lirubis's Full Review: RIM BlackBerry 8100 Smartphone
Being a first time Blackberry user (finally!), I was not too thrilled when our company CEO announced that we were all switching to Blackberry devices at the end of 2006. I just found it spooky to see all those guys poking incessantly at their little devices all the time, everywhere.
I chose the 8100 over the 8700 just because of the size. It didn't matter that the keys or screen were smaller. Since I will not waste your time with endless technical blabber, I will just try to put into words just how this device has won my heart in a way no other phone/pda has. There are many things to like:
General description.
This 8100 is slightly bigger than a Motorola RazrV3, which was my previous phone and I never really got to love it, because it basically had a poor reception quality. This being the smallest BlackBerry device instantly caught my eye. The keyboard is 20 keys big, plus 4 additional keys. The QWERTY-style layout accounts for 2 letters in each key, it may be confusing at first, but believe me, it is very easy to get used to it, and soon you will be speeding trough your messages, because of a very nice "learning" feature: every word you type, or get into your address book, or messages you recieve, immediately goes to a sort of dynamic dictionary that lets the device "learn" new words, so the data input when YOU type becomes intuitive. Using CAPS and numbers/signs is done by pressing just one key. Typing becomes MUCH faster than what you were used to using a standard cell phone keypad with 3 letters each key.
Display
The screen is small for BB (BlackBerry) device standards, but quite big for cell phone standards. Bright, full colors and high resolution, virtually everything is user configurable: from fonts size and type, to themes, arrays, language, intensity, contrast...you name it. The pre-loaded supply of images is more than enough, but you can download more from many sources. You can easily read the screen in virtually ANY condition, I'd say this has to be among the BEST screen in a portable device ever.
Thumb-thumb. Getting around...
Ok, this device is nicknamed "Pearl" for one good reason: the tiny white trackball right at the top of the keypad, under the screen. I used a Logitech trackball in my early IBM 50z for a long time, and I loved the way the trackball works. It's all in the thumb, you see? The other BB devices I know use a sidewheel that you just roll up or down and press to select an item/action. but it allows only for an up/down motion, great if you have pull down menus. The Pearl lets you do selections all over the screen, since movement is not restricted to up or down! To select, just press the little pearl down. Convenient, fast, easy to use. The speed and sensitivity are also user-adjustable, so you can feel more comfortable with it in no time. This pointing device is excellent.
The screen will display all the icons of the application you have installed. The cursor will highlight the item you have selected by displaying a bright yellow halo around the icon, one feature most people find very easy to use. My 7 year old kid was breezing trough my 8100 in less than 3 minutes...
You can also "hide", block and erase icons as you wish, but it is wise to first learn NOT to use this feature unless you REALLY know what you are doing, trust me!
You also have other keys to help you. On the sides there are 2 user-configurable buttons so you can bring, lets say, the camera or the phonebook at the touch of a button. You can choose ANY application to launch at the touch of these buttons. Then, right next to the pearl, you will find 4 other keys. 2 of them are the indispensable Green and Red keys to start/end a phone conversation, and the other 2 are a "menu" button that comes into play VERY often, and a "back" key to go back to the previous screen, also extremely useful feature.
The menu is 100% contextual, meaning that when you press the MENU key it will bring ONLY the actions possible with the app/process you are doing right that moment. By pressing the pearl you will also bring a menu with the possible actions to perform, and you just have to scroll up or down the options until you select the one you need. Very handy indeed.
The multimedia capabilities of this device, while maybe not as impressive as Windows Mobile, can play mp3 and .avi files via a simple media player. The sound and video quality is VERY good, I have to say. The ringtones and every other audible elements are of the highest quality, another of the great features in this device as well. Again, you can configure alarms, notifications, warnings, calls etc, virtually any way you want. The ring-vibrate option is possible, although you may want to use them for different occasions. The original BB carry cases have a "sensor" that allows the device to act in a certain way when it is INSIDE the case (enables silence mode, turn screen off, alert mode vibrates, etc...) and turn back to normal when it is out. Pretty cool, huh?
Choice of pre-loaded ringtones and alarms are a breath of fresh air if compared to the silly, noisy and often annoying "cool" stuff that abound in newer cellphones.
There is a very HANDY volume control on the right side of the device. A MUTE button is located at the top of the device, another very useful feature.
Ok, so much for data input and screen things. How this thing works?
First of all, this IS a phone. Reception and sound quality is EXCELLENT, volume is adjustable, dialing can be done via the phonebook, dial list, voice command (yes, it works VERY well), and it has a very intuitive way of learning who are you calling next. The phone book is extremely useful, because it lets you store a TON of information for every person on the list, including emails, adresses, phones, etc. 2 thumbs up for the way you can store data: it allows you to add massive amounts of information on just ONE record!
This becomes even more useful when you are trying to reach a person in a specific way. By selecting a person on your list, you can press the pearl and a menu will let you choose the possible actions: SMS? MMS? Phone call? email?
Just point and shoot!
Email Station.
The reason we switched to BB is simple: our formal communication for every project is done via email, so when you are traveling so much as I do, sometimes being unable to read and answer emails for 5 hours is just inadmissible. Our corporation did NOT set up a special in-house Blackberry server, we just use our service provider system and our internal email server and it works just fine. However, setting up my personal account and configuring my work mail took less than ONE MINUTE. It is that simple. The 8100 has a setup utility that guides you every step of the way, gets online, and helps you customize your basic features so you can get work done in less than 5 minutes.
For every email account you setup in the device, an icon will be created. The setup is done via online thru the BlackBerry website, where you can modify several options per account. Nevertheless, you can choose to manage all of them together in One icon, similar to the Inbox concept in most mail managers.
The downside of this feature, is that ALL messages get into this INBOX, no matter if they are emails, SMS, or MMS. This may prove irritating when you are getting out of a meeting and have 20 different items to open in the inbox, and 3 voice messages waiting along 4 missed calls....
Calls are handled like in any other cell phone: a call log is available and provides detailed information about the caller, that you can simply call back with the touch of a button. My service provider is set up so with every missed call I get a voice mail AND a SMS alerting of such missed calls and voice mails waiting, so...it can REALLY be annoying, but thats the price you pay for having the office right in your hand, I guess.
BLUETOOTH setup and functions are extremely easy to configure and turn on. I need 4 seconds to transfer my pics from the BB to my G4 PowerBook (Mac), and it also has this feature that lets you "filter" unwanted devices sniffing in (you'd be surprised!).
OTHER GOODIES
Oh! Did I mention the 1.3 mpx camera with flash?
Ok, this may not be the greatest feature of all if you dont need to take pictures, but it certainly is a nice addition to an already impressive package of goods. Do not expect stellar results with the camera, it us just a very handy tool on certain situations when you get bored and...hehehe, sorry, never mind.
Online messaging is so easy. The 8100 comes with the Yahoo, BlackBerry and Google messengers, and they work really good, but it allows for text use only. You can use them all at once, some 3rd. party software allows you to log in to the most popular one such as ICQ, MSN, Yahoo...once again, fun but not very functional, since typing on such a small keyboard is tiresome after 15 minutes.
Surfing and browsing is a breeze, the stock browser is very useful and simple to use, can store favorites and do pretty much what the big browser do, except display all the graphic content. Loading times depend on many factors, but then again, it is not wise to use the Pearl to perform intense use of the web.
Other killer apps that you may want to look at, is the many games available: great graphics and lots of fun, my favorite is the Ka-glom!, a Tetris-like game with a very funny twist, kids love it and will pester you for this...LOL!
The organizer is pretty much like a miniature Outlook, and so far synchronizing my 8100 with my laptop has been easy but sometimes unreliable, using a USB cable.
BOTTOM LINE
I get all my emails. All my calls. All my messages. I can chat. I can play. I can listen to music. Watch videos. The input system learns the words and names I use, allows you to write a lot faster than you think. It is compact, sturdy, and so far very resilient to abuse.
However, the battery lasts only 48 at best with normal use (say 20 calls and 2 hours use per day...). The Razr V3 charger works with the 8100, so I didn't have to buy extra chargers for the car, etc. The screen gets quite greasy because your cheek/ear will be touching it during a call, unless you are using a hands free/earpice device. The "pearl" sometimes gets "stuck" and wont scroll unless you press it again a few times. Happens but not very often.
The only REAL problem that I found is the expansion slot. The MicroSD card fits UNDER the battery, so if you need to take it out in a hurry or very often, it is VERY frustrating. However, I use the USB cable for data transfers, or even the bluetooth.
So, in all, I can say that I am extremely happy with my BlackBerry. And Im even happier that I chose the 8100 Pearl: compact, nice looking, sturdy and reliable. Previous users who got used to the big keyboard may find it complicated to adapt to the 8100 layout, but this is the sacrifice you make for switching to a device that is HALF the size... Only if the battery life was a bit better....
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