List Price: $99.99
Sale Price: $84.99
Today's Bonus: 15% Off
This is an entry level fairly recent (as of 2011) Blackberry. I am a Blackberry user (10 years) and know blackberry. I have had Blackberries on Verizon, Sprint, ATT and T-Mobile. I also have a state-of-the-art T-Mobile 9780 so it's safe to say I know what I'm talking about.
This model is good for the money. Especially if you can pick it up for around $150. It's bound to go lower as it gets older, more used models show up, and the new Boost Samsung Galaxy Prevail (Android 22) gets out and gets popular. The Android does more, and is $10 less a month on Boost since it does not require a Blackberry Plan that is an additional $10 a month.
I've had this BoostBerry for two days and have really run it through the paces. The screen is no where near as sharp as my 9780, but you can't expect it to be. It's much harder to surf the web. You really have to use the ENLARGE option to read most web content. It does play certain videos you can find on the internet, but does not play others that need Flash Of Course!
Speed seems pretty good. It does have 3g access capability, but don't expect this to be available in many areas. The Boost 3g network is sparse. A Sprint person told me that Boost takes a back seat on their network in some cases. I do not know what he meant, but perhaps it will become apparent at some point. Also, there is NO roaming to other networks. You are on the Sprint Digital CDMA network PERIOD! The WiFi option gives you the capability to "surf" or listen to XM Radio App when you have no network or lean network, but does not allow phone or text seamlessly like T-Mobile. You will have to get 3rd party programs to do that. This is sometimes handy. I fly a bit and it's nice to have your T-Mobile UMA Bberry port immediately to the SkyFi and then send and receive texts and emails while you are in the air. It seems you can't do this with this BoostBerry I'll continue to try and test that.
When you first set it up, don't expect Boost to have it operational quickly. Network Provisioning of Blackberry service on Boost can take a while. Mine took 6 hours before I got an email welcoming me to the Blackberry Network. Boost says this can take up to 76 hours. Note that my first Boost Blackberry Tech told me my phone was bad and needed to be returned because she could not get it to register emails. The phone was brand new, she simply did not know that provisioning took much longer than a few hours. Keep that in mind! A Boost Blackberry Technician did NOT know that it took a while to provision the Bberry on the network and insisted I must have a bad phone and should return it. Nonsense. You will have to be patient with the activation and with the support! There you go! Budget carrier? You bet! But you get what you pay for! Luckily I called back and a 2nd rep said "Oh, you just activated the phone 4 hours ago. It's not partitioned yet. Give it up to 76 hours. Luckily 2 hours later I got the "Welcome to the Blackberry Network" message. From that point on, I had the email up in 10 minutes.
To summarize this You can get text and voice within minutes of activation, but Email and network surfing along with other key features (Facebook Twitter Instant Messaging) can take from 6 to 76 hours to provision on the network.
Boost has a sub website for setting up your own email ONCE the PARTITIONING is complete. If you try and register before then, you'll not be able to. For setting up email on your Boostberry. Boost will provide this link to you if you call them to set up your BoostBerry.
Unlike OS 6 on the ultra-modern BBerries, you can at least run some neat apps like XM/SIRIUS radio. This does not work on the newest BBERRIES because OS6 does not support XM/SIRIUS apps. You CAN'T run other apps like CODE MUNCHER as these ONLY work on OS 6. So there are trade-offs.
Social networking is available, but separate and not integrated like OS 6 is. You have to apply separate Twitter, Facebook, and similar apps to engage these features. Anyone used to any BBerry on an OS older than 6 will not care as only 6 integrated these for you seamlessly.
The battery life? One of the main reasons I took off one star. It's not great. You better travel with a charger for your day journeys and for sure have a car charger. The phone sucks up battery life. My 9780 would give me a full day NO PROBLEM even with huge streaming. This model from Boost? Maybe 6 hours if you are a heavy user. You'll have to recharge during the day.
The internal memory only gives you about 110 meg additional to load apps, so you can't go CRAZY with apps or downloads to the main memory. You can only load apps to the main memory. The 2 g card that is included is for external memory and I've not played enough with that to give you a good benchmark of what can and can't be accessed easily from it.
Two minor things that are driving me crazy.
I keep getting nonsense texts on the BoostBerry that make no sense at all. They appear to be system messages but are garbled and you can not make any sense out of them. Boost says they don't know why. It's probably an issue with provisioning since I moved my service from another boost phone to this.
Speaking of that... my OLD Boost phone keeps getting my Voice Mail message alerts. I just edited this review, so it's been over 76 hours, and provisioning should be quite complete. Yet if I get a VM on my Boostberry, the old boost phone alerts me I have a message waiting. You can't USE the old boost phone, and YES, I had it off for 76 hours to make sure it did not interfere with the new Blackberry provisioning. Weird. But... It's a BUDGET cellular carrier! You get what you pay for!
That's about it.
Know you are buying a budget phone from a budget company, and you'll not be disappointed. If you are coming from such outstanding customer service companies like T-Mobile and are used to state-of-the art phones and service? You are going to be disappointed!
It's worth the 60 bucks a month (shrinkage down to 45), and for an additional 5 bucks, international calling? That's a good deal for many!
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