With each passing day, more and more folks here in Nigeria are being drawn into the BlackBerry circle which in my opinion is a good thing ’cause I’m on #TeamBlackBerry all the way and would love to see RIM rise above its recents financial losses.
Despite being a fan, I do have to admit that Research In Motion’s BlackBerry smartphone has its’ shortcomings just like the mighty Apple iPhone does. If the BlackBerry is going to be your first smartphone, you can go ahead and purchase one without much hesitation but if you’ve been a proud owner of one of those hi-end smartphones like the Nokia N8, N900 and E7, there are a few things you must take into consideration before doling out cash for a BlackBerry device.
BLACKBERRY DATA SUBSCRIPTION IS COMPULSORY
Without a BlackBerry Internet Plan or Wi-Fi access, your blackberry device is just a texting and voice call device with mediocre camera. Internet traffic on BlackBerry phones is routed through RIMs servers in different strategic locations across the globe. Access to these servers is limited to those with an active BIS plan. I think Nigeria uses the servers in the UK. Your regular smartphone data plan will not work on the BlackBerry Platform. Even the Wi-Fi itself requires an active blackberry data plan.
There’s nothing as annoying as having BIS connection go awol while regular internet is still working just fine especially when you have important stuff to do online. It makes you want to slam the device across the nearest wall.
LACK OF PLETHORA OF APPS
Mobile application guzzlers and those of you who have experienced the richness of the Android Marketplace and Nokia Ovi store, will have a hard time adapting to BlackBerry’s Appworld as it practically has
just a little over a mere 60, 000 applications only.
You can imagine something as simple as an effective download manager is still missing from the BlackBerry Appworld.
CAMERA SUCKS
If you’re addicted to taking clean hi-resolution pictures with your Nokia N8 or Samsung Galaxy S II, I strongly advice you not to make the BlackBerry device your primary carry-everywhere-you-go device as you’ll be disappointed. In my experience the quality of pics on the BlackBerry Bold 9900’s 5MP camera is almost the same as those obtainable from the 2MP camera on the budget feature phone, Nokia Asha 200.
Let’s just say quality cellphone cameras are not one of the BlackBerry’s strengths.
If you can overlook these setbacks of the BlackBerry phone, then I say go for it.
In my opinion, I’ve been able to adapt to the BlackBerry’s shortcomings quite well as 99% of the apps I truly need are available via BlackBerry Appworld for free and I’m never keen on taking pictures with my Bold’s camera.
The compulsory BIS thing still pisses me off though and I wish RIM Canada would just offer some form of alternative in the BlackBerry Operating System that allows us use of the internet when the BlackBerry Internet Service temporarily goes down.
As always feel free to ask any question and I’d be glad to help out. Don’t forget to share on twitter and facebook.
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I’ve opted for a Torch 9810 (it came down to the best deal at the time). Have to admit I do miss a couple of the apps on my Android phone, but I’ve been able to find all of the ones I wanted in App World. And I haven’t bothered to take out a BIS plan yet but have been using wifi alone.
At first I wasn’t sure if it would work, but I’ve been able to get into App World, and download and update apps. Haven’t found a use for BBM yet (requires BIS, amongst other Blackberry apps and functions), but Whatsapp is up and running, as is Facebook and Twitter. I’ve deleted a lot of apps that I don’t want or need. In that sense, it’s much easier than an Android device where you have to root to get rid of some of the bloatware or unwanted apps that came with your device.
The biggest surprise to me is how much lighter the 9810 is compared to my 2 year-old Android phone.
Hmmm, I must say I’m quite surprised to hear you talking of using the blackberry over wi-fi without a BIS subscription.
Last time I tried that, everything worked fine but as soon as BIS expired, all apps stopped connecting to the internet.
Maybe I’ll retest again when my current plan expires. Are you able to use email as well?
It could be my location and the network I’m using at the moment. I read somewhere that I would need BIS to access App World over a wifi network, and couldn’t use Opera browser with BIS. but I was playing around with it, at first it didn’t work, but then it did. Interesting to note that I had no SIM in the phone when I first tried accessing App World.
At the moment I can’t access BBM, and I can’t access email – there are a few other services but I can’t recall. I’m not particularly bothered, I can access my mail in other ways and I’m not ready for BBM yet!
I’m waiting for my data bundle to expire so I can get BIS; I only have a couple of weeks to go but it seems like the longest two weeks!
E be like say things at your end are done differently oh! For naija you can have both a regular data plan and BIS running simultaneously without issues whatsoever.
I hope you enjoy the phone sha since plenty people just no like to take eye see BlackBerry. Hoping that would change when they launch BB10
I’m enjoying it while I can – I just keep expecting it to stop!
I’ve had Blackberrys before, starting with the 7290, then the Curve 8310 and some of the Pearl phones. Granted they were work phones but I found I used them more than my own phone. So naturally when I was looking for a new phone I had that experience to fall back on.
It was a toss-up between getting an OS6 or OS7 device – I wasn’t bothered with OS10 as I don’t plan on changing phones any time soon. And my experience with Android made me realise I wanted something with a touchscreen, though I have to admit I use it less than I thought I would.
The only complaint I have is that I wish it were simpler to put apps in alphabetical order!
Lol. With universal search feature, not having your apps in alphabetical order shouldn’t be a problem na. If it was android now, I’m almost sure there would be an app for that.
Thanks for this. I’m still debating which Blackberry to get. My decision was helped by looking for the apps I use most on Android and seeing if there was an equivalent in App World.
I’m still trying to figure out how a data bundle works on a Blackberry as I won’t be able to use my BIS plan for tethering.
You can only tether Airtel BIS for now