I am currently the user and owner of Blackberry Bold 9700. And at the moment I do feel “Bold” using it with the reliability and responsiveness that it serves me. It has a 2GB mini SD memory filled with about 300 songs ripped from my CD collection at 320kbps, lots of photos, and not much free space left. Probably 200-ish MB of free space left. And that probably affect the responsiveness of the smart(but rather slow)phone. If I were to use it during driving, which I do not, it will increase the risk of getting into accident from high to definite. It’s about time to get a new smartphone. A bit of background: I am a management consultant, living in Surabaya, Indonesia, need to be in contact with my employers in Jakarta, and my wife (mainly to match our schedules).

My budget for the new smartphone is pretty much on the high end part, the prices of each manufacturer latest flagship smartphone model offerings are just about right. No cheapos need to apply and I don’t want those fancy designer phones that have diamonds framed screen or imprinted famous person signature on it. So that pretty much cover all the top offerings from Apple (iPhone 5), Nokia (Lumia 920), Blackberry (Bold 9900), Samsung (Galaxy S III), Sony (Xperia), etc. One of the more important feature that I really want from the new smartphone is better performing, responsive camera. My two boys and a baby girl are just too hilarious and too active to be photographed, unplanned, unstaged, with my current smartphone.

Apple iPhone is a good replacement candidate. With some Apple products scattered all over places in my house, some iPods, couple of iPads, and cables and adapters and high quality speaker docks to boot, it is the logical replacement. Despite it is being priced expensively, priciest among the candidates replacements, the main issue I got with it is the new “lightning” USB connector replacing what currently on all of my Apple products, that is the 30 pins kind. There is of course the option of buying iPhone 4S, but… nah.

According to many smartphone reviews on the Internet, currently (begining of year 2013), the one to get is Samsung Galaxy S III. It’s Android OS, although not as easy to use and familiar (from other devices that I have) as iOS, it actually have greater number of users and said to be in the same class as iOS. And Windows Phone OS. Nokia and Microsoft collaboration, resulting with just released Nokia Lumia 920, have a very interesting and I think intuitive touch screen GUI called “Live Tiles”. But then again, it is not yet (if ever) gain acceptance with users in Indonesia. Other Android based smartphones from the likes of Sony, HTC, LG, are just far second to Samsung Galaxy S III. So I don’t really consider any of them.

Just a couple days ago, I read this article regarding the new series of smartphones from Blackberry that will be on Blackberry 10 OS. The N-series, which might look like the picture above, will give me the instant familiarity and real keyboard that is just so much better to type on than the touch screen keyboard kinds (even if it makes clucking sounds, or clicking sounds). It is the de facto market leader in Indonesia at the moment, making collaboration, communication, setting meeting, scheduling, etc, that much easier, being on the same OS. So, in I decided to wait for a month or two, to see is the new Blackberry products is any good and fit me better. I’ve been using my current smartphone for the past 30 months, although I need to take the battery out from time to time to reset the thing, I figure I can wait for another couple of months or so.

[jbs]