Hands on with the BlackBerry 8800

[BESadmin]

Hands on with the BlackBerry 8800
14th March 2007

Research In Motion claims the 8800, which is available from AT&T's Cingular unit for US$350 with a two-year contract, is the thinnest full QWERTY BlackBerry yet. The phone is reasonably comfortable to hold next to your ear, and offers decent voice quality.

Like the Pearl, the 8800 lacks a jogwheel on the right spine for navigation; instead it includes a trackball directly under the screen. While the trackball is easy to use, I still prefer the jogwheel for navigation. The jogwheel is easier to use, especially for one-handed operation of the phone.

As you'd expect from a BlackBerry, the 8800 is an excellent e-mail device. It supports up to 10 e-mail accounts and set up is a breeze. The device notifies you as soon as a message arrives, and content is easy to read on the 2.5-inch 320-by-240 display. Instant messaging is unfortunately limited to the BlackBerry Messenger application; support for the more popular AIM, Yahoo, or MSN IM would have been a nice touch.

While the 8800 unforgivably lacks a camera, it does include the music and video players found on the multimedia-friendly Pearl. You can transfer files to the phone via the included Desktop Manager software. The phone includes a microSD slot for additional storage. While the music player won't rival that found on a dedicated music phone, like the Nokia 5300 XpressMusic Phone, it's passable. It lets you play, pause, and stop songs, and create basic playlists. Audio quality was decent, but not exceptional. The quality of video playback was much better; content looked great.

The 8800 also includes built-in GPS functionality, and my review unit came pre-loaded with the TeleNav GPS Navigator service. (TeleNav's service is available for $9.99 per month from Cingular.) If you travel frequently, this could be the phone's killer app. It requires no add-on devices; you simply launch the app and go. While the service was occasionally slow obtaining its initial satellite signal, it was very good once it was up and running.

If you're searching for a good-looking phone with great e-mail capabilities, the BlackBerry 8800 could be for you. We'll have a full review posted on PCWorld.com soon.

I've spent some time testing out the new BlackBerry 8800, and I've come away impressed. This consumer-friendly device is similar to the popular BlackBerry Pearl, but adds a full QWERTY keyboard, much to my delight. Unfortunately, though, the 8800 has one glaring omission: it lacks a camera.