Blackberry - should I buy one?

[martint235]

I currently have a Motorola Defy running Android. Nice little phone, virtually bomb proof. I can just stick it in my jersey pocket and not worry about whether or not it's going to rain. However, max battery life I get out of it is around 36 hours which isn't long enough. Ideally I'd like 5 days but I can settle for 2.5 - 3. Things I need are: email; internet access; facebook/twitter app (preferably combined like Tweetdeck). There are other things that would be nice but this phone will be for long rides such as London - York - Hull - London in April and the Defy will still be around for general use.

So bearing in mind that the biggest battery drain on a smartphone is the touchscreen, I've been looking at the Blackberry Curve 9300. Has anyone got real life experience of how long I'll get from the battery? Any other suggestions of a suitable phone (I'm a bit miffed I'll have to pay £5 a month to access BB services!!)

TIA

 

[ianrauk]

can you load facebook onto it?

 

[Crackle]

Son has a Blackberry 9300, he commented that the battery life is better than his previous Android phone. I like the keyboard better than the touchscreen one and I found the menu and navigation to be a lot better than I imagined. I can see why people like Blackberry's

App wise, I know not. He mainly uses it for the messenger service which all his friends have as well. He does have a nice little Sky app which keeps him up to date on the footy scores.

 

[martint235]

Cheers Crackle. How many days does he get out of a charge on it, do you know?

 

[Crackle]

I'll check later when he gets home, off the top of my head I don't know.

 

[dan_bo]

i get about 36 hours out of my curve.

 

[Banjo]

You wont get much more battery time out of a Blackberry Curve than your getting now unless you minimise useage. If you do go for Blackberry Virgin have some good deals on , you can run Virgin phones through virgin/Tmobile network or switch to Orange if you dont have coverage.I think it does it automatically now giving really good coverage.

The Blackberry Curve 8520 doesnt have GPS installed so not great if your using it for route following.It does give you a rough position by calculating signal strengths ,it will put you in the right town usually but rarely the right street.

 

[subaqua]

wifey has an 8520 and eldest sprog has a 9300 about 3 days life on the battery on both. if they don't ghet hammered for use then you can get an extra 24 hours out of it. one guy in work needs to charge his in work as he abuses the thing .

virgin are the best at moment and the reason we went with virgin for eldest is the unlimited free virgin mobile to virgin mobile minutes the virgin landline to virgin mobile is free ( we have telly, phone and broadband from Virgin) . the blackberry messenger thing is great too , again free. there is a chat app that can be dowloaded if friends don't have blackberry that works similar way but uses tiny amounts of data allowance total i think its called

 

[machew]