I have to admit, I have done my fair share of salivating over the iPhones in the Apple store. They’re not only fast, sleek and intuitive, they’re made by Apple and I love them. But… I have Verizon and I’m not willing to change to an inferior provider just to have an iPhone. Not to mention the fact my contract isn’t up yet.

So, instead of an iPhone I ended up getting a Blackberry Pearl. I’ve used Windows Mobile devices on several occasions and hated it. The last phone before the Blackberry Pearl was the VX6700. Nice slide out keyboard, but Windows Mobile is too bulky. In typical Windows fashion, it claims to do a ton of things, but ends up not being able to do any of them well.

I’ve fallen in love with my Blackberry Pearl. Now, when I see or hold an iPhone, I think “wow, this is a cool, but it doesn’t do what I need it to do.” Let’s compare the iPhone to my Blackberry Pearl:

• You can’t send MMS (pictures or video) messages with an iPhone. That seems really dumb for a phone these days. Especially when the phone has a camera. Why can’t I send an MMS? My Blackberry Pearl does a great job of sending photos, video and even audio. Check one for Blackberry Pearl.
• You can’t even receive MMS messages with an iPhone. If your friends have a regular phone and try to send you a picture message, it won’t come through. True, they can email it to you, but it still seems silly that the iPhone can’t receive a picture message. Check two for Blackberry Pearl.
• You can’t play 90% of the videos you find on the internet, unless they’re in .MOV format. Sure, the iPhone has a nice YouTube application, but what about stuff on other websites? I’ve only had one instance where my Blackberry Pearl couldn’t play a video. Check three for Blackberry Pearl.
• You can’t save a picture you find on the web to your iPhone. It just won’t do it. Want to make it a background? Not going to happen. The Blackberry Pearl is very intuitive about this stuff. It knows right were to save a file based on it’s type. Check four for Blackberry Pearl.
• You can’t take video recordings with your iPhone. Seriously, you can’t do it. Again, it seems strange to hear people talk about this being the phone of the future and then finding out it doesn’t do something even the most basic entry level phone can do. My Blackberry Pearl has a VERY nice video recorded and the playback is extremely sharp. People are amazed at the picture quality. Check five for the Blackberry Pearl.
• Ringtones can only be purchased through iTunes. If your friend has a ringtone they want to send you, it won’t work. Even with Verizon, I can still download ringtones from the internet with my Blackberry Pearl. It even knows it’s a ringtone and asks me if I want to set it up as my current ringtone. Check six for Blackberry Pearl.
• Uh, there’s no keyboard on an iPhone. I do love the look of the iPhone virtual keyboard, but too many people complain about it. I was a little nervous about the SmartType feature on the Blackberry Pearl, but it’s really smart. It’s almost like it can read my mind as I’m typing. The more you use it, the smarter it gets. Even though the keyboard on the Blackberry Pearl isn’t it’s strongest item, it’s better than the iPhone keyboard. Check seven for Blackberry Pearl.

Yes, I have a lot of things I LOVE about the iPhone, but overall I’m thrilled with my Blackberry Pearl.  Wait, did I mention the iPhone is only available through AT&T?  Yeah, that’s the major deal breaker for me.  Even if they corrected all the issues above, I’d have a hard time making the switch from Verizon to AT&T.

If I missed some items, please comment below and let me know.