Not a fanboy, but thinking of picking up an iPhone.

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

My Blackberry Bold 9700 just isn't cutting it. Our new house is in a very bad area for AT&T coverage, despite there being three towers within a one mile radius. My wife's iPhone works a lot better in the house. I've resorted to driving to a CVS parking lot when I have to make overseas calls, yet she calls her folks in China all the time from the house. Anyway, I don't live for my phone. I want a good camera, good battery life, good signal, decent Internet and easy texting or emailing. Seems my wife's iPhone is better at all these than my BB Bold. I don't plan to load tunes onto it. So can I get by with a 3G 16GB?

porsche4life · porsche4life's Garage

You want a 3GS at least.... Honestly if you are signing a contract get a 4....

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

I'm not signing a contract. Already did that, so I'd have to pay stupid money to get a 4G and I really don't care about the latest and greatest of anything.

slodave · slodave's Garage

Rick, just an FYI... I plan on upgrading to the 4, I have a 3G now. I am going to wait another month or so. If you can wait, I'll let you have my 3G for next to nothing. Mines an 8 gig though and Sidney is right.

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

That's generous of you. Which one do you have? 8, 16, 32GB?

slodave · slodave's Garage

8 gig... Total call time 5 days, 21 hrs. Amazingly, not a scratch on the face, it's also been in a rubber case since new, so no scratches anywhere. I'll actually probably get the 4 towards the end of July.

matthew-s · matthew-s's Garage

FWIW I'm not a fanboy either. I just switched to the iPhone 4 from the BB Bold 9000. Calls are at least as good, if not better surprisingly. I think you'll like it. I'm quickly getting used to the keyboard too.

Jim Richards · 07-02-2010, 03:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

My Blackberry Bold 9700 just isn't cutting it. Our new house is in a very bad area for AT&T coverage, despite there being three towers within a one mile radius.

What makes you think anything will be better with the iPhone? My son loves his iPhone but hates the AT&T coverage/capacity in his area. I suspect you'll find yourself in the same boat. My 2 centavos.

rfuerst911sc · 07-02-2010, 03:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Richards

What makes you think anything will be better with the iPhone? My son loves his iPhone but hates the AT&T coverage/capacity in his area. I suspect you'll find yourself in the same boat. My 2 centavos.

Well if you read his post he stated his wife has an Iphone and doesn't have the issues he has with his blackberry.

Jim Richards · 07-02-2010, 03:56 AM

oops! thanks for pointing that out.

JJ 911SC · JJ 911SC's Garage

Ill be picking one up sometime this month as its not out yet in Canada.

I contacted Blackberry (Canadian company) to inquire about their next Bold that is supposed to compete with the Iphone. I highlighted that they already miss the boat in the US and offer that I would wait if they give me a loaner until they release the new one I would buy one.

I got the famous... We do not comments on future release e-mail to which I reply; Sayonara, Mr. Apple will be glad to take my money as they did for the Ipad

ramonesfreak · ramonesfreak's Garage

i have a 32gig 3GS. never had any problem with AT&T, even in manhattan. Driving through very rural parts of new york state however, it drops from 3G to Edge network often making certain internet streams drop. i love the phone overall

Super_Dave_D · Super_Dave_D's Garage

ohhhhhh you are all FANBOYS!!!!!!! Bunch of marks!! Sickens me!!!

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

My Blackberry Bold 9700 just isn't cutting it. Our new house is in a very bad area for AT&T coverage, despite there being three towers within a one mile radius. My wife's iPhone works a lot better in the house. I've resorted to driving to a CVS parking lot when I have to make overseas calls, yet she calls her folks in China all the time from the house. Anyway, I don't live for my phone. I want a good camera, good battery life, good signal, decent Internet and easy texting or emailing. Seems my wife's iPhone is better at all these than my BB Bold. I don't plan to load tunes onto it. So can I get by with a 3G 16GB?

Have you considered one of the Femtocells?

AT&T 3G MicroCell™

The interesting thing is you can take it with you, and create an AT&T network spot anywhere in the world...

This is one of the nice things about my wife's Blackberry (its one of the the flip ones) and T-Mobile. It has UMA capability, so that anywhere there is an accessible wifi hotspot, the phone becomes a VOIP phone. This means that in Mexico, her phone doesn't cost us anything to use, it is like it is in the USA. And you would have no issues with coverage in your house, as long as you have a wifi router.

Rich76_911s · Rich76_911s's Garage

My feeling is, if you are paying for the Data plan it is just plain silly not to have an Iphone or a comperable HTC, etc.

That would be the same as showing up for a track day with a moped instead of your Ducati.

onewhippedpuppy · 07-02-2010, 06:26 AM

I have coverage issues with my Bold as well, as soon as I'm eligible to upgrade in a few months I will definitely be replacing it with an iPhone or similar HTC product. Even in major urban areas it will lose its signal or drop calls, even when others have a perfect signal. It also seems to have issues keeping a 3g signal, often defaulting to Edge. This all makes it burn through batteries rapidly as well, I don't even get a full day before it dies.

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

Yes, I have considered buying a microcell, but can't bring myself to spend $150 to get the coverage AT&T says I should already be getting. I call and complain about once a month. So far they've comped me $25 off my last bill. If they get it up to another $125, I'll buy a microcell. But the simple fact is that my wife's phone works better here than my BB and I don't think it has a lot to do with AT&T.

I got a flat tire in the 993 in the middle of the desert in NV a year ago, 110 deg. out and no Verizon signal. I was getting worried when I remembered I had my work BB in my bag, which is AT&T. It had a decent signal and I got USAA's roadside assistance on the first try. That and my wife's really wanting an iPhone got me to switch to AT&T. Then we end up moving into a house where AT&T sucks. Go figure. In fact, it got so bad that I was losing calls on my work BB. The company just ported me over to Verizon and I'm a week into my new BB Curve. Now I have the best of both worlds.... or something like that.

matthew-s · matthew-s's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by red-beard

Have you considered one of the Femtocells?

I'm interested in this too, but hesitant for two reasons:

1. I have Vonage, and on occasion I get drop-outs, echo's and jitter from what I assume is poor bandwidth over my cable modem.

2. I can't believe I have to pay AT&T for a device which lets them offload my usage onto another carrier's network that I pay for out of pocket for.

If I can get over those two points, I'll pick one up.

Ronbo · 07-02-2010, 07:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by red-beard

Have you considered one of the Femtocells?

AT&T 3G MicroCell™

Wife and I have iPhones and the AT&T coverage at our house is spotty at best. We only get decent reception in one room, but it's probably due to being located in a hilly area.

Anyway, I thought I'd give the femtocell a try. I have to say that it solved our reception issues completely, and we get 5 bars anywhere in our house and yard. Yes I too had a little heartburn paying them so they can offload onto my internet service, but overall it saves me money (I canceled our landline as it's no longer necessary) and works as well as I could expect. I'll recoup the cost of the femtocell in about 3 months and there are no monthly fees.

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

I haven't had a land line since about 2003 and I have AT&T cheapest, lowest minute plan and still don't come close to the minute limit. Not much room to shave here.