I let go Symbian for Blackberry, finally.

Finally, I am now trying something else which is very new, after being sincere to Symbian for 5 years. My 1st phone was Nokia 6630 & that’s when I fell in love with Symbian’s quick response & their sms especially.

Over these years, I had a lot of good experience using Symbian phones. My interest to use Symbian phones increased after their 1st thumb-pad candybar phone – E61, was released. It was a fantastic experience using a 2.8″ screen. My last Symbian phone was Nokia E71. It is a great phone too, & was one of the bestseller for Nokia. After so many years using Symbian phones, I thought of trying something new. That’s when Blackberry caught my attention.

I am not a music lover. Neither a game lover I am. What made me use Nokia (especially E-Series) was the sms capability. It is fun to use. Just recently, I actually subscribed to DiGi 3G broadband RM48 (under promotional offer). I thought of making it a “blackberry” as I want to get connected to e-mails & instant messaging 24 hours. Well it actually worked well

Battery life was great (if I don’t use 3G). Switching the network to “GSM” worked very well as I still received my e-mails without any delays. Nokia’s latest software – Nokia Messaging is marvelous. It also had this “mail for exchange” software which helped me a lot on my work. There were few shortcomings though. Firstly, I was having a hard time chatting via instant messenger like Yahoo! IM & MSN Messenger. Be it Nimbuzz or Nokia Messaging Chat or anything, I had frequent disconnection. I only realised it after few hours & I have to manually connect again. Secondly, my message (via IM) is not delivered to the recipient. I will be waiting for thier reply so long & after that when I ask them again, they will reply that they have not received my previous message. Sometimes, they will send something but I will not receive it. I was not happy with it. Not sure what was the cause.

I also realised that under EDGE, I will not receive calls most of the time when I am active on the internet. For example, I will not receive calls when I am surfing internet or chatting or downloading something. I got to know about this problem after I had so many voice mails to check after I am done with my session. This is the flaw of EDGE technology (not only for Nokia, but all models will have same fate under EDGE).

Another sad thing is Nokia Messaging (e-mail). It is a great software but had some bugs. Firstly, the device itself doesn’t support numeric e-mail address,e.g. 1234@yahoo.com. It had some bug. Secondly, for E71, I can only use Nokia Messaging (e-mail) as a trial.

Those problems made me to switch to Blackberry instead. I heard a lot of good things about blackberry & I thought of giving a try instead. Well, not much of a good experience I would say. Definitely, it is the king of e-mail but I had some problems too.

What I loved in my blackberry is, everything is integrated, from contacts, e-mails, sms, facebook, instant messaging – EVERYTHING. That is fantastic. As for the instant messaging, the chats are almost instant. I didn’t have my friends complaining that they did not receive my messages. I don’t have any problem receiving their messages too. I am now connected 24 hours via IM but there is hardly any disconnection. My MSN messenger disconnects once or twice in a day & Yahoo! IM never had any disconnection so far.

The notifications for each & everything is great too. When I used nokia, I will not get things notified (no notification light) when somebody send me a chat message (although there will be a beep once). For blackberry, the notification light give an indication whenever I receive a chat message or even a Facebook notification. That is awesome.

Now, the bad thing about Blackberry. Not very bad but I wish it could be better. I am having problem with Mail for Exchange for my blackberry. Luckily I have a Outlook Web Access & I can still setup my company e-mail address. The thing is, I do not receive my e-mails instantly. It takes 5-10 minutes before I receive my e-mails in my Blackberry. When I used Nokia E71, I can receive e-mail at the same time with my Outlook. That is 1 thing that makes me quite disappointed with my Blackberry. Maybe I need to subscribe to BES service to receive company emails instantly but I don’t want to spend extra money for that

Secondly, Blackberry devices in Malaysia are whooping expensive compared to similar devices. The sad thing is, there are cheaper devices which has much more functions compared to Blackberry. I wish that I could grab a Bold 2 but it is RM2099 here. Finally have to get settled with Blackberry Curve 8520.

Thirdly, (don’t worry, this is the final one) most of Blackberry’s important apps are not free. You need to purchase them. I had tonnes of fantastic applications in my Nokia E71 for free but not for Blackberry.

Anyway, both devices are special in a way. Surfing net & getting connected online for e-mails & chat is a breeze in Blackberry. I am just waiting for more functional Blackberry phone at a more attractive price.