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As a smartphone the biggest flaw that the BlackBerry 9720 has is the lack of good apps. There are a handful of options pre-installed and you can head to BlackBerry App World to find more, but they are seriously inferior when compared with apps on iOS, Android or even Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry 10.
The browsing experience is also inferior because App World is not well laid out. When you find something you want you can download and install it directly, but don't try to do anything else on your Blackberry 9720 in the meantime or you'll find it stuttering and hanging.
You should also be prepared to have to restart your device in order to complete installations and even some updates. If any of your existing apps have updates available then you'll find the BlackBerry App World icon will have a red asterisk on it, and you'll get a message in your notification pane.
Pre-installed apps include basic utilities like a calculator, memo pad, and task list. They're all perfectly functional and fit for purpose. The only inclusion of note is 'Documents To Go', which allows you to open and edit a wide variety of file types including Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. It's very handy for business people.
BlackBerry Protect also provides peace of mind with remote locate and wipe functionality.
The only game you'll find is Brick Breaker, which is a poor quality clone of the arcade classic, Arkanoid.
It's not just the lack of big name apps and games that frustrates with the BlackBerry 9720. You can find a few worthy options, but take Plants vs Zombies as an example. It will cost you though, and it is inferior to the Android or iOS versions which cost less.
Services like Netflix are completely absent from BlackBerry App World.
It may be true that most people only use a handful of apps regularly, but you'd be well advised to make sure that the handful you want are available on BB 7 before buying the 9720.
For navigation you'll find BlackBerry Maps on-board. It is inferior to Google Maps in every possible way. You should be prepared to wait for several seconds for the GPS to lock on and it takes an age to calculate routes. It looks very basic and it's slow.
