Graphic Design Blog - Matthew Martin, BIG Media Design

The time has come for a new phone, and being a keen social networker and smartphone lover I’m in a predicament. Do I stay loyal to Blackberry and get the new Curve 8900 or move to Apple and get the iPhone?

As some of you will know (if you follow me on twitter) I’ve been an avid Blackberry user since purchasing my first BB - Curve 8320 - over a year ago. To be honest, the 8300 series was coming to the end of it’s life when I bought it, but it still covered some of the all important bases that the iPhone didnt. Fortunately, I never looked back (after trying friends iPhones) and was happy that I hadnt chosen another Apple product. For me the iPhone has always lacked some of the features of the BB that made running my business easier. This was a tough decision to make back then, particulary with all the hype that the iPhone received as well as the fact that I am an avid mac user.

Since I got the Curve I’ve been keeping up on all the smartphone advancements out there and have been keen to find out whether Apple would update the iPhone with the features I wanted. My main gripe with the iPhone was that the email left a lot to be desired, I was also reluctant to buy a phone with a touch screen knowing that I can touch type just as quick on my BB keypad as I can on a computer keyboard.

Now though, I’m having another BB vs iPhone crisis. Apple have made a lot of changes to the iPhone recently, bringing out a faster feature rich model - the 3GS. With the introduction of simple yet useful features such as mulitple deletion of email (useful for all that spam) and the addition of the obviously required copy-cut-paste feature. Also the new 3GS software allows users to orient the touchscreen keyboard to the horizontal position whilst typing emails - a must have for someone with massive hands and gangly fingers like mine. They’ve also added voice recognition, a useful feature for making calls while driving.

Next month I get the opportunity to upgrade my handset, and now I’m in a predicament. The BB has always been terrible for browsing the web but amazing for emails, and the iPhone has always had the opposite problem.

At the moment I’m leaning towards the iPhone with it’s shiny new features, great web browsing, mac compatibility, and amazing social networking apps. I know that blackberry have improved their browser but I’m told it’s still no where near as good as the iPhone.

So what is a gadget-loving man to do? I think I need a trip to the O2 shop to have a play with both handsets. I have a feeling that my mac sensibilities will get the better of me now a lot of the issues have been sorted, but we’ll see - maybe I’ll stay loyal to my beautiful BB. As always there’s going to be a difficult trade off.

I’ll keep you posted.

Matt