tell me about Blackberries! good and bad.

[Meglet]

I have been thinking about getting a blackberry phone. Does anyone have one, I need the pro's and con's.

I don't have a laptop so really want the blackberry for checking my e-mails without having to faff about turning the pc on and want to access my internet banking and mumsnet on it too. Does it work for all this stuff?

thanks

As a wife of a man with a blackberry...I hate them . Its too easy to check your emails all the time...however constant access to MN at all times sounds quite handy .

I was thinking I could hide in the loo and MN when the DC's are driving me round the bend.

Have just become a single mum so I'm not going to annoy anyone with it, plus I am back to work in the summer so could do with being ruthlessly organised.

dh has one, and it's ok.

he has a fairly recent model, but not the latest.

using the internet is a bit of a pian, tbh. the layout is not brilliant, and it tkes a bit of getting used to.

my phone (Sony one, not sure of model number, but might be C905 or similar) handles the internet better imo, but doesn't have as good a keyboard (but also has better camera - handy for always having a decent camera with you on days out - the camera is actually better than our small digital camera!)

internet banking depends on your bank. I cna access lloydstsb on mine.
I can also mn on it, but it's rather hard work. I think it you plan on surfing a lot something with a bigger screen like an itouch might be better. But they don't have instant email sychronisation I don't think.

I love mine, have the pearl 8130 I think it is. Make sure you choose one with wifi unless you are going for a plan with unlimited data useage. Actually I recomend a wifi one anyway, as it is far quicker for the net that using data.

Emails on it are great, and the diary/calandar thing. I flushed my last one down the loo and was lost for weeks!

The pearl is nice because it is smaller and looks more liek a conventional phone. Since it does have a semi qwerty keyboard it is possible to get quite quick at typing on it, though it makes my fingers ache if I spend too much time on there.

I'd never go back to a standard phone, but one word of warning, they are extrememly addictive. DP keeps moaning at me when it constantly going off in the evenigns.

I think the layout in the old blackberrys is worse, because it puts things in columns order. The newer ones like the pearl do have the option for a normal page view like you would on a computer screen, but then you have to do a lot of scrollign around when you consider the size of the screen on some bbs.

If you ring someone without a blackberry there is a sinister silence for a few seconds at the other person's end of the phone. Which can trigger Blackberry Rage. Tis true, I have witnessed it!

agree with mung. dp has one and i HATE it.

you can access internet on it... dp checks his e-mails all the time, but it's very small and faffy and I certainly wouldn't want to use it a lot for MN and stuff like that.

in fact, dp also has a tiny netbook (acer inspire one) which is teeeeeeeny tiny and super-cheap and I keep it at home sometimes for the exact reasons you state. but even that isn't particularly nice to use a lot

Oh dear, I am such a Luddite that I genuinely came on this thread to share my crumble recipe...

If it makes you feel better, I did think it was about the fruit to start with too, and own a bb!

Dh has one and I hate it. It rules his life and puts him at the beck and call of clients and colleagues 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (often working in different time zones). He can't put the thing down, and goes into another world.

Good for checking emails, if you want to do that, and as a diary. Not great for other internet stuff, imo.

A netbook is much better.

A slightly different perspective ? dh and I both have them for work. I actually really appreciate it ? it means I can be much more flexible in terms of when I?m in the office. If I need or want to leave to get home for bedtime, or because one of the dcs is ill, I can do. Without a BB my phone would be constantly ringing ? I find it much less intrusive to be able to just check occasionally and send the odd email. I agree the internet function isn?t great (on mine ? think it?s better on newer ones) but I can MN quite happily! I have also set it up so I can read personal emails on Gmail separately, which I find helpful.

I was going to get one of the older models for free on my mobile network but reading this I might splash out on a newer one. I'll have to pester my friends to let me have a go on theirs to see how good they are.

Update! I have my blackberry now and can Mumsnet very happily.it's VERY complicated though, so many applications to figure out.