The iPhone vs. the Blackberry – Which is Better?

It is not an exaggeration when we say that the Apple iPhone has revolutionized cell phones as we know them. But before the iPhone, there was the Blackberry – probably the predecessor of the modern smart phone. Today, the iPhone is more popular than the Blackberry, even among the businessmen who were the first followers of the Blackberry because of its email services. However, if you consider yourself torn between the two or are merely curious about their differences, here are 10 differences between the Apple iPhone and RIM Blackberry:
1. Hardware Design. For many people, the iPhone wins hands down when it comes to design. If the Blackberry is Jackie Onassis – beautiful and classy in a business kind of way – the iPhone is Angelina Jolie – just drop-dead gorgeous.
2. Email Services. When it comes to email service, the Blackberry has an edge over the iPhone but not too much. The Blackberry has push email capabilities, sending and receiving email just as simple as sending and receiving text messages.
3. Applications. Mention iPhone Apps and it’s the end of the discussion. Application developers have easier access to iPhone than Blackberry so there are more developers and applications for iPhones than Blackberries.
4. Surfing the internet. The Blackberry browser is primitive compared to the iPhone’s stunning safari browser. But iPhone’s browser seems to load slower than the Blackberry’s over the EDGE network.
5. Keyboard. Every Blackberry except Storm boasts a full QWERTY keyboard. This poses as an advantage for many people because it presents a faster and more accurate, as well as a more satisfying typing experience. But a full QWERTY keyboard does tend to be bulky so the iPhone’s virtual keyboard is a breath of fresh air.
6. Camera. Most Blackberries have better cameras than the iPhone. The Blackberry Storm for example has a 3.2 MP camera with image stabilization, auto-focus, white balance, variable zoom and flash while the iPhone has a 2.0 MP camera. With storm you can also capture videos.
7. Battery. The iPhone’s battery runs out faster than Blackberry probably because it is capable of doing more tasks. However, this still makes the iPhone less reliable for corporate use than the Blackberry.
8. Phone call quality. Blackberry has good RF reception ability. They get signal in many areas where many other phone don’t. The iPhone on the other hand has similar kind of reception quality too. So not much to distinguish between the two.
9. Multimedia. The iPhone is a great multimedia entertainer because has good music and video players – better than most stand alone devices of its kind. The only area where the Blackberry is better than iPhone in multimedia section is the camera quality.
10. Usability. At first, the iPhone may seem to be bit awkward with its full touch screen design but once you get used to it, it’s very simple, easy to understand and stylish. The Blackberry on the other hand can do the tasks faster with their shortcut keys.
What it really comes down to is that the iPhone and the Blackberry are targeted at two different markets and for two different kinds of users: the Blackberry works well for corporate business types who need a phone for email and calls while the iPhone are for ordinary people who want a phone with excellent multimedia capabilities. This may be the reason why the smart phone wars between these two will continue on for many years.