Review by Eric Monse:
I had an iPhone and recently got the HTC Incredible. I loved the iPhone but hated AT&T. But I love the HTC Incredible even better than I loved my iPhone. Here’s why.

HTC Incredible advantages over iPhone ——————

Verizon – I got rid of my iPhone simply because AT&T is terrible here in New York. My sister and her husband in Washington DC got an iPhone over Christmas and they complain about the crappy service there too. Verizon is blazing fast, the best service in NYC.

Widgets – Surprisingly the iPhone doesn’t have widgets. The Incredible has some really cool widgets you can use. Widgets are like icons you can add to home screens, but instead of opening a program, the icon itself will give you info or have some other type of functionality like a a list of contacts or booksmarks you can access directly without opening a program first.

Transfer files without iTunes – Whether you like iTunes or not, you are hamstrung using it with the iPhone. With the Incredible, transfer is simple. You connect the phone to your computer and you can copy over files to it.

Connect it to as many computers as you want – I can connect to my computer both at home and at work, something you can’t do with the iPhone. Apple annoyingly limits you to one computer to update your iPhone.

Access the file system – Unlike the iPhone, you can copy, paste and delete files from the internal hard drive. You can also copy files from the hard drive to your computer–or any computer for that matter.

Email – E-mail capabilities on the Incredible are better than the iPhone. In addition to global search, you can sort by conversation, sender, date, etc.

8 megapixel Camera with flash – The 8 megapixel camera takes beautiful detailed shots, even better than the iPhone’s camera, which actually takes really nice photos as long as it’s not dark. The iPhone doesn’t have a flash. The camera on the Incredible did crash a few times, a but I’m hoping they will work out in later versions. The Incredible camera is also really fast loading.

Physical Camera button – The Incredible has a physical camera and video record button that works very well. With the iPhone you need to push a button on the touch screen, kind of annoying sometimes.

Faster – The Incredible is blazing fast. There is rarely any lag in switching or loading programs. Very snappy.

Mp3 player access without unlocking screen – When you’re listening to music and you click the button to turn on the screen, you don’t need to unlock the screen to see what music is playing. The iPhone has that as well. But unlike the iPhone, it also has usable back, pause and forward buttons on the locked screen.

Editable dictionary – You can see and edit the keyboard dictionary yourself and choose what words you want in it.

Send caller to voice mail – If you edit a user’s contact, you have an option to always send that user to voice mail if you want. Minor, but kinda cool.

Weather on calendar – When you flip through upcoming days on your calendar, it also displays the weather for that day. Pretty sweet.

Google maps with layers – Android allows you to add `layers’ to your map. For example, you can overlay the NYC MTA subway maps and see the actual subway lines. iPhone can’t do that.

Super thin – This phone feels thinner than the iPhone, and I think it is in some ways. It certainly fits in my pocket a lot nicer than the Motorola Droid, which felt about 1/3 thicker than the incredible.

iPhone advantages over HTC Incredible ——————

Music audio quality – I loaded the same some songs on both the Incredible and the iPhone and listened carefully. The iPhone’s music audio quality, without any EQ, is slightly better than the Incredible. It’s not bad on the incredible, it just sounds slightly punchier across the audio spectrum on the iPhone. The Incredible does have better sound quality than the Motorola Droid, which I also tested.

Equalizer – The iPhone has different equalizer settings. It’s poorly implemented and easy to get low-end distortion but at least they have an EQ. No EQ on Android phones. Lame.

Alerts – I like the way alerts and text messages pop up on the iPhone better than the Android. It feels like you need to dig too much to access new messages on the Incredible.

Apps – Of course, the iPhone’s app store is far more extensive than the Android’s. 95% of the functionality I can still get on the Android, but apps for the Android are almost always made second to iPhone apps if at all.

Review by C. Moberg:
I’ve had this phone since April 28th and I’m actually rewriting my original review using my HTC Incredible as my laptop’s internet connection via EasyTether Lite (free). I must say I’m really impressed with this phone. It’s super fast, good looking, and customizable. It’s a treat to finally have a great phone paired with a great network!

Update: If you are looking at this phone and aren’t yet locked in with Verizon, you might be comparing it to the HTC Evo 4G. The Evo 4G is for Sprint, and has some pros and some cons compared with the Incredible. I’ll let others compare to the Iphone 4 / 3GS in detail (Honestly, I think either of these HTC phones are superior at the very least by hardware with the exception of the Iphone 4 screen’s resolution which is a bit better, 640×960 vs 480×800)

Incredible lacks compared to Evo 4G: 4G Speeds (In Select Areas), HDMI Output (720p max), Kickstand, Larger Screen (4.3 inch compared to 3.7 inch – same resolution), Front Facing Camera (Incredible does not have a front facing camera, a bathroom mirror can fix this problem though), Sprint TV included to watch live tv and old episodes (Verizon VCast is /month for similar service)

Incredible is better than the Evo 4G: Form factor (In my opinion the Evo 4g is too big for my liking), Battery Life (Incredible is nothing spectacular, but better than Evo 4G), Internal Storage (8 GB Incredible, Nothing Extra for Evo 4G), /month 4G fee no matter what for area for Evo (nothing like this for Incredible)

I would choose the Incredible over the Evo 4G if I had to make the decision again.

Note: I was trying to find a way to watch the World Cup, and the best way seemed to be using the Skyfire browser, and going to the Univision website to find the live feed. The picture has been clear for me, and while it did take some time to load, it is Free (commentary in Spanish)!

It’s got 7 screens, which can be viewed individually or all at once. I’ve got mine setup like this:

1. Home/Main Screen – Weather and Top Used Apps (Pandora, Skyfire, Gmail, Market, Battery, Mint, Flixster, Camera)

2. Agenda

3. Text Widget from HTC Sense

4. Stock Widget from HTC Sense

5. Favorite Contacts

6. Power Widget and Empty Space

7. FriendStream – HTC Sense seemlessly integrated Facebook/Twitter/Flickr

I don’t intend for this review to be the end-all of reviews, so I’ll try not to cover things other people did already.

Something others have mentioned and I’ve noticed as well is that battery life could be better. This is the one thing I would change if I could, and I might just do that. It comes stock with the 1300 mAh battery as you can see in the specs below, which just barely cuts it for me. I’m strongly considering upgrading the the Seidio 1750 mAh slim battery which fits in the same space, and should yield about 30% more charge for somewhere around 40 bucks here on Amazon.

I didn’t notice you can drag your finger from the top of your screen to see ongoing applications, and current notifications. Hopefully this helps someone else figure this out too! Someone showed me this a couple days in, and it’s very nice. Basically this is a quick link to what’s just happened on your phone.

One thing you might not notice right away is that the Android Market actually varies from other phones. Specifically, it has some apps that other Android 2.1 phones don’t have (ie ‘Shake Them All’ – a live wallpaper), while it’s missing apps that other Android 2.1 phones have (Google Earth). Both of the examples I noticed when comparing to the Motorola Droid, and I’m sure there are other differences. This is a little irritating but one can get around this by downloading the .apk files and installing the programs manually. I did this for Google Earth, and it runs flawlessly! It’s annoying that Google doesn’t make it nice and easy. You could also do something similar via Astro File Manager if both you and your friend use Astro, they could backup their app on microSD, give you the microSD, and you could install from there.

Another thing I didn’t see in my brief look through reviews is a list of free apps to get you started with brief descriptions:

Advanced Task Killer Free – Kill any application running

Astro File Manager – Manage Files, Backup Applications, Install Applications from Backup

BatteryTime Lite – Keep track of Battery Left, Battery Temperature

EasyTether Lite – Tethering App, free version does not access https sites, pay version does

Engadget – Tech Review Site Application

Flashlight – Simple help when you need it

Fring – Skype, Google Talk, AIM, Yahoo, Twitter, ICQ, SIP, and MSN Live Client (works on Wi-fi too unlike Skype’s basic app)

Google Goggles – Cool app for image based google searches

Google Sky Map – Star Gazer App, based on phone location and phone orientation, shows what stars and planets are out there

Layar – Imagine Google Sky Map for restaurants, bars, etc.

MaplePaint – Painting App

Mint – A great application for tracking personal finances

Movies/Flixster – Great movie app (theater and dvd) integrated with Netflix/Rotten Tomato, able to watch trailers instantly

My Verizon – Helpful for tracking phone usage

Pandora – Streaming Music

Scanner Radio – Police Scanner

Shazam – Figures out what song is playing

Skyfire – Slick web browser (or maybe you prefer Opera)

ShopSavvy – Barcode Scanner, Web and local price-checker

The Weather Channel – A good alternative to the Sense Weather Widgets

Games I like (I’m a simple minded phone gamer, all free as well, no descriptions):

Action Potato

Jewels

Labyrinth Lite

The ‘Papi’ Series – PapiCatch, PapiJump, PapiMissile, PapiPole, PapiRiver

Super Tetris

Texas Holdem – Red Poker Club

Toss It

Nerdy Details:

Size/Weight: 4.63 x 2.30 x 0.47 inches / 4.6 ounces

Screen: 480×800 3.7 inch AMOLED

Processor: 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon (QSD8650) CDMA version of Nexus One Processor (QSD8250)

Wi-fi: 802.11 b/g/n (I’ve clocked my phone on speed tests over 6 Mbps when connected to Comcast)

microSD: 2 GB included / up to 32 GB supported

Radio: FM using headphone cable as antenna

Operating System: Android 2.1 (Eclair) with HTC Sense

Camera: 8 Megapixels with Dual LED Flash

Bluetooth: 2.1 with A2DP Stereo and EDR

GPS: A-GPS (Assisted GPS, can be used for locating you during a 911 call, or more commonly navigation)

Keyboard: Virtual Only

Speech to Text: Basically can dictate texts, web addresses, and almost anywhere you can type

Text to Speech: Google Navigation can speak directions

Network: Verizon!

RAM: 512 MB

ROM: 768 MB / 512 MB for user

Internal Storage: 8 GB moviNand

Battery: 1300 mAh Lithium Ion (checkout Seidio 1750 mAh slim which fits in same space, if you need more power)

Physical Buttons: Volume Control (up/down), Power/Lock (share same button), Optical Joystick (with click)

Additional Sensors: Multi-touch capacitive touchscreen, Ambient Light Sensor, 3-axis accelerometer, Digital Compass, Proximity Sensor

Audio Out: 3.5 mm stereo audio jack

USB: micro-USB (charging and data)

Audio file types supported: AAC, AMR0, OGG, M4A, MID, MP3, WAV, WMA

Video file types supported: 3GP, 3G2, MP4, WMV

I’m excited to see this phone get rooted someday (soon?)! Please rate my review up or down as you see fit! Thank you!

Update: Rooted! As of June 10, 2010. Flash 10.1 also works (gotta do a little searching/work to get this running)! It’s a bit of a hack now, but when Froyo (Android 2.2) comes out for all, it should be very solid.

Review by diljs:
T-mobile, the first carrier to even have an android phone (the G1), blew its lead with the OS on a stream of mediocre handsets. While the other carriers got newer and better devices, T-mobile lagged behind, until now. Finally, at long last, a quality handset has arrived: the Vibrant. With its good looks, blazing fast speed, and quality OS, T-mobile customers can finally upgrade to a great phone.

*Hardware*

The Good:

-The first thing you notice about the Vibrant is its big beautiful screen. The 480×800 AMOLED screen is sharp and beautiful, easy to type on, and shows plenty of detail.

-The phone itself is thin and light, with a nice curve near the bottom to hold onto.

-1 GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor is faster in benchmarks than a 1 GHz Snapdragon and offers enhanced graphics procesing

-The buttons are not buttons but touch sensitive surfaces, like a flat screen TV.

-16gb of onboard storage is awesome. Add a 32gb microsdhc card and you’ve got 48gb, more than the iPhone.

-3G connection takes advantage of T-mobile’s ever expanding 3G network, currently the fastest of any carrier in many cities.

-5 megapixel camera takes decent pictures and records video at 720p.

The Bad:

-The big compromise here is the camera. While the EVO and Incredible have 8MP cameras, the Vibrant has only 5MP. Flash and Front Facing Camera are glaring omissions from this otherwise high end phone.

-The plastic feels a bit cheap, but this is the case with most phones these days.

-Garish T-mobile and Samsung logos detract from the smooth appearance.

*Software*

The Good:

-Android 2.1 is stock on the phone with a promised upgrade to 2.2 in the near future. The latest versions of android are fast, more battery efficient, and have fewer “force close” errors. Some highlights include animated wallpapers, 7 home screens, and support for flash in web browsing.

-The interface is fast and smooth.

-Samsung has managed not to screw up the interface to this phone like it did on the Behold 2. The customizations are useful and unobtrusive.

*Included Accessories*

The Good:

-2 backplates (shiny blue or shiny purple) for customization.

-Nice gelly earphones are higher quality than most phones.

-Charger is a solid usb/wall combo.

-Avatar movie shows off the phone’s beautiful screen.

-Free Sims 3 game is a fun way to kill some time.

The Bad:

-2gb MicroSD card is a bit lame compared to the 16gb internal memory, but easily upgradable.

Overall this is a great phone. Some hardware compromises prevent it from being the best Android phone ever, but it is still the best Android phone for T-mobile, and is the phone many customers, including myself, have been waiting for. The phone looks great, is blazingly fast, and has plenty of bells and whistles.

Review by Amy Gray:
I was a die-hard pull-out keyboard junky, but using Swype on the Vibrant changed my mind forever. I could type 30+ words per minute on my G1 (my previous phone), and I’m a tad slower on the Vibrant using Swype, but that’s just because there’s a little bit of a learning curve. I’m convinced that I’ll be just as fast on the Vibrant by this time next week.

In all respects, this phone is an incredible leap forward from the G1, and is light, sleek, and fast. The 7 customizable home screens make it easy to categorize my apps and widgets. The camera on this phone, in comparison to the G1′s, is extremely usable and the results are comparable to point-and-shoot photos, even without a flash. Who likes “flashy” pictures, anyway? The screen is everything everyone has said. Coupled with the speedy processor, I can flip through photos in my Picasa or Flickr accounts in a flash.

I’m not jealous of my friends’ iPhones anymore.

Review by Justin P. Bartels:
Let me start by saying I have been a T-Mobile customer since 2003. I have owned several Samsung handheld non smart phones, the T-Mobile Dash, First Gen Iphone unlocked on T-Mobile, The T-Mobile G1 and now the HDC HD2. All of my friends have Iphones, but I will never use ATT again because of their customer service (Cingular 2003). This phone is top notch and absolutely wonderful.I’ve been wanting a fully functional business, media phone for the past few years. The G1 was great, the Keyboard was so nice I really just loved it, but I couldn’t pass up a phone with a 1 GHZ processor, it is so awesome.

Pros -

The Screen is 4.3 inches and the resoultion is 480×800. The battery life is much better than the G1 and does last all day. Camera has flash, a really nice touch and the pictures look great. The camcorder also has a light. E-Mail setup was the easiest I have had on an HTC device and worked right away. 16GB card right out of the box is a nice touch, I’ve put 8 full length movies and about 1,000 songs on the device right now. I used the Telenav turned by turn device and it was solid. There is also an FM radio, I will enjoy this when I go to sporting events, since I can get the baseball games on the FM station. You can get a subscription to Mobile TV, but for myself I’ve been using Sling Mobile and it works over 3g so I can watch all my hundreds of DirecTV shows. I don’t believe the Iphone version allows you to use the 3g version of sling, and it’s not available for android phones yet. As far as a Phone, I like the facebook intergration and pictures with the contacts, volume is very solid and it is easy to talk to people.

Cons -

Media Syncing is a little harder (music is easy videos were easier to transfer via Disk drive, but it could have just been the way I ripped them), but if your a gadgethead you will love it. There is a program called multimedia sync by double twist on the device that I have been using instead of media player. I wish the video player was linked in with the music interface, I like the music player on the device (you can use windows media player as well and videos are found on photos and video tab), but I would like the videos to be more accesible, it is not hard to find them.

The HTC Sense looks really cool on this device, especially the weather. If you want ease, go buy an Iphone, if you want super fast clear quick interfaces and a phone that rules, get the HTC HD2. I always find it funny that Apple has such a following, had it not been for that Iphone they’d still be a laugher like they were in the 90′s. This summer will be a pivotal time for Apple, with the HTC EVO coming out on sprint with 4G (very similar to this phone) and running on Android, they will have to step up their game. If you are on T-Mobile get this phone yesterday (If you can find it), for the Amazon price it’s going to be hard to beat.

A+++++

Review by diljs:
As an avid user of smartphones, for years I’ve completely ignored a series of dull, uncreative phones running windows. While a variety of hardware form factors, some even technically superior to the competition, have come out, the software continued to look incredibly boring compared to the iPhone, Android, and even Blackberry. The main selling points consisted of “It runs windows and has a start button like you’re used to on a computer” and “We have Office and sync with Outlook!”. While these may have appealed to some business customers, the consistently shrinking market share of Windows phones demonstrated their lack of appeal to consumers as the recent smartphone boom hit.

With the HD2 this trend may finally be coming to an end. In conjunction with HTCs beautiful Sense interface, some aggressive hardware, and some genuine innovations, the HD2 is a Windows phone I can actually use and recommend. Let’s start with the pros and follow up with a few drawbacks.

**Hardware**

-The 1ghz Snapdragon processor coupled with 448mb of ram is blazing fast. This is the fastest speed in a phone currently available. The HD2 loads everything quickly, and can run multiple apps at the same time. You can feel how fast the phone runs by playing with it for a few minutes. Gone are the sluggish Windows Phones of old, constantly running out of memory and crashing. The HD2 is fast and has top notch hardware and you can feel it.

-The screen is huge: 4.3 inches and stretching from corner to corner. The Resolution at 800×480 pixels means you’ll see much more on that big screen than average. That means more room for icons and that sexy weather display on the main screen.

-The HD2 supports 3g on T-mobile, including the upcoming higher speed 3g. This means the fastest downloads and best call quality available. Note: the phone does NOT have ATTs 3g bands and the 3g will not work if you’re using it unlocked on ATT.

-5mp camera with auto focus and 2 LEDs. 5mp is the highest we see on most phones, and the camera looks great. Having not 1 but 2 LEDs for flash seems a bit silly but works well. The phone even comes standard with a little flashlight app for a blindingly bright way to see in the dark.

-Included 3.5mm jack – this is becoming standard on most phones, and it’s great to see it on the HD2. This allows you to use standard headphones without an adapter when playing music or listening to the built in FM Radio.

-Included wifi, bluetooth, and a hardware (real) GPS for turn by turn directions round out all the bells and whistles included in the phone.

-Battery life is similar to most smartphones. You will easily get a day’s use without having to charge, but most likely you’ll have to plug it in at night.

**Interface**

-HTC Sense is what really makes the phone shine here. This part of the software is done by HTC, not Windows, and runs on top of standard Windows Mobile 6.5 professional. HTC Sense expands on the previous TouchFLO 3d interface and enhances the way customers interact with the phone. Sense creates the beautiful Today screen, animations for messages, social networking features. It also lets you interact with the phone in unique ways, such as pinching to zoom. Some of these features are so close to the iPhone that Apple has recently filed lawsuits against HTC.

-The home screen is customizable, though not quite to the extent of Android phones. It lets you place a few apps on the screen, along with a beautiful standard weather app that detects your phone’s location and shows the current time and weather in your city.

-Touch is a much better experience on this phone than previous windows mobile phones. The screen is capacitive, meaning it uses touch instead of pressure. No awkward stylus or pushing is needed for the touch to work. The phone responds quickly and smoothly to any motions.

-Basic phone features like placing a call or sending a text remain simple, with big buttons on the main screen to do so.

-Typing on the touchscreen is a breeze due to the size of the screen allowing for a bigger keyboard. As someone who has often stuck to phones with hardware keyboards due to inaccurate screen keyboards, I found typing on the HD2 much easier than previous touchscreen keyboards, although still not as easy as using a hardware keyboard. The HD2 also includes the new SWYPE interface, which lets you type by dragging your fingers through all the letters of a word instead of tapping each one. SWYPE was surprisingly accurate in typing the correct word and will even learn new words once you type them manually.

**Included Apps and Accessories**

-This phone is being marketed as a media phone, and includes several media apps to demonstrate that. MobiTV lets you watch what is essentially Cable TV on your phone free for 30 days and then ten dollars a month after that. Blockbuster lets you rent or buy movies for your phone. Barnes and Noble eReader lets you purchase ebooks.

-The phone comes with a huge 16gb MicroSD card out of the box. This is the biggest memory card available currently, and gives you plenty of room for pictures, videos, music, and apps. The best memory card pairs perfectly with the best processor and screen, and it’s great that HTC did not hold back on this extra.

-Full videos of Transformers 1 and 2 are preloaded on the memory card. These videos look great and show off the beautiful screen. Note the movies do take about 4gb of space on the memory card.

-The phone comes with a gel skin in the box to protect the phone, which you would have to buy separately on most phones.

**Drawbacks**

-Price is the number one concern here. The phone is priced higher than competing smartphones. This price seems justified, however, due to the cutting edge hardware in the HD2. It also comes with some nice accessories you’d have to buy separately from other phones. Upgrade and new customer deals will certainly lower the cost for those buying from T-mobile.

-The app store is another drawback. The good news is that the phone has one, the bad news is it’s the smallest of ANY smartphone operating system. As of this review the Windows Marketplace carried less than 1,000 applications, compared to Android at 20,000 apps and iPhone at a staggering 150,000 apps. Even Blackberry, Palm, and Nokia carry more apps than Windows. You are also going to find significantly more paid than free applications for Windows Mobile apps. The Marketplace is simply far behind that of competing phones, which for a heavy app user will diminish the enjoyment of the HD2 by quite a bit.

-Windows Mobile 7 upgradeability is still up in the air, but it currently looks like this phone will NOT be getting an upgrade when the new OS is released. The phone does not support some key hardware feature (front buttons) that WM7 requires, and therefore it is unlikely to be upgraded. The upcoming OS promises to be very exciting, and the fact that this beautiful phone will probably not receive the upgrade is disappointing.

Overall this phone is fast, pretty, and offers top of the line features. The phone feels solid (and huge) in your hand, while the software is fast, works well and is fun to use. If the HD2 is any indicator, Windows Mobile may become a legitimate competitor in the smartphone market again. The phone seems to be selling very well, with T-mobile selling out almost everywhere the day the HD2 was released. I’d recommend this phone as a viable alternative to Android and the iPhone.

Review by J. Golton:
NOTE: This review is long and detailed, especially relevant for heavy users of Google services.

This is my second Blackberry, obtained from T-mobile at an upgrade discount (now possible through Amazon). My first Blackberry was the T-mobile Curve offering (my review on the 8320 may prove helpful to provide context for this review and for first time smart phone buyers). Last time I purchased a phone, I was just looking for a really high quality phone, and the 8320 certainly delivered. However, over time I gradually used more and more smart phone features until by 2009 I was totally hooked. While the 8320 was great as a phone, its limited memory and sluggish processor made it painful to use for certain apps – and impossible to use for more than a handful of apps.

So this time around my goal was to get a smart phone that made good sense for my current desired usage. Here were my requirements:

Keep costs down

Great phone (sound quality, speakerphone, quick dialing, coverage, vibrate options, international use, etc.)

Alternative reception if needed (WiFi UMA or femtocell)

Great e-mail (must handle Gmail well)

Sync contacts/calendar with Google and otherwise works seamlessly well with Google

Works seamlessly with other cloud apps I use heavily (Evernote, Dropbox, etc.)

Media player with 3.5mm jack

Camera of high enough quality to use in conjunction with Evernote OCR

Easy to use (configuration, speed of device, shortcuts, etc.)

Popular model with many accessories available

Long battery life

Enough memory so I don’t have to manage it

Feels good in hand

Able to charge by putting in a cradle

Tethering possible (Bluetooth preferred)

Reliable

Optional but nice:

Great browser

Maps

Turn by Turn navigation (free preferred)

Other sections at the end of this review:

Screen

Keyboard

Trackpad

Battery Life

Summary

The 9700 with T-mobile strongly delivers on most of my requirements, and surpasses the 8320 in almost every respect by a wide margin. One by one:

Costs: Was able to keep my grandfathered T-mobile Blackberry contract for 40/month for voice (1000 anytime, unlimited nights/weekends) and 20/month for unlimited data (but no text/SMS). Our family also has the hotspot home service for an additional 10/month to provide an unlimited domestic calling home line. And a 12% AAA discount off the bill – so this is far less expensive than we could get for these services than from any other carrier. On the other hand, for users who require few voice minutes, heavy data, no tethering, and no home phone, iPhone with AT&T could be only slightly higher in cost (and perhaps even competitive for light data users given the new June 2010 ATT 15/month 200MB/month plan option)

Phone: Terrific – just as good as 8320 which was also great. I find the phone quality I experience to be better than using an average phone with a land line (cordless or corded). The speakerphone and internal phone is of higher quality but lower volume – so may be more difficult to hear in very noisy conditions, though ear buds or headsets can be used in such circumstances. The alternative UMA reception works just as well on 9700 as it did on the 8320. The quality of the speakerphone is so good that I often use it for music if I’m not in reach of my earphones – while of course not as good as what you get over a high quality headset, it is the best speaker quality I’ve heard from a cell phone – and I thought the 8320 was good.

E-mail, Google apps: Built in Email function is great but is not geared for IMAP Gmail so I downloaded the Google Mobile App and then the individual components Gmail, Sync, and Maps. Gmail and Maps are outstanding, Sync is adequate. The search by voice feature of Google Mobile App is amazingly useful in so many ways I could write a couple pages just about this one feature (watch what happens when you do voice searches for “Phillies” or “Black Widow” or “3+11″ . . .). By using Gmail I give up push E-mail (it checks every 20 minutes or if I force it to with “refresh”) but is otherwise better – including the ability to search g-mail very quickly. None of this is any different from the 8320 – except that everything is much quicker – and I can use Maps without having to reboot the phone to get memory back. The Google Reader icon merely invokes the Blackberry browser with Google Reader RSS – and it is so tiny that it is unusable. I did figure out that I could use Google Reader reasonably well with the BOLT browser (which I had to download and then set to 3x Large font rendering). I also use Google Voice to replace T-mobile’s voice mail and it works great, though you have to wait a few minutes for voice mails and their transcriptions to show up on your phone. Of course, all of these things work way better on Android and the iPhone, but with the exception of Google Reader, they are plenty good enough on the Blackberry.

Other Cloud Apps: Unfortunately, Blackberry is harder to develop for than the iPhone (and probably Android too), partly because Blackberry has so many models (too many, IMHO). The result is that Evernote for the iPhone is fantastic while it is passable on the 9700 and downright primitive on the 8320. The screen is bigger and the browser is better and faster on the 9700 (OS 5) than it was on 8320 (OS 4.5), and this accounts for why I’m actually beginning to use Evernote do search within the app and it brings up the notes with that term in the browser – you have to wait 5-10 seconds but it works. On the 8320 this was too slow to be workable. Dropbox does not have a client for Blackberry but is expected to release one by the end of 2010. Roboform has a primitive Blackberry client that doesn’t sync wirelessly – I have to manually copy over my passcards every once in a while. Blackberry is a major platform so I am assuming these apps get better over time, but they will always trail the iPhone.

Media Player – the media player functions (mp3, pictures, video, voice notes, etc.) works just as well as it did with the 8320 – there’s probably been some changes but I didn’t notice them. However, the Pandora app runs much better on the 9700 than the 8320 due likely to some combination of 3G coverage and a faster processor. On the 8320, the application paused often in weak coverage areas and had a tendency to stop in the middle of a song and skip to the next on occasion.

Camera quality – I am a huge fan of Evernote but the 8320 camera was not able to take pictures of regular size text that could be recognized as text by Evernote’s OCR. The 9700 camera specs are better and this proved out with Evernote in my initial tests. I found that with bright light and a distance of at least 11 inches away, I could take pictures of restaurant menus and Evernote was able to index most words in the picture. So I will have access to the menus of all of our favorite restaurants through Evernote once I take pictures of them all. This could also be done with business cards, wine bottles, white boards . . .

Ease of Use – This is where Blackberry’s fall flat. It took me many many hours of fiddling to master the use of the 8320. While most of this knowledge transferred over to the 9700, it still took many hours to set up the phone as I downloaded apps, set preferences, etc. The iPhone is obviously much better in this regard, and for a heavy Google services user like myself, so is Android, from everything I’ve read. The menus of preferences were moderately better laid out than the 8320, which helped some. But here are some of the issues:

1) The Apps store experience is frustrating (i.e. Quickpull is an app that worked for 8320 and appeared on the 9700 app store so I installed it but it froze up my system – why does this appear at all if it hasn’t been updated yet for the 9700?). Installing apps is slow and requires rebooting. Some apps are NOT in the app store (Google mobile app, Bolt, etc.).

2) The profiles system for setting alert preferences is powerful, and a bit easier to use than the 8320, but still complicated.

3) The initial layout of icons on the phone screen was so cumbersome (including many links to useless apps promoted by T-mobile) that I spent quite a while rearranging them so I could more easily find what I was looking for.

On the bright side, there are many handy shortcuts available on Blackberries. I especially like having each letter assignable to a speed dial, so I use the first letter of last names for home phone speed dials, and the first letter of first names for cell phone speed dials. As you learn the shortcuts, the phone becomes very fast to use, far faster than a computer for some things.

Popularity – Blackberries in general are among the most popular smart phone brands and 9700s in particular appear to be a big hit. Within months there will be a flood of accessories but the phone is so new that there’s not too much yet. Many apps have not yet been updated for the 9700 or the OS 5.0.0.330 which powers the phone. However, it is harder to write Blackberry apps, so I am expecting iPhone to always have better and more up-to-date apps, and probably Android as well as that platform matures.

Battery/Memory – Battery life is amazingly good – I have been unable to use more than 30% of the battery in one day despite a lot of fiddling, syncs in the background, Pandora use, etc. There is enough memory for apps that I don’t have to worry about it any more. This is a vast improvement over the 8320, which was a pocket computer in theory but in actual practice memory limited to less than a dozen apps, and required constant fiddling to manage memory if you used it like that. However, as application developers start increasing the size of apps, it’s easy for me to imagine 256MB of memory getting to be a problem a year or two from now . . .

Phone in Hand – The 9700 is the perfect size for my larger-than-average adult male hand. The 8320 was very slippery and I kept dropping it until I bought a Seido protective cover. It was already thick and the cover made it thicker, so that I didn’t like holding it for long phone calls. The 9700 is only thinner by a few mm, yet it is much less fatiguing to hold, and it is not slippery so I will probably not use a protective covering. There are a few very minor things I like less than the 8320, though: The right convenience key is so low on the phone that I have to contort my thumb to reach it. This is especially problematic when using the autofocus feature of the camera to focus on a specific distance – which uses that key. The battery cover and micro SD cards are both a pain to take off. Both require using two thumbs to push away from your body with a lot of pressure. The manual does not explain this – took lots of trial/error and online googling to figure this out.

Cradle – I bought the Blackberry Charging Pod for Blackberry Bold 2. I dock the phone each night and while charging it goes into bedside mode, which is a customizable alarm clock (which gives you options to turn off every kind of alerting if you want, including phone rings). Assuming you buy the dock, you won’t need an alarm clock any more.

Tethering – It’s a bit cumbersome to set up but I had done it on the 8320 before so knew how. It works – and it is much faster than the 8320, likely mostly due to 3G. I did not do speed tests but some who have claim to be getting 3G speeds (which are 10x-20x faster than the EDGE tethering that happened on the 8320). I don’t plan to use this feature much – only while traveling and no WiFi is near. I am hoping people don’t heavily use this feature because if they do, T-mobile will be forced to stop allowing it or maybe charge for it. But having this as a backup internet connection (especially traveling) is a huge plus for me.

Reliable (NEW SECTION added June 8, 2010) – My previous model, the BB 8300, was very reliable. It froze up twice in 2 years and never had a dropped call. The BB 9700 has not been reliable for me. I am about to start my 3rd unit after 2 units developed defects. I just decided to start insuring the phone at .99/month. I’ve have also occasionally experienced dropped UMA calls, during the handoff from UMA to 3g or EDGE – but this part has supposedly been solved by the OS update that came out in June 2010. Here are the details:

2/26/10: Around mid February (2 months after I purchased the 9700), my external speaker began to go. At first I (incorrectly) thought it was glitch in the profiles settings but then it went out for 20 hours straight. After thorough testing I found that the internal phone speaker and headsets still worked fine – but the phone did not ring for incoming calls and I could not play music without a headset. I called T-mobile. After 15 minutes of troubleshooting and verifying that the phone was not water damaged, a replacement phone was authorized. I had to pay .95 for shipping, but otherwise no cost to me. I received the replacement phone yesterday, made sure it worked, and shipped my old phone back today. T-mobile customer service was terrific for this incident and in every other instance I’ve contacted them over the past 2 years.

6/8/10: In early May I began to experience random crashes and reboots. The first few times it it happened I kept thinking it was likely due to some new app I had installed. But in the past week it started happening more often, until yesterday when the 9700 no longer booted at all. So once again I had to get a replacement unit from T-mobile. Once again T-mobile was very responsive, and this time waived the shipping fee. The service was great but having 2 defective units in 6 months is getting to be a real chore – especially this time as the phone won’t boot so I can’t back it up.

Browser – The 9700 Blackberry Browser is significantly better than the 8320 browser, partly due to more screen real estate (in pixels) and the faster processor. Disabling images makes it even faster. I didn’t try to analyze what all the changes are, but I do know that I can now use Evernote, where as it way too cumbersome to use Evernote with the 8320. Less busy web sites are now usable. But the browser is still nowhere close to what you get on an iPhone or Android device. I downloaded BOLT and it seems better for single column sites where I really need to reflow text, such as Google Reader. But clearly something better is possible. Opera Mini 5 is in Beta and is getting reviews so that may be available in a few months. But the big leap will likely happen with the webkit-based browser that was acquired a few months ago and is likely to be incorporated with Blackberries by the end of 2010. Based on what I’ve seen in the week I’ve played with my 9700, I’ll likely only use the browser for certain specific things like Evernote and Google Reader or the results of a Google Voice Search – but avoid general browsing as much as possible.

Maps and Voice Navigation – I tested the Maps App for a few minutes and it did the job quite well when outdoors. Note that GPS can be used not only in Map apps but also in many other applications such as weather, search, geotagging pictures, etc. and all this comes in handy. To get high quality voice navigation you’ll generally need to pay /month, which is much more than I’m willing to pay. If I’m walking, then voiceless navigation is good enough, and if I’m driving I’ll use my Garmin Nuvi – which I would want to do anyway as it has a much bigger screen and is much easier to use while driving. I would use such a feature if I had it – and I’m sure users of Android 2.0 devices such as the Verizon Droid will greatly appreciate it. But this was not a critical feature for me.

Summary:

The Blackberry 9700 with T-mobile is a great phone and communication device that is also a pretty good pocket computer, all in an attractive, easy to hold and use form factor – all at a very reasonable monthly plan cost for the heavy phone and data user. It is a huge improvement over the 83xx series in almost every respect. The only significant disadvantages compared with other smartphones are a barely usable browser, a cumbersome setup for third-party apps, and the general complication of customizing the device. For those who value a browser and ease of use above all and are willing to pay for it, the iPhone is better – but for those who want a great smartphone on a budget – this is a great choice.

UPDATE 1/20/2010: After owning/using the 9700 for a week, I wrote the above review. I intentionally said little about the the keyboard, screen, and trackpad because I felt these kinds of things may take getting used to, so I didn’t want to be too hasty to judge. I now have enough data to comment:

Screen: The screen is very high resolution which means that it is very easy to read text in 8pt type. Unfortunately, this sometimes means the browser or certain apps decide that they can cram more text in at 5pt or 6pt type, which requires that I use my reading glasses – those with better eyes than mine may appreciate cramming in more text with a smaller font. Pictures are crisp and vibrant. The backlight brightness is extremely bright – too bright for night in fact. I do have the “Automatically Dim Backlight” feature enabled which dims the 9700 automatically at night and I have screen brightness set to the minimum setting of 10. It is still too bright to me for use in a room with no light on. Furthermore, the unit occasionally has an abrupt change of brightness – getting brighter all of a sudden for a few seconds or just staying that way. It is impossible for me to know if my unit has a defective light sensor or this is an O/S issue – I’ve read that others are experiencing similar issues so perhaps it’s the O/S and it will be fixed some day with one of the O/S updates. Another brightness issue is that the difference between maximum brightness and minimum brightness is pretty narrow. I never have viewing problems in even the brightest sunlight so it’s the lowest brightness setting which I think is not low enough.

Keyboard: I do not use the Blackberry extensively for typing – The rare e-mail I write or reply to is usually less than 10 words, and I don’t use text messaging in any form. So it took a while for me to conclude that the keyboard is slower for me than the 83xx keyboard, which had spacing between the keys. I actually timed myself and found I did around 30 WPM (words per minute) with the 83xx and 25 WPM with the 9700. If I try typing faster (say, 30 WPM), I hit several double keys per minute which needs correcting and ends up lower than 25 WPM. So the result is I purposely type slower and more cautiously to avoid hitting two keys simultaneously. For the way I use a Blackberry, this is not a big problem – I use the keyboard mostly for things like speed dial, quickly looking up a contact, navigating the menus, etc. and there is no speed hit that I can notice for that. But for those with big hands who type a lot, the Bold 9000 is going to be faster, and probably the 83xx series as well. Note that my fingers/hands are slightly larger than normal for an adult male.

Trackpad: Most people rave about how great trackpads are on Blackberries but for me it’s a mixed bag. I find it to be sometimes jumpy with applications that require frequent moving around – particularly with the game Ka-Glom, which I tried both on the 8320 and the 9700. I have better control on the 8320 and can score significantly higher as a result. Also, any form of moisture on your fingers – sweat, water, lotion, etc. can have an impact on the responsiveness. Nevertheless, I find it easier to use than the old trackball style when my thumbs are dry and I’m using a typical app – it is easier to use a light touch to move just a tiny bit, and it is very easy to swipe it all the way to one side or to the top/bottom. The trackpad is harder to accidentally press than a trackball. And it is quiet. Overall, I prefer the trackpad because it is yet one more little thing that reduces the weight/bulk of the unit and is much less likely to go bad than the trackballs on all older devices.

Update 2/14/10: Battery life is possible to kill if you get too adventurous with your phone. I have found 4 ways to kill it so far: Themes, heavy syncing, tethering, and upgrading the O/S. The theme I tried for a week caused sluggish performance and battery to deplete twice as fast. Bluetooth tethering caused me to go all the way through the battery in less than 6 hours while using an tethered EEE PC constantly during that time. Syncing is not a big deal if you just have two or three apps syncing every 2 hours or so, but some apps will sync every few minutes if you let them and if you have a few of these running the battery can drain quickly and the phone becomes sluggish during syncs. And while I haven’t experimented with a different OS version myself, I have read that the 5.0.0.330 Blackberry OS that comes with the T-mobile 9700 is the most battery efficient OS ever – later versions are all less battery efficient. If you keep things simple on your phone you’ll have great battery life – just use one of the preloaded themes, don’t tether much, sparingly set up syncs, and don’t upgrade away from OS 5.0.0.330 that T-mobile ships with the 9700 model.

Changed Summary/Conclusion: Overall, my conclusion about this device has changed slightly over time, so I here’s a rewrite of the Summary incorporating my extensive testing of the physical features:

Summary: The Blackberry 9700 with T-mobile is a great phone and communication device that is also a pretty good pocket computer, all in a slim, light, attractive, and easy to hold and use form factor – all at a very reasonable monthly plan cost for the heavy phone and data user. It is a huge improvement over the 83xx series in terms of speed, memory, and connectivity options. However, the keyboard is slower for me to use than the 8320. For me this tradeoff is worthwhile, as it is no longer a noticeable lump in my shirt or pants pocket and does not fatigue my hand on a long phone call.

I’ve had to return 2 defective units in 6 months, compared with none for the 8320 in 2 years.

The only significant disadvantages (compared with other smartphone brands) are a barely usable browser, a cumbersome setup for third-party apps, and the general complication of customizing the device. For those who value a browser and ease of use above all and are willing to pay for it, the iPhone and perhaps certain Android-based phones (such as Google’s Nexus One) are better – but for those who want a great smartphone on a budget – getting the Blackberry Bold 9700 with T-mobile service is a great choice.

Review by Always Samsung:
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RYXE5ZFJZZA51 I’ve been a long time AT&T costumer. I thought I could live without having an actual keyboard when it comes to texting, but after a week without my Sidekick Keyboard – I decided to ditch my Samsung Eternity for the Blackberry Bold 9700.

I was hesitant about purchasing this smart phone because I was never a fan of Blackberry’s (RIMM). I had a BB during their initial boom in the early part of the new millennium. However, the poor browser, poor cell phone network, lackluster screen color, non desirable keyboard, awful battery life, whack OS, & lack of T9 predictive text just couldn’t win me over.

After I realized that I couldn’t text on a touch screen phone, unless it was the iPhone. I decided that I must have a cell phone device with an actual qwerty keyboard, if I expect to survive my text message & email addiction.

I picked up the Blackberry 9700 with my corporate discount and walked away with a nice high end phone at a very reasonable price. I have to say that I really enjoy the web browser on the new BB. You can zoom in & out with ease. I thought no browser could compare to the iPod Safari besides the Android G1, but after getting this device – I can safely say that this browser is also one of the best. Its right behind the safari and G1. Prior models were confined to small screens, thirty-five dollar internet only data plans, and no ability to zoom in or out. You were subjected to a small screen and reading small text till your eyes was squinting like grandmas.

Pros:

3G

New Optical Trackpad (Over the old Trackball)

Big vibrant screen

Threaded Text Messaging

3.5 MM headjack

New OS (Runs a bit quicker without the lag time)

Decent call quality

Excellent new broswer

Mini SD up to 32GB

Use your songs as ringers

Wi-Fi

Personal Email (Up to 10 accounts can be added)

IM

Themes

App Store

My Favs

Full HTML Web Browser (Sometimes)

Excellent Multimedia Player (Accepts every format possible)

Includes 2 chargers (Wall Charger & USB charger)

Includes ear phones and carry case

Cons:

For long time BB users, this device is really just a cosmetic upgrade with a new OS (Flashier Icons)

Micro USB (No more Mini USB)

Video & Camera (3.2 Megapixel as oppose to 8.0)

Cheap plastic rubber casing

Non RIMM Consumer Changes Mind!

For anyone who has wanted a BB but held off on getting one and want an entry level Blackberry at a decent price – this is the model to get. Everything about it is an upgrade. The device is basically the BB Bold with a different casing. The battery life could still use some more juice. With excessive email checking & non stop texting, the phone usually needs a charge after a day and a half of usage (Sometimes i can go a charge for 2 days before a charge so thats not bad). I did set the brightness of the phone to the lowest brightness available and it has lasted for a little over 2 days with no charge needed. Even on the lowest brightness, the screen is still very bright, sharp, & crisp. And i still do unlimited texting & web browsing. However, AT&T doesn’t offer the best mobile minute plans on earth & their data plan is probably one of themost expensive around. They are fully aware that their signal is one of the best & in doing so, make up for it by charging their non-friendly services at non-friendly prices, which usually doesn’t offers an abundant amount of minutes, unlimited data, internet, email, text etc will end up costing you a lot!

I pay under seventy bucks a month for a decent amount of mins & unlimited everything else. My friend has a similar plan on Verizon, its not unlimited, and her bill is always over a hundred each month.