Why I'm Dropping The iPhone And Switching To A BlackBerry

Dropping The iPhone
Before you grab your pitchforks and hot tar, I just want to make a quick point: for me, the iPhone is basically an iPod duct taped onto a phone.

Of the 28-some odd gigabytes of space available, 98 percent of that is devoted to music. The iPod app has seen more use than every other app on the phone combined.


A close second? Email. Third? Text messaging. Then Facebook and Twitter. A distant sixth-place contender is web browsing and navigation.
The BlackBerry does all of those other apps better than the iPhone simply because I can save seconds or fractions of a second. That's more important to me than a little animation that makes the whole process look slightly prettier at the cost of a fraction of a second.



When I installed the BlackBerry desktop app to synchronize it, it says, "more time for life." Research in Motion gets its audience.
So why does everyone hate the BlackBerry? Seems to me like they just don't get it.
When I first got my hands on the iPhone, I was delighted. When I got my hands on the BlackBerry, all I could think about was all the ways it was about to make my life better and easier.

Like our other writer Alyson Shontell, I decided to run an experiment — and use a BlackBerry for two weeks. I'd decide which one I liked best, and go out and buy an upgrade on Black Friday when everything went on sale.

The iPhone is a vastly superior music player

Let's start with what the iPhone does best: music
This one is almost too easy. The iPhone was built off the iPod and it is a far, far superior music player. It's the best smartphone out there for playing music. The player never stutters regardless of the sound quality for the song. I found that at 320 kbs quality (which is very high), the BlackBerry music player would stutter.
Navigating the application is also much easier on the iPhone. It's done through a mix of swipes and taps instead of the painful trackpad navigation on the BlackBerry. There are a few shortcuts on the iPhone that I would never give up: double-clicking a headset button to jump to the next track, swiping on an album cover to jump back to the music library and finding specific titles with the search bar.
It's such a ridiculously good app, Apple deserves three points for this. But Apple has music written into its DNA. If it lost this battle, Apple wouldn't even deserve to be the most valuable technology company in the world.
Apple starts off the game by flattening a BlackBerry defender with a slam dunk.
SCORE: iPhone 3, BlackBerry 0

Synchronizing is easier with the iPhone

Swish! Apple sinks its free throw.
This one should be another automatic victory for the iPhone. It already had an excellent music management program for the iPod with iTunes, so it wouldn't take much to duct tape some additional features onto that. It's really easy to buy music, apps and other content and have it automatically jump onto your phone. Transferring contacts back and forth is also great.
Where iTunes really shines, though, is synchronizing over Wi-fi. There's no excuse for a phone to not be able to do that right now. You can only sync your music with the BlackBerry over Wi-fi, and it's a bit of a chore to set up. You can still use your phone while it's synchronizing, too.
Apple's new iCloud also makes it really easy to back up your contacts and email, and it works right out of the box. There really isn't an analogue for that with the BlackBerry yet (or if there is, I haven't found it).
SCORE: iPhone 4, BlackBerry 0

 

 The iPhone has early access to the best apps and has great games

The Apple App Store boasts more than 300,000 applications, and the most popular apps usually end up on the Apple App Store before any other app store (outside of maybe Android).

But it's hard to argue that the BlackBerry doesn't have the same mission-critical apps that Apple has. I still have Twitter, I still have Facebook and I still have Pandora. I don't have mindless Angry-Birds-Clone_01, but I don't really care about that.
I'd also argue that those applications are also a little easier to use on the BlackBerry thanks to the physical keyboard. It's easier to type a Tweet or a status update, so it ends up being faster. The whole experience is probably a little step down from the iPhone's glossy versions, but it's worth it for the amount of time you save.


The only thing I'm really missing are games like Infinity Blade, but I didn't really play those to begin with. But Apple does have the edge with early access to applications.
Plus, Apple has Ubercab. I would probably die without it.
SCORE: iPhone 5, BlackBerry 0

The BlackBerry Bold is screaming fast

This is turning into a rout, isn't it?
Well, not so fast. The BlackBerry is actually the fastest smartphone I've ever used — which includes the iPhone and a lot of Android phones.

It takes less time to get to my email or to get to an App that I need to open with the BlackBerry. The apps load in less time and the experience never feels bloated. It's ruthlessly efficient.


In comparison, my iPhone feels bloated at times — it stutters and takes several seconds to load apps some times and it will hang at the lock screen. It's a little baffling, given that the iPhone is supposed to sport some vastly superior technical specs.
But I'm going to give the edge here to the BlackBerry. I save several minutes each day not waiting for the apps to get off the ground. BlackBerry is back in the game — but just barely.
SCORE: iPhone 5, BlackBerry 1

 

 

The BlackBerry feels more sturdy

During my first week in New York, I was headed into the city from a subway station in Brooklyn. I asked a friend to pull out her phone so I could jot down a quick note. It slipped out of her hands and hit the ground.
I cringed, because I knew exactly what had happened. She picked it up and the back was completely shattered. What was once a beautifully crafted piece of art was now broken — and would slice open your finger if you touched it the wrong way.


The iPhone is a gorgeous piece of hardware. It's probably the best looking phone out there. But that's hampered because you are almost required to buy a case — unless you have a death grip on your phone at all times. So you automatically lose some of its aesthetic value.
The BlackBerry, in comparison, doesn't have that identity crisis. It isn't gussied up in make-up or glass covered with shiny Apple logos. It's solid and sturdy, with a matte casing that gives you a little bit of reassurance that you probably won't drop it.
Even if I did drop it, I wouldn't worry too much about it. The BlackBerry feels like it's built like a tank. And I drop my phone a lot.
SCORE: iPhone 5, BlackBerry 2

That blinking red light is the best notification system on the face of the planet

Imagine being at the front of the line at a red light in your car while you're checking your phone. Instead of someone honking at you from behind when it turns green, someone steps out of their car, walks up, taps on the window and returns your attention to driving.

That's what the BlackBerry's notification light on the top of the phone is like. Whenever you get a message, it flashes periodically. It's the most non-obnoxious thing on the planet – there's no sound or buzzing when you get an email or a notification through the phone if you like. Just a little blinking light.
I need to know when I get a message in this line of work, because our job is measured in seconds — not minutes. But often enough, a vibrating phone or loud enough sound can jarr you out of your zone and end up slowing you down.
Not like the BlackBerry though. It's just like a guy in the corner of the room, patiently reminding you that he's there with a little wave periodically.
Sometimes you have to enjoy the little things.
SCORE: iPhone 5, BlackBerry 3