flash 10.1 in February!

Review by M. Paschall:

I’ve been using my Palm Pre since the day it went on sale back on June 6, 2009, and for the most part I’ve been very impressed and happy with the phone. There are a few things that keep me from giving it a full five stars and I’ll cover those below.

The first thing I noticed when I finally got the Pre in my hands was just how “natural” it felt. I hate to sound corny in a review but it really has an almost organic/nature feel to it. When the screen is off the face of the device has a solid black, glossy look that draws the eyes to it. I’ve had several friends and co-workers comment on just how much they like the look of the phone.

The case has minimal buttons to obscure the look; volume buttons on the left, power and ringer switch on the top right, and the select button at the bottom. That’s it, no other controls until you slide up the face of the phone to reveal the full QWERTY keyboard. Speaking of the slider, for me it works great! I’ve read on various boards how some people have been having problems with theirs but with mine it works just as well as the first day I had the phone. About half way up the spring loading mechanism kicks in locking the keyboard open and it does the same when closing the slider.

The 3.2MP camera on the back of the phone takes some of the best pictures I’ve seen on a cell phone but it still doesn’t come close to replacing a real digital camera. Instead I’ve found it’s best for snapping pictures on those times when you either don’t have your digital camera handy (or with you at all) or you don’t have time to take out a camera. There’s an LED flash but it’s not really good much beyond about 3 feet. Also there are NO controls for the camera other than selecting flash on, auto, or off. That’s it. Zoom or even white balance would have been nice. On some pictures there is a bit of purple fringing depending on the lighting conditions.

The real star of the phone at this point is probably a tie between the web browser and the Synergy features that combine all your contacts and calendars. The browser is FAST, even on EVDO and wicked on Wi-Fi. It’s handled just about everything I’ve thrown at it and then some. A draw back is that you cannot download any files via the browswer. Adobe is slated to bring Flash support around October to the Pre browser. The Synergy features sync your Outlook, Gmail, and Facebook information to your phone “stacking” duplicates under the same contact as well as syncing your calendars from both Facebook and Google. That last has come in rather handy on several occasions so far.

Palm and Sprint have included several applications on the phone when it ships. Sprint TV is the best on this phone that I have seen yet from them and this is my fourth smartphone with Sprint since Feb of 2008. Also included in the mix from Sprint is their Telnav program, NASCAR, and via a recent OS update their NFL Live app. Palm has preloaded Google Maps and the Amazon.com MP3 store. One problem I have with the Amazon MP3 store is that you can purchase music on your Pre but cannot download it until you’re near a Wi-Fi connection. GPS acquisition on any of the apps that use it, whether pre-loaded or third party add on, is the fastest I’ve ever seen on a phone. Scary fast!

As with any smartphone there are bound to be some drawbacks and the Pre is no exception.

Battery life on the Pre has gotten better since the first day via three OS updates and some battery break in time but it’s still no where near where it should be. Thankfully I have a portable charging battery pack that stays in my backpack so I can top the Pre off during the day if I don’t have access to a power outlet. At this point I really don’t know if Palm can do anything more to improve the battery life and I have a feeling I’ll be looking at getting a spare battery or an extended one at some point in the future.

On the day the Pre went on sale there were 18 apps available via the App Catalog on the device. Within the first seven days that number jumped up to 30 apps and then stopped until the last week of July when two more were added. The Homebrew community is now at around 100 apps available and growing almost daily. I hope that Palm gets to cracking on getting more apps out, and soon or I can see this being the one thing that keeps the Pre and WebOS from really taking off. Of course one can pay for the Classic App that will enable the Pre to run most PalmOS applications but to me that is a crying shame. Palm should have included this with the Pre instead of offering it as a paid for add on option, or at least got the price around . The biggest limitation I’ve run into with Classic that it will NOT recognize any file types other that PRC and PDB files. This means that if you have a program that can read other types of files, like Mobipocket Reader (.MOBI) those programs cannot “see” those files. This is a glaring shortcoming there!!!

Here’s the quick and dirty check list…

Pros:

Beautiful physical design

Multi-tasking

Ease of syncing and backing up contact information

Great web browser

Excellent email and messaging options

Easy to read screen

Cons:

Poor battery life

Poor app selections at this time

Lack of camera options and video recording

Serious limitations in the Classic app and it’s high cost

I like the Palm Pre and I want to love it because I can see just how much potential this new platform from Palm has. In the future I hope that Palm can address some of these short comings via updates to the OS and expanding the number of apps available for download. That being said I have to honestly say that if I had known back on June 6 what I know right now about the platform I would have stuck it out for a bit longer with either my old HTC Touch Diamond or BB Curve 8330. I paid the full price for the device at a Sprint store but I am due an upgrade in February 2010 and if the Pre has not made some improvements by then I can see me leaving this phone for something else. However, that is six months in the future and by then there should be more apps available and quite a few more OS updates so I’m willing to stick it out a bit longer.

Review by Douglas G. Lally:

Just upgraded to the 8530 last week and wow I love this unit! Nice design, very fast processor, crisp graphics and resolution, and the touch pad is a welcome upgrade from the trackball. The not so perfect – battery life is anemic. It seems to eat a lot of juice. The unit is power intensive with it’s graphic interface and media features so it’s safe to say it’s underpowered. You can buy a more powerful battery but it seems if that exists it should have been pre-installed on the 8530 to begin with. A minor peeve is the keyboard size. Although it has a Qwerty style keyboard the buttons are too small. Easy to hit the wrong ones when typing. But that’s a minor thing and I found the more I use it the more I get used to it. The camera feature is so far the best I have had although there is no flash. Other complaints I’ve read about a cheap design and flimsy battery cover may be based on experiences with previous BB models but I don’t see it. I see nothing cheap about this unit. I do think it’s stylish, reliable, quick, compact, and a lot of fun. I recommend it.

Review by CoffeeGurl:

Why are all BlackBerrys so expensive? Why can’t we get the latest model in a reasonable price? The BlackBerry Bold was 9 with a two-year contract when it was first released on the AT&T network. The new Tour is 9 (with mail-rebate ) in both Verizon and Sprint. The Curve 8900 is 9 in T-Mobile — still a little too steep for some people. Lower end users rejoice! Here comes the new Curve 8520! This new addition to the BB family has a new design and some introductory features, at an affordable price from T-Mobile.

What separates this phone from others of the BB family is the new optical trackpad. Instead of a trackball, you use the trackpad to navigate, scroll and click on the contents of your phone. It’s similar to trackpads found in the new MacBooks and some netbooks, and it is similar to the Storm’s click-touchscreen, and it’s quite easy to use. In fact, it is better than the trackball, in my opinion, because it moves faster and it’s less likely to break or skip applications on you. It only took me about ten minutes to get used to it and so far I’m loving it. The 8520 also sports a new look. It is mostly made of some sturdy plastic, with rubbery edges and side-buttons, and with music buttons on the top of the phone for easy access to your entertainment. This new BlackBerry seems to be marketed for multimedia phone lovers as well as smartphone users. You get a bit of both, for this BB still has its useful business functionalities. The QWERTY keypad is easy comfortable to type on, no much change there. T-Mobile offers WiFi for faster Internet speed as well as making phone calls through that network (instead of using your minutes). All you have to do is be at a WiFi hotspot to take advantage of this useful and affordable feature.

As good as the Curve 8520 is, there are some downsides to it as well.

* A mediocre camera. It has a 2 MP camera with no flash. A big downgrade from the Curve 8900 and the Tour 9630. If you like to take good pictures, this is not the best camera phone for you.

* No 3G network. But we already know that T-Mobile doesn’t have 3G in most of the country yet, don’t we? (Kind of obsolete if you ask me. Especially since other carriers like Sprint are already announcing the long-awaited 4G network.) You’ll have to settle for EDGE speeds if you’re nowhere near a WiFi hotspot.

* The phone’s overall look is below par to other BlackBerrys. It doesn’t feel as luxurious or as sexy as the Bold, Storm, Curve or Tour. It kind of looks like the older BlackBerrys, actually, especially the frost-colored one. I guess that’s what you get for paying less for a smartphone.

* The screen resolution isn’t as bright as the Bold, Storm and Tour. The WOW factor is cut shorter in yet another cool feature. It’s no big deal, but it’s disappointing nevertheless.

That is all I can think of at the moment. You may take the good with the bad when you decide to buy this phone. However, for the price it’s more than just great. You get it for 9 if you go to the T-Mobile store, or you can get it for even less if you buy it on this site or take advantage of any of the other promotions available in stores like BestBuy or Radio Shack. Good luck and enjoy.

Review by Always Samsung:

I’ve been a long time AT&T costumer. I thought I could live without having an actual keyboard when it comes to texting, but after a week without my Sidekick Keyboard – I decided to ditch my Samsung Eternity for the Blackberry Curve 8520.

I was hesitant about purchasing this smart phone because I was never a fan of Blackberry’s (RIMM). I had a BB during their initial boom in the early part of the new millennium. However, the poor browser, poor cell phone network, lackluster screen color, non desirable keyboard, awful battery life, whack OS, & lack of T9 predictive text just couldn’t win me over.

After I realized that I couldn’t text on a touch screen phone, unless it was the iPhone. I decided that I must have a cell phone device with an actual qwerty keyboard, if I expect to survive my text message & email addiction.

I picked up the Blackberry 8520 with my corporate discount and walked away with a nice high end phone at a very reasonable price. I have to say that I really enjoy the web browser on the new BB. You can zoom in & out with ease. I thought no browser could compare to the iPod Safari besides the Android G1, but after getting this device – I can safely say that this browser is also one of the best. Its right behind the safari and G1. Prior models were confined to small screens, thirty-five dollar internet only data plans, and no ability to zoom in or out. You were subjected to a small screen and reading small text till your eyes was squinting like grandmas.

Pros:

New Optical Trackpad (Over the old Trackball)

Big vibrant screen

3.5 MM headjack

New OS

Decent call quality (No issues yet)

Excellent new broswer

Mini SD up to 16GB (Wish it was 32GB)

Use your songs as ringers

Wi-Fi

Personal Email (Up to 10 accounts can be added)

IM

Themes

Applications (Coming on April 1st)

My Favs

Full HTML Web Browser (Sometimes)

Excellent Multimedia Player (Accepts every format possible)

Includes 2 chargers (Wall Charger & USB charger)

Includes ear phones and carry case

Cons:

For long time BB users, this device is really just a cosmetic upgrade with a new OS (Flashier Icons)

Micro USB (No more Mini USB)

Video & Camera (2.0 Megapixel as oppose to 5.0)

Still no 3G (I thought i could live without it, but TMobile has no 3G BB yet & its really about time)

Cheap plastic rubber casing

Non RIMM Consumer Changes Mind!

For anyone who has wanted a BB but held off on getting one and want an entry level Blackberry at a decent price – this is the model to get. Everything about it is an upgrade. The device is basically the BB Bold with a different casing. The battery life could still use some more juice. With excessive email checking & non stop texting, the phone usually needs a charge after a day and a half of usage (Sometimes i can go a charge for 2 days before a charge so thats not bad). I did set the brightness of the phone to the lowest brightness available and it has lasted for a little over 2 days with no charge needed. Even on the lowest brightness, the screen is still very bright, sharp, & crisp. And i still do unlimited texting & web browsing. However, AT&T doesn’t offer the best mobile minute plans on earth & their data plan is probably one of themost expensive around. They are fully aware that their signal is one of the best & in doing so, make up for it by charging their non-friendly services at non-friendly prices, which usually doesn’t offers an abundant amount of minutes, unlimited data, internet, email, text etc will end up costing you a lot!

One complaint from other phone techs is the lack of 3G. Yes, i was disappointed that the device is only on EDGE & Wi-Fi, but if you have a 3G enabled phone with only 1 signal bar – The chances of having a 3G signal is pretty slim. The EDGE browser signal on this device is fine & works just fine. I havent encountered any issues & comparing it with a 3G phone – the thing almost runs at the same pace. NO major biggy at all! I have used the wi-fi a few times & i think its super fast on Wi-Fi.

I pay under seventy bucks a month for a decent amount of mins & unlimited everything else. My friend has a similar plan on Verizon, its not unlimited, and her bill is always over a hundred each month.

Review by Always Samsung:

The best review from a former iPhone and Blackberry user.

I have been in love with the G1 since it came out a year ago, but I couldn’t get over that ugly chin sticking out! I was beyond ecstatic when the MyTouch 3G was released, but after playing with the device for 3 hours I realized what a piece of crap it was and returned it. The screen wasn’t that big and it made texting and instant messaging a living nightmare. In addition to that, the phone was not multi-touch capable, so if you’re a fast texter and really quick with the emails then the MyTouch 3G is not for you. The virtual keyboard could only handle one letter at a time and I found myself hitting the wrong letters on so many occasions. I would hit a letter and the phone would pick up the surroundings letter. This really is ashame because the thirty-five dollar data plan is mandatory and its travesty that one can’t even use it to the best of their ability. The lack of a keyboard also made the MyTouch 3G a big downer. Anyway, I digress.

Now, let’s get to the Motorola Cliq. This phone is everything that the G1 and MyTouch 3G should have been, but better. This device doesn’t come with Eclair (Android OS 2.0), but it functions just fine. Hopefully a mandatory upgrade will be made available to all Android users soon. This is a great PDA smart phone for anyone who is heavy into texting, emailing, and surfing the web. It’s a full featured phone, but at the same time it’s nothing groundbreaking. There is definitely some acclimation when it comes to the Cliq because I am so use to my Blackberry 8900 and I think its one of the best built devices with a very responsive well built OS.

If you’re looking for a device that is very similar to the iPhone on the T-Mobile network then this is probably the closest that you will ever get. My initial impression of the phone was not a good one because it kept asking me to create a user name and password. I thought it was asking for an email address (Yahoo, AOL, Gmail), but it wasn’t. It was asking you to create a MotoBlur account. I did, but kept getting an error message. T-Mobile customer service didn’t know what to do and [...] has an area to sign into MotoBlur & an option to create a motoblur account, but when you click it there’s nothing on screen that lets you create a name/password.

Android OS – Many people have said that the Android OS is a game changer since its release back in the fall of 2008. It seemed like the only thing at the time to combat with the forces of the iPhone. To some extent it is and to some extent it’s just not quite there yet. To be honest it’s a bit on the clunky side. It does take a few seconds to exit out of certain applications, or to even get to the main home screen menu when exiting out of email and texting. When you become so use to using your cell phone for just about everything – speed is everything. That also includes how responsive and quick your phones OS is. My only gripe is that I wish there wasn’t that few second lag in-between operations.

Motoblur – The Cliq includes MotoBlur which lets you connect your Facebook, MySpace, and twitter accounts directly to the advice, so whenever your friend writes a new comment it immediately goes to the homepage of the phone. This is a great idea and saves you time from going into the web browser and having to log in each account in order to check for updates. However, this feature is a battery killer. I have mine turns off, besides if you lend your phone to someone else to use (To make a call or use web browser) they will all be up in your business. I could careless about this feature.

Email – This is also not an Android device that has Google branding with it. It’s just a Motorola phone using the Android OS. There is NO G1 branding logo anywhere. However, you can still sync up your Google email address, but the Gmail feature is such a disappointment. Synchronization has to be turned on for the Gmail to function to the best of its ability & that’s a BIG battery draining feature. You can also sync your Yahoo & AOL email addresses. The AOL and Yahoo email feature is way better then Gmail and doesn’t require synchronization to be turned on. This helps save tremendous battery power. When you send an email from your desktop it doesn’t come to the phone right away, but you can set the phone to check for new emails every 15 mins, 30 mins, or manually, etc. It doesn’t work the same with Gmail which is a big let down. I am a big fan of the Blackberry and it’s the only device on the market that gets an email within 2 seconds of sending it. The same can’t be said for the Android OS. Much work needs to be done.

Web Browser – One of the best features on any android device including the Cliq is the web browser. Surprisingly, it doesn’t launch [...] as the main homepae when you click browser. The Android Browser is probably one of the best browsers on the market right now and is up there with the Safari Browser and the Palm Pre’s browser. You cant pinch and zoom to enlarge the way you can on the iPhone, but there are zoom in controls which are easy to use. You also get a dedicated YouTube app that lets you watch Youtube videos. Though the video clips aren’t as sharp as the iPhone – There is a setting and option when you are watching the YouTube clip where you can see the videos in “Higher Quality” so its crystal sharp and less blurry.

There is a big difference that one will notice when switching from standard to HIGHER QUALITY.

3G – TMobile recently launched their 3G network about a little over a year ago, so they are still building from the ground up while the other networks are already moving into 4G. It’s great that the CLIQ has 3G, but it does get spotty and unresponsive sometimes. There were many times that the 3G would switch between 3G and EDGE. I didn’t have that big of a problem with it, but I am sure over time it will get better. Wi-Fi is also included, so this is a great alternative for someone who might be at home and only has EDGE access.

Instant Messaging – The CLIQ comes with Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, and AIM pre-installed. My Blackberry 8900 came with all 3 and included ICQ & Windows Live. Another thing about the IM that was such a disappointment is that synchronization had to be activated in order for you to sign into the messaging client, which in turn drains the battery power like crazy. This was such a disappointment. My BB never had this issue. You sign in and start chatting. There was no extra setting that had to be activated in order to chat, but on the CLIQ it’s a requirement. The extra requirement only means that you have to charge you phone twice in one day because of heavy unnecessary usage.

Motorola really could have done a better job with the CLIQ, especially for the price. But I think most of the minor flaws have to do with the Android OS. I was originally an iPhone user that became a Blackberry user and I have to hand it to the Blackberry because it’s quick, responsive, and built in such a way that its function is superb. Everything from Email to text to instant messaging is just so quick. There is hardly any lag and it’s easy to learn how to use. The Blackberry so far is the best PDA I have ever used, but its web browser needs work. Pick up the CLIQ phone because it’s a winner. There are some minor flaws, but the pros outweigh the negative.

Pros:

Android OS (Can be a pro & a con)

Full HTML Web Browser

Threaded Text message

Email sync

Android Marketplace

Full qwerty keyboard

YouTube Application

5.0 camera/camcorder

Big vibrant screen

3.5 MM headjack

Decent call quality (No issues yet)

Mini SD up to 32GB

Use your songs as ringers

Wi-Fi

Personal Email (Up to 10 accounts can be added)

IM

My Favs

Excellent Multimedia Player

Includes 2 chargers (Wall Charger & USB charger)

T-Mobile offers the best minute and data plans on this planet

Cons:

Poor Battery Life (Lower light setting and turn off Motoblur to save power)

Gmail is a disaster (Not push capable)

Needs better notification options when next text/emails come through

No PUSH email capability

Trackball (I miss you)

Occasional lag time when entering/exiting a screen/app

Micro USB (No more Mini USB)

No ear phone or free carry case

Review by “Leo”:

I received my Motorola Cliq during the presale, so I have had it for about 2 weeks. I really enjoy this phone. It is so fun to use and it does so much. I love that I can have all of my social network sites on the home screen (facebook, myspace, twitter, etc). You can also comment on your friend’s updates and update your status very quickly.

I enjoy the Market feature, where I have downloaded several applications, such as, pandora (a radio), a calendar, a reminder feature, a few games (hang man, tic tac toe, pegs), a dictionary, the Bible (finds the exact passage in church very quickly) and a spell checker to name a few. There are thousands of free downloads available.

There are five home screens, I can email, text and browse the Internet all while talking on the phone. Google maps is installed, so it’s like having my own personal GPS. Now I never get lost. Google maps automatically finds your exact location if you are lost. You can zoom in and out of the google maps. This feature works well with “Places” to find everything that is located near you (hospitals, hotels, shopping, food, etc). The camera is 5 mega pixels, and there is a video recording feature as well.

The only negative about this phone is the battery life. It’s very short, since several applications are running at once. You can extend the battery life by only having your phone check for updates every hour vs. every 5 minutes, reducing light on the screen, turning off the GPS and wifi features.

Review by Joseph Sacher:

As a Pre owner and user, I understand the power of the WebOS multitasking. It truly blows everything else out of the water in the speed of getting things done. The iPhone feels like walking in quicksand after this.

I expected the Pixi to be slower than the Pre. It isn’t. For some things it is faster. Word Whirl on both devices feels exactly the same. This is an extremely light and small smart phone. It feels great in the hand and the keyboard is one of the better I’ve used in the past years.

While I now own both, I will primarily use my Pre for two reasons: Camera and WiFi. The Camera on the Pixi is better than Centro and about equal to many cell phones. The resolution difference (2 vs 3 MP) doesn’t mean anything to me. The issue is with the light sensitivity of the sensor. The Pre is much better. Since my home location is right on the border of good Sprint data, WiFi is a requirement.

If I was always in a good data coverage, I would be hard pressed to not choose the Pixi over the Pre. It is a cool phone. You won’t get more functionality for under .

Review by Mark:

In my family, we have 2 WebOS phones. I have the Pre and my son has the Pixi. As a result, I was able to make some videos comparing the relative performance of these devices. Here’s a link to a playlist of the reviews:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=943798F8E22C971F&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL

What I’ve found in comparing the two devices is that they provide generally similar performance, despite several other reviewers who claim the Pixi is slower than the Pre.

If I did not already have a Pre, I would have to think hard about a Pixi considering the performance. However, since I already have a Pre, I would find it difficult to live without Wifi and with a camera that didn’t produce as nice of pictures as the Pre. So I won’t be switching. But for the price, the Pixi is a fantastic first smartphone.

Review by CoffeeGurl:

I have very much looked forward to having a BlackBerry that was a cross between the Bold and the Curve. The Bold is beautiful, multi-functional, and has quite a nice leather-ish back, plus it has both WiFi and 3G, but the big size is kind of a turnoff. Besides, it’s on the AT&T network, which is expensive since minutes, data and messaging are included separately. (One of the reasons I had to cancel and give up on the iPhone 3G, as much as it pained me to do so.) The Curve is smaller, lighter and has WiFi on the T-Mobile network, but no 3G. What is a multitasking mobile girl to do? Why, I got the BlackBerry Tour 9360, of course! The Tour, while beautiful and functional, is not free of flaws, but more on those later.

The Tour is a little larger than the Curve 8900, but not by much. It is available on the Sprint and Verizon networks, and it is a CDMA/3G EV-DO phone. This replaces the old World phone. The look of it is quite nice. Black with silver/chrome edges (Verizon’s Tour’s edges are somewhat darker) and with a slick black finish on the back, it is indeed very attractive. (However, the battery cover feels a little flimsy to my taste, like it would break if I accidentally dropped it.) It’s got the latest BB operating system, which means you will get the neon-like menus. The resolution is gorgeous, much brighter than the Bold’s, and that is saying a lot! The QWERTY keyboard is smaller than the Bold’s though, and it might take some getting used to the slightly sparse keys, depends on what rocks your boat. With Verizon you get VCast and with Spring you get the Sprint Music Store. Both networks are similar in speed and voice quality, but I admit that the phone calls sound better on the Sprint network. You get all of the goodies — applications from BB’s App World, the Mobile Office applications that go well with push e-mail (the main reason why I switched to the BlackBerry), FaceBook, AIM, and RIM’s new multimedia functions. You can watch YouTube videos, but there is no dedicated YouTube app. The phone is quite good, but there are some areas that need improvement. For example:

Poor Battery Life: You will have to charge this baby up at least twice a day if you’re one of those people who can’t put their BlackBerry down or has to use multiple functions.

Crashes/Lags too Much: It’s very frustrating to have to remove the battery, put it back in and do a force reboot because of some glitch that shows up from nowhere or because the phone is lagging. I hope there will be a firmware update that will fix this problem soon.

No WiFi: I knew I had to give this wonderful function up when I decided to get this phone. Alas, I still have the iPhone. Even though I can’t make calls with it because I’ve cancelled service with AT&T, I can not only still use the iPod feature, but also watch YouTube videos, download songs from iTunes and surf the web via Wifi. It’s like an iPod Touch now, really.

Doesn’t Sync with a Mac: Well, it can sync with a Mac, but only with buggy third party software like PocketMac.

TrackBall is Tricky: It either moves too fast or doesn’t move at all at times. This isn’t a big deal, but it’s nevertheless irritating at times.

A Mediocre Browser: Even though the BB browser can now load HTML web pages, it is still a far cry behind Mobile Safari (iPhone), WebOS (Palm Pre) and Android (G1). The browser is slow, especially if you allow scripts to load, and you need the trackball to zoom in and out and scroll up and down and side to side. Very time consuming and annoying. And no matter how much you zoom in, you still have to strain your eyes to read the content.

That is all I can think of at the moment. All in all, it is a good phone, one of the best smartphones on the market now, in fact. If you’re not into touchscreen (I do, but having used the iPhone, I wanted my next phone not to be touchscreen) and love BlackBerry, then get the Tour. It’s got a more updated look, plus all the things you love about the BB. Choose which network works best for you. As for me, I chose the Sprint network because of its affordable data/voice/messaging package bundle and good network capabilities in this area. However, the Verizon version has a more marketable appeal to it, even with the complaints about call quality and whatnot. It’s your choice.

Review by Astro Jeff:

I recently upgraded from the Blackberry 8830 to the new Tour 9630. While my old 8830 still functioned well, it kept running out of memory (only has 64 MB). The upgrade to the 9630 has been frustrating. In terms of functionality, not much has really changed in the two years since the 8830 came out. From looking at the Tour, one would never know that competitors have drastically altered the smartphone market in the past two years. Unhappily, hardware glitches, software bugs, and the incompatibility of popular 3rd party apps have made the 9630 less functional for me than the old 8830. I hope fixes for these will soon appear, but one wonders why Blackberry didn’t address these issues before shipping. My overall impression on using the new Tour is that there was a lack of quality assurance and an overall inattention to detail.

My impressions of the Tour are influenced by my second phone, an iPhone, and the Palm Pre that my wife recently bought.

Pros:

—–

Integration into the corporate world – of course one of the main reasons to use a Blackberry is the access the Blackberry Enterprise Server allows to one’s business email and calendar. Note: Sprint charges an extra a month for BES access above and beyond their “Everything” plan.

Form factor – one of the advantages of a Blackberry is the physical keyboard. The 9630 keyboard is very nice. I like it a little better than the 8830’s keyboard.

EVDO Rev A – another reason I use Blackberrys is their ability to tether to my laptop for internet access on the go. The Tour is a bit faster than the EVDO Rev0 on the 8830. Downloads are about 20% faster and uploads are much faster.

Cons:

—–

Trackball – as many posters on the web have noticed – the trackball can be finicky. Sometimes it seems to be the OS that is lagging, other times it seems like a physical issue with the trackball not properly engaging. The Tour’s trackball is a big step backward from the 8830. This is a huge miss by Blackberry and greatly affects the device’s usability. I wish Blackberry would offer touch screens in this format – that would greatly enhance usability over the slow trackball – especially with web browsing and menu selection.

Build quality – overall, I like the form factor of the Tour. However, the battery door on mine isn’t tight and flexes and creaks as I type – giving it a cheap feel.

Web browser – the web browser in the Tour has improved a bit from the 8830, but it is still slow, hard to navigate, and has rendering issues. I only use it if my iPhone isn’t handy.

Calendar – the Tour does fine with my work calendar. For my personal calendar, my wife and I share a Google calendar. I would love to be able to view them both on my Blackerry. While Google provides a sync utility for Blackberry, it doesn’t allow the user to specify which Blackberry calendar to sync. So, all of my personal calendar events wind up on my work calendar, which I don’t want. Blackberry should provide out of the box integration with various cloud calendar services,like Google, and for a way to keep them separate. The Palm Pre does an excellent job of this.

Google incompatibilities – one of my favorite apps on the Blackberry is Goggle Maps, which, unfortunately, doesn’t work on the Tour. From what I’ve read the issue is that Google needs to modify Maps to use new GPS APIs. While I can understand that, it’s inexcusable that Blackerry didn’t have the foresight to make sure that one of the most popular 3rd party apps runs on the new version of their OS. Can you imagine the iPhone or the Pre shipping without Google maps working? Blackberry needs to realize they are not an island and start working with the app vendors.

Camera – the inclusion of a camera is nice upgrade over the 8830. However, the camera is very slow (2-3 seconds to take a picture after the shutter is pressed) and isn’t very intelligent about when to use flash.

Poor apps – doesn’t really need to be mentioned, but the app selection is limited. Some of the apps can also be relatively expensive. The capabilities of the apps are normally primitive compared to what you will find in the iPhone’s app catalog.

Small memory – the Tour comes with a paltry 256 MB of memory for applications. True, media can be put on the removable SDHC card, but why not apps?

Missing Today theme – the old 8830 had a nice Today them that shows you recent emails, upcoming calendar events, and missed phone calls on the home page. This function is missing on the Tour. Why? Does Blackberry not know how people use their devices?

Old OS – the Blackberry OS is really showing its age compared to its competitors. It has some nice features buried in its myriad of options screens, but usability is poor for people new to smartphones. Note however, that many of my issues could be addressed without a major OS rewrite. Fixing the bugs, hardware issues, and adding better integration with Google would go a long way to making the Blackberry a very useable platform.

Summary

——–

For the moment I’m undecided as to whether or not I’ll keep the 9630 or go back to the 8830. The sad thing is that if Blackberry had paid a little more attention to detail and to features their competitors are adding, this could have been a very nice phone. If it wasn’t for needing to access corporate email, I would definitely switch to another smartphone.