Blackberry Onyx - still a dud

After an extensive experience with the Blackberry Onyx, I regret to report that a Blackberry, despite all of its bells and whistles and no matter how much makeover and "updates" RIM has placed into the device, the Onyx is still a pretty sad little device. And I'm saying this because I've had two particularly annoying problems with the new OS that Onyx comes equipped with. Three, if I count the hardware aspect of it which is the trackball.

I know diehard BB fans will have my head for writing this, and they have their rights, but I don't care. I'm as much a user and I am NOT satisfied with the way things are going with RIM. First principal problem I have with the new Onyx OS 5.0.0.296 is its totally fail threaded SMS system. Threaded SMS system means that it'll treat the SMS as if it were real-time chat, with every SMS you sent and receive from a person showing up as a "threaded," chat-like flow. Supposedly it'll make tracking your conversation with a particular person easier, but ironically, this stupid system sometimes messes up and won't let me scroll up to see the message. Like, it'll cut off some portion of the message and it won't allow me to scroll up to the beginning of the message. That's just one of them. The other is that sometimes (actually plenty times) it won't let me scroll up to see the rest of my conversation I'm having with that person. I mean, jeebus, come on!! What's a blackberry good for??? Its core strength is supposed to lie in its data capability. What the hell is going on here? This is beyond annoying to me as I'll have to request that person to resend his message again. Note that this happens only with the SMS.

The other super annoyance I have is that for some super annoyingly reason, when I accidentally hit the "delete" key whilst the "alt" key is depressed as I'm composing an SMS text, it'll wipe the ENTIRE text I have been laboriously typing. You can't possibly imagine how aggravating this crap really is. Get this: it will wipe clean your ENTIRE message when you so much as forgot to inactivate the alt key after you hit it to bring up the special symbol, changed your mind and decide to delete that symbol. BAM. Your entire message is gone and you have to start all the way from the beginning. Is this even real? How did RIM manage to mess up so badly?

Maybe you don't have that problem, but I do. I type messily and I type faster than my brain thinks. The blame is not on me, because this never happens with the old OS system, and this doesn't happen at other programs such as email or notepad. It only happens with SMS. RIM, if you're reading this, screw the hell out of you.

I miss the old system where the SMS shows up as individual window, and I can at least still search for it and find it. I miss the old OS where I can type as messily as I want to without the risk of losing everything that I've just typed for the past 3 mins. And most of all, I miss a newcomer to the industry which can combine both the superior webkit based capability of the iPhone with Blackberry's data strengths.

Oh yeah that hardware problem I mentioned earlier? How about the trackball? Besides being hard to operate when my finger's sweaty, I found that its also largely harder to control than the ball. But that's not as big of a deal compared to the flawed SMS problems RIM has dropped the ball on. Also, I hate the fact that the speaker is situated flat on the back, on the same flat line as the battery cover, so that when I place it on a table or flat surface, it'll get covered. Affects the sound quality? You bet. How hard would it to design the speaker on the raised side of the bezel? The Onyx ain't the perfect Blackberry - yet. And until then, I'll keep searching for the perfect system. My loyalty is not with you, RIM. I'm disappointed. It seems like there's always something wrong with every edition of so-called "new" blackberry. The Curve 8320 for a totally retarded sytem. The Bold with the battery and generally flawed system. The Gemini for its weird web viewing. And now with the Onyx, touted as the "perfect" Blackberry. Sorry, but it's not.

Personal Comparison Between Blackberry Bold and Bold 2 (Onyx) - Bold 1 is better?

Having had the opportunity to use both the Blackberry Bold and now Onyx, and of course that accursed Curve 8320 (sorry, but it lost all of my contacts. Three times. It's not even worth mentioning here), I'd like to share my personal comparison between the Bold and the brand spankin' new Onyx.

Screen resolution:

Everyone's been saying just how great Onyx screen is, and that it's the best screen to date, but to me, somehow the Bold seems better. Maybe due to the larger size? It is true that the Onyx has some amazingly crisp and laser-sharp display, but somehow... it doesn't wow me quite as much as when I turned on my Bold for the first time. And then of course I browsed through the pre-loaded pictures and out popped the BMW's Series 1 white Coupe and I remember I was like...whoa.... it literally looked like an actual miniature BMW is sitting inside the phone. The rest of the pictures on the Bold look great too. Just incredibly sharp and detailed and crystal clear. Whilst on the Onyx I had the impression that the pre-loaded pics are mediocre when displayed full screen. There aren't too many great pictures pre-loaded on the Onyx too, but maybe that's because there's an AT&T version and T-Mobile version. I haven't seen the TMob one, so I don't know what pictures are preloaded there. The Onyx's screen is great for reading texts as they really pop out to your eyes, but in the overall picture impressiveness department I still like the Bold better both in magnitude and clarity.

Keyboard:

I know a lot of people will disagree strongly with me on this one, but I found the Bold (and subsequently the Onyx) keyboard to be too soft for my taste. I guess I'm used to mashing on the keys on my Curve and I'm not a gentle type of guy - I type messily, and I like that emo typing where I forcefully jam on each button with all its click-clackity glory. With the Onyx, it's so soft that I almost feel bad jamming my fat thumbs on the keys. I just can't shake the feeling that I'm going to end up chipping one of the keys, although obviously that's not going to happen. While my old Curve is retarded, I have to praise its endurance for withstanding my daily abuse. The keys on the Onyx is also bunched up together, unlike the individual keys on the Curve or Javelin or Gemini so it's hard for me to accurately tell which keys is which, something that I've memorized to an exact science on my old Curve. I need grace to type smoothly on the Onyx, and grace is not something that I possess in abundance. One more thing: I discovered that if my nails are a bit long, my typing accuracy suffers further because my nails would slip on the fretted keys. Not that big of a deal, I think, after I get used to this about a week or so.

Trackpad vs. trackball:

Love it or hate it? Like I said, the Onyx is just so smooth overall that I almost feel bad swiping my greasy fingers across its high-gloss trackpad. The trackpad is super slick, super accurate and super sensitive. It's so sensitive in fact that I notice that depending on the light condition (dim vs. strong light), I can actually move the cursor just a tad bit simply by hovering my finger a couple of millimeters above the trackpad - without touching the pad. The only thing I miss from the trackpad is the actual tactile feel as I scroll around and feel it zip, zip, zip. And since it's integrated flat right into the surface panel, sometimes I touch the wrong panel and the cursor wouldn't move at all. That's opposed to the trackball where I always know exactly where it was since it juts out from the rest of the panel. But the trackpad IS a lot quicker and more responsive than the ball, and I think this is an awesome shift of gear from RIM. One drawback from this pad is that when my fingers are sweaty, movements can get a little draggish.

Size / Form:

For me, the choice is clear. Onyx ALL the way. Besides being totally hot in polished shiny black/chrome sexiness (you can't have too much black/chrome), what really wins my heart is its small footprint. I'm a guy, so I really appreciates a thin, sleek device that doesn't bulge up in or eat up one of my four pockets. The Bold is just way too big for me, especially once it's fitted with a condom silicone case. Bigger size means easier typing? Not for me. I did away typing absolutely just fine with the Onyx or Curve size keys. The Onyx could be a little lighter so it doesn't drag my pants down, but whatever....it just feels very sturdy overall.

OS:

The Onyx comes pre-loaded with OS 5.0.296 (there's a newer .371 version just leaked! try it if you dare then let me know what happens) which is just blazing fast - scary fast, in fact. That's augmented with Onyx's hyper CPU that's considerably faster than the Bold, so I'm truly satisfied. But there's something I totally hate about this OS version, and that is I have to be careful when when composing SMS text because if I make so much a mistake in pressing "alt" and then the "delete" key, it will delete my entire SMS text - right up to the beginning of the message. This is, to date, my biggest pet peeves with the Onyx (or the OS). Like I said, I'm a messy typer, but I type fast, and I make some mistakes. So I chaotically mash on the alt key and delete key, and if I so much as slip past the "L" key and hit delete while the alt is activated, my entire SMS text is gone. That makes me feel like chucking the shiny Onyx onto the wall, and that's not a good thing. I truly hope those morons at RIM amend this huge mistake on their next OS update.

But I can definitely say that the web browser is much improved although it remains, unequivocally, a BLACKBERRY BROWSER. It's not an iPhone. It still can't display some pages. It still won't play Flash. It's nowhere near as robust as I'd like it to be. It's still a Blackberry browser.

Camera:

3.2 MP and so far so good. Auto focus works great. Flash is....flash.

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