[tripreed]

This is my first post, I'm glad to be here.

This past Sunday my family decided to extend their contract with AT&T, meaning new phones. This is something I had eagerly been awaiting for quite a while. For the past two years I have been using an 8700c that a friend of mine gave me. I didn't have email or internet on it, but I definitely enjoyed it as a phone and for sending texts.

In anticipation of our renewal, I had planned on getting a new Blackberry (wasn't sure what model yet), but on preliminary visit to the store, the E71x caught my eye and I was intrigued. I like how small it was, the shortcut keys to contacts and email, and having used Nokias in the past, I have always been pleased with their quality. Well after reading numerous reviews and watching demonstrations on Youtube, this is the phone I ended up getting this past Sunday.

Probably by the end of the day on Monday, I began having second thoughts. I found the Symbian operating system to be a chore to use, it took me forever to get a decent push email set up for my Gmail (I ended up using Emoze), and the AT&T bloatware was pretty annoying (though I did end up deleting a lot of it per instructions on the internet). I did begin to miss some of the small things about the Blackberry, though, like being able to just hit "R" to reply to an email or text, or how it will automatically recognize when I'm using contractions and add in an apostrophe when necessary. Also, I found the keyboard a pain to type on, and the battery was not very impressive. I then talked to a friend of mine who had just upgraded to the 8900 and was telling me how much he liked it and how pleased he was. After doing more research and waffling about the decision, I finally went back to AT&T and exchanged it on Wednesday.

Having used the 8900 for the past day and a half, I have to say that I absolutely don't regret my decision. I really like this phone; it's intuitive and easy to use, and the email is excellent. I've been pleased with Edge so far, though I don't do a lot of surfing, so maybe it's not that big of a deal to me. Battery life remains to be seen; it doesn't seem to be too big of an improvement so far, but I think that's something I can deal with. While the E71x is certainly a nice phone and does have a lot to offer, it just didn't work for me. Anyways, if anyone is trying to decide between the two, especially if you have had a Blackberry in the past, I suggest going with the 8900.