Falconportal.com
To start, I haven't paid for either phone nor do I own either phone that I'm reviewing. But after about two weeks with my blackberry Curve I can now see the huge difference between the well known brands.
To be clear I've played with two different versions of the iphone with my brother in law's being the most played with. I've surfed the web, wrote emails, txt msg-ed, "calendared", "tasked" and made phone calls with both phones.
For those of you who hate long reviews, the iphone is a media device that happens to be a phone, while the blackberry is a phone that happens to be a media device.
Call clarity - I didn't think I would be able to tell but wow, call quality is not even close. Is it a verizon vs att thing or is it the HW? Who knows. But this round goes easily to blackberry.
Web Surfing - Even with Opera installed this one clearly goes to the iphone. The I can scroll in landscape mode and every picture looks perfect. The defauly browser on the blackberry is just painful while Opera does some nice tricks to get around the small screen. Showing the page for example, in micro size is neat but adds a worthless step that the iphone doesn't need. The I takes this one.
Calling - This just might be me but it must have taken me a half a dozen tries to dial my own home number from my brother-in-laws phone. I'm sorry but I just can't do touch screen especially that small. From the home screen on the blackberry you don't need to do anything but dial. It automatically makes the letters numbers and you're done; phone ringing. Now I can already hear the screams of "No one dials numbers any more you pull up the address book and go from there." Wrong! I'm providing technology support to an entire school district. So I'm dialling numbers all the time. As for the address book, menu, address icon click, select person hit call. Drop dead easy and fast.
Handling - Again this may be my dumb fingers but I can't use the I with one hand. While the blackberry is so easy to use with one hand. Their track ball pointer thing (once you adjust the sensitivity to your liking) is so easy to use; and all with one hand. Strangely it really reminds me of my Super Talent player where my thumb is doing all the work. Does the I look better while "swishing" thru menus and such? Absolutely. But it's like coverflow or a flash based website. Geewizzy the first few times then a major pain in the a## because you just want to get by it. Both are easy to use but when I'm working on a pc, taking notes, and talking on the phone, I'll take the Berry each and every time.
Multitasking - Now that I have it, I could never buy a smart phone without it. I get an email, C&P a part of the text into a calendar for a meetintg, another part into my todo list for tomorrow, and txt the remaining part to a co-worker. While the email is being replied to, the calendar is updating and the todo list is still up and running, and growing. Multitasking is a must have. I would even go as far to say that not having it would be reason to question any device that doesn't do it. what blows me away is how the I didn't have C&P for such a long time. Un-Excusable.
Interface/Interface - No one can deny the shine and polish of the I. It looks 1000X better then the Berry ever will. The sliding of the screen, the touch screen expansion of pictures, etc etc are all way beyond what the Berry has to offer. But here's the thing, the Berry just works. It's like the command line in linux. Fast, powerful, efficient and gets out of the way while doing exactly what you want it to do. No score for this one because it comes down to personal preference and I refuse to speak for others.
Apps - On pure volume of Fart apps and games, The I rules the world with it's bazillion app store. But I just loaded a number of things today that Blackberry doesn't even know about nor do they care. It's my device and they only provide the means. I very much like being able to control my own device like I use to with my Handspring/Palm. It's a tie. Do you want tons of apps and not care about how they are controlled? The I will be just fine. Have a FOSS mentality and want to control your own device? Berry be good. ;-)
Data Entry - I touched on this before but out of everything that I just mentioned, nothing separates these phones more (for me) then the keyboard. I love my Chumby but the touch-screen sometimes drives me crazy. I thought I would have problems with the small keys but today I noticed I am getting faster. I hardly make any mistakes and when I do I don't need to look at the screen to fix them. I hit the wrong button, I del it, hit the correct one and move on. I am completely blown away by those out there that can data entry on a I; you deserve a medal.
So to wrap up, if I was going to buy a phone, I still wouldn't buy either one of them. It's cool having the net with you, and your calendar, etc etc but I'm just too cheap to pay for one not to mention I would never foot the monthly bill. So while I now understand the love affair some have with their CrackBerries it still hasn't so taken over my life that I have to have one. If nothing else it proves I don't need a smart phone and my cheapo prepay is more then enough to meet my daily personal needs.
But like I said at the start, if you want to combine your mp3 player, video player and surfing device into your phone, the I is the way to go.
But if you want a more multitasking business (highly encrypted I'm told) phone then the BlackBerry is for you.