This is a tale of two cellphones in a two-person family.
My mother has a Blackberry (which she can’t stop looking at). It is pretty much her best friend, she is always hanging out with it, except at night when she turns off the ringer. And BTW, she customizes her ringtones: for most of her friends, she has a Tardis ringtone or ‘Sabotage’ by Beastie Boys unless it’s from me, and then the ring tone is ‘Island, Is’ by Volcano Choir. She is super-specific about the wall paper (she says it can’t be too busy) and her font is GIGANTIC. I mean, all of this makes sense to me, since she is so addicted to her Blackberry.
I have an iPhone. I’ve had a bunch of different phones over the years and so I can tell you this is the best phone I’ve ever had. Now, if you are wondering why an 11-year-old even has to have a phone, here it is: I’m not at my Mom’s side 24/7; when she is at work, I’m at school or with my babysitter. And every single day, there are things we need to ask each other: Can I go to my friends house? Do I have to walk the dog? When are you coming home? And a lot of the time, I need to find this stuff out via text because she’s in a meeting or something. You get what I’m saying? Life gets in the way. I have to be able to reach my Mom. It’s that simple.
Still. It’s not unusual that we have this Blackberry vs iPhone debate. Like recently, my Mom had the chance to upgrade her phone, and instead of choosing an iPhone so we could share our apps and stuff, she chose this white Blackberry Torch. I was like, “Seriously, Mom?” And then I was having dinner with HelloGiggles co-founder Molls and she suggested I write about this very topic. And to be fair, I’ve decided to list the pros and cons of each. And I’m sure I haven’t even scratched the surface! So here goes.
The iPhone
What’s great about the iPhone:
- Do you like listening to the Ramones and One Direction anytime you want? Well, yeah, you do, and the iPhone is perfect for that.
- The app store is epic. I am so addicted to Tiny Tower. My Mom, who is an amazing knitter, could even use crafty apps if she wanted to.
- You can read books! So get Chris Gethard’s A Bad Idea I’m About To Do or Mindy Kaling’s Is Everybody Hanging Out With Me.
- It has an AMAZING camera. And you can Instagram! So cool! Depending on what generation of iPhone you have, you can take photos of yourself and know what you are doing.
- You can Facetime with your people!
What’s not-so-great about the iPhone:
- They are not the best choice if you don’t like typing on touch screens.
- It freezes up sometimes.
- There are space issues. So if you don’t have an iPhone with 64GB, and you want to put your whole music library on it, you will have some problems. Like, everything will get slower and that’s annoying.
- The iPhone window breaks VERY easily. Either get a protective case like the Otterbox or NEVER drop it (good luck with that).
The Blackberry
What’s great about the Blackberry:
- A Keyboard! My Mom’s Blackberry even has a keyboard and a touch screen!
- You can get your work email. This is very very very important to my Mom.
- You can make cool ringtones. My Mom also uses ‘Rebel Girl’ for her best friends. So there’s that.
What’s not-so-great about the Blackberry
- The app situation. I mean, you can’t play Words With Friends! The horror!
- The camera quality is not all that.
- It’s still not the iPhone, Mom.
So who wins? Let me know in the comments, or contact me on Twitter, Facebook or my blog!
Blackberry’s get signal EVERYWHERE. My iphone didn’t even have signal in central London sometimes…
I agree, in my opinion people use Blackberry for its BBM only. Blackberry is for socialites (or people who want to connect and chats to everyone without need to open their bulky laptop). iPhone is usually for apps-maniac whether artistry work like Instagram, Draw Something or games like Angry Birds. iPhone can do much like Blackberry, but people like Blackberry for its communication privacy
BLACKBERRY! This is a battle in my house too (Dad and I are Team Blackberry, while my mom and sister are Team iPhone), and seeing them with an iPhone makes me never want one. I love that I have a keyboard and a touchscreen, while they one have a touchscreen. Optical trackballs ftw! It’s hard to be precise when clicking on things with an iPhone. Also, I can add more memory with a memory card, and iPhones can’t do that. The apps might be important to some, but not to me. And Blackberries play music and videos too, and you can get a kindle app.
Hmm I’m sorry but I really don’t think 11 year olds need a phone and an iphone! In what other situation would you ever entrust a £400 piece of equipment to an 11 year old? Seriously? As for the argument that you need to ask your Mum things I can sort this for you in one post – Can I go to my friends house? ONLY ON WEEKENDS YOU HAVE TO DO YOUR HOMEWORK IN THE WEEK LESSON ONE FORWARD PLANNING SO THAT I DONT HAVE TO ASK THIS QUESTION LAST MINUTE. LESSON TWO CONSIDERATION – BOMBARDING YOUR MOTHER WITH PRE-TEEN QUESTIONS THAT HAVE NO URGENCY WHATSOEVER IN THE MIDDLE OF HER BUSY WORKIING DAY = SELFISH AND RUDE! Do I have to walk the dog? YOU WANT A DOG YOU WALK THE DOG When are you coming home? BEING THAT YOU ARE AT HOME JUMP ON THE COMPUTER AND SEE MY SCHEDULE OTHERWISE WAIT LIKE A NORMAL CHILD FAILING THAT USE A TELEPHONE!
I’m an android girl. Boy I never thought I’d say that
I’d be interested in reading an article that debated what age is appropriate for a child to have a cell phone. I have mixed feelings on this issue, and I think it’d be interesting to hear from two young people of differing opinions. There have been some articles like this written from the parent perspective, but I think hearing it from a kid’s perspective would be unique.
I bought the iPhone the day it was released on Verizon, coincidentally, that’s the same day my beloved Blackberry Storm died. I love my iPhone, but I don’t use it for music, so it didn’t matter that I didn’t have that on my Blackberry. What I absolutely 100% miss about my Blackberry and makes me hate my iPhone every single night is that you can program the Blackberry to change it’s noise settings when you plug it in–bedstand mode. Loved that I could have it still ring in case there’s an emergency, but I don’t have to listen to my emails and text messages that come at 2am. I can turn my iPhone to silent, but that means I don’t get phone calls, either. Plus, I like having a bunch of ringtones, and having to make them on iTunes is really annoying.
Oh well, I still adore the iPhone. Maybe they’ll let us customize it more like Blackberry in the next version…
iPhones never get signal.
I have an android and I love it. But I do have to point out that when I was 11, my mom and dad worked while I was in school and at daycare. And somehow, we all managed to live without cell phones. So do you “need” a phone? No, probably not.
I’ve only had Android phones, and I’ll be upgrading to the New One X in a few months. I love them so much and would be pretty lost without it. Especially since one of the updates includes turning the phone into a wi-fi hotspots so I run my laptops internet off it since it’s cheaper then paying for a phone and internet bill.
My boyfriend has his exchange email on it so I dont know why your mom cold not get her work email on the iphone unless its soem weird email from outer space! lol
Even the things that the Blackberry can do, the iPhone can do too! I make ringtones for my iPhone all the time. You have to do it via iTunes, but there’s plenty of tutorials out there. Also, all my work e-mails come straight to my iPhone, which is very convenient!
Hey ruby, I love One Direction, whos your favorite? (jsut cause you mentioned it… I had to ask)
is it fair to say all of them?
You killed it, Rubes!!
This debate needs the android phone point of view.
If got my first smartphone las year, a samsung galaxy with android, an I love it! For a while before I got it I wanted a Blackberry, becuase I prefered the keyboard to the touchscreen, but I’m a business student and what i had been reading about blackberry didn’t convince me. Then the I-phone 4S came out and I had a phone crush (it happened to me years ago with the motorola V3), I even got over the whole toucscreen issue. But it was very expensive , here in argentina the diference between a new Iphone and my galaxy phone is more than $1000 pesos (ok in the world the peso isn’t worth anything but here it’s what we’ve got). So seeing I couldn’t afford an iphone I went to the next best thing Samsung Galaxy with android.
Advantages:
*I like the app store, and since it’s open source you get a lot of companies working on the apps
*You can save your contact’s information in your google acount so if you change phone or your chip burns out (these thing happen it happened to me a month before I got the new phone) You have all your contact information in your google acount and if you have android on your new phone you just syncronize it
* I’ve nerver done it but I can customize my friends ringtones and al that
*You can integrate your whole google account (great with google callander)
Disadvantages
*Battery life
*The Iphone camera is better
* You can’t put your whole music gallery on your phone
I have participated in this debate with many friends but most often with my sister….
Things I love about my BlackBerry Torch:
-Keyboard. As you’ve mentioned above, this is very convenient with touch screen is just too frustrating at the moment.
-Camera. On the ckntrary, I find the camera to be quite sufficient. It may not have as many Megapixels as the iPhone camera and pics may not be print-quality but I can count several times it has actually taken a better pic side by side with iPhone. The flash is a huge plus!
-work email/several email accounts is also a great feature
-BATTERY LIFE! My battery will last for several days without a charge….everyone I know with an iPhone is always plugging theirs in cause it’s close to death by the end of day or even mid-day.
My only gripe is the app thing. I want to play words with Friends ;(
<3 adriana
Actually you can put your whole music library in your galaxy. Googke “how to use Google music outside the u.s. You just get an account, the look for the app (outside the market. Google it) dowload it and voila! I also have a Galaxy and I must say I love it.
My younger sisters and my dad have iPhones. I am getting one in the next few weeks, and I cannot wait. My favorite/best phone up until that moment was my Motorola Razr. It was compact and it took the accidental drops I used to do without breaking or dying. But I have become much better at not dropping my phones, since my last two have had touchscreens.
I love my Blackberry, but they have been slacking. They seriously need to upgrade their phones. It also seems that every app they make is for the Iphone or Android. Not fair. I’m seriously thinking of getting a different phone when it’s time to upgrade. It makes me sad though, to think I’ll have to part with my BB. Oh and BTW, there are a lot of cool things about BB!!
Monica, tell me more about the Blckberry! What other cool things do you love about it?
I used to have a Blackberry, and now I REALLY REALLY wan an iPhone