sundogg99's Full Review: RIM BlackBerry™ 7100v Cell Phone
I’m a cell phone ho - just ask my wife, who teases me mercilessly on this topic. I’ve gone through 3 or 4 phones in the last year alone. One was too small – my hand cramped up when I tried to hold the damn thing to my ear. Another had a battery that lived roughly half as long as a housefly. I even tried an earlier BlackBerry model, but gave up in disgust after a couple of weeks – I might as well have used a tin can and string for all the phone functionality it offered.
Last month I had a two week period in the office during which I was double- and sometimes even triple booked for appointments. During those hellish weeks, I constantly found myself sprinting between meetings, often ending up in the wrong office or meeting room, not knowing where I was supposed to be next. I needed some sort of way to keep myself up to speed with my calendar and a schedule that often changed even as I sat in a meeting. I relented and decided to once again try a BlackBerry device.
My requirements were fairly basic: I needed real-time calendar and email capability, and I wanted a decent phone. Other bundled features (text messaging, web browsing, memo pad, photo viewer, calculator, and other marginally-relevant doodads) were of little interest to me.
The good:
If nothing else, the devices certainly look better. The clunky blue box has morphed into a silver, nearly cell phone-like form, and the former monochrome screen has been replaced with a bright color one. Much of the slimming down of the BlackBerry has been accomplished via the elimination of a full QWERTY keyboard. New BlackBerry devices sport a sleeker profile thanks to SureType™ technology – a pretty nifty improvement, though not without warts. Using just 14 multi-function keys that mimic a standard keyboard, SureType keeps track of your keystrokes and zeroes in on the word you’re intending to type. It’s a substantial refinement of that hideous “predictive text” feature that used to plague us on cell phones.
An example: if I want to type the word “meeting”, I first press the “M” button (one of only 2 single-letter keys), followed by two taps on the “E/R” button – at this point, the screen actually displays “mer” (with an alternate selection of “mee” – but more about that in a moment). When I press the “T/Y” key, SureType figures out that I’m unlikely to be wanting to type the nonsense words “mert” or “mery”, but am more likely looking for the real word “meet”. After that, it’s a slam dunk: I press the “U/I” key, the “B/N” key, and the “G/H” key and voila, “meeting” shows up on my screen. If, for whatever reason, I really want to type the word “meetinh” rather than the suggested “meeting”, I can select it – the display includes all possible combinations and supposedly learns from my selections, defaulting to them on future messages.
The whole approach takes a bit of getting used to, but is pretty darn efficient. After a couple of days I was able to punch up terse, Hemingway-esque emails. I can’t imagine anyone ever wanting to write lengthy messages via this technique, but let’s face it: most of us could stand to pare back on our emails – in that sense, BlackBerry devices support that noble objective.
Although I pretty much loathed my previous BlackBerry, the one thing I liked most about it was its integration with my Outlook calendar. It’s very convenient to have real-time access to my schedule, regardless of whether I’m at my desk, at home, or in another office. Fortunately, this feature is unchanged in the current BlackBerry model – my device automatically synchs up with my Outlook schedule and displays the most current array of meetings and other events.
My antipathy for earlier BlackBerry models was primarily due to their terrible phone ergonomics. That problem has been mitigated to some degree with this model – although I wouldn’t hold this thing up as a paragon of comfort. It’s about as comfortable (which is to say, not very) as a regular cell phone. As a fairly heavy-duty phone user, I fear that I will succumb to the dreaded Bluetooth headset – yes, it makes me look like a complete nitwit, but it will save me a lot of neck strain and hand cramps.
I’ve used the phone in my office, on my commute, in my home, and in the suburban wilds of Edmonton, Alberta. For the most part, signal strength, call quality, and so on seem about equivalent to a regular cell phone. I still experience infuriating dropped calls even in the most heavily-traveled traffic corridors – but that seems not to be the fault of my BlackBerry.
Battery life seems adequate. We’re located in a less than optimal area for signal strength, which quickly drains cell phone batteries. I’m able to conduct any number of brief calls, as well as a 30-40 minute call at night to my family, without draining the battery. I put the device on its charger every night, however – no more multi-day stints between charges.
The not-so-good:
Until human evolution provides us with teeny stylus-tipped fingers, communication technology is going to teeter between the poles of miniaturization and ergonomic reality. My biggest gripe with the BlackBerry is its tiny keypad. The BlackBerry attempts to walk that thin line between size and comfort – in a couple of egregious cases, it fails.
The phone “pickup/dial” and “hang up” buttons are absolutely miniscule, and are located right next to all the other buttons on the keypad. They’re foolishly tiny and awkward to press. My fingers aren’t particularly big, but I often struggle to hit the right button. When my phone rings, it’s always a race to haul the thing out of its belt holster and locate the proper button before the call switches to voicemail. Likewise, I often fumble to properly hang the thing up. I imagine the small button size would pose a real challenge to folks with big fingers.
Other buttons are similarly user-unfriendly. As noted above, the keyboard buttons do double duty for letters – they also serve as the numeric keypad. Button labels include the letter designation and the numeric label, making for a crowded bit of print on each miniscule button. If you suffer from presbyopia, keep your reading glasses nearby – you can’t possibly touch type on this keyboard, so you’ll need to see what you’re doing.
The BlackBerry’s primary selection device, the scrolling wheel, remains unchanged from earlier models – you scroll through options and press the scrolling wheel to select a choice. It’s an ergonomically imperfect technology, in my opinion – I still tend to turn the wheel slightly when I press it, which occasionally causes me to select the wrong option. Some of my clumsiness may derive from the fact that I’m left handed, while the scrolling wheel is on the right side of the BlackBerry. Or maybe I’m just a klutz.
The display screen, bright and reasonably crisp indoors, fades to almost nothing outside, even on a relatively overcast day. I don’t think this device is practical for someone who spends much time working outdoors.
Another complaint I have may actually be associated with my wireless provider, Cingular. When I travel to other time zones, the BlackBerry doesn't automatically synch up with the local time. My cheap cell phones have always managed this convenient task, and it puzzles me that this whiz-bang device can't do the same. Since my cell phone coverage was also with Cingular, I tend to think this problem is indeed with the BlackBerry device, not with the service provider.
The user interface on the BlackBerry still includes a lot of needless redundancy, in my opinion. Most edits of any sort require a second confirmation ("Changes made! Save? Delete? Ignore?") which makes for a lot of unnecessary scrolling and clicking.
Finally, and most significantly, I dislike the plethora of other stuff that's jammed onto this device. Seriously - I really don't want to surf the net with this device, and I sure as hell don't want to play Brick Breaker on a tiny screen. I don't have to use that stuff, of course, but it still adds confusion and complexity to a device that really needs to strive for simplicity and elegance.
In my mind, there exists a yet-to-be created device that fully meets my business requirements without diluting its functionality with a bunch of unnecessary add-ons. BlackBerry's on the right track, I think, but they certainly aren't there yet.
Cell phone functionality in a sleek, stylish design Blackberry provides convenience and versatility in a small, portable package High-tech electronics...More at Overstock.com
Cell phone functionality in a sleek, stylish designBlackberry provides convenience and versatility in a small, portable packageHigh-tech electronics w...More at Overstock.com
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