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CNET editors' rating:
3.5
stars
Very good
Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 4 reviews
- See all user reviews
Product summary
The
good: Boasting a sleek and sexy design, the RIM BlackBerry 8800 offers integrated GPS and multimedia features. The quadband smart phone also has Bluetooth, push e-mail, a full QWERTY keyboard, and long talk-time battery life.
The
bad: Unfortunately, the BlackBerry 8800 doesn't have integrated Wi-Fi. Call quality was a little muffled, and the phone is quite wide and awkward to hold. The media player could also use some refinements, and instant messaging is limited to the BlackBerry Messenger client.
The
bottom
line: Despite some minor issues, the RIM BlackBerry 8800 offers mobile professionals a well-rounded smart phone with added multimedia functions and integrated GPS. That said, messaging remains its forte.
Specifications: OS provided: BlackBerry Handheld Software ; Band / mode: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (Quadband) ; Wireless connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0 ; ; See full specs
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 05/15/2007
- Released on: 04/19/2007
Since its release in September, the RIM BlackBerry Pearl has received much praise from users, earning an average 8.0 user rating. The sleek new design and added multimedia capabilities were a hit, and the company definitely made it more of an attractive and viable option for consumers. Yet, there was a segment of the market--power business users, SureType keyboard haters--who could only admire from afar while tapping away on their traditional BlackBerrys. Not so anymore.
The RIM BlackBerry 8800 brings the sexier look and versatility of the Pearl to a full QWERTY device. Not only do you get multimedia functionality and expandable memory, but the 8800 also offers integrated GPS. Of course, it's not perfect. We're disappointed by the lack of integrated Wi-Fi, and call quality wasn't as good as we had hoped. Also, the device is quite wide, making it a tad awkward to hold as a phone. All that said, messaging is still king on this device, and it performs those duties well. Mobile professionals will be served well by this device. The RIM BlackBerry 8800 is available now through T-Mobile for $349.99.
Design
Taking its style points from the BlackBerry Pearl, the RIM BlackBerry 8800 is a far cry from the days of the blocky and drab BlackBerry 6280 or even the most recent BlackBerry 8700g, which was fine but still a little lackluster in the design department. That's all changed now with the BlackBerry 8800; it's sleek and sexy, with smoothed edges, a deep-midnight-blue casing, and chrome accents. At 4.4 inches long by 2.6 inches wide by 0.5 inch thick and weighing 4.7 ounces, it's slightly taller than the 8700c (4.3x2.7x0.7 inches; 4.7 ounces), but it's definitely thinner and thus, easier to slip into a pants pocket or purse. That said, the phone's pretty wide, so clutching it in your hand and holding it up to your ear is a bit awkward and cumbersome. To be fair, this is typical of the full QWERTY BlackBerrys as well as Pocket PC phones and Treos, but still, the Samsung BlackJack is probably the slimmest of such devices out there.
The BlackBerry 8800 features a beautiful 2.5-inch (diagonal), 65,000-color display with a 320x240 resolution. Text and images are clear and vibrant, and the screen also features light-sensing technology that automatically adjusts the backlighting of the screen, keyboard, and trackball, depending on whether you're indoors or outdoors. We found that this function works well, and we had no problems reading the display under harsh lighting. However, the screen and the casing tend to hold a lot of smudges and fingerprints.
Also, carried over from the Pearl to the BlackBerry 8800 is the trackball. It's great in the sense that it allows for four-way scrolling, and pressing it down acts as a select button, but we felt the trackball on BlackBerry 8800 was a little too small and we wish it were raised just slightly more above the phone's surface. Also, it's easy to get carried away with the rolling of the trackball and go right past your selection, though you can adjust the trackball's sensitivity under Options in the Screen/Keyboard menu. For that reason, we missed the jog dial and the Escape key that have been mainstays of BlackBerrys' past, but as with anything new, these changes just take some acclimation.
Surrounding the trackball are the Talk and End keys and the Menu and Escape buttons. Below that navigation array is the 35-button QWERTY keyboard. Though there isn't as much space between the keys as with the BlackBerry 8700c or the BlackBerry 8700g, the buttons are pretty large, so you should be fine. Keys also have a raised ridge to make them more tactile, but even so, we found the lacquered finish made the buttons slippery. The number keys are highlighted in white, and there's also a shortcut on the keyboard to activate the speakerphone.
On the right spine there are volume keys, while on the left side, you will find a 2.5mm headset jack, a mini USB port, and a user-programmable convenience key. There is a microSD expansion slot behind the battery, but good luck getting to it since it took some superhuman strength to take off the battery cover. We hope RIM reconsiders the placement of the expansion slot on future devices. Finally, the Power and Mute buttons are on the top of the unit.
T-Mobile packages the BlackBerry 8800 with a travel charger, a USB cable, a wired headset, a belt holster, a CD-ROM with BlackBerry Desktop software, and reference material. To find more add-ons and tips and tricks for your BlackBerry, check out our Cell phone ringtones, accessories, and help page.
Features
The RIM BlackBerry 8800 keeps a lot of the same features that made it such a staple among the business set, but it also adds some to make it more than a messaging device. We'll start with those highlights first. To start, the BlackBerry 8800 now has multimedia capabilities. More specifically, you can use the built-in media player to listen to music (MP3, WMA, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, and MIDI formats) and watch video (MPEG4, WMV, and H.263 files). We should note that there's about 64MB of flash memory available, but we suggest using a microSD card to store larger media files.
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User reviews
- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 4 reviews
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