[boomer1340]

Got an offer from T-Mobile to upgrade my 8700g to a Pearl Flip for FREE! I'm not unhappy with my current BB, but, the offer is interesting to say the least.
Any advice from y'all? The T-Mobile guy said if you're not happy just switch the SIM card back and your 8700g will be ready to go. I am not tech savvy
so any advice/help will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Ron

[aiharkness]

Wirelessly posted (8820)

Here's the pro's and con's from my point of view, in no particlar order:

The 8700 is a fantastic blackberry. Best keyboard in my opinion. But it is getting dated. If you can put 4.5 on it, you may be happy for a long time. But the newer models with their features (builtin gps, wifi, media card....) are nice.

The flip is a flip. I have a bias against flips for some reason. But that's me. However, it is a suretype keypad, isn't it? You may or may not be happy with it. Some get used to it fast, others hate it.

The flip is free. If you don't like it, I don't see as you've lost anything except signing the contract to get it. You can swith back and forth with your old 8700 and just change the PIN on your BIS. The flip could be your weekend blackberry, or vice versa.

[boomer1340]

Thank-you so much. I'm in Alabama...what part of the Panhandle do you call home? BTW
...what is BIS? The "suretype" is what has me concerned the most...thanks again.
Ron

[aiharkness]

Panama City.

See BlackBerry Glossary - BlackBerryFAQ. Sounds like your 8700, is personal. If that's the case and you are using blackberry data services (browser, email . . . ) then you are using BIS. (Or, you could be syc'ing to a company or a hosted exchange service, in which case you would be using BES.)

Only thing to do is go to the store and play with the sure type keyboard, handle the blackberry, see what you think. I used a sure type keyboard with my first blackberry and it was ok. Like I say, people tend to have strong feelings about it. You'll have to see for yourself.

[david9962000]

Coming from an 8700, I would get the 8900.

[boomer1340]

It is personal but as a self-employed person it's business for me as well...phone & email on the road...I rarely take my laptop anymore. I do understand about what you said re:
the BES as I have friends/colleagues with company Berrys in that situation, I just wasn't
familiar with the BIS/BES terms. Thanks for the GLOSSARY/FAQ link...very helpful!
Best,
Ron

[jason.cyr13]

I got the flip because it was my first berry and i thought I would be a noob for a while. I have gone past that now, so I crave something else. I have about 2.5 years to go before I can upgrade.

That being said, I totally love it. The suretype did take a while to get used to, but I was coming from T9. I know of people who've upgraded from an 8100 to an 8900 and I don't think they would go back. They love the full keyboard. That took them some time to get used to. I get a little frustrated with the suggested words that suretype spits out for words that are similar, but I've changed the Autotext to fix that. They also love OS 4.6 and how it looks.

If you are a speed demon with a full keyboard, get that one. The suretype might cause you to second guess the words you type and slow you down.

[junk2k06]

Like Jason, I am too noob in BB world and I have a flip. And it is fabulous as a phone. Keyboard is pretty good. I have no love for suretype though, and I just use multitap for whatever typing I need. UMA works like a champ!

[david9962000]

You should give SureType another chance, just don't look at the screen while you type, the software is guessing your word, just look at it at the end of each word.

[djeaux]

First post!

My first experience with BBs was a 7290 that was inflicted on me by my job. As an email device, it was okay, but the form factor utterly stank as a phone -- the width of the thing was too big for my hand, and after about 3 minutes in a call I had a bad case of chirospasm (go look it up). Added to that the fact that my employer was a state agency, which made my calls a matter of public record, and I ended up carrying a little Motorola flip phone for personal use. Due to those factors, I grew to hate the Blackberry and to love the flip phone.

I retired a year ago and happily wiped the BB and gave it back. Fast forward a year, and I'm teaching a bunch of online classes as an adjunct and desperately need email "anywhere." I checked out a friend's Pearl and was really put off by the SureType, but I decided to give the Pearl Flip a try. (Like I said, I really like flip phones.) After about an hour of utter frustration, I switched to MultiTap and it works great.

I'd say SureType is great for folks who (a) can't spell anyway and (b) cut their teeth using predictive text systems on SMS, but MultiTap gets the Pearl Flip keyboard pretty close to a regular QWERTY set up. As with anything else, YMMV of course!

[djeaux]

Wirelessly posted

Well, I read around these (great) forums and tried SureType with predictive text off and it certainly rocks! As fast as the regular qwerty keypad on that old 7290! So change my previous post accordingly.



I'm loving this thing!