TexasSwede

 As I wrote back in June, I managed to do a submersion test of my (then fairly new) Blackberry Bold. It worked perfectly fine after that. Then a little bit later in the summer I dropped it on concrete and got a small crack in the screen. I checked with insurance, it would cost me $125 to get the phone replaced, and it was not bad enough to spend that money on a new phone, which probably would be a refurbished anyway.
The phone started acting up about a month ago, dropping calls, etc. Sure, could be the network (I have AT&T) but I walked into the local AT&T store and talked to the sales guy. He said it sounded like a problem with the phone, and it should be covered by warranty. He then opened the battery compartment and looked, then said "OK, no water damage. Tell that when you call AT&T about warranty replacement."
So a few days later I called, and was told to open the battery compartment and tell her color of the sticker on there. I told her it was red, and she said that it indicated water had come into contact with the sticker. Oh well, just wonder why the sales guy could not tell. The label is supposed to be white when no liquid has touched it.
I decided to hold off a bit longer. Then the camera stopped working (even if it later started working again, after about a week) and the battery started to drain quickly and teh phone got really warm while charging. Something was obviously wrong.
I called the insurance company on Monday. While on hold, the automated voice mentioned that I might be eligible for an upgrade. So I checked online, and I could get the Blackberry Bold 9700 for just $99 after mail-in rebate. When the 9700 came out, I decided I would stick with my 9000, that it was not worth to spend the money on an upgrade. But now, with the phone acting up and Lotusphere coming up, I had to bite the bullet.
I received the phone Thursday (no shipping charge when placing order online!) and have now been playing with it for 2 days. Here are my thoughts.

• The phone is smaller. I am still getting used to the smaller keyboard, at least initially I did more typos when texting.
• The screen has a higher resolution, 480x360 instead of 480x320. This cases my favourite theme not to work anymore. I can download it, but it does not show up in the list of available themes.
• The trackpad is very nice, but will probably take another day or two to get used to. The nice thing is that dirt won't get in there to cause problems, like with the ball on the older Blackberries.
• OS 5.0 installed from factory. Very nice. There are some small details I don't like, hopefully I can change that using Blackberry Theme Studio. For example, in the inbox the name of th sender is black and bold while the subject is gray and normal, making it much harder to read.
• The reports say that the battery life is better than on the old Bold. This is of course hard to tell after just 2 days, especially when loading software, transferring files from the old phone through USB, etc.
• Mini-USB connector replaced by micro-USB. My car charger and spare wall charger won't work, unless I get some adapters. At just over a dollar each, I will probably get a couple. The shipping is the expensive part, though.  My Motorola P790 portable charger that I got for Lotusphere last year is also using mini-USB. Oh, if you don't have one of those chargers, pick one up! They are down to $15 or less now...
• My charging cradle won't work anymore either, since the phone is smaller.

But generally I am happy with the new phone. Just some small quirks, and I am sure I will get used to them or figure out how to address them.
Below is a picture of the two phones side-by-side. Bold 9700 to the left, Bold 9000 to the right.

Yesterday something happened that never happened to me before.
I have always been laughing at people who drop their phones in the toilet. I been using cell phones since about 1993, and yesterday it happened to me for the first time. I had been at the pool, had some sunscreen left on my hands, walked into the bathroom to do something while I checked my mail, and the phone slipped, and plopped down in the toilet which conveniently had the lid up. Yes, I am a male, and living alone...

In about 3 seconds I had the phone up again (probably some of the longest 3 seconds in my life). I quickly dried off the excess water and pulled the battery, probably within 5-6 seconds. Took out the SIM card, MicroSD menory card and used some compressed air to clean it out as much as I could. I then put the open phone on top of my Antec Nine Hundred case (highly recommended, by the way!) with a big 200mm exhaust fan which is sending warm air out of the case. I left it there overnight to dry out.

This morning I put the battery in and the phone started up fine! The screen have some discoloration where water got in between the glass and the LCD display, but for now I can live with that. I have insurance thorugh AT&T, but the Blackberry Bold have a $125 dollar deductible.

I still have not tried everything, like taking pictures, but the phone is charging fine, phone calls and text messages work, etc. Honestly I am amazed that it survived at all.