[slomoui]

I've had my 8830 for a few days and I'm starting to wonder if it was a smart decision. Here are the initial reactions so far -- maybe I need to become assimilated in the BB culture.

Overall, the BB seems stable and for what it does, it generally does well. I do find it lacking in features and the 8830 kind of reminds me of an aging software product in a new, shiny very nice wrapper. Here are some other thoughts.

General phone appearance - Very nice look, thin, not too heavy, nice feel.

Keyboard - I like the QWERTY keyboard, it has a good display and the trackball works well for me. I can't figure out how to lock the caps and the numeric keypad. This was very easy to set on my Treo -- guess I need to read the manual.

Stability - the 8830 is more stable than my Treo, but I had a 205 error this morning and the phone rebooted. Not sure why this happened.

Email - email is generally timely, although yesterday the autoreplicator stopped for some reason on BES and I had to call to have it restarted. Everything was set properly on the phone. This worries me because BB is supposed to have much better email than Palm. I'm waiting to see if this happens again. I actually liked the folders and the overall display on the Good Mobile Messaging with my Treo better than the very basic BB display.

Memory - I'm disappointed that I can fit precisely 1 song (3 MB) on the phone. I don't have an external card yet and I've found I only have 13MB free. I do have Google maps and Gmail installed, but surely I should be able to fit more on the phone than these two add on applications. I was able to have several pictures and music on my Treo's internal memory.

Ringer - Keep in mind that I'm a new BB user, but it took a while to figure out how to change the ringer. As many others have said, the vibrate mode is too weak and I've missed a few calls because of it - grrr. I actually had to dig out the user's manual to figure out how to change the ring tones using the media player, then found the ring tone settings burried under profiles>advanced>select profile>phone>tune -- yikes, tell me there is a shortcut for this. RIM has many options for ringer volume in and out of the holster which is nice, but it's also pretty cumbersome to set up a customized ringer. So many options for the ringer, but RIM can't give us the option to turn off DTMF when dialing? I realize that DTMF is off when the phone is on vibrate, but it seems like a simple request -- I just don't get it.

Voice quality - Good quality - as good or better than my Treo.

BT - I like the support BB has for BlueTooth. Works much better than on the Treo.

Menu navigation - This seems to be about the same as the Treo navigation. I do, however, like the Treo approach for menu settings compared to the primative BB settings.

Media player - I bought the updated version of Pocket Tunes for my Treo this summer and it syncs with Windows MediaPlayer 11, and generally works well. I also like Pocket Tunes' ability to play internet radio. This is another area that I just don't get what RIM was thinking. Maybe RIM's approach works better for Apple users, but for the rest of the 90% of personal computer users on the planet, it isn't as good as Palm's. The media player almost seems like it was an after-thought for RIM.

[DearFloyd]

Well seeing as how youre on a blackberry forum, most would commend you on getting a RIM device. To be quite frank, everyone should read the manual for a blackberry even for simple things like changing profile settings and shortcuts, as the UI is much different than comparative products.

For CAPS LOCK hold the "alt" button and press the "Cap" button and do the same to turn it off.

BES is not my area so I cant help you there, but generally errors occur and only require a reboot or battery pull unless there was a faulty 3rd party app installed. The email on the berry is second to none. Im on my 3rd after trying other devices and its by far the most stable pda on the market.

Your memory issue is baffling to me actually. Some of us have upwards of 10-15 apps installed and running on our devices. Are you sure your memory is full from a song? It would be wise for everyone to invest in expanded external memory given current trends in product development.

The blackberry media player is a fairly new addition to their product line so given that, it can only evolve and get better with future releases. So I guess its safe to call you an early adopter.

[Giavanna]

I have to agree with GoDJ. Even though the manual may be a bit boring, I read the 150 pages of my manual, it's a good idea to at least skim through it. I am not saying that I understood all 150 pages but it was informative and that along with this forum made me have a better overall understanding of the device.

People I know that had a Treo would never give up their blackberry to go back to one.

Gia

[MiniBB]

Probably a "newbie" question -
but why have an installed Gmail application when it is so easy to just have your gmail right in your messages? Is it a BES thing?

[bernardo]

Hey I was feeling the same way U are now, a few weeks ago ( I had a Treo for like 2 years, an I-phone for 4 moths, and a Mogu phone, which are the best leaders. I never tought of the BB .

one of the things I like about the BB, is the fact that is not so automaticated, it is flexible enough for you to be able to taylor it to your peronal life style, and it does work .

[nosam]

I'm gonna have to go with GoJD on this one. You have to read the user manual for your BB there are just way to many shortcuts and custom features you can use to fit youre needs. As far as the memory goes i'm running over 20 apps on my internal memory and i have a 2gb sd card for songs and movies and what not. e-mail for the blackberry really is second to none, i have my BB account, two personal e-mail accounts and my work e-mail account. You just got to get use to it is all.

[slomoui]

Thanks for all the feedback. I'm learning more by reading how to use shortcuts and this does help.

I looked at the Treo 755p last night in a local store. The Treos really do have more features and applications, but looking at it also brought back memories about the instability of the Palm o/s. I know that Sprint will have the Palm Centro in a few weeks, but that is basically a repackaged Treo in a smaller case and includes the same Treo features & bugs.

I wish the 8830 had better media capabilities like Sprint's TV app and Youtube, and I feel the email display/folder format really needs to catch up to Palm.

The 8830 does a good job for what it is -- a phone and email device -- but my expectations were much higher given all the stellar reviews.

[ncc1701p]

slomui:
being a former Treo 700P user myself I can agree with alot of what you talk about. I think it basically comes down to trade-offs. First off, leave your longs on a SD card (2gb is super plenty IMHO). Ive been a user of the 8830 for over 1 week and I can break down the good, bad between the 8830 vs the Treo. Look up the memory leak issue which I hope is addressed with a Patch/OS Update in November. RIght now if your memory leaks down to ZERO.. You lose your call logs. Something which was a big non-issue on the Treo. Again its some trade-offs for the interim. But overall the phone operates a way helluva better than my former Treo at least it the area of Stability. Not 1 single reboot at all in the 10 days I've had my Blackberry. I also carry a work blackberry7520 from work and that her ZERO issues totally.