I was trying to decide on a new smartphone, especially since the phone I thought I saved was on its last legs. I spent a lot of time researching smartphones and ended up with the top two contenders - BlackBerry vs. iPhone.

In the end, I decided on the BlackBerry and have been happy with it for almost two months now. The iPhone is a nice multimedia device, but I really wanted the BlackBerry for productivity. Plus based on my testing on data entry, I could not get used to the screen keyboard and hoping that the software would correct the inevitable typos (why can’t you switch the keyboard into landscape mode in Notes or the Address Book like you can in Safari?); I still like the tactile BlackBerry buttons.

Out of the full keyboard models, I picked the 8820 instead of the Curve with AT&T because it has Wi-Fi; the low quality camera on the Curve didn’t seem useful especially since I carry around a digital point and shoot camera anyway. The Wi-Fi hasn’t much of a difference yet, but I can download the BlackBerry apps a little more quickly and who knows, maybe video streaming will become more popular.

Although BlackBerry claims that BlackBerry Maps doesn’t work with AT&T, it worked for me. The built-in GPS works, too, though loading is a bit slow, but I found it to be better than Google Maps (GPS works with GMaps, too). It will tell you driving speed and compass heading as well the street and cross-streets as you’re driving; when you try to load it up while walking however, the app gets confused and updates with a different location in the vicinity each time it refreshes. BlackBerry Maps does work in Hong Kong (especially while I was taking the public light bus), but not in Taiwan, however; Google Maps works in both places, but doesn’t seem to following the route your taking and update the map as you’re driving, although current traffic information is available.

The BlackBerry’s international data (an extra $15 for the month) worked via GPRS in Hong Kong (though I picked up some EDGE signals on occasion), Taiwan (and around the island), and China (Shun De in the Guangdong Province), but not in Vietnam (specifically Ho Chi Minh City) as there was no GPRS signal available.

While I was traveling, I also made myself available through chat. Google Talk is one of the few chat programs that works with the BlackBerry on AT&T; AIM doesn’t work and Yahoo doesn’t either (unless you hack the device using a Windows machine)… some think it’s a conspiracy by AT&T to have customers use AIM with MediaNet which counts each IM message as an SMS message. I’ve done the 30 day trial for JiveTalk (which even has a bubbles display mode for conversations a la iChat for Macs) and for the most part like it, but I don’t think I really need a for-pay chat program on the phone. I also tried EQO which is also a VoIP app (free to connect to IM services), but the UI isn’t as great and I’ve experienced more problems trying to connect than not. IM+ seems promising, especially if SMS messages via Yahoo Messenger are free, but I haven’t tried it out yet.

For email, the GMail BlackBerry App is rather slow compared to BlackBerry Mail which polls email accounts regularly a la POP (even though it’s through IMAP). While BlackBerry Mail for my GMail account shows messages that are labeled and archived through filters, for my Linux account, messages filtered into another folder via procmail don’t make it to the device because they aren’t in the inbox at the time BlackBerry Mail polls the email account.

Since I was working for a bit while I was traveling, I set up procmail filters to rewrite the headers and forward to my BlackBerry email account for messages I wanted to watch for while I was away:

#Blackberry forwarding
:0 c
* ^(To|Cc).*mailinglist@domain*
* ^(From|To|Cc).*user@domain*
* ^X-Priority: 1*
! username@att.blackberry.net

The above watches mail for mailinglist@domain and mail from and to user@domain and high priority messages, then forwards them onto the username@att.blackberry.net account while keeping the message in the original account.

There must be a better way to handle the procmail problem, though. I know some who just use POP and forward every message to their BlackBerry account. The problem, however, is that when you reply, unless you’re reading your email from the All Messages icon, you can’t change your From: header (although you can change your default Reply-To: for that account for all messages by logging into the BlackBerry Internet Service website).

I wish the BlackBerry Mail app had the option to set the From: address to accounts that aren’t set up as real accounts on the device as I have several aliases from which I send work email. And I’ve unfortunately lost several composed messages; if you go to a different app while composing a message, you can return to it but if you compose a message in the individual mailbox and open the All Messages icon or vice versa, the device loses the message.

Despite those issues, I still like the BlackBerry. And I can still cut and paste (I don’t know how iPhone users live without that). And brilliantly, even though the phone number buttons, don’t have corresponding letters on them for easily dialing numbers like 555-HELP, you can use the ALT key with the lettered buttons and store letters in phone numbers in the Address Book for the same effect, arguably even better than hunting for the corresponding number. I’m hoping Flash support will get to the BlackBerry sooner than the iPhone. Then it will be yet another reason to heart crack.