Is 9700 worth it from 9000?
 

I have AT&T Premiere access so I can purchase the phone right this instant if I so desired. I have hte bold 9000 now, purchased unlocked without a contract, so I can upgrade now for 200 with a two year contract i believe.

I have a couple problems with my current bold. First, it always requires to be rebooted due to lack of app mem. Is the new bold remedy this? Also, the battery doesnt always stya in place, resulting it moving slightly causing it to reboot. Has this been remedied too?

Lastly, is there any confirmation whether or not bb maps works or a way of working on the new bold?

How is the trackpad since I do love my marble. Is there any other real differences? Would my apps I purchased transfer and work? Would my accessories work still, such as charger, leather carrying pouch, etc? Is it worth the $200 of my own money to upgrade to the phone?

Thanks for any feedback you guys can offer! 8-)

I wonder how much does it cost to "upgrade" from the 9000 to the 9700 if one had problems with the trackball after 12 month with the 9000?
Will the cost be $200 plus the start of a 2 year contract? Can it be done for less?

I switched from 9000 to 9700 and love it, smaller phone same features trackpad is awsome, better camera. As far as your Apps most of the ones from AT&T should transfer not sure about 3rd party. The 9700 has the new micro USB port which is now the standard for any new devices, so no the chargers from the 9000 Mini USB do not work.

Hope this helps

In 1 word. Absolutely!!

I moved from Bold to Curve to 9700. Trust me 9700 is a mile apart from either of the previous devices. Its Fast! Like not ferrari fast but like f16 fast. Trackpad is awesome. More memory & 3.2mp cam.

You will fall in love with the phone the instant you turn it on. Its nicely and sleekly built. Not too big not to small. Fits in your hand perfectly. headset and speaker volume are loud. Vibration is good. Kinda buzzez like the vibrator from the porn movies. lol.

Dont even let me start on the OS5.0 This thing is awesome and a major step ahead.

Overall you'll be happy with the phone and not regret it.

Cool. Thanks for the feedback. So since it does have the 5.0, I got some questions about that now. Does BBMaps finally allowed again? Does Multimedia Video Camera allow me to save in mpeg4 as an option rather than the cruddy 3gp? Am I able to use dd/mm date format?

Other than that, the phone does indeed look sleek from the photos and again, so did the 9000. One thing I hate is the constant rebooting due to lack of memory and the battery that keeps moving about (I am on Bold #3). First one the battery kept popping out so I exchanged it. Got a new one, the compartment was perfect but a week later, it fried some how. It just stopped working (radio refused to connect to a tower). Got a new one, same problem with battery and said f it. I just used thermal tape to keep it more secure and was fine.

Even though the phone is still relatively new, it is already showing its age. I am hesitant to get a new one again due to somewhat trivial problems. I have this phone already unlocked so I hate to do that again, though I don't plan on leaving the country any time soon. And I did get a 3rd party keyboard because I hate how AT&T used white numerals rather than red and since I was swapping the keyboard, I got a bi-lingual one that has Hebrew letters on it too.

Since the trackpad is square, maybe I can dremel the square out? Are the keys the same would the keypad itself fit in its place?

Thanks again for the great, positive feedback!

I haven't found BBMaps if it is on there. I know some settings talk about it but its not showing up as an icon anywhere, only the option to buy AT&T's Navigator. Video only seems to offer the option of light, color settings and image size 480x360 or a smaller MMS mode. I don't know where to look for the dd/mm settings.

The battery cover is solid. I shot the phone across my counter trying to get it to pop off the first time.

The new Bold is about the size of a Curve. I had an 8310 Curve and the dimensions are almost identical.

I had the upgrade choice but it cost $299. I wasn't at 2 years though so I don't know if it would have dropped lower at that point. It didn't look like it.

Also, I doubt any 3rd party apps you paid for will transfer. You may be able to do it by saving them to the desktop manager and loading them along with your other settings to the new device.

I Love the idea of a trackpad but the smaller screen and more cramped keyboard are deal killers for me, my son has a 9700 and it's significantly smaller and much more dificult to type on, too small for me, i'll stick with my 9000 untill the next new BlackBerry comes along, and at the rate RIM has been dropping new ones on the market that shouldnt be a very long wait.

im on my second 9700, probably heading for a third... first one had java white screen errors on reboot along with a creaky keyboard, and this second one, the trackpad went out within the first hour of use... and i cant get its directionality function back to life... i went through a few bolds too though, and i expected to have problems, but not this many this soon... wait a bit amigo. if i hadnt given my bold to my dad already, id have hung on to it.

I'm on my second unit myself. After walking out of the store I noticed my J and K keys didn't work.

I used to own a 9000 and now a 9700. While I prefer the smaller form factor and tighter battery cover, I don't appreciate the smaller screen and keyboard. I wouldn't say i've had troubles with the keyboard, but, I've had to slow down a little to ensure accuracy.

Also I'm not convinced the trackpad is better than the ball. The ball, when working seemed much more accurate. The level of accuracy of the trackpad depends on your hands level of dryness/sweatiness. One things for sure, the long term reliability should be better as dirt can't get into the trackpad.

The one thing I do appreciate is the battery life of this baby. After only the first charge it has lasted 2 full days of use, not crazy use but maybe 120 emails and 2 hours of talktime.....being probably 20% better than the 9000.

Admitedly, as much as I love the new white 9000 I think I will stick with the 9700 and buy a used white 9000 for a backup phone as I just really like the keyboard and screem size...and may just switch back in time. So, do I recommend the 9700 as an upgrade?

Yes: If you want a smaller form factor and better battery life.

No: if you prefer the best keyboard and screen size. I also think the Bold 9000 looks more professional.

I actually think the BOLD 9700 is more like a 3G Curve 8900 than a Bold 9000, so those BOLD owners who didn't like the Curve should probably hold out with their Bold 9000's.

That is what I was waiting for, some negative reviews. I was hesitant to buy it as the negatives I have aren't terrible. I did just load the latest firmware available from AT&T so maybe it has better memory management.

Perhaps 5.0 will come out soon for Bold 9000 from AT&T and go from there.

One thing about the marble though, if my finger isn't perfectly clean (I do a tremendous amount of emailing while on the road, especially during lunch) and if I have one too many fries and my little fingers are too greasy (even after cleaning with a napkin) sometimes the ball starts to skip since the oils obviously reduces friction. I don't know how much better a pad would do, I guess a film can go above it preventing my finger from gliding over it. Now tell me, I hate those trackpads that laptops have, is this that similar? Obviously we're not using a 15" screen, but the ball has always seem to be a perfect thing... Why change it? If I wanted a trackpad I would had gotten the Nokia E71 :-/

Wirelessly posted

Good point about the 9700 being more like a 3G Curve 8900. I know it's being advertised as the Bold 2 but with my, granted quite limited, experience with it thus far it just does not feel like a proper Bold replacement. At the most I would put it on an even playing field with the 9000, but thus far I just can't put it much above. And in opinion at least any replacement should be a step up, not simply to the side.

That said, the trackpad and battery life are both pretty sweet.

The trackpad also takes up more room. I am not sure you will see anything in size to Bold in near future

I would never get rid of my 9000 for a 9700. Will wait for the 9900 as I like the bigger size.

The 9700 is just better than the 9000 in every conceivable way- it's a better size, better trackpad, better camera, better battery, and better processor.

Personally, I found the 9000 to be a brick of a phone, too large to carry around in my pants and oddly shaped whereas this thing is very similar form to that sleek Nokia smartphone.

However, if you have large fingers and hands you might prefer the 9000. Also, I wouldn't spend the extra money for the upgrade if money was at all a factor. After about 15 minutes of playing with it the novelty completely wears off and you would be just as happy with the 9000. It performs near identical tasks except for the better camera.

Although I don't regret upgrading (from the 8900 actually) if money mattered I would not have done it.

i get and respect your POV, but its actually the same processor and battery as the 9000. and ps, can i have some of this matterless money you speak of so freely? :-D

An interesting point... while the processor and battery are the same as the 9000, there is some voodoo under the covers. I had the Seido Extended battery on my 9000. I was lucky to get 18 hours with minimal use. I pulled that battery and put it into the 9700.

A few calls. Wifi & BT on. Lots of setup and configuration updates. quite a bit of e-mail, txt & BBM. At 18 hours last night, battery @ 60%. Left it on all night. Got up this morning. 55% 5 hours later... 45%.

Now, I did blow away the shipped OS and put the most current one shown in this forum. But this battery life is orders of magnitude better.

Speed .. relative I think. If FEELS a bit quicker. But I don't have any benchmarks to prove that.

Lots of goodness in the 5.0 OS. I like that it is using the BBM interface for threaded SMS. But then I don't do a lot of txt'ing. Mostly BBM. Loving the Sametime Enterprise Messaging that also uses the BBM interface.

Still not thrilled with the changes they made in alerts. No separate volume control for In holster vs out of holster. At least I can't find it if it is there. If I add a custom ringtone for contacts when they call, it forces a custom messaging alert that over rides the e-mail account set notification alert. I can't find anything that will let me set the Contact Message back to the profile default.

Yeah, I'm happy with the upgrade from the 9000 to the 9700.

So the 9000 form factor is not going away?!! You seriously made my day/month....

I too enjoy the broad/wide layout on the bold but the extra memory on the 9700 makes me drool.

But I got fat fingers and bigger keys are preferred here!

You don't by chance know if/when or if at&t will have?

9700=Most complete Blackberry

Two words: MORE MEMORY. Knock yourself out!

When do you think we may see the 9900?