Cutting and pasting text is a major iPhone omission, but that’s overcome here. Touch the screen at the beginning and end of the text and it is highlighted, so you can copy and paste easily. The camera, a 3.2 mega pixel that has an auto focus sensor with flash, outguns Apple’s handset (Apple iPhone’s Review). And unlike the iPhone, all the programs in use stay active even when they’re not on the screen in front of you. But the million dollar question here is how battery-depleting will this be??? Only time can answer for this.
The major drawback of this phone is the lack of Wi-Fi. RIM, BlackBerry’s parent company, says there just wasn’t room, but it is still disappointing. So I think the next step for them would be to inculcate Wi-Fi. On the other hand, the handset is only available on Vodafone, which has an extensive HSDPA enabled network and includes 500MB of data transfer per month (and Vodafone tell us that unless you exceed this regularly, you won’t be billed extra).
So is it an iPhone beater, at last? It’s a tough call. The lack of Wi-Fi is a shame and it’s pretty chunky, though not so wide you can’t use it as a phone comfortably. But the screen, a higher resolution than Apple’s, looks terrific. The clickable touch screen is exceptional and there is of course the BlackBerry email functionality as well. According to my knowledge, Vodafone offers this phone for Rs.27, 990 or $574. So, after all this review, you may get your hands on this phone but at the loss of Wi-Fi technology. For more pictures and videos, click here.