We love hearing from long-time users, like this celebrity photographer and this serial entrepreneur, who just can’t give up their BlackBerry smartphones. However, you may think to yourself, “Well of course they love their BlackBerry devices – they’ve been using them for years. When was the last time they tried one of the ‘other’ guys?”
Take it from Jaumil ‘Oka’ Aurora, Indonesian screenwriter and novelist: even after testing other smartphones, there’s nothing better for enabling productivity and keeping a busy person connected.
Guest Post from Oka Aurora:
One thing about [phones other than] BlackBerry that will always be a dealbreaker for me: The keyboard!
I’ve been using BlackBerry smartphones since 2008 and since then, haven’t been able to live without one. Despite how overwhelming the selection of new devices all running the latest, greatest operating systems, I have stuck with my BlackBerry, and have just switched to the latest version, the BlackBerry Classic.
Why? Still the keyboard, of course! I can’t imagine it being possible for me to type an email using one hand while standing up on the train without BlackBerry’s QWERTY keyboard.
One day recently, I did wonder whether my BlackBerry had reached the end of the road; I wasn’t sure it could cope with the amount of social media apps and the multimedia I was starting to expect from my smartphone. I questioned whether the time had come to switch to another fancier smartphone, so I made the decision to make the break.
The break lasted one month: not because the smartphone I moved to couldn’t handle me. The opposite: I could not deal with it.
As a freelance writer, I have so many meetings and a hectic schedule, hence I have to keep writing even when I’m using public transport. Having a smartphone should make my life easier because when an idea comes into my head, I can type it straight into my smartphone and don’t need to open up a laptop. But when I tried to finish my article on my ‘fancy’ smartphone, I found myself getting increasingly frustrated. Its touchscreen was not ‘thumb-friendly’ at all; it was inhibiting my work as a writer.
You can imagine how frustrating it was for me, typing up a string of different ideas as they came to me – but finding everything I was typing was full of typos. I would want to type: “Aliya needs that phone to finish her work,” but it would resemble something more like “Aloys mrmbrhhkn hhhooonee”…anyway, you get my point. I lost count of how often I was using the backspace button just to write a simple sentence correctly. I found I was losing ideas before I’d had a chance to write them down.
Some people will no doubt think, “So you made a few typos, that’s not a big deal.” Well actually, it IS a big deal to me. As a professional writer, typos are a kind of cardinal sin! The quality of my written word is what determines who I am, and defines my credibility as a writer. If my written work was liberally sprinkled with typos, what would people think of me?
So there was only one thing for it: I decided to switch back to BlackBerry, with its faithful QWERTY keyboard, to support all my writing and social media needs. So here I am, back in love with a classic BlackBerry, the BlackBerry Classic.
You have literally and literarily saved a writer from a life of despair.
****
Ready to see how much you can get done on the Classic?
I recommend regularly checking here or visiting BlackBerry.com/BuyClassic for availability in your region. (Note that pricing differs per market.)
In North America, U.S. customers can get the Classic via T-Mobile for $0 down and $18.33/month for 24 months. It’s available as a similar deal on Verizon and AT&T, too. In Canada, look to carriers such as BELL, Telus, Rogers and others for similar deals.
For an unlocked Classic, U.S. and Canadian consumers may purchase online through Amazon.com or from ShopBlackBerry for those in Canada, France, Germany, UK, and the US, and NOW in Italy, Netherlands and Spain, too.