Picked up a used/new (used phone-new to me) Blackberry Bold last weekend. I had been a long suffering user of a crappy Curve with it's miserable camera and wonky A key that looked like it had been chewed up by a meth addict gone bezerk. That one I had picked up on Craigslist when the phone I had died&mash;the SIM card holder imploded and was deemed to be totaled.
For reasons best not explained, I'm not eligible for an upgrade so it came down to two options: (1) Buy a new phone for around 500 bucks or (2) Buy a used phone. I went with the latter and after much searching found this women selling a used Bold for $110.
It wasn't in perfect condtion. A few scratches here and there, but it was all cosmetic stuff. The new phone is just leaps and bounds better than the old heap. Here's some of what it's got:
(1) Larger, clearer and higher-res screen. It's beautiful.
(2) 3.2 Megapixel camera. It's capable of producing relatively sharp 1600 x 1200 images. It's never going to replace a real camera, but compared to the Curve, it's a Leica. Here's a sample from the weekend:
(3) Real browser. The Curve only had a text-based browser. You could enable javascript and CSS, but the performance was bad, it wasn't even worth it. The Bold isn't exactly an iPohone and doesn't run Safari, but the BB browser does a decent enough job and it looks fantastic
(4) 3G and wireless. Bold's got them. Curve does not.
(5) More memory. My Curve was hamstrung when the messages built up or I tried to install a new app. No problems as of yet with the Bold. I have dozens of apps installed now.
(6) Sleek silver/black front with a black leather back. Looks really nice.
Overall, I'm thrilled. I would have prefered a new one, of course, but paying about 20% of the new price makes putting up some issues of used phone not even worth thinking about.
