Blackberry 8830 World Phone Review

The company I work for decided about a year ago to rollout BlackBerry's to a few select individuals in the company-including me; I am after all the email administrator.  And as such I got to integrate the BlackBerry service into our email infrastructure, and pick up a BlackBerry device-a BlackBerry 7130-in the process. 

Recently, Verizon Wireless our cell phone provider and BlackBerry carrier, started offering the new BlackBerry 8830 World Phone and naturally I had to have one. 

The Product

In The Box

• Blackberry 8830 handset
• Battery
• Travel Charger
• Belt Holster
• CD Installation Discs
• Verizon CD Install Disc
• Quick Reference Guide
• Installation Booklet

The BlackBerry 8830 is a dual-channel(CDMA/GMS), dual band device that offered anytime/anywhere access to corporate e-mail, contacts, calendar information, two Web browsers (Verizon supplied and BlackBerry network), and a full QWERTY keyboard.  The ability of the BlackBerry 8830 to seamlessly connect to either CDMA or GSM/GPRS networks is what makes the unit a true world phone with the ability to make and receive calls in over 160 countries.  

The BlackBerry 8830 offers a fully functional QWERTY keyboard, color LCD screen, Bluetooth wireless technology and polyphonic ring-tones, all bundled in a sleek, lightweight, and stylish handset.  Other features of the unit include a calendar, a to-do list, a memo pad, an alarm clock, and a calculator; pretty standard fair for today's technology rich smart-phones.  Like all Blackberry's the 8830 can act as a date only, or combined data /phone device. 

The BlackBerry 8830 which ships with 64MB of flash memory (expandable via a microSD card that loads at the top of the unit), takes full advantage of the Verizon's Wireless' EV-DO (EVolution-Data Only) network.  EV-DO is part of the third generation (3G) of high-speed data enhancements to the CDMA cell-phone technology.  Verizon claims that its Broadband Access EV-DO network offers high-speed Internet access anywhere, any time (the 8830 features two Internet browsers, one from Verizon, and the other from RIM).  By all reports, the high-speed network is living up to its promise. 

BlackBerry 8830 users will enjoy a feature rich wireless experience, including fast integrated push-based email courtesy of Microsoft's Exchange 2000/2003 messaging package, Lotus Notes Domino, or Novell GroupWise.  Internet based email can also be accessed via the BlackBerry Internet Service which allows for access to up to ten individual e-mail accounts including enterprise-class messaging and POP3/IMAP4 accounts.  Lastly, Internet mail clients such as Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, HotMail and Gmail can be accessed via the Verizon Internet Broadband Access EV-DO network.    

Use

Our complement of some 85 BlackBerry's is tied to our corporate email system, Microsoft Exchange 2003.  Before connecting to the BlackBerry network via the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, the smart-phones first need to be activated on the Verizon network.  Once data and voice connectivity is established the BlackBerry's are ready to start receiving corporate email.  Email anywhere, anytime is of course what the BlackBerry excels at, and the 8830 makes reading them somewhat of a chore because of its limited screen size, but the font is easy to read.  Once in the device, mail can be read and responded to; the full QWERTY keyboard on the 8830 makes this somewhat easy; I can even manipulate the keyboard with one hand.  Large emails will be will be downloaded in portions to conserver memory space.  Attachments can be read if the associated application is installed on the device, even (now) .PDF files.

Via the BlackBerry server and desktop software, you can control which folders in Outlook get re-directed to the BlackBerry 8830.  By default the Inbox is downloaded to the device upon initial connection to the RIM network, but so is the Sent Items folder.  If you never empty the Sent Items folder, and redirect it to your device, it will quickly fill up with mail you have already processed.  My advice: do not redirect your sent items folder to the device.

Once read emails can be deleted from the device without deleting them from your Outlook mail client, but you can fully synchronize the two, so that whatever is deleted from one is deleted from the other.  And of course you can respond to email, as well as compose new mail and forward existing messages. 

As a cell phone I find the BlackBerry 8830 is easy to use, especially with a Bluetooth headset.  Gone is the familiar thumbwheel that so marked the BlackBerry of yester-minute; it has been replaced by a thumb-ball in the center of the keyboard, and is so much more easy to use. 

When I place a call people can generally hear me, but I have a hard time hearing them clearly and with the volume turn way up.  This was alleviated by a Bluetooth headset.   

You can place a call directly, or via the address book, by clicking on the phone icon.  As I stated above, once you are connected you can activate the speakerphone, which offers decent clarity.  On-screen displays allow you to control the volume and provide other useful information such as the duration of the call and of course the number.  Coverage through the Verizon network is outstanding even in my house where historically, my cellular reception had nose dived.  While at work my reception never falls below four bars, and at home I typically get two, but it is enough to send and place calls and send and receive data.        

A very useful feature is the ability to automatically turn the BlackBerry 8830 on and off at specified times during the day.  I have mine set to shut off at 10:00pm and turn on again at 7:00am of the weekdays.  There is also a separate weekend setting.

Battery life for the BlackBerry 8830 is stellar.  The initial charge took about three hours, and I can usually go a day or two without recharging the unit and the battery life only dropped by a quarter and this is with moderate email and phone activity.

Conclusion

All-n-all I am very satisfied with the performance of the BlackBerry 8830; the unit is small, stylish, extremely lightweight, and offers outstanding battery life.  And while the 8830 may take some getting used to, in the end its all good, because the main objective is email, contacts, and calendar access and in this the BlackBerry's excel.     

The BlackBerry 8830 features: Complete functionality including:

• Phone
• Email
• SMS
• MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service)
• Wireless Data Access
• Address book
• Internet Browser
• Calendar
• MP3 Player
• Memo Pad
• Tasks