My beloved Blackberry Bold 9650 became unusable with the never-ending hourglass. Phone calls would come in, the hourglass would appear and it'd be 5 minutes before the Blackberry would let me use it again. Verizon was of no use. Reloading firmware & restoring the Blackberry didn't seem to do any good.

Currently using a Motorola Droid HD Maxx. HATE IT! The touchscreen is a poor substitute for the Blackberry keyboard and simple things that the Blackberry did just aren't there. Phone sound quality sucks, No sound/notification profiles, no changing songs by holding down the volume key. No notepad! and let's talk about battery life. They say this phone has the best battery life out there of any smartphone. Bull. The 9650, when paired with the Opera web browser, did about 95% of what the Maxx did, but battery life was never this bad unless it got stuck in those non-stop hourglass loops.

It seems very difficult for me to believe that the iPhone, Samsung S3, and the Razr HD Maxx are the "best" that's available. They all seem so primitive in basic features that Blackberry has had for years.

I also have to say that I never understood the problem with texting and driving until I got my new phone. I touch-typed ~60-75 words per minute with the Bold, so it regularly sat on my leg whilst driving. It was nothing for me to bang out a couple of e-mails while driving -- I never had to look down. It was right there and you could run the whole phone from the keyboard if you knew it well enough. Back in my Uni days, I even typed a 20 page term paper on the Blackberry keyboard, WHILE DRIVING, without looking at it. Yes, there were a few typos that I corrected before turning it in, but no more than most people would make on a regular keyboard.

It still amazes me that Blackberry has basically done nothing in the past few years. At least release some hardware to keep the fan base loyal, even on the old platform. New platforms are nice, but in my case, I couldn't wait because my old BB was becoming increasingly unusable. I always thought they'd do well by taking Android and rolling a BB into it. They made excellent hardware. Now they just make great PR & delays.

Still interested in Blackberry if they ever produce a Bold replacement. BUT it must have all of the same goodness that my Bold has. Including battery life.