Phone conundrums again

[seventhe]

I am actually pretty sure that my Blackberry is starting to send me signals of impending doom and death. Seeing as it is a tool I use religiously, every day, for what probably adds up to be an embarrassing number of hours every day (just emailing you fuckers), AND that it is a tool I carry around in my pants (can't be good for either of us), I am, pretty legitimately seriously, starting to think about my next phone.

I am not an "everybody needs a smartphone" type but for my own personal uses I am looking at smartphones only, mainly because work Internet use is so frowned upon (I can't even get my own email) (and without email I would pass away).

I am stuck back in the realm of Blackberry vs Other. The new iPhone looks very nice, but a) I don't like the thought of losing my keyboard SECURITY BLANKET and b) I still feel like iPhones are too trendy for my dumb ass. I adore the new Blackberry but still feel like I'm not getting as much for my money when compared to iPhone or Android. And I really am not feeling Androids right now, although I cannot pinpoint why (as I certainly haven't ever used one myself).

So if you're an Android user, or an iPhone user, please tell me things you like or don't like about your phone. And hey, if you like Blackberry, tell me why I shouldn't drop it just yet. MAKE THIS DECISION FOR ME KTHX

Comments

[ambersweet]

I'll jump into the party here: I love my iPhone. I had a 3G, upgraded to the 3GS. I was getting to the point where I was planning on upgrading again to the 4 as soon as I had enough money, because my 16g phone was totally full and getting kind of slow, but when iOS 5 was released, my phone suddenly became FASTER AND MORE USEFUL. When was the last time an OS upgrade IMPROVED the performance of older hardware? I have to second everybody's comments about it being incredibly intuitive and easy to use, and the "there's an app for that" experience is AMAZING. No matter what I've wanted to do, I've always been able to find three or four apps that do that thing, and usually one of them is free. App quality is always very high, as well.

The other thing I will rave about wrt the iPhone is Apple customer service. Drop the $90 or whatever for AppleCare+; it's absolutely worth it. The face of the iPhone is actually glass, and I tripped badly a few weeks before we moved and came down heavily on both my hands - one of which was holding my iPhone. The face shattered. It otherwise seemed to be fine, but I remembered dropping my iPod Classic about four feet onto concrete several years before, and how it was fine for about twenty minutes and then failed. I was devastated, but I brought it down to the Apple store the next morning, expecting to be told that it was damaged beyond repair, or that it wouldn't be covered because it was accidental damage. The tech was much more concerned about how badly I had been hurt than any damage to my phone, and he was able to swap the screen out and hand me a perfectly functional phone in about fifteen minutes.

This experience, and one involving repairing a liquid spill on my MacBook that should've been outside warranty but they covered ANYWAY, has made me an Apple user for life. Technology is fairly interchangeable, but this kind of customer service is special.