3 reasons why I am NOT getting the blackberry 9700

Do I want the blackberry 9700? Of course I do. Do I need the blackberry 9700? No I don't. Will I upgrade or purchase the blackberry 9700 off contract? NO. Here's three reasons why.

First of all let me start with the fact I love the trackpad and keyboard on the 9700. My trackball gets stuck once a week and its always at the worst times. I own a 8900 and though I have adapted to it, I feel that the keyboard is too small for me. I have always envied the keyboard on the bold because of its size. Now, lets to get to why I will not be getting this highly anticipated 3G blackberry on t-mobile.

1. 3G is great addition and to some is over due on a blackberry, but for me 3G is not a deal breaker. Not on a blackberry. 3G allows you receive data while on voice calls. This good but uh, I very rarely talk on the phone, and even more rare for me to hold long conversations. So for that perk of 3G I really don't care for. 3G also gives you faster web browsing. I'm all for faster web service but everyone knows blackberry has the worst, and slowest browser on any mobile device. As much as I hate Microsoft and Windows Mobile I have to say even Windows Mobile has a better browser than the blackberry. Even with my 8900 on wi-fi my blackberry is still slow and is no faster than my edge connection. So if my blackberry browser is slow on wi-fi then I don't see 3G giving me a faster browsing experience. So 3G on this blackberry does nothing for me.

2. Whats the difference in a blackberry 8900 and 9700? Basically a trackpad and different style keyboard. Is that worth $449 or an upgrade if you own a 8900? I don't think so. The 8900 and 9700 both have a 3.2mp camera, and both share the same processor. Even though the 9700 processor is overclocked to a slightly faster speed, I don't see this as a huge difference. Yes the 9700 ships with OS 5.0 but once officially available by RIM it will be on my 8900 as well. Bottom line here is the blackberry 8900 and 9700 are the same phone with a slightly different appearance.

3. Android 2.0. When Verizon announced the Droid and I got a look at Android 2.0 I got a gadget erection. Capacitive touchscreens are becoming standard on smartphones now and blackberry has only produced two. When blackberry decides to give us the best of worlds, capacitive touchscreen and qwerty keyboard, then I will consider upgrading. And lets do something about this ancient OS on the blackberry please RIM. In less than one year Google has moved there OS from 1.0 to 2.0 while RIM is steady taking baby steps with theirs. I still don't understand why RIM is calling this latest OS upgrade 5.0 when its not much different from 4.6. But anyway, android 2.0 new features are good additions on a up and coming OS. And might I add free google turn by turn gps looks nice, and from the looks of it I'm sure it will take a unanimous victory over blackberry maps app. And the Droid docking as a alarm clock is genus to me. I use my 8900 as a alarm clock every morning. I'm not a huge HTC fan but they did announce they are working on some android 2.0 devices and I'm sure t-mobile will be landing some. I love my blackberry but other mobile OS's are advancing so fast that blackberry will soon be left at the back, and I refuse to be on the bottom with a mobile device looking up to other mobile OS's. I'll hold out for some Android 2.0 devices to come to t-mobile.

I'm not saying you shouldn't buy the blackberry 9700, I'm saying if you have a 8900 I don't see a reason to upgrade.

So I Really Wanted To Like The Motorola CLIQ

So I really wanted to like the Motorola Cliq. All my social networks and address book integration with social networks is a dream come true. I love the concept of being able to tweet someone or write on their facebook wall from the address book. Plus I've been waiting patiently to own an Android device and call it my own. Well I played with a Cliq yesterday and from the jump I didn't like the keyboard. Blackberry keyboard's have really spoiled me. In 30 mins with the Cliq I didn't see a problem with the touchscreen which some people complained about. I must say the factory android keyboard sucks. I like the fact the Cliq vibrates when you touch a key so you know its registering your touch. I tried to add my twitter acct to the cliq but it didn't take, and the browser wouldn't load despite the 3G connection it displayed. This I blame on the T-mobile outage that was going on Tuesday. I love the concept of motoblur but after reading the review on Engadget it was clear that Moto didn't get this right the first go around. The Cliq puts ALL your facebook contacts into your address book and I'm guessing it does twitter the same. I have over 300 friends on facebook and follow close to 400 people on twitter, thats just too much for me. Hopefully a software update to motoblur will give you option of what contacts you want to go in your address book. The idea that motoblur shows you all your facebook and twitter in one stream sounds great, but like I said, close to following 400 people on twitter and all my facebook friends updating in one stream sounds like too much to handle. The fact that your twitter @replies don't show separately really sucks to. A huge problem I read was that the Cliq's widgets updates slow. WHAT GOOD IS TWITTER IF YOU ARE GETTING UPDATES FROM YOUR FOLLOWERS SLOW! Very disappointing to read. Coming from a blackberry hearing about the email integration of the Cliq disappointed me as well. I am an email junkie so any mobile device I use has to be on point with email, or least be able to handle it well. We all know that Android handles Gmail flawlessly, but I use gmail, yahoo, aol, and Comcast email addresses daily. Outside of Gmail any other pop3 acct you set up just doesn't get the same attention. Hopefully some software updates will make motoblur more customizable. My last problem with the Cliq is that its running Android 1.5. As of today Motorola has made no announcements of updating the Cliq to 1.6. More than that, With Verizon announcing the Droid which will be the first Android 2.0 device, a 1.5 device will soon be ancient. Motorola I want to see you succeed, and I think you will with the Droid, but with the Cliq I'm going to need you to try again.