BlackBerry 6 pictured running on Verizon Bold 9650

F the tour

I can’t wait….but the question is when will it be released?

Way too little….and Wayyy to Late!

I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure the sluggishness has a lot more to do with the weak processor on these phones than the amount of memory they have. I mean really, 512MB or ever 256MB of RAM isn’t too bad for the apps that run on these phones. Of course, who knows how memory hungry the new OS is. On the other hand, those ancient Qualcomm processors, including the one the new Torch has, just don’t cut it for the OS’s and apps of today. Trying to put modern software on those processors is like trying to trying to tow a boat behind a car with a 4-cylinder engine. Yeah, you might be able to pull it, and it will probably roll okay on a flat road, but hit a bit of a hill, and you slow to a crawl. It’s time for RIM to pull out the V8 (a 1GHz CPU).

Let’s face it, the Torch isn’t even in the same league as the top Android phones and the iPhone 4, yet it costs the same amount of money. The only thing it really still has going for it is its security and enterprise management features, which are second to none. Neither of those reasons are relevant to most consumers, and consumers are already dropping their Blackberrys like a bad habit in favor of the new Android phones. The Torch is a halfways decent upgrade for enterprise users that require its management and security features, but if somebody ever challenges RIM on those features, it will likely be game over, unless they decide to get up to speed with current hardware and completely overhaul their OS.

Meh. Maybe if this was releasing one year-and-a-half ago.

2007 called……..they want their smartphone OS back. RIM has made the classic mistake of being complacent by delivering minimal upgrades for Yeats and sitting on their lead.

On the real….. I am a long time bb user, but recently made the switch to the EVO. Not bc I dislike what rim is doing, simply made a change bc blackberry doesn’t know if they want to be a secure powerhouse or intermediary cell phone manufacture. They want to capture all markets from government, fortune 500s to teeny boppers. It’s time to make a consumer, soccer mom, teenage line, and a business line that delivers all they security they need. Think email secure vs kids who want media aNd a nice keyboard. If you can’t differentiate the two you cant innovate. That’s the problem with blackberry, trying to please e veryone, make a damn consumer friendly device. Data. For all. 2 product lines. Honda and acura are the same cars but attract 2 different buyers. Done.

Yay! Berries!

Why can’t they clean up the homescreen without half of it being cluttered up with icons?

Won’t be long till we see some video… can’t wait to see how 6 runs on a non touch screen phones.

Wtf! who gives a sh*t about this outdated piece of crap. We see what the Saudis think about blackberry. Dead!

2.2 + .6 = 2.8 lolz….

http://i.engadget.com/2010/08/06/htc-evo-4g-froyo-6-update-seems-to-fix-early-adopter-issues/

LOL. ‘Sluggish’. Yeah, that’s what that ‘UUUUUGE amount of RAM with do for ya! 512MB!! Meanwhile HTC phones….are ya ready for this? 8GB!!! Did ya cream your jeans yet, BB Fangirlz?? No, you didn’t. 512mb is fine enough for brickbreaker and your crappy 1kb top-secret BB Message.

I still find it a travesty they call this a bold.

lol why are you guys so excited? hardware is terrible, browser is terrible…you BB fans must love living the slow life

BlackBerry seems tired these days… they are looking like the new Palm.

Why dont you wait till the actual OS its released instead of leaking out testing crap???
Jeez people, I bet you would do the same if u would have seen earlier versions of IOS 4 or Android.

Wait till commercial ones and the blast them off if you please

Yes, the Androids and iPhone 4 have more powerful processors and consequently poorer battery life than BB’s (or they’re much bigger to hold the larger battery).

But they don’t have BBM so sadly I must stick with BlackBerry since instantaneous secure communication is important for my business and family.

I guess if you don’t want to communicate with people or run a business and only want to play games it’s fair enough.

BlackBerry isn’t tired. It’s just busy doing something else.

I actually like my theme on my 9700 (that is collecting dust as I use my Pre+) why would i want this other than the browser?

THIS ISN’T 512MB OF RAM – IT IS 512 OF FLASH / ROM. GOD! IS IT THAT HARD.

THIS MOST LIKELY HAS 128 MB OF RAM AT THE MOST LIKE THE 9700.

I think the major mistake here was RIM’s attempt to develop an OS that is equally useable with touch-only and trackpad-only setups; it looks like a mediocre experience when using either.

Would love to see some video walkthrough of the 6.

1. No civilian mobile e-mail, call or message has ever been hacked by another civilian. PERIOD. If you need an Abrams Tank get one, but 99.99% of us can do just fine with a commercially available vehicle.

2. Battery life. If you were to listen to music, web browse and play a 3d game on your BB the battery would last as long as it does on any other high end smart phone. PERIOD. I use my S2 to listen to MLB streaming and the battery goes from 100% to 50% in the 2 train commute. Compare equal use and the answer is obvious.
A) All high end phones use battery at about the same level – - so don’t settle for a recycled screen, a processor from 2007 and less application memory than any other manufactured device in its class.
B) Buy a second mother-fkn battery and shut the fk up! I can get an Incredible for $50 less than the new BB. And buy 2 spare batteries and a case on e-bay. WTF would anyone not on BES choose a BB over a Galaxy, Evo, Incredible, I-phone 4?

3. E-mail on BB sucks. Maybe on 6 its beter. But less than 1/10 of 1% of current users are getting 6. And we are stuck with the worst browsing experience on the market, no HTML e-mail, heavily truncated e-mail…..

4. MS exchange on froyo is PUSH seamless. MS’s solution is free. MS solution provides adequate controls (remote lock, locate and wipe among others). BES charges license fees out the wazoozoo. It may take another generation to wash the BES servers out from gov’t and corporate ITs; but its coming. Panic Day is likely less than 2 years away. The day enough IT pros warn enough corporate execs that there entire BES/communication system would go down and cost millions/billions if RIM ever goes bankrupt. Imagine the investment in communications infrastructure. Thousands of BB issued handsets, now nearly worthless because the BES servers have gone suddenly quiet. Only an incompetant moron would continue to invest into this infrastructure. The smart ones – - (and the best kept secret among NYC law firms) is that they are all begining to roll out a parelell MS system and servers. And why so quiet, because – they need 2-3 years to replace all the devices and their infrastructure. The entire NYC magazine industry has virtually already changed over.

Android will never catch on with all segments until they get Outlook sync sorted. I have a HTC Desire and it refuses to sync with Outlook contacts, calendar, notes. And forget about tasks. It’s a joke that HTC/Google haven’t stepped in and sorted this out yet. Even Nokia has much better Outlook sync. I’m not the only one who feels this way. My next handset will be a BB – slow processor or not – as at least it gets me my personal info on my device without any fuss.

I picked up the 9650 on Sprint about a week after it was available. Most of my day is spent in an urban environment going from one meeting to another, so I rarely have a chance to plug in to recharge, except on days when I spend more time in the office on projects. So I carry a spare battery and mini-charger (really low cost on Amazon) and a solar/battery recharger.

My first need has been e-mails, since most of my business contacts happen through that. I do get HTML e-mail, so I don’t understand the comment above about that not working. I have tried several touch screen phones prior to getting my 9650, and I always came away massively frustrated trying to type more than two paragraph replies. The 9650 is great in this way, especially that I can reply to e-mails while out of the office, and not need to carry my laptop.

Second great need has been financial apps, in which I am well covered in BlackBerry. Some of the apps I use are not on Android, though most are on iPhone, except I have no desire to return to the sh*t AT&T service. I can watch or trade stocks in near realtime, while watching Forex and futures markets.

Third need has been internet, and the standard BB browser is disappointing. The Bolt browser works quite well. I played along and tested with a recent YouTube video comparison of iPhone 4, BB 9800, and a Samsung, all pulling up webpages. The BB OS 6 browser was faster than my OS 5 version, but when I replayed the same test using Bolt, then I matched or exceeded the 9800 with OS 6. My biggest gripe is that all phones are just too small in screen size for much of any browsing experience, but that is what tablets are made to do.

Lastly, I don’t use my phone for gaming. My BB 9650 works well with my iTunes music list, and Pandora, which is the extent of my entertainment on this phone. I will do the upgrade to OS 6, mostly for the better browser, though in part to have a slightly cleaner and faster way to navigate apps. I do think OS 6 is a very small change, and not a big leap.

I think people who like touchscreen phones are better off with something other than a BlackBerry. It is amazing how much grime and skin oil touchscreen phones reveal, yet people seem to ignore that. Anyway, thought I would share my experience with the 9650, as someone who really wanted this specific phone, and still is happy with it.