Apple had better be enjoying iPhone 3G’s current reign as king of phones, because its crown is about to be stolen by the mighty BlackBerry Thunder. iPhone 3G was good, but Thunder is better for these eight reasons…

Better for typists
Apple made every smart phone on the planet look like a wonky old typewriter when the iPhone transcended buttons and introduced its swanky multi-touch screen, but Blackberry is making the same leap and using an even more advanced interface. It’ll use both an on-screen QWERTY in landscape mode, as well as BlackBerry’s own SureType keyboard for text entry when held vertically, and that’s on top of its next-generation hepatic feedback, which will make each virtual key vibrate individually. It’s set to seriously improve text entry.

Better contract
You can’t buy an iPhone 3G in the UK without being frog marched to the O2 desk and forced to sign an 18 month contract in blood. There will be no such control over the BlackBerry Thunder, so you can make up your own mind who to sign with. What’s that RIM? Free choice? Sounds like a nice idea to us!

Better for business
We’ve all seen men in suits frantically pounding on a ‘CrackBerry’ like it’s a Gameboy. That’s because it’s the perfect business tool, and Apple’s hasty addition of Powerpoint compatibility and Exchange support to iPhone 3G doesn’t put it in the same league as the BlackBerry Thunder and its default work tools.

After all, if a company’s already invested thousands in a BlackBerry-friendly infrastructure, and the Thunder offers all that and more, where’s the incentive to change?

Better memory
iPhone 3G comes in 8GB and 16GB versions. That’s fine if you’ve got a medium-sized music library, and don’t fancy lugging round too many films. However, despite keeping quiet over the Thunder’s internal flash capacity, RIM has let slip that the Thunder will pack a MicroSD slot. That’ll make it conveniently expandable, and it dead easy to swap memory and share data. Yeah, that’s something else the iPhone can’t do, thanks to its crippled headset-only Bluetooth.

Better screen
Yeah, we’ve harped on about this before, but the fact is the BlackBerry Thunder will arrive with a screen far superior to the iPhone 3G. It’ll be higher resolution than any ‘Berry before it too, at 360×480 pixels.

Better compatibility
Apple fanboys will tell you how smoothly an iPhone syncs with a Mac. Obviously, it’s compatible with Windows as well, but it’s not the same experience. Thankfully, the BlackBerry Thunder is designed from the ground up to communicate with a Windows PC and that’s what the majority of the world still uses.

Even better, it’ll follow other ‘Berries in packing proper Bluetooth and USB compatibility. That means wireless printing, file sharing and charging from any number of 3rd party accessories (not just manufacturer-approved ones).

It’ll works with iTunes (and Windows Media Player)
Unlike the iPhone, the BlackBerry Thunder won’t be limited to working with iTunes (which it’ll manage just fine, thanks to its BlackBerry Media Sync software). It’ll also play nice with Windows Media Player, or just chew up files you load onto its memory. It’s not fussy, it’s just very clever!

It has Visual Voicemail (on any network)
The Thunder’s got an ace up its sleeve in the shape of Visual Voicemail. It’ll be one of the first non-Apple handsets to feature visual voicemail, letting you tap into messages directly, rather than listening through them all. Apple’s lost the rights to use it exclusively, and that means it’s fair game for the Thunder. What’s more, you won’t have to join O2’s network to use it.