So I bought new BlackBerry 8900 on AT&T. I was happily using my Sony Ericsson w810i from last 2 years and I was very satisfied with it. But I finished two years with AT&T and it was a time to upgrade my phone. Today its been around 60 days I am using this blackberry and here are my thoughts about it.
1. No call record function
Every phone that I had in past had the call record function, even very basic phones. It is very helpful when you want to record your phone call. Lets say you are driving and you want to note down a number that your friend is speaking from the other hand. You just hit the record button and your call gets recorded. You replay the recording when you want to use that. Very simple and powerful.
But blackberry don’t have this. They even restricted their API so other developers can’t create an app for that either. So I am just waiting for RIM to realize that this is a necessary function.
2. Trackball problems
I liked the track ball for first few days. But after around a month the trackball started developing problems. It will scroll up, right and left, but scrolling down was a problem. It was getting stuck and every time I had to try 2-3 times to make it scroll. I called up AT&T and they said they can only replace with refurbished phone and not with a new one. So now I am stuck with faulty phone with an option to replace with refurbished one that I doubt, will have the same problem.
3. Can not mute the camera
There is an annoying ‘capture’ sound every time I take the picture and there is no way to mute it. The closest you can do is call your voicemail and take picture while the call is still on. This is the work around. And you know why RIM hard-coded this to Blackberry? Because they think this will prevent you from taking candid pictures. Son of a gun.
4. Alarm did not go off that morning
I have setup the alarm to go off at 7.45 AM every morning. I was up at around 7.30 by myself that morning. I was just lying on bed waiting for the alarm to go off so I can get up from bed. But alarm never went off. I checked the time on BlackBerry, it was 7.50AM. I checked all the alarm setting, all profile setting but all of it was configured as it should be. I googled it and many other people had the same problem. I am really really upset after this incidence. Atleast the simplest apps like alarm clock should work properly on this business class device.
I will keep updating this post for my experiences/adventures with this device. Comment on this post if you had any such experience with your BlackBerry.
(Update 09/17/09)
5. No auto keyboard lock..!! (really)
Can you believe this? This 21st century business class smart phone has no auto keyboard lock function. You have to manually lock your keyboard every time after you use it. And if you forgot to do it, remember it has a trackball and it sticks out from the phone, so it will for sure do something weird when its in your pocket. But fortunately, some developer thought about this and created an app to auto-lock BB keyboard. (Thanks to RIM for making this API available, otherwise they will lock this one too for security reasons.) But seriously, do you expect your smart phone to lack basic functionality like this?
Hi,
Sorry to hear about your experiences. Let me try to clear up a few.
#2 – I have a similar issue; turn the hor. sensitivity up to 90 or replace the trackball. Also don’t use it with dirty figers eg after you’ve eaten
#3 – This is a legal requirement in some countries and there was a bill in the US for this to become law also (i’m not sure if it passed). Because RIM don’t make different versions of phones for different regions, they implement it as mandatory.
#4 – Never had this problem, mine even works when it’s switched off (as its supposed to). Trying updating the software like you would any new phone you buy.
#5 Set a password and set the security timeout to whatever you want.
One thing i’m curious about though is that you have moved from a feature phone to a smartphone with push email functionality. Are you using the smartphone functionality?
Surely other features drove your purchasing decision as i’m sure you can’t get RSS feeds, push email, browsing experience, messaging functionality with your previous phone…
Hope that helps a little.
Well, nice observation Andreas. I am not using it for push email. The main reason I got BlackBerry is because I wanted the “Task” functionality, and that is working like a charm. I have no complain about that. My old phone didn’t have any smart-phone-like features, but it did very best on what it was supposed to do. I think I am expecting too much from my BlackBerry, but it shouldn’t have let me down on some basic features.
so, it seems that the only issues are #1 and #2 (which you should get a replacement for) but a handful of benefits are Viigo, Gmail, GPS/mapping, QWERTY keyboard and instant messaging/social networking access.
sounds like a net benefit to me unless you use call recording all the time and don’t want to pay for a 3rd party app.
Actually, I don’t think you are expecting enough from your Blackberry. Its a smartphone so you need to think about it differently. It can (and should) be customised. install apps, change settings, connect to the internet. Don’t just treat it as a “get what you’re given” featurephone
Yes, you are right. I can get all other apps and social networking sites and all. I have installed many apps but I don’t use them much. I am in-front of my work PC or home PC all day. I schedule my meetings and tasks from Office Outlook and Lotus notes. And I sync it to BlackBerry. And the main purpose for my smart phone is to remind me of meetings/task when I am not at my PC. And BB does that perfectly fine and thats the main reason I will stick to my BB.
Thanks for your view though.
1. No call record function
I never had a phone with this feature and I am not sure that I would ever use it.
2. Trackball problems
Keep your hands clean 🙂 Refurbished in not necessarily worse than new. It could mean that someone else found the problem for you and it’s been fixed!
3. Can not mute the camera
legality
4. Alarm did not go off that morning
I have my alarm set to go off Monday through Friday at 5:00. I have never had it fail.
5. No auto keyboard lock..!! (really)
I have mine set to lock when holstered so no problems for me.
P.S. I really rally like my 8900 🙂
I absolutely love my Curve but I have had a problem with it, I’ve only had it for 2 weeks and I’ve already had the trackball playing up on me, first it wouldn’t scroll left then it would scroll up, I have just had to swap it out with the trackball from my old Bold, I wouldn’t mind having to do this after a few months of heavy usage but I’ve been using it very lightly for 2 weeks, how pathetic is that?? So I can relate to your 2nd point
1) Some find it useful and others do not. I think one of the main reasons it isn’t here is device memory. The other probably has to do with overall security.
I also know in some places it’s illegal to record someone without their knowledge so I think perhaps RIM just wanted to avoid that whole issue and remove the feature.
2) Trackballs are hit and miss with a lot of people. The earlier version of the Curve made it easy to change, now it’s a matter of voiding the warranty to do it on your own. No easy solution but personally I’d do it myself and carefully replace the warranty sticker so no one ever knows what I did.
3) I am not sure what the deal here is. In fact there was talk of making the shutter sound mandatory from a legal standpoint not too long ago just for the reason of people sneaking pics of others. Being that a regular camera has a shutter sound I don’t see why this could be considered a problem at all.
4) This one is a software bug. If you set the camera and hit the back button it saves your settings and exits. However, if you hit the call end button it doesn’t save it. The call end button is a kind of “jump out” option, not a back up and save option. It works this way for most apps in fact.
5) This is a config item. You can have the keyboard auto lock on a smaller interval if you like. Personally I go manual everything as I like to micro manage my technology. Fortunately as you say there’s an add on application so no real problem.
It is just a user’s education. I have been using it for past 2 years without any problem. By the way BB is a business phone not a multimedia phone.
I agree. BB’s suck big time!!! I hate it so much I can’t even find words to describe how pityful these phones are!!!
No call record. I Noticed this a few days ago actually. Trying to figure out how to activate it since I was woken up by a call from my store in the middle of the night and wanted to get the conversation recorded so I could understand exactly what was happening in the commotion when I was more awake!
Other than that, everything has worked fine minus odd glitches here and there but I’ve experienced these minor problems with all technology. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the durability of this phone since mines gone flying out of my hand on more than one occasion.
Fab to find others that hate the BB! Have also had one for about 2 months, today will be the last day. I have already contacted my provider and had the email removed, and now am going to move the sim card back into my trusted palm centro. No more crappy trackball, no more turning itself off, no more pisspoor email program, back to touch screen simplicity and all my old apps. Love this site as I thought I was the only one as all my colleagues love them!
If I hadn’t got a long contract I would happily drop this blackberry into a bucket of water. Compared to my last phone everything I want to do is so long winded. I know some people like them but to me it is a load of rubbish (I can think of a more appropriate word). I want a phone and not just a toy!
@Cider,
Looks like its not just me having all these issues. They are small glitches but pain in the butt.
Hi,
I’m also upset by Blackberry 8900 due to,
1). It doesn’t have call recording function.
2). I have missed my duty (once) due to alarm didn’t go off. Being in emergency services I was really in difficult situation also no one will belive the reason.
3). I have also faced the track ball problem for so many days.
Inspite of that it has many good things but now a days all that are available in phones like Samsung & Nokia in half the price with call recording which is really usefull in many ways…
SPW