Playing around with the Torch the last few days I've become a big fan of the WebKit browser (as I expected I would). Sites that I used to shy away from on my 9700 browser are now a breeze on the Torch and make the web experience that much better. Granted having the touchscreen again is a big bonus, but being able to double-tap zoom and flick around with more speed is a great thing -- not to mention having tabbed browsing. This isn't really a "competition" bewtween the two devices, but I ran a little comparison of a few sites to see how the Bold 9700 compared to the Torch 9800. While it's not the greatest difference on some sites, others are much easier to work with now. I checked out CrackBerry.com, Google Reader, IMDB.com and ESPN.com. Kevin showed how the Torch stacked up to other device browsers, so here is a straight up BlackBerry to BlackBerry. I'm sure I'll find some more in the coming weeks, but if you pick up a Torch tomorrow (or have on already) be sure to drop a comment with some of your favorite sites to visit using the new browser.
BlackBerry Headset Throwdown - Battle of the big three
Wires or Bluetooth? Headphones or earbud? Normally having a multitude of options is a good thing but when it comes to choosing a hands-free device where does one even begin? You read the reviews and most don't answer the questions consumers really want to know. Examples of those would be; "Will my glasses knock the headset off my ear?", "Is it comfortable enough to be worn for long periods of time?" or "Since I'm paying so much for it, can I use it with my MP3 player as well?". I really wanted to see the difference between some of the top sellers from each area (earbud headset, headphones & wired headset) and really put them to the test of the "average" consumer. I judged each of these on a 1.0 to 5.0 scale, 5.0 being the highest. I also tried to explain why I gave each device a certain score because some would say the wired device doesn't even compare to the other two. Everyone's preference is different so I wanted to make sure all styles of headsets were represented.
Rebooting a BlackBerry - something we hate doing yet something we (unfortunately) need to do. Battery pulls, "soft reset" or whatever you want to call it, it has to be done. Historically our devices have taken nothing short of an eternity to reboot, pushing toward 10 minutes in some instances just to get up and running. Well with the new BlackBerry Torch 9800 a welcome relief comes as the improved boot time which is roughly 2 minutes. Finally we don't have to fret pulling the battery - which is few and far between on this device as it is.
Check out the video above (I didn't edit it down at all so we get the full effect of how painful a reboot is - it's kind of long and boring in the middle so feel free to skip ahead) for a head to head comparision of the Bold 9700 (OS 5.0.0.586), Bold 9650 (OS 5.0.0.732) and Torch 9800 (OS 6.0.0.141). Each of them is loaded up with nearly the same apps and data (messages, contacts, calendar etc) to make things as close as possible. The video is kind of long as I left it run through the whole boot process, so you can skip ahead if you want to just see the meat of it. The Torch boots up in around 2m 20s (at 3:17 in the video), the Bold 9650 takes a not-so-close second at 6m 40s (at 7:40 in the video) with the Bold 9700 bringing up the rear with a boot time of 9m 15s (at 10:33 in the video). Now keep in mind this isn't exact, but its a pretty good show of how long each device takes to boot up. This will totally vary depending on your data, apps etc as each device is specific to its owner, but we tried our best to do a decent comparison. Regardless it is totally obvious here that the Torch with BB6 is way faster (RIM did tell Kevin they improved the boot time considerably) than older devices. Your mission for today is to do your own boot test and drop a comment with your device/OS/boot time. Lets see who has the best and who has the worst!
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BlackBerry Charging Solution Shootout
Through many years and many BlackBerry devices I have never ventured beyond the factory charger. It has always been a point of frustration that the cable included with the BlackBerry has a straight tip, yet the Micro USB connection is on the side of most devices. This makes it awkward when charging and a few times led to bent pins if the device falls from it's charging perch. There are a number of options available for charging your BlackBerry. Which charger charges the fastest? Does the type of charger make a difference regarding battery life throughout the day? Is the most expensive option the best?
If there's one feature BlackBerry users have wanted to see improve on their devices more than anything else, it's the BlackBerry web browser. With BlackBerry 6 that wish can finally be crossed off the list, as the new web browser with WebKit rendering finally makes browsing the web on a BlackBerry an enjoyable experience. Compared to the old browser, it's a night and day difference.
But how does the new BlackBerry web browser stack up to the latest and greatest devices from the competition? I wanted to know the answer to that myself, so with some help from Dieter we cleared the cache on the BlackBerry Torch 9800, Apple iPhone 4 and new Android-based Samsung Captivate and put the devices head to head to head in a one take, no messing around web browser shootout. We tested the browsers both over 3G and WiFi (note - towards the end of the video where I jokingly say the BlackBerry browsing is being 3x more efficient, keep in mind that only applies to browsing over 3G - when browsing over WiFi the data is pulled straight in to the device vs. over 3G when it goes through RIM's servers which optimize and compress the data over the air). Read on for the results.
BlackBerry Bluetooth Speakerphone Shootout
Having a Bluetooth headset is becoming a necessity for some people as laws are being enforced all over North America against talking on cell phones without a handsfree device. However some people prefer not having something wrapped around their ear or a device they can utilize fully while on the road. There are cars that have the feature of having a Bluetooth system built in, but for those who are not fortunate to have one, there are Bluetooth Speakerphones. In this review, I will be putting the top three selling in the CrackBerry Store to the test to see which one is right for you. We'll be looking at the feature rich Blue Ant S4, the popular Blackberry VM 605 and the easy to use Mr. Handsfree Blue Vision II.
Bluetooth Headset Shootout - Jabra Stone vs. Motorola Endeavor
As someone who works in New York City, there are two things I've learned: (1) never publicly admit you're a Mets fan and (2) Manhattan is the noisiest city there is. Between the subways, buses, cars, taxis, and of course, the people, you need earplugs just to walk down the street. So imagine trying to have a phone conversation while walking anywhere in midtown. It's definitely not a pretty sight. At times I'm like the Verizon guy asking "Can you hear me now?" So what is a city girl to do? To solve that problem I'm going to put two headsets head to head in a battle to see which one can survive "the Manhattan Zone." I'm going to venture out to different parts of the city to see which one will come out on top and be declared the heavyweight champion. Who do you think will win? Click on the jump to find out.
*UPDATE* - Did anyone else happen to notice the "death grip" coming into play on this video? I hadn't fully watched it the first time around so I went back and it looks like the 9800 does show some signs. Granted it is pre-release but, these things are now going to be looked at more carefully*
Salomondrin has some new videos up. If you want to get a quick look at the BlackBerry WebKit browser going head to head against the browsers of Android and iPhone then you'll want to check out the video after the break. Salomondrin also posted some details regarding the Acid3 tests and how the devices compare there. One thing to note about the Acid3 test however, is that they often seem to vary so take from it what you will. Hit the video after the break, leave some comments on the post and let us know your thoughts.
Following up this morning's official BlackBerry Bold 9650 announcement and our guided video tour of the Bold 9650 and Pearl 3G, we spent a few more minutes with the new CDMA Bold stacking it up against its two brothers the Bold 9650 and Tour 9630.
While the BlackBerry Tour brand has been given the axe and is now a member of the Bold family, the feel of the new Bold 9650 is obviously more Tour 9630 than Bold 9700 (or 9000). If you have held or own the Tour, in your hand the device feels almost identical, the exception being the center navigation area, where the Bold 9650's optical trackpad replaces the Tour 9630's trackball. Considering that a lot of Tour owners suffered issues early on with their trackballs, this change is most welcomed one. While you can't see the WiFi, it's now there, but for some reason this new flagship device is lacking the 802.11 n (it does have b and g) that the Pearl 3G has received. Maybe they ran out of room for n attena with all of the 9650's World Phone goodness in there.
As we reported on the other day, the BlackBerry Bold 9650 doubles up in device memory from the now standard 256MB to 512MB - a first for a BlackBerry Smartphone. The jump up in memory provides more room for apps and should handle OS 6.0 and the WebKit browser well when they get rolled out later this year. And as with the Storm2 and Curve 8530, the Bold 9650 gets OpenGL support for 3D graphics, something no other BlackBerry Bold or GSM BlackBerry device for that matter has.
Be sure to take a look at the video above... Adam did the recording on this one and left a little surprise at the very end for y'all. We'll be doing more in-depth reviews on the 9650 once we get to spend some real with it.
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