wahoodude23's Full Review: RIM BlackBerry 7100v Cell Phone
Intro
Until now, the cell phones I've been carrying around, get smaller and lighter with each iteration. My last cell phone was a Siemens SL56 - so you can imagine the flashback to late 90s I had when I got my brick of a BlackBerry 7100g. Due to my job and the amount of email I get, my company bought me one. I've been pleasantly surprised, the good most definitely outweigh the bad so I'll go through them below.
Pros
1)Email PUSH is wonderful. Real-time emails from my corporate server and my gmail account. Now when I'm in a meeting or on travel I can increase productivity by not having to wait to answer email. I can respond to friends faster also - although they think I'm a geek because there emails never go longer than 30 minutes or so unread or unanswered.
2) Speakerphone. This is the loudest, clearest speakerphone I have ever heard. This is the 1st phone where the maximum volume setting on the speakerphone is TOO loud.
3) WAP brower/screen size. I don't know the exact dimensions but it's a big screen and the text can be formatted to be as big or small as you want.
4) Price - this is cheaper than the smart phones with better email integration.
5) Weight - it's surprisingly light for a phone this size. It's under 5 ounces and even though its a big phone it doesn't feel like it in the jacket pocket.
6) Holster sensor - this is really cool. You can set your phone profile differently depending on whether its in or out of the OEM holster. Ingenious.
7) Suretype - some people hate this. Since I've never had a previous BB and my previous text messages were painfully composed on a standard numeric keypad on the Siemens SL56 - the suretype technology is wonderful. In the 2 weeks I've had the phone, I've sent over 1000+ messages and have only corrected a word manually 5-6 times due to Suretype picking up the wrong word. The best thing about the Suretype technology is the avoidance of the "BB Thumb." It's less work on the thumbs so you can salvage those digits. I also like the color coded green/red call/end call buttons.
8) PIM synchs faster than the IPAQ to my desktop and its seamless with MS Outlook.
9) Scrolling wheel for navigation - again - this is so much better than arrows or 4-way buttons. The wheel is just way more intuitive. It somewhat simulates the scroll on a mouse. The menu itself is plain but very easy to read thru and use.
10) Multi-tasking: You can have multiple applications going on simultaneously including a voicecall.
11) Battery-life: I typically go 3-4 days of moderate use before needing a charge. Considering all of the data I go through, I'm fairly impressed.
Cons
1) Size - even though its got a better form factor than previous series, it still feels like a brick especially when I hold it up to my face. Since this is my first BB, everyone else tells me that I have the smallest BB made yet. I don't know how others carry around the bigger ones. I'm used to carrying around my cell phone in my pocket. There's no chance with the 7100g - this one has is best suited holstered on the belt.
2) Regular voice-calls. I hear other ppl perfectly. I've been told that if I'm talking in the car while the window is down, I'm incomprehensible. I could get away with something like that on my previous cell phones.
3) "No voicemail" SMS popups - when all of your voicemails are checked it sends an annoying SMS that your mailbox is empty. You have to manually delete/close the popup. I know I'm picking at little things, but it's the little things that really annoy me. If anyone knows how to bypass this, let me know
4) Answering a call. It's a little tedious. You either have to press a tiny green call button or push the scroll wheel in (if you have bog fingers you could easily accidentally scroll to the "ignore call" option and send someone to voicemail by accident. Wish they would have a bigger more obvious button to answer voice calls. Also - I don't receive emails when I'm on the phone. The pushes don't come through until I'm off the phone so there goes trying to read email when I'm bored on a phone conversation.
5) In broad daylight, you can't see a thing on the screen. There's also no standby display. It's either bright as the sun or in 30 secs the screen goes black unless one pushes a button. I liked the standby displays on all of my previous cell phones.
6) Doesn't come standard with a docking cradle. Maybe I'm nitpicking.
7) Manipulating email messages - sending, reading, receiving is a little bit tedious. There are multiple button presses to get to the function wanted. Luckily the push button in the middle of the scroll wheel helps tremendously. If I had to use the keyboard for this it would be a big negative for this phone.
Conclusion
Overall though, I'm really pleased with this phone. If it were a little smaller - it would be a 5 star phone. I've never owned a BB so maybe I'm being too easy on RIM, but this is a nice feature packed phone which is perfect for the corporate user from a data/voice perspective.
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