Why blackberry's suck

mr_eddy

I will state right off the bat that I am not referring to the berry which is absolutely un-sucky and wonderful. No my gripe is with the smartphones made by RIM.

I work in IT and as such I have had my far share of working with and owning Blackberry's mostly not through choice (company phone etc). I feel I am now suitably qualified to give my opinion on these devices, and the report is not good.

Here is why:

1. BIS or Blackberry Internet Service. If you want to sync your email on your blackberry with your work email (SMTP normally) then you will more than likely need to either sign up to BIS with your phone provider usually at a cost of at least £5 per month or get a Blackberry Enterprise Server for many many pounds, I don't get why Blackberry are still hanging on to this outdated painful excuse for email sync. Android devices and iOS devices can do this all out the box with minimal of fuss.

2. Apps, The blackberry app store is quite simply a joke, overpriced and understocked. They have been going for years so there is simply no excuse im sorry.

3. file support. Basically every Blackberry I have ever owned has been a pain in the a"*e to work with now universally accepted file formats, such as .avi or docx come on RIM sort it out before you become part of the pages of history and not in a good way.

4. BBM more specifically people sat on the same bus together sending each other instant messages whilst sat next to each other. Are you friggin kidding me! Ok that is more of a dig at the users and not the device but still annoying.

5. Styling, sometimes I think the designers at Blackberry have only got access to some tracing paper, I know people who like blackberry like the style but modernise a bit please. They all look the same (with the exception of the torch)

7. Tiny screen no good for anything save for extending battery life (a bit) its still gonna be a daily charge job.

Bottom line is iPhone or Android devices can do everything better, faster, easier and generally with more slickness than any of RIM's current devices. Please can someone tell me why do people still buy these things?

Note - Don't give me any rubbish about qwerty keyboards etc, many android devices have qwerty keyboards and modern touchscreen devices have such good spelling auto check functions its really no different anymore.

Thanks for reading.

esspeebee

Nothing on iOS or Android can rival the enterprise integration and policy enforcement that BES provides. It's only in the most recent iOS release that Apple added the APIs required to make it possible to come remotely close, and I don't know whether anyone's actually done it properly yet.

As a consumer device, they're crap. As a corporate device, there's still no realistic alternative if you care about your information security policy.

bianchimoon

I gave up on them a few years back had 2 that after a while kept making calls/sending random texts by themselvesn, the trackball is/was an complete fail

Pross

Could be worse - my introduction to smartphones was the Palm Pre!

whitebait01

I've got a personal BB 9700 and we use 'em at work. My contract's up though so I'll be getting a Samsung GS3 asap.

There are a few things I like about them:

Battery life is amazing - 2 days easily, 3 or 4 at a push without charging (handy for festivals).
Security, for corporate use is still way ahead of apple and android.
Physical keyboard is great.
BBM is great, whatsapp etc still don't come close to it.

Don't like:
Tiny screen - but then you do have a proper keyboard.
App store, yep, shite. But then apparently they're more difficult to make apps for and not enough people buy 'em.
Trackballs - break very often. Last couple of generations have all had trackpads though, so all's well these days.

mudcow007

my mailserver software (Mdaemon) is part made by RIM so synch is free an painless

sorry im not helping am i?

Gizmodo

Pross wrote:

Could be worse - my introduction to smartphones was the Palm Pre!

At last we agree on something Pross
My wife insisted on a Palm Pre, it never gets switched on now and we're just waiting for the contract to end when it will get sent to phone recycling - I fully expect to have to pay them to get rid of it! Palm Pre = Pile of Pants! No actually Pants are more useful.

alihisgreat

whitebait01 wrote:

I've got a personal BB 9700 and we use 'em at work. My contract's up though so I'll be getting a Samsung GS3 asap.

There are a few things I like about them:

Battery life is amazing - 2 days easily, 3 or 4 at a push without charging (handy for festivals).
Security, for corporate use is still way ahead of apple and android.
Physical keyboard is great.
BBM is great, whatsapp etc still don't come close to it.

Don't like:
Tiny screen - but then you do have a proper keyboard.
App store, yep, shite. But then apparently they're more difficult to make apps for and not enough people buy 'em.
Trackballs - break very often. Last couple of generations have all had trackpads though, so all's well these days.

The Galaxy S3 is ugly... I don't understand why Samsung have made their flagship so ugly.

I've got the Samsung Galaxy Nexus which is superb, basically the same spec phone, without the fast chipset (which i can live with as i don't game on my phone).. and most importantly its not ugly.

The software is ugly too... If you want a proper android experience you need to sample Vanilla ICS.. not the crappy skinned version that you'll get on the S3, or HTC phones.

did I mention its ugly?

mfin

Well, personally I'll be gutted if they disappear.

Personally, I only use a phone (a lot, like highest contracts out there) for Calls, Texts and Email, so anything else it does is irrelevant to me.

I did try an iPhone but there wasn't a single App I wanted, I don't use a phone for any entertainment purposes etc, so what I was left with is a touchscreen phone, arguably the best one.

I just prefer Blackberry, its interface has no childlike animations clogging up the UI, the UI looks clear and clutter free. I can lock the keyboard with a physical button, the keyboard is incredibly quick to type on. Also, the email works well, and the data moved is quite thin, so on poor GPRS networks everything works well.

For Calls, Texts and Emails, blackberry takes some beating, I can do all three much quicker than on any touchscreen smartphone for sure, and that's all I want.

(admittedly, low end BBs are a bit rubbish, but the Bold 9790 I have and most Bold's have been great, oh, touchscreen and a trackpad as well, works a treat)

y33stu

I just wouldnt look past an iPhone. I work for company that is developing a quite large and groundbreaking app for the golf industry. AS such we are testing the app on all manor of phones, with IOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows op systems. I have an iPhone 3Gs personally, and an iPhone 4s for work, I've had a BB, samsung, and nokia Lumia and various HTC's, and can honestly say Apple would have to do something seriously wrong to get me to leave my iPhone for something else. I'm due an upgrade on my 3GS this month, even though I already have the iPhone 4s for work, I'm getting one personally too, I cant face using anything else.

proto

mfin wrote:

Well, personally I'll be gutted if they disappear.

Personally, I only use a phone (a lot, like highest contracts out there) for Calls, Texts and Email, so anything else it does is irrelevant to me.

I did try an iPhone but there wasn't a single App I wanted, I don't use a phone for any entertainment purposes etc, so what I was left with is a touchscreen phone, arguably the best one.

I just prefer Blackberry, its interface has no childlike animations clogging up the UI, the UI looks clear and clutter free. I can lock the keyboard with a physical button, the keyboard is incredibly quick to type on. Also, the email works well, and the data moved is quite thin, so on poor GPRS networks everything works well.

For Calls, Texts and Emails, blackberry takes some beating, I can do all three much quicker than on any touchscreen smartphone for sure, and that's all I want.

(admittedly, low end BBs are a bit rubbish, but the Bold 9790 I have and most Bold's have been great, oh, touchscreen and a trackpad as well, works a treat)

Sums it up very well and exactly my opinion too. I've got a Bold 9900, very happy with it, the physical keyboard being the clincher.

mr_eddy

Whilst I agree the security they offer for co-operate users is impressive its only a matter of time before they are surpassed and bettered by other smartphone companies. For personal or small business use the benefits of BES are not worth the HUGE cost of a BES Server, this also just adds another point of failure in my eyes.

In regards to people saying I only use a phone for calling, typing and emailing then there are for more cheaper handsets that offer all this functionality at a fraction of the cost. From a quick search through a tech magazine there are at least 5 phones that offer full qwerty physical keyboards at a cheaper cost that will happily do all the calls/texts/emails you want

HTC ChaCha
Samsung Galaxy Pro
Nokia C3 (ok symbian but still easier to use)
Samsung Chat 335
T Mobile Unity
the list goes on.....

All of the above at signicantly cheaper than the blackberry devices and are more than capable of handling calls, texts and email.

I hope people will open the eyes to the world of proper smartphone use as it can make every day tasks so much easier. I have a Android phone and without any 3rd party computer software so far today I have updated my work rota, put appointments in my work partners diary, done my Tesco shopping order, listed 2 items on eBay and reserved a table for dinner tonight all from a smartphone and all with the least amount of fuss or technical knowledge. That is what a smartphone is for. If all I wanted to do was ring,text and check emails then I would have one of the above and still have £100 in my pocket

petemadoc

I agree with the Blackberry comments, utter rubbish that just seems completely outdated compared to the competition.

Now to the real argument

iphone vs HTC (android)

My wife has one of those overpriced Apple jobbies, yes it's sleek and shiny and fluid but why so much more expensive? HTC for me please.

mr_eddy

Lets not also forget the massive screw up they had when no one could use BBM for 2 weeks, that is a pretty big screw up in my eyes. I have used just about every OS player going currently I am running both a Android and WM Mango 7.5 device both of which easily beat my old Blackberry bold for almost every task. I am confident that I can type a text or email as fast as on my old blackberry using may current phones and unlike with Blackberry I know I won't be paying for the ability to do so with stupid BES bolt ons etc.

Fact Blackberry has hit a new 8 year low in market share being 21% down this year, 14% down the year before that. Do you see the trend? They're dying even the the top designer has jumped ship. When they loose the battle to Android and iOS (and they will) this will mean no more updates to current devices leading to security issues, the value of the RIM devices will drop through the floor.

I would not be at all surprised if a Blackberry Bold can be bought next year new for under £100. Forget trying to sell your old phone when its time to upgrade, better off giving it away.

I gave Blackberry a chance, I was with them for years but they have simply dropped the ball. They are not even in the same game anymore.

mr_eddy

Both are excellent devices, depends what you want to do. If you are a big app user then iPhone if you like flash then HTC. Design its got to be iPhone, in terms of being able to play any content then HTC. Its a coin toss really. Personally if it was me I would go HTC, I could not justify the extra cost for an iPhone knowing that I am paying over the odds when the HTC would do the same stuff for less.

Ultimately it comes down to personal taste and personal wealth.

EKIMIKE

I'm not going to read any of this.

The reason Blackberry's 'suck' is because other products are better. Simple.

Blackberry's were the bee's knee's when there was nothing better around a few years ago. The consumer is fickle - in many cases justifiably so. In the tech sector particularly, brand loyalty doesn't count for much.

petemadoc

Just to add to the iphone vs HTC debate

I had an iphone 3gs and the screen broke 2 times which cost be a small fortune to repair.

I've had a HTC desire for nearly 2 years, it's been dropped, played with by the kids and dropped multiple times, it's covered in dents and scratches and it still works flawlessly. In fact a few weeks ago I dropped it, the back and battery came off and then it landed in a puddle, I thought it was a gonna, the screen wasn't working too well, so I left it by the fire for a few hours and hey presto, back to normal!!! This thing is hard as nails!

whitebait01

mr_eddy wrote:

Lets not also forget the massive screw up they had when no one could use BBM for 2 weeks, that is a pretty big screw up in my eyes. I have used just about every OS player going currently I am running both a Android and WM Mango 7.5 device both of which easily beat my old Blackberry bold for almost every task. I am confident that I can type a text or email as fast as on my old blackberry using may current phones and unlike with Blackberry I know I won't be paying for the ability to do so with stupid BES bolt ons etc.

Fact Blackberry has hit a new 8 year low in market share being 21% down this year, 14% down the year before that. Do you see the trend? They're dying even the the top designer has jumped ship. When they loose the battle to Android and iOS (and they will) this will mean no more updates to current devices leading to security issues, the value of the RIM devices will drop through the floor.

I would not be at all surprised if a Blackberry Bold can be bought next year new for under £100. Forget trying to sell your old phone when its time to upgrade, better off giving it away.

I gave Blackberry a chance, I was with them for years but they have simply dropped the ball. They are not even in the same game anymore.

I was at the 'Blackberry Innovator's Forum' in Excel during the BIS/BBM outage. Their European Director (I think) started his keynote speech with a 15 minute squirming apology. Fantastic to watch. That was when I decided that my next phone definitely wouldn't be a blackberry.

They shot themselves in the foot by forcing all carriers to route everything through RIM's infrastructure for data (carrier->BIS->internet, rather than carrier->internet for everyone else) and charging users £5 extra per month for the privilege. All well and good until it dies and takes 'em a week to restore service. Very embarrassing and no way round it for users.

singleton

Had BB's, had an iphone, had 2 androids......

What do I have now - BB 9900 and it's great.

BES is great, battery life is better than any other smartphone I've had, great keyboard....

pinno

I have no idea about blackberries except that they make good jam. Got this on-line just recently and I can fix it myself if it goes wrong.

MattC59

I don't know why people p*ss and whine about Blackberrys. I've currently got a BB Curve for work, I use it for making phone calls, and for checking emails and sending them when I don't have access to my laptop. It does those things with out fuss, battery life is great and reception seems to be better than other phones I've used. In short, it does what it's supposed to do very well.

If you want something to put lots of pretty pointless apps on, but something else and then you don't have to whine about it.

esspeebee

Yup, as a work mobile they're pretty good. Functional, relatively hassle-free, and with unrivalled enterprise integration. And the battery lasts for about a week, which I've never seen on any other smart phone.

I still wouldn't want one as my personal phone, though.