iPhone or BlackBerry Pearl?

[Ross Kimes]

Well I have had the Pearl now for about a month and I am not too impressed. Having internet is nice, but not at the expense of receiving calls. I knew before I got it that I would not be able receive any calls or texts when using the internet, but there are times when I would not be doing anything with the phone and calls would not come through. It is also very slow and it freezes a lot (talking about the phones UI, not the internet, if I have good coverage the internet is not too bad).

I am thinking that I may pay the cancelation fee for my contract and give this phone to my mom and get the new iPhone when it comes out.

 

[Mike Peregrine]

One other thing I've noticed on these new Blackberries (maybe I mentioned it already), is how EASY it is to scratch the screens. I scratched the screen up on mine in my pocket the very first week I had it. I bought an Applesauce polishing kit (which works wonders), but I was like COME ON. Now I am careful to carry it in a holster everywhere I go -

Also - on your point about receiving calls ... that sounds like a hardware defect. I'm always on the internet with the 8820 and the calls come right through. Technically speaking, we have actually had very strong success with the Blackberry. Much much better than the previous windows mobile that we supported (6700 and Treo). The Motorola Q running Windows Mobile 6 seems to be doing well.

 

[Bryan Putnam]

Well, I have been having trouble getting the BlackBerry to tether to my computer, so I took it to the U.S. Cellular store today to get some help. Their response was that I could not do it. I was a little upset because someone at that same store had told me two weeks ago that I could do it. So it looks like I will be getting a wireless card.

I haven't dealt with US Cellular, but my experience has been most phone companies have the tethering ability but have associates (in the store and by phone) that have no clue what they are talking about as Mike P. mentioned. I've spent the past few months with my chase partners trying to get this tethering thing settled and its been a headache. They had a similar experience to yours with AT&T, where one day you could tether, another day you couldn't, one day it cost this much, another day that much, ect. I personally have Sprint and again had a similar experience. I had asked Sprint if you could tether and got several no's or yes's with outrageous payment options before walking into a store last March. I finally found out that not only can you tether, but a lot of phones offer it and it is not that expensive. I ended up with the blackberry pearl because its networking package included tethering. I've had it for a couple of months now and love both the ability to tether and the phone itself.

 

[Tim Shriver]

Tethering according the US Cellular contracts etc is a no no. The only true
Internet service they have is with their business offering, via card.
They do not offer internet connectivity either via card or tethering
with their regular Joe service, just the business items.

With that being said, you can tether a cell phone to your laptop.
I have a Moto Razor and EasyEdge. In a pinch I can tether the Moto to the
laptop and pull in radar info via the Moto Phone tools. But I would not
recommend streaming video or pulling tons of data in as they could cut you
off.

I have been with USCell for over 5 years. But if they do
not start offering Internet (non-business) I will soon be leaving them.

They simply need to get with the times and stop lagging behind the curve.

Tim

 

[Brandon Goforth]

I got the Blackberry Curve and love it! And I can turn the tethering plan on and off when I want with AT&T.

 

[Ross Kimes]

Well after some more use with the Blackberry I am really stating to like to more. I am going to find another way to get data on the road and just keep the Blackberry for normal phone uses and not worry about internet.

 

[J Kinkaid]

Why not just pay the $20 for unlimited media net from ATT ?

 

[Alex Goldstein]

I realize that this isn't about either phone you wanted advice on, but.... Take a look at the Samsung i760 from Verizon. That is going to be my next phone in about 1.5 months when I get my discount. Lots of apps available for WM phones too.

Roger

I have had an i760 since November and have had nothing but problems. The phone is buggy and slow and the screen resolution is sub par. While the touchscreen was a huge plus, I find it to to be unresponsive sometimes and super responsive at other times. Overall it wasn't a great phone, though one MAJOR plus was the tethering, which worked with my laptop pretty flawlessly.

I am actually looking at getting a blackberry curve as a replacement from Verizon, as it seems to be a much better phone by all accounts.

Overall if I was to choose between the iPhone or the Blackberry, I'd go with the blackberry.

Alex

 

[Ross Kimes]

Well when it comes to touch-screens on phones, the iPhone is the only one that I have ever liked our felt comfortable with. My friend had one (I can't remember what it was...something with ATT) that had a terrible touchscreen. The iPhone's screen feels very natural. If money was not an issue, it would be my phone of choice, but free won the BlackBerry over for me.