One Week with Blackberry Bold 2 (9700), what I missed most...

I spent a week with a Blackberry Bold aka 9700 and here is a list of things I liked and missed as compared to my old faithful Nokia E72.

1. In India, there are no Blackberry Maps available, the only option is to use Google Maps or as many threads have suggested Amaze GPS (which is no longer a free mapping service) as compared to my Nokia E72 on which there is free OVI Maps (free turn by turn mapping for the entire planet) and in addition you can have Google (better connection to the cloud for better context searches).

2. You can not update an address book record from the main screen. Like, if you got a call from someone, and the number shows in the received call register, there is an option to add this number to contacts, but the 9700 does not give you an option to update and existing contact (like the Nokia E72 does) and the only option is to painfully copy the number to clipboard, navigate to address book, navigate to the contact desired, choose edit, and then paste the number from clipboard. Duh !!!! Blackberry, please wake up.

3. The email app on the BB 9700 is good but...hello. I have some 40 odd folders on my Gmail which filter the various groups / newsletters / threads that I subscribe to, and they are neatly sorted in folders on my Nokia E72 (it allows I think 10 folders) but the Blackberry does not understand IMAPese. It has no idea that there are folders there, and it shows all those partly unnecessary mails in my main email view if I have chosen to update Gmail mails there. I have an option to go to filters and turn off these mails through filters, but then I do not get to see them anywhere at all on the Blackberry till I turn these filters off. The only option is to go to my PC to check these mails. Is this retarded? With my E72, I do not need to go near my PC at all, and the filtered mails are there on the E72 whenever I want to see them without an irritating alert every few seconds. (as on the 9700)

4. The Blackberry Bold 2 does not have an inbuilt dictionary app.

5. You can access the open apps by long pressing the menu key, but, hey, you can not close these apps by clicking the cancel/delete key like you can on the Nokia E72. Which means, going to individual apps and then scrolling down to 'close' to close these apps.

6. The native Blackberry Browser on the 9700 could not open my bank site. Must be an issue with https. I am not sure. It just showed a blank screen. And the browser is too darn slow.

7. The Camera on the 9700 is good. It renders the colors nicely and auto-focuses without any problem before clicking a pic. There is no need to first focus the camera as in the E72.

8. When the Blackberry Bold 2 rings, and you have an incoming call, the only options provided to you are 'answer' or 'ignore' the call. The E72 gives you the options to reject call with a pre-defined text message like "I am busy, will call back later" or any message of your choice.

9. If you are using any Mapping software, including Google Maps, I found the GPS fix taking a long time despite assisted GPS enabled. Also, the GPS needs to be switched on and Off through the main menu under Advance Settings. On the E72, the GPS fix is much faster and the GPS radio switches on or off automatically depending on the Map app being on or off. Saves the batteries.

10. No native Skype app for Blackberry yet. So the E72 pips the BB here.

11. BB messenger is a great app to keep in touch with other BB users worldwide for free, provided you know their device PIN. No comparison here.

12. No Opera Mini for the Blackberry Bold 2 yet, which is a certain let down.(Update- Opera Mini is now available and works OK)

13. Optical track pad is much responsive and makes it easy to scroll through pages, but if you want to scroll down a long page, it's easier on the E72 where you can hold down the D-Pad and not have to swipe the optical track pad a gazillion times.

14. The clock application on the Bold 2 has the option for only one single alarm time that you can set. The E72 allows you to set multiple alarms with their own repeat daily, weekly, monthly or yearly instructions.

15. I use the '$' sign while writing messages only once in the bluest of moons, and I use the '.' sign (full stop, period) every sentence. Yet, the BB team have the keyboard fixed so that the '.' sign needs a double key press (alt+ '.') and the '$' sign is a single press. High time they interchanged the two. What say people...?

16. The keyboard on the 9700 is not as user friendly as the E72. The keys are designed to be used with both your hands whereas on the E72, all keys are raised in the center making it very tactile and easy for one-handed use. E72 also has a 39 key keyboard as compared to a 35 key keyboard for the 9700. Way to go, Nokia...

17. Despite having 3G connectivity, the 9700 does not have a front camera for video chat. How uncool is that??

18. The Speed Dial on the 9700 is cool with all 26 letters of the alphabet available for Speed Dial excepts those reserved for voice mail (#1).

19. The Nimbuzz app on 9700 does not allow making voice calls on Skype, and only text chat is available. Unlike E72 where you have a choice of using native Skype or using Nimbuzz with all the capabilities.

20. The Speaker Phone on the 9700 is effective and loud and with a dedicated key, is quite useful. It even has equalizer controls for changing the treble / bass level.

21. The headphone jack hole is placed on the side, which means I can not really carry the phone in my pocket with the headphone plugged in. Nor can I put the phone in a Blackberry provided case with the headphone plugged in. What were you thinking BB?

22. The phone requires a reboot (which takes all of 10 minutes) every time I install or remove even a simple app. Comeon BB team, even simple phones do not require the reboot drill.

23. The phone is much thicker than the E72 and I can 'feel' it in my pocket. The E72 just melts away in your pocket.

24. I recently got an email notification from BB for an OS upgrade to 5.0.0.862 but the inbuilt wireless update didn't show the update. I had to connect to the PC to update. The E72 has OTA firmware update functionality which is quite handy.

25. There is no multiple selection of files if I am trying to attach more than 1 file to an email or move them from one location to the other. I have to painfully select each file and attach or move. The E72 is sooooo much better at this.

26. The search application on the Bold does not allow me the option to search documents or files, whereas the E72 has a very comprehensive search which includes searching over the net on google, all in one GUI.

27. I have not yet found a free app for the Bold for tracking my route (using GPS) like the Sports Tracker on the E72 (free). There is no comparison here.

28. All these shortcomings apart, the only area where the BB Bold scores over the E72 is the solidness of the emailing functions (minus the IMAPese, remember). Period. Otherwise it's a distant also ran. But I need to mention here that Nokia Customer Service has a dedicated team, and quite well trained at that, who solve the Nokia Email issues if any. I had a couple of issues and they promptly solved them for me. (I had 2 phones configured with the same id, so the server was getting confused, Nokia support deleted the phone I no longer used. Though I think this should happen automatically, but then hey, the Nokia Email service is free in India, yes totally free with the E72 which costs almost 1/2 as much as the Bold 2 in India).

29. Last but not the least the E72 has short cut buttons for putting the torch on and off (long press space bar), the bluetooth (dedicated button), etc. On the Bold 2 there is no way to get the torch (LED) to come on, so I use a trick like I have mapped the left convenience key to the video camera and I have the LED set to 'ON' as default in the Video camera. So I do get to use the left convenience key as the 'torch' key of sorts.

Comments welcome