Replaces all the 8830 problems with responsive behavior and high resolution
Update March 2015,
I can't recommend the 9930 with OS7 (operating system), anymore. HTML has grown over the years, and its browser has become insufficient. The RAM in the phone is insufficient and its management is inefficient. It tends to be slow and freezes plenty.
Recommend any new Blackberry with OS10. People are not aware of them as much as Apples, but there's a very high fall-in-love rate with OS10 Blackberrys. Read up on 'em.
__________________
Old review, April 2012:
I got mine new at new egg for 80 bucks, plus another 20 for accessories that I should have waited to buy on eBay. But that includes another 2 year contract.
Battery life depends on how long you keep the back-light on, and the internal gps, and if you listen to music streaming in from the internet and play it out the speaker-phone while browsing the internet, etc., etc.
I do all those things, and got the super-large, after-market battery.
Instead of the little battery-level icon, I like the numeric display. It's a few levels into the menu, but finding it becomes 2nd nature after a few times. Then you can leave it open in the background. Or dozens of apps will display the battery level when the screen saver comes on.
Internal gps works with googlemaps, which the 8830 couldn't do. VZW Navigator and Blackberry Maps come loaded. Setting for turning the gps on or off is a few levels into the menu, but finding it becomes 2nd nature after a few times.
No good Tetris app, but the track-pad works great. Streams music smoothly (using Berrytunes), about 1000X more smoothly than the 8830. 180 MB ram when new, 160 MB after adding Berrytunes, Opera Mini, My Verizon Mobile, Tetris and Mahjong, Empower screen saver and Slide2Open, and photo editing apps. Never acts like it ran out of ram, but I always seem to restart before it drops to 150 MB free.
Used to run my 8830 down to 0 MB ram. It didn't act nice down there.
Opera Mini becomes a pleasure with all the ram, fast processor, and high resolution track pad, instead of an exercise in patience like the 8830. Even the native browser works very well.
Slide2Open keeps you from inadvertently making phone calls when you rub against the touch screen.
Some apps preloaded that you're not allowed to delete (NFL, Bing, Vcast, etc., etc., etc.). But you can hide their icons.
Keyboard un-noticeably smaller than the 8830 keyboard. Please don't get any smaller.
Two-finger-touch works on Media player for zooming when you open photos. Not as smoothly as the i3 and i4. Also can use buttons to easily zoom and unzoom.
YouTube videos open in full screen, and 1080 runs beautifully. But other websites complain I don't have Flash.
Good audio reports.
Slippery as a sliver of cold stainless steel. I put a silicon skin on my 9930, and keep it in my pants or shirt pocket.
Very close to time for me to pair up with a Playbook. neilRead full review
