Those who use a BlackBerry phone for the first time discover one thing — it is a totally different mobile animal.

First, they find that a BlackBerry without an Internet connection is like having half a phone. And when they try to get an Internet connection they realise that they have to get a special Blackberry service, and not the ‘ordinary' GPRS. You need to talk to the operator and get a BlackBerry service. Though many customer care executives first scare you by saying it will take two days for the connection to get ‘activated', most of the time it is done almost instantly once you choose a plan.

This is followed by the customer care official asking you to “remove the battery and insert it again immediately”. As what you have in your hand is a totally new animal, you do what he says and realise the phone restarts once you insert the battery — without pressing any buttons!

The dividing line between other phones such as Nokia's E series phones is becoming thinner. Nokia's much improved email client that comes pre-installed in many phones is as good as BlackBerry's. Where BlackBerry scores is the integrated messaging client, where you see all emails and SMSes in a single screen, instead of clicking through multiple icons.

One more thing that makes BlackBerry stand out is Blackberry Messaging, where you can message any other BlackBerry user free of cost and without going through the operator's SMS gateway.

Here again, apps such as WhatsApp Messenger manage to fill the void for other phones. WhatsApp Messenger is available for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Nokia. You can use WhatsApp Messenger to chat with others who have installed WhatsApp in their phones — again skipping the operator's SMS gateway. As WhatsApp Messenger is also available for BlackBerry, it means if you have WhatsApp Messenger in your phone, you can chat with a BlackBerry user if he has also installed the app. WhatsApp Messenger users can send each other unlimited images, video and audio media messages.

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