Hooray! Blackberry 8520! Oh wait... It's shit.

[NeptuneUK]

I thought my bad luck with phones was over when getting my hands on a blackberry, but how wrong I was!
I've heard many good things about the blackberry range of 'smart' phones, and see a great deal of people use them. However, I have never used one myself until today, and so my world has become more darker and unforgiving than it already was...
The first thing I noticed was that there is an irritating, rage-inducing green light that keeps flashing. I first associated this with unchecked voice mail. Upon checking my voice mail I found to my anger that the mocking green flashing light persisted to slowly drain my battery in an effectively unnoticeable yet strangely irritating fashion.
I can connect to any Wi-Fi network I want, but this doesn't mean the Wi-Fi actually works. In fact the big issue is that it DOES work after refreshing whatever page I want to connect to 4-6 times! If it didn't work at all then I'd be able to figure out the issue and fix it... It's just shit. Switching over to this phone feels like I've accepted a deal from the devil and a large part of my soul has been requisitioned for doing so.
It's unnecessarily complicated to execute even the most mundane of tasks such as send an SMS (if you want to send to more than one person don't even go there!) In addition, the menus are overly complex, where other phones and devices capable of exactly the same functions have much more streamlined and organised categories, the blackberry has like 100 icons on the menu to search through before finding one specific application.
I find the built in camera loathsomely mediocre, and the overall responsiveness of the device's OS dire.
The buttons are small and awkward, and the tiny directional pad is far too sensitive for quick, easy use. I'll rather willingly rectally insert an iphone like the rest of planet than putting up with this.


Verdict : I rate this blackberry 3 turds.
(Mostly because the internet is crap)

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Well you have gone for the lower end blackberry with that model. It's being offered in 90% of deals from what I've seen, trying to shift stock?

Should have gone android my friend!

 

[Shamrock]

Did you actually purchase this phone? Also, I suggest you go over to www.crackberry.com and search around the forums about your phone. They have many installations for phones. I remember when I had my Storm, I went on there constantly to see if I could get the next best update for it. I realize it's not the best BlackBerry, but it could be pretty awesome with the correct ROM for it.

 

[Gonz]

I think black berrys are kinda inferior now. The only thing they have going for them is the BB messenger thing. Windows 7 phones are going to be the supreme overlords soon

 

[Acepilotf14]

I think black berrys are kinda inferior now. The only thing they have going for them is the BB messenger thing. Windows 7 phones are going to be the supreme overlords soon

Microsoft thinks everything they come out with is going to beat everything

I think Droid has the market for a while. Eventually Microsoft will give up on their phones and then they'll have another relic again.

 

[kupocake]

Yeah, the 8520 isn't up to much. IIRC it doesn't even do 3G (not to worry. The UK has shit coverage anyway ). How'd you get it? Walk into a shop and get sold to? By a provider's own store or one of the multi-carriers? If you purchased online, the distance purchasing laws should allow you 7 or so days to say you don't want it. You sell your soul for a couple of years on a modern phone contract... as tedious as it is, it really pays to be armed with the facts. Nothing worse than watching as every month, a little more of your hard earned money is siphoned off to pay for something you wish you didn't have.

I honestly thought the buzz around RIM devices was completely cold by now. In the brief time I worked selling phones to people, Blackberry phones tended to go to that small niche of small business owners who don't have massive man fingers (builders laugh derisively at these things. But then, standard sized screwdrivers may as well have come in a pack of four in a Christmas Cracker when you witness their mighty geezer hands). The occasional teenage girl came in having got the idea that Blackberry was cool (they're probably mad about them on whatever three year old American shit is playing on MTV these days, whiper-snappers). They make sense if you're liable to crack screens I guess. But as a fashion accessory? Wha?

Windows 7 phones are going to be the supreme overlords soon

Not a chance. They've been eaten alive by Google, and whilst the Nokia move would have made sense twelve months ago, they're just the meek leading the blind now.

 

[NeptuneUK]

Got it second hand free from family. So I'm still on a PAYG sim.
On an unrelated note, what's a good entry android phone with a touchscreen I can sign my soul over to?

 

[No Limit]

You know, a good rule of thumb is to try and spend some time actually trying to fix the issues you are having or atleast asking how to fix them before bitching about what a POS the phone is on the internet.

I moved to android from the blackberry 8800 but I still miss many of the features of that phone, some of those features you are bitching about.

On the LED. You have some very powerful notification options when it comes to that LED. You can disable it or an enable it for just about anything. You can even change the colors on most models (you might need an app for that). If your only concern is battery drain then you shouldn't be concerned, that LED uses virtually no battery power. If you are annoyed by it you can disable it for things you don't want it flashing for. Just look around, I don't remember off the top of my head how to do it.

On the wifi issues. Many phones have problems with this for some crazy reason. My HTC evo 4g has weird wifi issues as well where it can be really frustrating. I would research online to see if there is a fix for your phone.

On the SMS text to multiple people. From what I remember this is insanely easy. Just hit your BB memu button and hit add recipient. Does this not work?

On an unrelated note, what's a good entry android phone with a touchscreen I can sign my soul over to?

If you do alot of texting, emailing, or other writing on your phone in my opinion a physical keyboard is a must. The thing I loved the most about the blackberry was the keyboard on it, I could type just as fast on it as any computer keyboard. Switching to android with a touch screen keyboard has been hell, after 9 months I still can't get used to it.

 

[NeptuneUK]

This low end BB is acceptable, it doesn't have some features I want like a decent mobile internet (3G)
Getting a higher end BB is also an option but I've heard nothing but praise about android.

 

[No Limit]

Did you get your issues resolved?

Wether you should get a blackberry or an android really depends on what you want to do with the phone. A blackberry is unmatched when it comes to messaging (email, sms, etc). But for more personal uses such as browsing the internet, cool apps, listening to music, etc then I would go the android route.

As I said above my biggest regret is not having a physical keyboard on my evo. But they have some really cool phones now a days that have physical keyboards.

Do you have a perticular provider in mind for the phone? Any budget constrains or worries about contracts?

 

[NeptuneUK]

I ended up with a Samsung Galaxy, very pleased. So far I prefer it over the iphone, which is something.

 

[No Limit]

Cool, that's a really great phone.