Berry-fied

On one particular day many months ago, I finally yielded into the pressure. More and more of the Nuffies started getting Blackberries and Ming finally stamped his foot down. He said that I had to get a Blackberry for the sake of productivity and for the sake of communicating with the team better.

So I got myself the Blackberry Bold 2 and I've been using it for months. I still use my iPhone for regular calls and my Blackberry as a pure e-mail phone.

I gotta say that with the Blackberry I suddenly realize that I have a lot more time to do everything else. Why?

Well because whenever I'm idle.

You know either waiting in a lift or waiting for someone or for a meeting to start, I go use my Blackberry to clear my e-mails quickly. So by the time I finally get back to my workstation at the office, I would've already been up to speed with my e-mails and I can just work on other things.

Of course the iPhone can check e-mails too but it's just not as stable or quick as a Blackberry if you ask me. That's not to say the iPhone sucks though. I think the iPhone is a great phone with loads of apps that I still use. The latest app I now use is called Sleep Cycle where it tracks your sleeping patterns and tries to wake you up at the right time each morning so you don't feel like shit when you wake up in the mornings.

Truth is, the iPhone can do a lot more things than the Blackberry but what makes the Blackberry so good is that it is very very very good in doing a few things and those few things it excels in happen to be the things you probably use the most. For me it's e-mails and the BBM.

I love my Blackberry and the truth is I'm really addicted to it now. Can't let go of it. The great thing I like about it too is how it compresses data so well so much that whenever I'm overseas now I actually data roam for e-mails and the data roaming charges aren't that expensive. I only use the e-mail function when I data roam though (if you use the browser or something I think that'll be a whole different story).

Like when I was in Singapore a few weeks back, I was actively receiving and replying e-mails throughout the whole day on my data roaming. It only cost me RM20 for the day on my Xpax Prepaid Blackberry credit.

That's really affordable. To give you a perspective, I was in London and I made a 2 minute call to a Malaysian mobile phone on my Maxis roaming iPhone and it cost me something like RM25 for that two minute call. Yeah I know if my iPhone was on another telco apart from Maxis the roaming charges may have been cheaper (my friend told me that Celcom roaming charges are 1/3 the cost of Maxis roaming but I don't know how accurate that is though) but still, RM25 is like what you pay for internet in a hotel room you stay in.

Besides, once my iPhone contract with Maxis expires I'm switching my iPhone line to DiGi. I hear DiGi's a lot cheaper in terms of rates and I've always wanted to be on DiGi. So Celcom on my Blackberry, DiGi on my iPhone.

So the truth is everyone that yes... while I still love my iPhone, I love my Blackberry just as much. I asked myself once that if I had to pick one, which would I have... (or which one do I hold to sleep each night)

And the answer was.... my Blackberry... so yes you BB Evangelists out there... you were all right, I was wrong. The Blackberry is a great phone.

(But then again, if I wasn't working and was on a long holiday where I won't need to check any e-mails then maybe I'd stick to my iPhone).