Everyone knows I detest BlackBerries and some people who use them. I mean, come on, half of you BB users look like self-obsessed idiots doing the BlackBerry prayer all the time! Sorry, no offense intended.
Get a life, man!
And when I try to show you right from wrong, you will defend your BlackBerry like it’s your whole life. You’ll say that I need to get one, too, so we can BBM! Squeee!…NOT.
Whatever. Maybe it’s your whole life, and as I always say, to each their own…
And so, everyone bought themselves BlackBerries and I got by with my lovely W595 Sony Ericsson… it does everything a BlackBerry does, minus the BBM which I don’t really care about… oh, and minus the GPS. Actually GPS could be handy at times. Used to have that feature on my C702 but some bastard at work stole it, god bless his/her soul.
Little did I know that something horrible is about to happen… last month, I inherited a BlackBerry Gemini from my dad! Well, more like it’s on loan indefinitely. I could return it anytime I want.
I was like, OMGWTF BlackBerry! (shock, denial, anger!)
Oh no… (depression)
Oh well, I’ll give it a try. (acceptance)
…I’ll give the BlackBerry a try, and after a month, I will write a BIASED review.
I promptly bought a starter SIM pack and a red case to go, and christened it Strawberry-Berry. Yay for repetition!
Fast forward a month later…
Hello, Strawberry-Berry! It’s been a month since I’ve used you, and now it’s review time. OK. I’ll be fair and direct.
Coolness factor: 2/10
OK, let’s face it… BB (and especially the Gemini). In Jakarta, everyone and their moms, their grade-school kids, their maids and their dogs have one. Everyone at work have one. It doesn’t matter whether you put a $100 casing on – it’s still a dime by a dozen phone. I’m sorry but it’s true.
Also, the form factor sucks ass. I actually felt fat using this. Hello, sexy iPhone!
Features: 5/10
OH! It does BlackBerry Messenger! Fine enough. I BBM’ed with a few people… let’s see… no more than 10. I did not went on a PIN-adding spree cos this thing is on loan from my dad. Well, BBM could be quite handy, but typing on BBM is a pain in the ass. More on that later.
Now I could (kinda) see why you CrackBerry heads got addicted to BBM.
OH! This thing can browse the net! Well, so does my other phone. Case solved. On a side note, browsing on the BB is super slo o o w… I keep getting “Requesting” and “Reading script” and more “Requesting”… *rinse and repeat. To be fair, maybe it has to do with the provider? Come on 3, you could do better!
OH! This thing has JAVA apps and games and IM! –> So does my other phone.
OH! It plays MP3s, pictures and videos and shit! –> see above, and my trusty 3 year old iPod.
OH! This thing has GPS and geotagging features! Well, to be honest this is the feature I like best. I took SBB on my trip to Bali and it’s actually useful. I’m also blaming this feature for getting myself into Foursquare, and the resulting obsessive badge hunting. Whatever.
OH! This thing has a 3MP camera! YAY! Big deal! Actually the camera is pretty decent. It lacks autofocus but it’s fast, takes pretty clear images with good colors. No complaints so far. I also liked how you can instantly attach pictures into Twitter or send them through BBM. HANDY! *puke* *retch*
Usability 3/10
Typing. With. QWERTY. Sucks.
A month later and I’m still not getting used to the minuscule keyboard keys. Kept screwing up, kept mixing up between the “caps” and the “alt” keys too. I have small fingers and am a casual pianist, so why am I having troubles with this bloody keyboard thing? …How could fat people with fat fingers could use this thing?
Calling all ergonomics experts to Research In Motion. Stat.
The battery life could be better. It could barely run 2 days without dying, and I did not even use it for phone and text. Well, I only used it for BBM *retch*, twitter, foursquare, and the occasional browsing. As a comparison, most of my Sony Ericsson phones run for 4 days between full charges.
Now I can kinda see why you CrackBerry heads always ask around for spare BB chargers… and why mobile chargers are so popular… way to go, Research In Motion!
Not all things are bad, though. I love how the device’s startup time is reasonably fast. Of course this is because the BlackBerry never turns off entirely. If you power off, it will only go to sleep/standby mode.
Conclusion time!
Is the BlackBerry worth getting addicted over – Not really! Dude! Please enlighten me! Convert me!
Will I return SBB to my dad anytime soon? – I haven’t decided. I might keep it for awhile for 4sq *lol*
Is it that useful? – Now, most of the time it’s turned off. Unless I want to do BBM or 4sq. Meh.
Will I reccommend this to you? It really depends on how you wanna use it.
If this thing gets stolen will I cry? Definitely. I’m a hoarder. I keep the stuff I love or hate all the same.
Can I have your PIN? Uh-huh…
If anyone wants to trade this with an iPhone 3GS? YES PLEASE! 🙂 🙂
amelstrange 
You’re addicted to 4sq now! Gah!!!
Oh and also I found out that if you have short nails, it helps with typing with the minuscule keyboard.
And yes! Browsing is super slow, faster with Red-Gadget.
And yes the automatic picture upload to Twitter and Facebook is very handy.
OH! Hello BBMfriend!
Gaaah! I’m getting myself over 4sq! I did not even ordereds the 4sq tshirt haa haa haa!
I have short short finger nails. Maybe the problem is my poor eyesight. Bah. That can’t be helped. Still, the keyboard sucked ass. As I said before, they better make the BlackBerry iPad-sized for the rest of us!
When I borrowed a friend’s BB I didn’t like QWERTY as well. But now I have my cute Samsung Star, I love QWERTY. So it’s not QWERTY’s fault; it’s BB’s fault it has sucky QWERTY keypad 😛
Sell your BB for iPhone 3GS, Mel. Sell it now! Hahahaha *evil grin*
Will do! Will try to get iPhone sometimes around my bday. Then it’s bye-bye BlackBerry! Muhahaha! *evil laugh* I think ur Samsung’s keypads r bigger than the BB QWERTY keys, though. Which makes it easier to use. BB = Pain in the arse