"But is it better than the iPhone? Short answer: It's close, but no."

Every single smartphone review I've read could be boiled down to that one sentence. Why read them at all? Just demo each phone and pick the one you like.

Exactly - I was actually very close to just ordering an iphone but then demoed both the iphone and BB Bold and went ahead and purchased the Bold - having had a BB 8700c for a couple of years, I was more comfortable with the BB OS and from a usability standpoint I preferred the tactile feedback of the keyboard. (The screen is very pretty too ;)

"The iPhone still boasts more elegance in its interface, which operates beautifully, quickly and intuitively, with very little confusion."

So it's better in every way... except in the most vague and nebulous one. The author may like the iPhone's interface but calling it "quick"? That's not a word I'd ever use to describe the iPhone.

You have to agree that the UI interface of the iphone is elegant and really intuitive. It seems that, that's the hardest problem to solve for iphone competitor. They try to hard to pack as many features as possible put forget about the user experience.

And that's the biggest weakness with iPhone competitors. The problem is that "user experience" isn't a feature to be touted: they win no list-of-features contests with it. But it's what makes the iPhone so much better than all its competitors, no matter how stacked all the other features are.

I've got an N95 version one, and its got some better features then iPhone3G.

Every smartphone has its pros and cons, its up to the consumer to decide which one to purchase, and I agree that its up to the press to report it only, and leave the consumer to decide where he wants to put his money.

Another review from Time magazine: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1860717,00....

The Time reviewer didn't like the click screen at all.