I hate my BlackBerry. I have the 8130 Pearl. I bought it earlier this year. One of the "features" I hate most of all is what happens when it goes into Low Battery mode.

My BB sucks up electrons like crazy, but I think that is a given for faster data networks. But my complaint is that once it gets into a Low Battery condition, the BlackBerry does very bad things. First, other than beeping when I am talking on the phone and showing the LED light indicator, there is no other way I can tell when it goes into Low Battery condition unless I turn the screen on and look at the Low Battery message. Why doesn't it make a loud audible beep even when I am not using the phone to let me know I need to charge it up?

But that is not all. After the BlackBerry goes into Low Battery mode, first of all it turns of the radio. So suddenly when people call me, I don't get their calls!!!! That is SO bad. But then when I find my BlackBerry is in Low Battery mode, usually the next morning, I plug it in to charge it up. So the BlackBerry then automatically restores the radio connection, right? WRONG. The BlackBerry doesn't restore the radio connection even when it is on external power unless I tell it to. Nor does the BlackBerry automatically restore its radio connection after it gets fully charged. BIG MISTAKE, RIM!

So once I plug in my BlackBerry to external power, I should then be able to immediately place and receive phone calls since it can run from external power, right? WRONG. The BlackBerry doesn't allow me to make or receive calls even though it is on an external power source until the battery gets charged enough to no longer be in Low Battery condition. What if your laptop computer wouldn't let you use it until after you charged its battery to a certain level? That wouldn't be acceptable. So why in the world does BlackBerry make you charge it to a certain level to send or receive calls? What if you need to make an emergency call? With BlackBerry, you have to wait 10 minutes for your phone to charge up!

One of the few useful indicators BlackBerry gives during Low Battery is beeping when you are on an active call. However, after I plug my BlackBerry into an external power source, the phone still continues beeping until it gets charged up enough for Low Battery to go away. So even though my BlackBerry has told me its battery is running down and I have corrected that situation by plugging it in, the BB still nags me about the Low Battery condition. That makes no sense at all.

I absolutely hate my BlackBerry. The Low Battery issues are just one of the reasons I hate this phone. My Palm worked much more logically during Low Battery conditions, even though I hated other things about my Palm. There doesn't seem to be any redeeming qualities of BlackBerry as far as I can see. I want to throw my BlackBerry into the ocean and get a phone that doesn't suck this much.