Blackberry Bold 9700 vs HTC Magic
// January 26th, 2010 // No Comments » // Technical Know-It-All
I recently swapped my HTC Magic for the Blackberry Bold 9700. Here’s my take on both phones.
Form Factor
This is truly a matter of preference. In terms of size, the Magic beats the 9700 hands down. Slim and sleek, but the piano black finish makes scratches very visible and a fingerprint magnet. The 9700 on the other hand, has the traditional QWERTY and a leather back. Fingerprints are only visible on the screen. There are pros and cons to both the phones, and I like various aspects of both the phones.
Result : TIE
Scroll
The Magic spots the traditional Blackberry Pearl scroll ball while the 9700 runs with a touchpad equivalent. I must say that as much as I like the scroll ball, I was truly surprised by the touchpad. It is very very sensitive and much better than I expected it to be. The scroll ball implementation on the Magic is “appalling” at best. It is sluggish and there is no way you can tweak it. Compared with previous Blackberry scroll balls of the past, it is way behind.
Result : 9700
OS
The Blackberry OS has not changed ages. The only thing that has changed is the icons and resolution of the screen. It also comes with cumbersome menus (I don’t mind them, but blackberry newbies will find them a hassle). Having said that, the Blackberry OS is stable as a rock given its maturity. On the other hand, Magic runs the Google smartphone OS, “Android”. I was extremely excited with Android, that I swapped my iPhone for the Android. I must say, I am very disappointed. I had high expectations for Android given the strong community support but it is sluggish, buggy and just can’t stand up to iPhone’s robust and fluid OS. I want to believe it that Android is better but unfortunately, for me, I need a phone that works, not something I need to troubleshoot all the time.
Result : 9700
Battery Life
Another major issue I have had with the Magic was its ridiculously bad battery life. I will have it fully charged at 9am and under medium usage of email, calls and occasional SMS’s, you will find it at 10% by 4pm. This is unacceptable as a business phone. When compared with the 9700 under similar usage, I got 2.5 days of use out of it. That’s how frustrating it was with the Magic. Without a doubt, the 9700 is a clear winner.
Result : 9700
Text Input
This is a matter of preference. Comparing QWERTY and touch keyboards is probably not a fair comparison. So lets compare the Magic and iPhone. I have fairly fat fingers, and touch screens like the Magic & iPhone can be a pain. However, having said that, the iPhone has a larger screen thus the keys are much larger. Which makes it easier to hit the right keys. As for the Magic, my fingers were hitting every single key that I didn’t want it too. I must say that the iPhone has a more usable touch keyboard (for me at least). As for the 9700 QWERTY, it doesn’t feel as good as the Motorola Q9, but I would say that the keyboard is acceptable and comparable with other QWERTY keyboards in the market.
Result : TIE
Applications
This is where the Magic tends to beat many other smartphones. The developer community is strong so there are many apps in the market. As for Blackberry, slowly we are seeing more and more apps but generally apps for Blackberry don’t come free. As much as I think that the Magic has many apps, the weak hardware platform is a major setback.
Result : TIE
PC Sync
Both the phones have no issues syncing with Windows, so I will not comment much on that. How about Mac OSX? There is no sync software at all for the Magic for OSX. Blackberry on the other hand, released a very basic Blackberry Desktop Manager for the Mac after many years of requests from loyal users. However, the features are no where near the Windows variant, but its better than nothing I suppose. I would say the 9700 beats the Magic marginally here.
Result : 9700
Bottom Line
Both phones has it strengths, but if you are a power user like myself (who values stability and battery life over design) then I must say hands down that the Blackberry 9700 still stands out. The Android phones have yet to match the likes of the iPhone and Blackberry.
