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If you want an iPhone, why do you have a BlackBerry? That’s a question I asked recently. I got a reply in the comments: “How about people like to change up what they look at every so often, and happen to like the iPhone’s GUI for aesthetic reasons?” That’s reasonable enough. I’ve been using the default theme since I got my 8830. So why not give an iPhone theme a try and see what it’s like? Like my mom told me with broccoli: how do you know you don’t like it if you don’t try it?

Interface

I actually enjoy the Real iBerry blocks. In fact, I enjoy them way more than the default icons. Everything is laid out nicely. In fact, it’s a bit superior to the default theme, because it allows six icons per row, where the default had five. This means I can fit one extra application on my main screen.

Well, that is, if there was a main screen. This is a small gripe of mine. I enjoy having the one row of icons on the main screen, with a full menu available when hitting the BlackBerry button. With the iBerry Blocks theme, all of your icons are on the screen, all the time. This is something I suspect I’ll get used to. But it’s a little strange at first.

Possible room for upgrade: I wonder if there’s a way to add a box around the icons for downloaded apps. After all, if themes fulfill an aesthetic purpose, they should look as pretty as possible. It looks a little awkward with some icons being boxed, while others are not. Once again, very minor gripe.

Huge positive for me: The alarm icon is far less prominent than it is in the default theme. In the iBerry Blocks theme, it’s tucked away up by the battery meter. The Bluetooth icon is similarly downsized and moved off to the left side of the screen, under the reception meter.

Navigability/Functionality

I’m having no troubles whatsoever moving around the menus. As I said, it’s a bit strange to have all the menus on the screen at once, but even as I type this and play with the theme I’m getting used to it.

Applications definitely take a bit longer to load. This seems to be limited to third party apps, but it’s still definitely a factor. It took 20 or 30 seconds to load up my Gmail application. This is only an initial lag, though. It seems that when I go back to the application after the initial lag, it loads fine.

In the end, I guess I answered my own question. Despite my minor gripes, the Real iBerry Blocks theme is pretty cool. I might let this one stick around for a while. You know, for aesthetic purposes.

The Real iBerry Blocks theme can be purchased from the BBGeeks Store here.

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