I was up until last night, a one phone man. I'd recently cleared out pretty much everything I had , as it was getting silly , drawers full of phones, chargers, leads , manuals ,boxes etc. I'd left most of them far to long beyond the point that I'd get a good return on them , so I ebayed the lot, I even sold my iPhone 4 , as there is no way I could go back to a smaller screen for a main device !

Trouble is , this left me with two contracts (one number I actually do use !) without handsets , I looked ad cheapie phones , came VERY close to buying a Lumia 710 now CPW are selling them for £130. then last night my daughter let on that she was selling her Blackberry Bold 9700 for £50 - it works fine but is in cosmetically poor condition - since I only needed it to recieve calls I told her I'd have it , thinking I could get it unlocked for £10 at the little shop near me. I was pleasantly surprised to find I could unlock it for FREE via IMEI code (anyone remember those days ? ) First website I tried the code was given to me instantly and worked fine - Cool !

Stage two , logged on to O2's site to get the account Blackberry "ready" - Again was pleasantly surprised that it was simply a case of swapping bolt ons , took less than a minute and saved me £4 PM in the process - coolio ! Won't switch over till 10th May (as per billing period) but thats fine. I recall a time when such a procedure would require sitting on hold and giving my security details over and over again to some CS rep who is not sure what they are doing.

Strange thing is ... I thought a Blackberry without the correct Service plan was essentially useless ? I am finding that even with Wifi switched off I tam able to surf the net, access twitter etc - I am not able to use email , BBM or facebook though - at least I am able to use it crudely while I wait for the BB thing to activate on my account.

As for the experience - Well I have to say it is bizarre , its almost like stepping into a time machine ! It feels very much like the "pre smartphone" feature phones of yesteryear ! RIM have gone out of their way to make using the thing as confusing and difficult to follow - it even makes Symbian seem intuitive and transparent !
Of course it will suit my needs and a Phone , and its always interesting to use a platform you have no experience of .... but I simply do not understand how on earth these things sell ? I realise the 9700 is not the latest model , but I think I am right in saying that it is not particularly outdated either. I paid £50 for it, but a quick google suggest this was a £400 device on launch , really ?.... £400 ? I can't imagine how anyone could hand over £400 , get one of these and be pleased with the transaction.

Maybe its because I'm not a teenager ?