[livspop]

I'm a newbie here, so be gentle....

Anyway, here's my situation - I'm with Alltel and they are expected to release the Motorola Q in a couple of weeks. Last week, in anticipation of that happening, I decided to try the BB 8703e. Alltel gives me a 30-day window to try a new smartphone before I'm stuck with it and I've always wanted to try a BB but never have. I did this assuming I wouldn't like it much because it wasn't as flashy as some other smartphones and I tend to be a little bit of a gadget freak.

Boy, was I wrong. I really love the 8703e so far. Battery life has been good, the phone itself is excellent and it's very easy to use. Only two minor issues - sometimes the push doesn't seem to work as quickly as I thought it would (I'm using BIS and it could be an issue with my email server at work or gmail) and for some strange reason (I've seen others on this forum mention it) the green flashing service light will just "disappear" for periods of time. These things are not deal breakers...

So, my dilemma is this: I have been counting down the days until the Q comes out, but now I'm confused. I'm hoping someone here has had some experience with the Q and a BB and can give me some pros and cons and suggestions as to which phone is best.

Any input is appreciated!

[JSanders]

Wirelessly posted (8700g: BlackBerry8700/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

The Q may be flashier, but you'll look much smarter with your BB, and in the longrun have a much more reliable device.

Your push email from BIS can delay up to 15 minutes--thats how it is setup to function. There are workaounds to that through forwarding email to your @xxx.blackkberry.net address or a yahoo or gmail account which poll almost instantly, but there also downsides to that also. Personally I don't mind the short delay.

The green flasing LED indicates prescence of your signal. Are you in a weak area? It should flask green as long as you have a signal except for red when you have new mail, and other colors for various reasons, orange low battery, blue when BT connected.

Good luck, enjoy, and come on back if you have other questions.

[jr39]

Originally Posted by livspop

I'm hoping someone here has had some experience with the Q and a BB and can give me some pros and cons ...

I looked at the Q before switching to the 8703e. Here are two factors that made me choose the BB:

1. If you are a power user of Outlook, the BB is better. The Q uses smartphone version of Windows Mobile, not the full version of Windows Mobile. Fields included in BB PIM and Outlook are not included on the Q. For example, I'm a heavy user of the notes field in Outlook appointments & tasks. To my knowledge, there is no notes field for appointments & tasks on the Q.

2. IMO, the keyboard on the Q isn't arranged properly for quick typing as it is on the BB. The shape, placement, and action of the keys on the Q stink. The ones on the 8703e took some getting used to after switching from the 7250, but I'm typing just as fast on the 8703e as I did on the 7250. I don't think I could have typed as quickly on the Q even after getting used to it.

Hope this helps.

- JR

[level9]

After I noticed Sprint had the Q I was tempted also. I have been doing the same comparison - the Q is MUCH more "flashy" - mp3's, camera, etc. The 8703e is basically the same "bland" (don't flame me) design that BB has put out for years....

Yes, I think RIM would be smart to add the same mp3 etc capabilities built in as they do on the Pearl, but overall, the 8703e is tried and true. Honestly, the Q and the Blackjack and such look like they are ripe for me to sit on and break the first week. (I'm notoriously rough on my phones).

The bottom line is that the reliable email and reliable device of the 8703e are just to good to pass up for the mp3 and camera. I had one of the 7100 series a while back and put it through hell and back, and it kept on going. My contract is up (Treo 650) in 2 weeks and I will be going with the 8703e. I'll be a BB owner again and couldn't be happier about the decision.

[smallville20]

I've never owned the Q... but know a few who have. Each of them has said the same thing about it. "The Q does alot of things, but it doesn't do any of them good."

[livspop]

Originally Posted by JSanders

Wirelessly posted (8700g: BlackBerry8700/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

Your push email from BIS can delay up to 15 minutes--thats how it is setup to function. There are workaounds to that through forwarding email to your @xxx.blackkberry.net address or a yahoo or gmail account which poll almost instantly, but there also downsides to that also. Personally I don't mind the short delay.

The green flasing LED indicates prescence of your signal. Are you in a weak area? It should flask green as long as you have a signal except for red when you have new mail, and other colors for various reasons, orange low battery, blue when BT connected.

Thanks for the quick replies all!

That's good news to hear about the 15-minute delay. I did notice that my gmail accounts poll almost instantly.

In regards to the flashing LED, I'm in a VERY strong signal area. In fact there's a tower about 1/4-mile from my home and office (lucky me). Apparently there's a bug (I've seen it discussed in other threads on this forum) that causes the flashing light to quit flashing completely or to stop for a certain period of time and then come back on later. For instance, I turned the phone on this morning and within 10 minutes it stopped flashing. Full signnal, phone was on, receiving data no problem. It's just sort of strange.

Again, thanks and if anyone has more input I'd love to hear it.

[bukwit]

What I've found with my 8700 compared to many of the Windows Mobile phone devices that I have is that its a very "straight-to-the-point" device. I know what I want to do and it gets done with ease. Now I do use my WM5 devices on a daily basis, however I still return to the 8700 (actually I've given it to my wife to use for a while but I'm taking it back soon ;)) for its simplicity yet versatility.

[livspop]

What about the browser? Is the browser significantly better/worse than the WM5 browser? I'm in an EVDO area. Also, does anyone have any experience with battery issues? For instance, I've heard that the Q battery drains fairly quickly, especially if you set it to pull email at regular intervals (even every hour). The Q battery is 1130mh and I think the 8703e is 1000mh? But it seems to me the BB push system might be less of a drain on the battery.

[dougng]

I had the Motorola Q from 10/26 to 1/7...after going through four Q phones, Verizon was nice enough to switch me to a BB 8703e at their cost

The first Q would randomly lock up, which was actually pleasant compared to the second Q, where all the buttons would all do the same thing: hit the back button. The third Q wouldn't recognize the memory card intermittently and the fourth one was so slow that I would miss every third letter while sending out emails or text messages. I returned the first two in the first week and sucked it up for the remainder of the two months I had that phone with the last two

As for the pros and cons:

Multimedia: the Q wins on this one. Video playback and mp3 playback are king here. However, neither does much for me. I bought a memory card for the mp3 and video playback, and for a few weeks I wowed my coworkers with movies and my pals with dirty movies. Then it really didn't impress anyone anymore and I didn't have much use to watch movies on the go and I have a dedicated iPod for jogging, so I'm not losing any sleep over that

Messaging: BB is much easier to get emails. I used pull email on the Q, and never used their push service though. Keypad on the BB is much more responsive. PIN messaging is a big plus for me

OS: BB wins hands down. Much more responsive

Battery Life: BB wins hands down. I have to say though, the Q has a decent battery life with the update last Nov-ish. I'd get 36 hrs of life with an hour or so of talk time, pulling my email several times a day, and surfing the web. However, my BB gets three days with the same usage (two days if it's slow at work and I'm screwing around with my phone). So the BB gets about twice the mileage out of it

Explorer: BB is faster (IMO). The only minus is that one page I use (my work email) doesn't work right (something about a certificate). On the Q it worked just fine. All other pages, I MUCH prefer the BB, esp the way it has the panels set up when pages use multiple panels for navigation purposes

Call Quality: The same all around. I might actually give the Q an edge in this dept, but you're also assuming that your phone isn't locked up when you need a call...that's my response for those that will say "it's a phone first and a pda second". Once you get the damn phone to work, it's great, but it might be sluggish to even enter the digits you have to before you get the call started

What I prefer with the Q (for my usage): I would occassionally use MMS to send pics to friends or mp3's to myself...I REALLY miss the removable memory. That is my biggest gripe about the BB. I also really liked picture caller ID...it seems petty but I can really respond faster by looking at a picture than by reading the text...esp when I'm not wearing my glasses. Oh, and I liked that I could play entire songs for my alarm clock in the morning. That was a nice plus for me but not a dealbreaker.

What I prefer about the BB: UI is infinitely better...typing is exponentially better...email much more convenient..I actually PREFER to have a phone that doesn't have a camera...most of my friends feel the same way as well. It's just not very useful to me at all. I had a Razr and an LG before the Q, and I don't think I used the camera on any of them EVER. In fact, I think I was playing with the video function on the Q and it locked up my phone after 30 seconds...back on topic, the battery life is better, the internet web browser is faster...the BB just fits me better. Honestly, all the multimedia is great, but my life is busy enough as it is, I never get around to using it.

One more thing to add: I spent a good amount of money on third party software to get the Q to work to it's full potential (alternate music and video players, registry hacking software, task manager software because the OS will jam if you have too many progs in the background, etc) I spent $20 on my BB for Blackberry Alerts (this pisses me off, the alerts really should've come standard with the OS) and Yak On

In general, when you talk to Q users, they'll either tell you that they can deal with the defects because they love the toy-like features of the Q, or that they don't have any issues with the phone (and I can only assume that they are the extremely lucky, but I'm not one of them) I REALLY tried hard to like that phone, but look where I am now...

If you want to go with the Q in the end, dn't cy wen al yor emals loo lke thi youv ben wrned

=)

[livspop]

Thank you, dougng. That was exactly the kind of information I was looking for.

[EarlVolFan]

I lived with the Q since it came out and just ditched it for a BB 8703e two weeks ago. I won't add much to what Dougng said, but I got the Q after carrying a 7250, but needed a smaller form factor, so I tried the 7130, but found I needed a full keyboard, so I got the Q. Loved the thinness, but found out quickly I had to get the extended battery which increased the thickness.

I have a Nano, which hooks up to my car stereo, that I also carry travelling, and a small Sony 8 mp digital camera that takes far better pictures than any crappy cell cam I've seen, so I only need voice, text, e-mail, and internet for my purposes.

The Q did an okay job, but had all of the usual problems that windows based devices have, which mean unexpected freeze-ups and frequent restarts. I couldn't do the software update that came out because it had bluetooth issues and I wasn't giving up my built in bluetooth handsfree system in my car. The main reason I said 'adios' to the Q was the unrealiabilty of Wireless Sync. I would have to have my IS guys reset the server 2-3 times a day to keep my e-mails coming, which meant I never knew what the status of my e-mails were.....

Now that I switched back to BB, using the BIS, I get e-mails from my corporate server instantly. Also, in my opinion, the 8703e has a much better screen and keyboard than the Q, which, with the extended battery is the same thickness as the 8703e.

Good luck in your search...

[dbdynsty25]

It's simple. If you want a messaging device (SMS, Email, whatever) the BB wins without a doubt. MS did a horrible job with their email and messaging integration. I used a Q for the past 8 months (since it came out in July till this week). I picked up a 8703 because I was just so frustrated with the messaging on the Q. Best thing I ever did. I spend 90% of my time on my phone either email, text messaging, or browsing the internet. All three things are done better on the BB. Couldn't be happier, even though my wallet is significantly lighter now.