[CMatthews]

Originally Posted by dstrauss

I realize this is a Blackberry site, and I loved my Curve, but the Bold is an unreliable voice radio device. Just Google "radio path unavailable" and I defy you to find EVEN ONE entry reporting this problem with an iPhone, Blackjack, or even Tilt. It is almost exclusively a BB Bold issue (although some Curve and 8800 users report the problem).

This issue makes the Bold unreliable as a voice device. It repeatedly happened 3-4 times per day - can't call out, no incoming calls, and you aren't notified of voice messages. At the same time you still receive SMS/email but so what - a phone is for making and receiving calls.

So rave on about the quality of corporate email - and stick to the Curve if that is an overriding requirement. I'll be the first to admit the iPhone is not a Blackberry - but at least you can make and receive calls.

I have 2 Bolds in my household, and have had several other Blackberry devices, I haven't had issues with that.

I have seen the "call failed" message a couple of times when dialing, but I was in a area lacking a strong signal, and my iPhone 3G always had the same problem in that area.
Personally I like both phones, there are good and bad things about each. I like the Bold for messaging, and the iPhone more for the media side of things.

[dstrauss]

I strongly believe this is a "unit specific" issue. My replacement Bold, although only 3 days old, has not had a single "radio path unavailable" or other dropped call. The first one averaged 3-4 such incidents every day, yet showed 5 full bars of signal. It is strange that you can still get SMS and email when this happens. but it is beyond frustrating when you don't know someone has tried to call and you don't even get the missed call notification.

(Knocking on wood) - the new one is rock solid.

[dstrauss]

Originally Posted by dstrauss

I strongly believe this is a "unit specific" issue. My replacement Bold, although only 3 days old, has not had a single "radio path unavailable" or other dropped call. The first one averaged 3-4 such incidents every day, yet showed 5 full bars of signal. It is strange that you can still get SMS and email when this happens. but it is beyond frustrating when you don't know someone has tried to call and you don't even get the missed call notification.

(Knocking on wood) - the new one is rock solid.

UPDATE II

According to AT&T, there is no way to determine if this is "unit specific" or "network weakness" but of course they would never admit to the later. In fact, when I had the problem with the first Bold, they specifically denied any network problems. Come to find out (from the county's IT guru) AT&T was having a large number of 3g complaints for our local (new) roll-out in December-January and were being tight lipped as they tuned the towers. It is particularly a problem for phones like the Bold that cannot be manually throttled back to EDGE when there's a weak 3g signal. Perhaps iPhone has a "Stronger" radio?

ANYWAY, Bold #2 has been rock solid for a week; strong 2-day battery; same great enterprise connectivity.

[Ward]

That super long email above is a pretty good, seemingly unbiased review. One group of my friends all use blackberry and we are all over BBM 24 hrs a day. Yesterday I hung with a bunch of other friends and they all had freakin iphones. Whenever I see people playing with them and doing crazy weird things on all their apps, I get iphone envy. I heard they are going to create a bbm-like messaging system that is unique to iphones...if it even compares to bbm, I might consider switching.

I've had my bold since launch date in November and I like this thing a lot.

Few complaints (really nitpicky ones):
wish it had a better camera
wish it had better apps
att sometimes blows in 3g service
phone reboots itself maybe once a week or so on its own
They need to create a trackball that will never get dirty
browser needs to be better and faster
I dont know a single person who has been able to successfully use pocketmac. I mean, WTF RIM
all the buttons and things integrated into the bezel are so chunky and ugly. They could have made this part sleeker imo
symmetrical camera and flash on rear is an ugly ugly design. should have gone assymmetrical like on the current pearls and curves

Other than that, I'm all about this thing.

BBM elevates the quality of my life so much. It's sad but I live on that feature.

[BBFanboy]

Originally Posted by dstrauss

UPDATE II

According to AT&T, there is no way to determine if this is "unit specific" or "network weakness" but of course they would never admit to the later. In fact, when I had the problem with the first Bold, they specifically denied any network problems. Come to find out (from the county's IT guru) AT&T was having a large number of 3g complaints for our local (new) roll-out in December-January and were being tight lipped as they tuned the towers. It is particularly a problem for phones like the Bold that cannot be manually throttled back to EDGE when there's a weak 3g signal. Perhaps iPhone has a "Stronger" radio?

ANYWAY, Bold #2 has been rock solid for a week; strong 2-day battery; same great enterprise connectivity.

I don't mind people complaining about legit issues, but when you pooh-pooh the Blackberry and praise the iPhone on the same issue that deserves a more indepth look.

If this was stricktly a Blackberry issue then why reports such as this http://www.usatoday.com/money/indust...-problem_N.htm

Indeed just do a search for iPhone 3g dropped calls - you'll find complaints are that up to 3% of calls are dropped - to my mind that's a hell of a lot more than I have seen with the Blackberry Bold.

[jryan774]

i had a pearl and left BB to go to iPhone when they were released and loved the iphone but after a few months it wore off, its basically an ipod that you can make calls on and thats the way i see it as email, calender and contact intergration etc is just sh*t, so now im back onto a bold and will never leave BB again!

[tbird57]

Wirelessly posted

I say buy the dog gone phone if you want it, cuz asking your question on a BB forum is like asking two politians to agree on one thing!! It aint going to happen!!

You got 30 daze to change your mind!!

[dstrauss]

Originally Posted by BBFanboy

I don't mind people complaining about legit issues, but when you pooh-pooh the Blackberry and praise the iPhone on the same issue that deserves a more indepth look.

If this was stricktly a Blackberry issue then why reports such as this http://www.usatoday.com/money/indust...-problem_N.htm

Indeed just do a search for iPhone 3g dropped calls - you'll find complaints are that up to 3% of calls are dropped - to my mind that's a hell of a lot more than I have seen with the Blackberry Bold.

OK fanboy, I get your message (no iPhone praise allowed in your presence). In all seriousnes, I reported here the problem I had with the first Bold; the fact that AT&T switched me to an iPhone in our local area (and it did not show the dreaded "radio path unavailable" that the Bold repeatedly did); and teh latest update that I was back to a second Bold which was more solid.

Regardless, the iPhone (in its two weeks) never dropped a call in the same area as the Bold did repeatedly. Now the Bold is much better, but even today had two episodes of dropped calls - "radio path unavailable" so make of it what you will. AT&T is not admitting to any weakness in its tower tuning, but either they are tuned too well for the iPhone, or not for others. As for your "Google it" admonition, just Google "radio path unavailable" and tell me how many RIM shots you get compared to iPhone.

I stand by my personal evaluation - Bold is truly an enterprise class device with good battery performance, but voice stability of the iPhone out here in the boonies outperforms the Bold.

[mpeckham]

I had the iPhone for about two weeks before I switched to the Bold. I really wanted to like the iPhone, but...

5 reason I went back to bb from the iPhone

1) No cut and paste. Obvious and not as big a deal for me as reason number two, but I couldn't leave it out.
2) No blinking red light. When I realized I was missing that, I new I was a true bb addict.
3) No mass inbox to view all your email account's messages. I do not want to have drill down to one account (for work) and then drill out and back in for my personal account. This should be available natively
4) Better battery life. I do not want to have to carry an extra appliance just to charge my phone midway through the day. Same usage on a bb and I can wait till nighttime to charge.
5) Background push notifications. I mean really, promising to deliver this in the 2.1 update and now we're almost to the second update after 2.1? Without this the iphone cannot truly instant message and that is just wrong. Just using the sms is not an option for me.

Some of the other things that people gripe about, like the keyboard, actually didn't bother me as much as those five. If you are looking for a phone that does email and im well, a bb is the way to go at this point in time.The only place where the iPhone outshines the Bold and other bbs is web browsing. People talk a lot about applications, and there are few that I certainly miss, the Facebook app being the primary (come on, the blackberry should be able to comment on people status with out having to browse to the website.) As for the Bold's reliability issues, I have not had any but my fiancee has. Where I live, the iPhone did not perform as well as the Bold regarding signal strength.

All this being said, you can bet that I will be looking at future iterations of the iPhone because at heart I am an Apple fanboy. If I could afford to have both, I would.