As everyone already knows by now, Google officially annouced the Nexus One Cellphone yesterday. They even said it would be coming to Verizon Wireless in the spring. Add to that Motorola rumored to be releasing a keyboard-less Droid on VZW as well makes me fairly excited.
I’ve had the opportunity to play with the Droid over the Christmas Holiday. And I really like it. I like the UI, the way it feels, the way it works. All that said, I don’t like the keyboard, don’t want the keyboard and, at least on that phone, don’t need the keyboard. One of the reasons I’m watching CES coverage closely this year.
We know that I’ve been using the Blackberry for a bit more than a year. I like the Blackberry because it’s a great communication tool. It has great call quality and for email and messaging, most would agree, it can’t be beat. However, it doesn’t do web. Ok, that’s a lie because it does have a “browser”, but it isn’t any good. It’s slow, barely supports HTML4 and the screen is really too small to be useful.
The only problem I have with this batch of new phones is that I am stuck without the ability for a cheap upgrade until 2011 due to issues with Blackberry Storm. So I’m going to start setting cash aside so I can upgrade when the selection of Droid devices increases at my local VZW store.
Or, do I save that money for a few more months to possibly get an iPhone?. I still don’t see this as happening but really would like to be surprised, which I also don’t see happening. Can you imagine if Apple were to announce a VZW iPhone for the summer? Sales would stop at VZW while people waited. Pretty sure that isn’t going to happen.
So, I’m holding out until March. More as it becomes available.
It’s been almost 2 weeks with the latest Blackberry offered by Verizon Wireless, so I thought it would be a good time to give you my thoughts about this device. Of course, if you want to read how it came to be me owning one, go back and check out The Sunday Post 75 for the full skinny.
The Blackberry Tour is the latest device to come from Reasearch in Motion for Verizon Wireless and Sprint. Unlike the Storm, the Tour has the more familiar Blackberry form factor; keyboard on the bottom, screen on top, scroll wheel in between. As far as internals, it’s like a mix of the Bold, Storm and Curve.
It has a 3.2MP camera that takes great photos if the light is good. Low-light shots are helped by an LCD flash that yellows the photos a bit. Video is on par with the Storm, which is to say that I won’t be giving up my the The Flip camera anytime soon, however it is passable for the quick shooting of something you would have missed otherwise. I’ve included samples of each at the end of the review.
Like most of you already know, I didn’t get this device because it does that stuff. If I’m honest, I haven’t even tried to play music or video back yet. I have used it for just about everything else and so far, it’s been great.
Unlike the Storm, the Tour doesn’t have a touch screen or an accelerometer (or the bits that go with to make those work, as shabbily as they did). Even though it has the same processor as the Storm, this phone feels faster, my guess is because of the lack of touch screen. Button presses are immediate. Phone locking and unlocking happen very quick as well.
The keyboard is this phones best feature. While the keys are small and close together, each on is separated by, what everyone else is calling, guitar frets. Actual raised portions of the keys that help your fingers find their way. Key action is smooth, not too mushy, not too clicky. I haven’t checked my speed, but I’m pretty sure I can type out messages twice as fast as I could on the Storm.
Battery life has been the same as the Storm so far. I go about a day with light-to-moderate usage. If you use the web more, or apps that hit the network, it will affect battery life.
The screen is amazing, especially for it’s size. Images are bright and clear. Text is crisp and easy to read at all sizes at almost any time of the day. Like I mentioned, I haven’t watched a video on it, but I would imagine that it would look pretty sharp, especially when you consider the overall size of the screen.
Woke up in the mood to write this morning. Luckily, I have something to actually write about.
Why I don’t have an iPhone
Regular readers of this particular blog should already be aware of the pain that was the Blackberry Storm. For me, it was a device that was nothing but trouble. It was slow, the screen wouldn’t completely redraw and it would become unresponsive at least once a day. As it was, I was doing a pseudo battery pull at 2:00am every night* as well as another full battery pull during the coarse of the day. Everyday. Most Blackberries require a battery pull on occassion, but not everyday.
After finally having enough of Storm 4 for the past two week, I finally decided to head into my local Verizon Wireless Store to find out what they could do for me. My plan was to ask them to not give me another Storm, but instead let me upgrade 3 months early to the device you see pictured above, the Blackberry Tour. (Read on…)
You might have seen this yesterday on the Twitter.
Yes, that is correct, I am now in the possession of my 4th Blackberry Storm. The last one had a wonky screen with bad corners and I was a little tired of it.
But that’s not why I’m writing you today.
I had to go to the Verizon Store because teh lad’s phone gave up the ghost. Phone ordered and papers signed, I mentioned mine and before I even finished the sentance, the girl was already reaching into a cabinet and pulling out a replacement. Without even looking at my phone first.
This tells me that Verizon knows this is a problematic phone. No questions asked on a phone swap? I didn’t have to call 611, didn’t have to wait for someone to look my phone over, wasn’t asked a series of questions, nothing. I said it was bad and it got replaced on the spot, no waiting.
Reason #1 I stick with Verizon by the way. There is no way AT&T or Sprint would provide this level of service. On that same note, it would also appear that AT&T and Sprint know better than to sell a pile-of-crap phone like the Blackberry Storm.
Here’s to hoping the Storm 2 or The Tour are better phones are get released soon. Very soon.
There is a very good chance that I will be going to England over Memorial day weekend, for those of you that haven’t heard. MINI United 2009 is coming up and they have asked us to head on over and cover it for WRR and Motoringfile. Should be fun!
I have a couple of issues before heading over the pond however. One of them is communication. Verizon, while selling me this fine Blackberry World phone (even has a SIM card), wants to charge me an exorbitant amount of money to use that feature of my phone. I could go the Pre-paid SIM route, but getting the unlock codes for my phone is a serious pain in the ass (so I have read) and isn’t always successful.
Looking around a bit last night, and playing with teh lad’s iPod Touch, I had a lightbulb moment. No, a lightbulb didn’t actually appear, but you know what I mean. Look at the photo above and think on that for a minute.
Yes, it’s a microphone for the iPod Touch. Yes, it works with Skype on the iPod Touch. In fact, there is a whole bunch of them over at Touchmic.com. They work with current and previous generation iPTs.
Ok, it’s not an ATP, but it would work for me as long as I had WiFi, which I am pretty sure I will.
Has anyone used one of these mics, or any microphone, on the iPod Touch?
Older Articles »
