Remember those inspiring Verizon BlackBerry Storm 9530 commercials that came out in 2008 with voice-overs from non-other than Jim Halpert John Krasinski from The Office? They heralded a new era of smartphones that were supposed to change.your.life. I bought the whole shtick. Hook, line, and sinker. I had to have one and I’m not exaggerating. I held out as long as possible, pined aloud to my wife about how I had to have one, and she came through Christmas morning with my very own 9530 to have and to hold. This phone was a lot of things to me: my first smartphone, my ticket to business cool, my unique phone that would set me apart from the iSheep. I told myself how much I loved it, how I could never live without it, and most importantly that I would never let it go. BlackBerry for life.
I did grow to love my BlackBerry because it was a workhorse. I got email before my friends/coworkers, I had all my work appointments synced up with my Outlook calendar, and I used everything from the password keeper to the notepad. What I used the most is probably the saddest of all: the memory status within the system menu. This phone caused an insecurity within me that truly led me to be a memory hoarder. I couldn’t allow my available memory to drop below 20 MB (don’t laugh), and if it got real laggy I would use a new setup from one of the many hybrid builders available on the net. I had all the tricks, I learned to use Shrink-A-OS to remove bloatware, I did a hard reset on a daily basis, I did it all. In retrospect, all I really did was continue to band-aid together my buyer’s remorse and trudge through behind the times. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed this phone even throughout the quirks and shortcomings, but the future was not about my 9530, it had to be something cooler and better.
When the 9570 (or Storm 2 Refresh) was announced I thought I saw a light at the end of the tunnel. News came not too long after that the device would be cancelled as it never really was worth it to RIM Verizon. After the reception of the Storm 2 (9550), RIM can’t afford to mess up again with touchscreen devices. The next touchscreen BlackBerry will need to be a phone-sized version of the Playbook, or they might as well take their four square ball and go home. It needs to reach far past what is out there now and the 9570 did not meet this requirement. Herein lies my dilemma. I am at my wits end with the 9530 and as the sand slowly falls to the bottom of its hourglass I searched madly for a new phone. I was lured to Android because of their intelligent little Incredible, but could not pull the trigger. I was afraid to make the jump because I would lose my BBM, my push emails, and I would become one of those people who just jumps to the next best thing. I needed to maintain solidarity to RIM and the BlackBerry community.
It is with this desire to stick with them that I found myself at the Verizon store on multiple occasions examining the Bold 9650 inside and out. Several times I drove to the store, adjusted the demo phone’s settings, and even bugged people on Twitter to donate me a sample to test out. It wasn’t until two guys I trust (Tony and Wade) put the Bold through its paces with BlackBerry 6 that I stepped to the edge. I took the plunge last week, went on Verizon’s website, and cashed in my New-Every-Two. Blasphemy some might say, leaving the SurePress and SureType behind. To them and to you, I recommend this: do not waste any more time waiting for a touchscreen BlackBerry. The next one will most likely be delayed, but may run LTE. I cannot see this happening in the next 6 months, but maybe RIM can prove me wrong. I would love to see it. Back to my 9650, I promptly installed 280 on it and never even used it with OS5. There may be some bugs in the leaked OS I’m running, but you couldn’t pay me to go back to OS5. No way, no how, no chance. The global search is efficient and effective, the battery life is great, application memory abounds, and I no longer feel like I’m playing catch-up to all the other smartphone users I know. Do I miss the bigger screen? No, the only time you notice the screen size is when you’re scrolling/reading and you can fit more into the screen. The trade off is that 9530′s screen wasn’t anywhere as nice as the one on my 9650. A good friend of mine and Incredible owner has commented twice already at how crisp the images are and how clear it is. Another plus? I now have a usable camera for on-the-spot candid shots. The camera on the 9530 never measured up and always let me down. Although still 3.2 MP, the new camera takes usable pictures that I’m not ashamed to show people. The keyboard takes some getting used to as I got used to the SureType keyboard, but I’m learning and getting faster each day. Another additional perk if you are a 9530 owner, is that the 9650 and the 9530 use the same battery! Now I have a second battery I keep charged up for big trips so I won’t have to dig around for my charger or try to find a wall outlet. I can truly say I am very pleased with my upgrade and renewed in my belief that RIM builds a good product. The Bold was worth every penny. Are you due for an upgrade and unwilling to switch to a different OS (whether to Apple or Android)? Go spend some time in the forums with people running 6 on their 9650s and you’ll see what I’m preaching is true.
Thoughts or comments? Leave us a line and let us know your experience!
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
