After being perfectly happy with my Blackberry Pearl, and somewhat less happy with my mobile phone provide, Orange, I recently made the switch to an iPhone 3G, with O2. The iPhone mania rushed through my blood, and I forked out significant cash to exit my contract and enter the world of iPhone.
The rational side of me had decided that I was completely happy with my Blackberry Pearl. It was unfortunate that I am on a project 250m from the Apple store and witnessed the mania and madness on a daily basis. Somehow the irrational and emotional side took over and I just had to have one. Now that the dust has settled, I am ready to give you an honest comparison to help you decide for yourself or at the very least, try and figure out the human mind when it comes to such purchase decisions.
Criteria BB iP Comments
Size + - iP isn’t much larger but the shape doesn’t fit into any of the mobile pockets in any of my hand bags! I don’t find it easy to hold either.
Weight + - iP much heavier than BB.
Battery Life + -- BB is the best battery life I’ve had whereas iP barely lasts a day with a few calls and some SMS’s. The worst element of this phone!
Keyboard + - I’m still clumsy on the iP keyboard – much faster with BB Suretype. It’s tough to not hit the key next door on the keyboard although it does recognize mistyped words. It’s a disaster when I need to SMS in other languages as these words aren’t recognized (is it possible somehow to change the language?).
SMS + - SMS on the BB is easier. I like how it shows the contents of a new text on the iP screen however it takes longer to send a new SMS and there’s an annoying 3-4 sec wait when you access the SMS app.
Startup ++ - The BB boots up in a split second whereas the iP is more like a Windows Mobile device (I had an HTC before my BB) with regular (read: slow) startup.
Synchronisation - + The iP is an improvement for me being able to sync email, calendar and contacts wirelessly whereas I needed to cable sync my BB as the BB server only hosted my emails.
E-mail ++ - • BB is push, which is far better than the iP pull. Only the MobileMe email address is pull but who would create a new email address just for push email? I already use 3 email addresses so don’t want a 4th one.
• iP doesn’t officially support Hotmail! They said the problem is on Hotmail’s end. Anyway, I found a site called IzyMail which still allows your Hotmail to be pulled to your iP but doesn’t seem to work on 3G only on wireless networks.
Web-browsing - +++ Aha – here is the real draw of the iP. The web-browsing of actual websites versus mobile sites opens up the whole internet when you’re on the road. I end up doing much more surfing when on the bus for example … except it eats up the battery life so is a dual-edged sword.
Browsing Speed + + It doesn’t seem like 3G is any faster …. HOWEVER I need to take into account that I am accessing regular web sites with images etc and not text-based mobile sites so the 3G speed is doing its job.
Camera + -/+ The iP camera has less megapixels and can’t zoom. These days some phones even have a flash which this doesn’t have.
• I like the ease though of taking someone’s pic and associating easily with their contact when they call.
• I don’t personally need such a sophisticated camera
• In tests it has been shown to be more challenging getting a good image when there’s motion but I haven’t found this.
• It apparently isn’t so great at night.
Oh yes, and there’s no video although I’m not even sure if my BB could take video either. D’OH!
Looking at this table, at a phone-by-phone comparison, the Blackberry Pearl emerges the winner. So which phone do I prefer? Why, the iPhone of course! Whaaaat? Excuse me? There are 2 key reasons why, which are not evident from this logical comparison above, compelling me to make this irrational yet no-regrettable decision:
1. The Emotional Cool Factor
The iPhone managed to tap into a part of my brain influencing irrational purchasing behaviour in which it became an item “I just had to have”. The massive appeal of having the device can be attributed to the coolness of the brand and the product, the attraction to its design and ease of use and the buzz associated with the newness and status.
It’s very much a ‘hip’ gadget adopted in the more creative industries like advertising, design and media industries. Personally I always seem to be somewhat of an early adopter and gadget freak, although I resisted the first generation as I had just signed my 18 month contract for my BB.
These factors are what gets people to go on a waiting list for say a Hermes Birkin bag at GBP 2,5000 or to own a certain brand of jeans for GBP 200.
2. It’s a mini-PC, not just a Phone
The above table is somewhat of an apples with oranges comparison, as the iPhone is so much more and has really cool other innovation elements making it a dream to own and use:
• UI:
o The touch UI with scrolling and zooming in/out is truly a great innovation on Apple’s part.
• INTEGRATION: This is where Apple wins the war on its competitors.
o The integration with iTunes and other applications is nothing short of impressive. You can create a ring tone from an iTunes song and easily add your iMovies with a sync.
o Its fantastic to have one device for everything including your music. I have yet to have a song nicely interrupted with a call but look forward to it. ;-) There are pundits who complain that there’s no Bluetooth stereo headset but I don’t consider this a reason to not get the phone.
o YouTube: I read about someone having footage of the Qantas plane which had an explosion and emergency landing. I searched and watched the video on the YouTube app as if I had my PC with a wi-fi connection. I would never have thought of using YouTube on my phone but their partnership with Google has offered a great suite of integrated services.
• VISUAL VOICEMAIL:
o Genius. I actually get excited to listen to my voicemails through the ease of the visual interface. I am so relieved not to have to listen to that annoying woman’s voice at Orange “ You .. have .. 2 .. new .. messages .. received .. Monday .. at 2 .. 25 .. pm .. first .. new .. message …”. Ok, so I’m impatient, sorry.
• APPS:
o Here’s the mini-PC part in that I have a blogging application, a twitter application, games, weather and more. The App store had so much app candy, that I downloaded so many it practically crashed the iPhone. Many sites have developed their own widgets/gadgets/apps like Last.FM and eBay plus there are loads of interesting and useful ones from playing games to measurements conversions to RSS feeds to web messaging. I haven’t even scratched the surface here.
In the last 24 hours I’ve migrated to an exchange server for $15/month since I’m not happy with the MobileMe service. The biggest drawback, aside from the misconception of the push email element (only linked to your @me email address) is the ability to not manage your email form you phone. When I delete mails from my phone they are still downloaded when I log into my PC. Exchange also allows me to use the Outlook client when traveling (meaning I can manage my mailbox on flights instead of being tied only to webmail) so I’ve been considering migrating for a while. Once its up and running I’ll cancel MobileMe (who knows how easy THAT will be?). I also just saw a tweet from @JaffeJuice about avoiding MobileMe, so I’ll give him a call and get his point of view.
I hope this post has been informative and I would love to hear your opinions and feedback on the points I’ve mentioned as well as points I haven’t mentioned.
