Blackberry Torch versus iPhone 4

“You!? With a cell?”

This was the reaction of more than one friend and colleague when I revealed that I’d be carrying a mobile phone. I am legend, the last of my kind—youngish, urban, professional—without one.

For the record, it’s not that I’m some kind of Luddite, I tend to use email and Facebook to communicate. But when the kind people at Rogers asked for some feedback on their newest high-tech devices, I said I’d take them for a spin. “You’ll need the whole week to learn how to use them,” remarked another friend. We’ll see.

Blackberry Torch, Day 1
The first thing I discovered with the Blackberry was the map function. It immediately told me I was on Argyle Street. Cool, if a little creepy. Like my phone is stalking me.

I tried to send a text. It didn’t fly until a colleague informed me you need to dial nine digits to have that work. Success! My first text ever. Getting online wa

s easy: I adjusted my Facebook status and checked my email.

Blackberry Torch, Day 2
I pocket-dialed someone. Twice.

Blackberry Torch, Day 4
I took photos. I shot a video. Reception is good pretty much everywhere. The resolution and low-light sensitivity is amazing. I went to brunch with a friend and felt that tell-tale vibration of a call but ignored it until later. I wonder why others have so much trouble ignoring their phone?

Blackberry Torch, Day 5
The lock feature, the usefulness of which I discovered with those pocket-dialing incidents, is problematic. My upper thigh continues to text people. When I remark the power button on the touchscreen resists me, a friend is incredulous. “You turn it off?”

iPhone Day 1
The sleek, black rectangle in my hand wakes to the touch and locks automatically. Nice feature. The touch screen is uber-responsive, and its operations intuitive in a way that leaves the Blackberry in the dust. Everything it does, it does very quickly.

Uh-oh.

It feels good, like I’m growing the limb I will be forced to sever later, like that guy in 127 Days. And it helps that I’m a Mac user, as the iP4 immediately synchs with my computer.

iPhone Day 3
It doesn’t leave my presence very often. I catch myself playing with it in the company of friends, like a public masturbator. The assortment of apps is astronomic.

iPhone Day 4
Facetime makes your iPhone 4 into a videophone. Modern tech has finally fulfilled one promise. If you know someone else with an iP4, you can video chat with them.

iPhone Day 5
Mommy, do I have to give this back?

iPhone Day 7
It tops the Blackberry in almost every department. A single drawback: though both phones had service with Rogers, the Torch had better reception than the iP4 in certain places in the city, such as my office or Park Lane Mall. But I don’t care. I don’t care about the weird panic I get when it buzzes, trying to answer the damn thing with all the grace of a drunken giraffe. I love the iPhone.

Voice and Data Plans
A cursory investigation into individual voice and data plans for these two devices through the carriers available here in Halifax revealed a complex smorgasbord of options, depending on what your needs might be. If you’re willing to buy into a three-year contract with a carrier such as Rogers or Telus, expect to pay between $40 and $50 a month plus the cost of the phones, $269 for the iP4 16g and somewhere between $150 and $230 for the Blackberry Torch. Or, you can purchase the iPhone for $779 from Apple, be tied to no particular carrier and pay as you go, which may be the smart move for someone who travels outside Canada on a regular basis, and carriers will sell the Torch without a contract for around $600.

This article appears in Dec 2-8, 2010.