“The BlackBerry Bold 9000 improves on its predecessors in nearly every way,” Andrew D. Smith reports for The Dallas Morning News.
“It comes with a faster chip, a larger screen and a much-improved Web browser. The engineers at Research in Motion didn’t add a touch screen (the first touch-screen BlackBerry comes later this year), but they did install the best keyboard I’ve ever used,” Smith reports.
“Still, despite being the best BlackBerry ever, the Bold lags way behind Apple’s iPhone, which costs $100 less,” Smith reports.
“The iPhone’s greatest virtue is its elegant simplicity,” Smith reports. “Hand an iPhone to a new user, and he’ll figure it out immediately. Hand a Bold to a new user, and he’ll ask you for the instruction manual.”
“When the iPhone detects a Wi-Fi network, it asks if you want to join,” Smith reports. “Bold users have to ask the phone to scan for Wi-Fi. Then they have to set up connections manually.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, yes, this is about the Bold, but what about the BlackBerry Storm, some might ask? The Storm doesn’t even offer Wi-Fi at all. That is not a typo.
Smith continues, “The Bold’s browser is better than anything BlackBerry has offered before, but it doesn’t render Web pages as well – or as quickly – as the iPhone. No matter what you’re trying to do, the Bold makes it harder than the iPhone.”
Full review here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Gil” for the heads up.]
“No matter what you’re trying to do, the Bold makes it harder than the iPhone.”
Isn’t this what all product reviews should focus on? Set the parameters of usability you want to cover and tell us what worked for you and what didn’t. Too bad most reviewers want us to notice their wit.
Nobody cares about the Bold. The world is waiting for the battle royale between the iPhone and the Storm.
@ Digits McGee – Agreed.
I think the problem is more the fact that most tech reviewers get hung up on the feature list as it has always been a reasonably good way to compare products. So they go on and on about which phones have which features, not taking account of the fact that it’s the specific *implementation* of those features that really counts.
Feature lists are a good way of comparing two products, but not a good way of reviewing two products. A subtle distinction that most reviewers seem to miss.
It’s interesting that two of the best reviewers out there, Walt Mossberg and David Pogue, are hardly technological wizards and that their reviews almost always take the form of “I used this thing and this is what the experience was like for me.” That’s what most people value.
@ Jeremy: Good points all…
…let’s form a club!
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“Hand an iPhone to a new user, and he’ll figure it out immediately. Hand a Bold to a new user, and he’ll ask you for the instruction manual.”
And, that’s what it is all about, folks.
How can RIM even expect to compete with something that costs $100 more than the iPhone and is arguably not on par feature-wise?
Mac user since 1988, Windows user since 1995.
Features that are difficult or impossible to use are meaningless.
That explains the difference, which now includes the difference between iPhone and Blackberry.
But wait, where’s the FM Tuner!!?? Squirt??!! Rent a tunes collection??!! Where are they?
Are those the feature lists you all are talking about?
As a certified Microsoft developer once said to my boss and I quote: “You have a Macbook Air! So you don’t know anything about Computers… cause the only people that use Macs don’t know how to use computers!”
I wonder what she would say about the iPhone… Oh they’re for people that don’t know how to use phones?
Simplicity RULES… You shouldn’t have to spend 1 minute figuring out how to make it work. It should just work.
@jd
I hope that ‘certified Microsoft developer’ worked for your boss, or for a contractor. Because then that person would have been a former certified M$ developer.
IT professionals can’t handle simplicity. It short circuits their brains. They don’t trust anything that just works. They don’t get it.
Tinkering, studying manuals and “rigging” things makes them comfortable.
It is the same for Windows and PC users. SIMPLICITY and ELEGANCE is not in their frontal lobes. They cannot process it.
@KingMel
she was just some smart-ass woman that was trying to sell Information Services to us…
Her customer skills were complimentary to her choice of OS.
We haven’t seen her since… hahaha
She’s probably still trying to get css to work properly with IE..
I protest! I’m an IT professional and LOVE the simplicity of my MacBook Pro. As a developer, I also LOVE how beautiful the complexity is under the elegant “covers”.
DEATH TO THE EVIL BLACKBERRY! DAMN THEIR IGNORANT USERS TO THE FIERY DEPTHS OF HELL WHERE THEIR TORMENTED SOULS MIGHT BURN FOR ETERNITY FOR DARING TO USE A PHONE NOT BLESSED BY TEH STEVE!!!!
God help me, I love my Mac despite Mac fanbois.
Sorry Cubert!
The Hokey Pokey!
THAT’S! What it’s all about!
Ta Dum!
TR
The only ‘battle royale between the iPhone and the Storm’ will be in your own dark personal closet.
> Nobody cares about the Bold.
“Nobody” cares about the Storm either.
@MDN:
When you have the fastest, most reliable data network 24/7, you don’t need wifi.
WHY do we have to look at a picture of Obama on this page. I come here to get away from that junk. Oh, Palin 2012.
– ANNND I imagine that working for a non-Apple smart phone company right now must really be like living a Dilbert cartoon.