The best mobile internet tool - if you can afford the monthly fees.
Written: Aug 16 '04 (Updated Aug 16 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: All-in-one Email/SMS/Wap/Phone, Internet capable with BES/MDS access.
Cons: Cheap to buy, but "expensive to own". High monthly fees.
The Bottom Line: If you can justify the fees, The Blackberry has no equal in the realm of all-in-one devices that cover Email, Internet and Phone.
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| kweckstrom's Full Review: RIM BlackBerry 7280 Smartphone |
I've been disenchanted with mobile devices for a long time now. It seems every PocketPC, Palm or Mobile Phone did one thing well, but all else poorly. There's a pretty good rule about electronic devices.
"Small, Cheap, Good, pick any two."
This pretty much holds true today, and is especially true of the Blackberry 7280. It's small, it's good, but despite the "cheap" introductory price (it can be had from LetsTalk wireless for $99 with activation), your costs certainly don't end there.
First, the unit.
Despite the name "Blackberry", it's blue. The unit itself is rather small and light (4.4 x 2.9 x 0.8 inches, just under 5oz). Note that this blackberry does have a smaller screen than some others in their lineup. To gauge the difference, other blackberries like Verizon's 7750 has enough screen size and resolution to have 4 rows of icons on the main screen. On the 7280, you get 3 rows. You can mitigate its smaller size by picking a smaller font as the default view font. Out of the box, my AT&T model came with the unit itself, a holster, two USB sync cables, a desktop cradle and a travel charger (though take note, you need to use one of the USB sync cables to use the travel charger). The USB sync cables are a standard USB to Mini-USB connector.
The desktop cradle is nearly useless, as there's no cable connection to it. It simply holds your Blackberry upright, and you still have to plug the USB cable into the side of the blackberry itself. I never use it.
The color screen is actually very impressive. For a 65k color screen, it has amazing viewability. While a (somewhat weak) backlight is included, you'll rarely need it. In fact, the crispness of the screen makes it easy to read in just about ANY lighting scenario, indoors or out. They got this right for sure.
The qwerty thumb-board is excellent, even for someone with large hands like myself. The Shift key and "Ctrl" key (which is used for numerics and punctuation) are easy to get used to. Whatever special symbols you cannot enter via the Ctrl key, you can enter by hitting the "symbol" button. While some people have claimed 70wpm speeds with their blackberry, I find that unrealistic with my size hands. I would say I score around half that if I had to wager.
Scrolling functionality is handled by the right hand scroll wheel which rests logically where your thumb falls when operating the unit. The wheel can also be pushed in to "click" in mouse-like fashion. The "Esc" button is directly beneath it, serving as your Esc key and "back" button.
You can tell that they spent a considerable amount of time in designing this product. They clearly wanted to make it as comfortable as possible with regards to its size.
The Software.
The Blackberry desktop software allows you to do several things. First, it's an intellisync conduit for Outlook. Secondly, it facilitates the ability to forward your mail from Outlook. However, by default the Blackberry is associated to the blackberry.net webmail client. This is the "cheap" way to get your email, and it works by and large. You can integrate your other POP3 and IMAP inboxes (but not IMAP folders) with your blackberry, but there's a 15 minute polling time when you use them with the Blackberry web client (in other words, it's not "instant" - in order for email to be delivered via the web client "instantly" to your berry, you have to forward it to the blackberry.net email address).
Included with the AT&T blackberry is the "M-life" browser. It's basically a wap browser that allows access to AOL Instant Messenger. Other instant messengers also have WAP gateways, though none of them are an "always on" solution. In order to do instant messaging *effectively*, you need to spend more money. More on this later.
Also of note, most J2ME (Java 2 Mobile Edition) applications work fine - provided you download them from the WAP browser (or regular browser - if you have access to a BES/MDS, more on that later). However, if you want a J2ME application to access the internet (like in the case of instant message apps, IRC chat applications, alternative browsers, etc) you will be REQUIRED to use a BES/MDS (again, more on that later).
The Phone
Included with the 7280 is an integrated phone. The 7280 does not require a headset to be used as a phone like some earlier integrated models. The sound quality is excellent, as is true with most GSM phones. While I'm typically a verizon fan for its coverage, their voice quality/clarity leaves much to be desired. With GSM providers, voice quality is often a couple of orders of magnitude better, at least to me. This holds true with the Blackberry 7280. While I think the 7280 could be a little bit LOUDER (like, JUST one notch louder would do it), what it provides in volume is adequate. Using a handsfree, it's actually deafening and I have to turn it down.
Oh, and talking into your PDA isn't as weird as you might think with the 7280. It's actually very comfortable and doesn't look strange to others i'm told. It behaves much like any other mobile phone.
That being said, the only issue here is with AT&T's network, obviously. AT&T & Cingular now "share" towers, but even so there are some issues with coverage - usually when travelling "between towers" or being "handed off". AT&T's coverage here in the NYC Metro area used to be horrible. It's actually quite a bit better now, to the point where I consider it tolerable. However, if you are a heavy voice user that DEMANDS your call be stable during a 15 mile drive in a moving vehicle, then you MAY be better off with Verizon as your provider - though I wouldn't recommend Verizon's Blackberry 7750 as a solution *at all* (I'll cover why in a future review).
Networking & Phone Behavior
Let's get Battery life out of the way. It's excellent. I've charged my blackberry on a friday afternoon, and gone 4 to 5 days with heavy mail usage, always-on instant messenging and a couple of phone calls a day. By Tuesday or Wednesday, it's got to visit the charger. Charging time is VERY short, giving me a full charge in about half an hour!
There's 2 ways to charge your Blackberry. When plugging it into your PC via the supplied USB cable, the blackberry is charged in that fashion. USB on a PC carries a 5V power lead, and that's how the blackberry charges. The other option is to dig out the travel charger "Wall Wart", and plug one of the supplied USB cables into it to charge. They also make USB to Cigarette Lighter adapters for charging in your vehicle at an additional cost.
Email performance is excellent. It doesn't need to be said that the Blackberry does email better than any mobile device currently on the market. It's what they do, and NOBODY is better than them at doing it. Scrolling through email is effortless, and having instant access to your email is something that will make you check it often when that Vibrating alarm goes off. And yes, you can pick what type of alarm you want for any kind of event - SMS, Phone calls, Email, even additional applications like instant messenger messages can have their own customized ringtone or vibrating alarm. This allows you to differentiate the kind of information coming in based on the ringtones/vibrate behavior you have configured.
Make no mistake, its email features alone will make you always want this thing with you. You WILL compulsively respond to emails wherever you are, because the device is just so easy to use for that purpose. It's no surprise that so many people call these things "Crackberries" because of their addictive nature.
SMS (Short Messaging Service) is included with the blackberry's data plan at AT&T. SMS messages are basically handled as email, allowing you to reply, forward, etc. In fact, i've noticed I can send SMS to a simple phone number - REGARDLESS of network - and it will be delivered. I send SMS messages to my son all the time while on the road, and he uses Verizon wireless.
Other types of messaging applications are supported on the blackberry. But here's where things start to get expensive. First of all, In addition to your voice plan, You're shelling out roughly $50 for your unlimited email/SMS service. You are also allowed WAP access through the M-Life browser. The problem here is that the WAP browser is VERY restrictive. In fact, a cursory view of its own options flat out tells you you're in "restricted mode". Plenty of WAP pages break using this browser, and you'll see a lot of "content restricted" messages.
But guess what, folks. For $50/mo, Email, SMS and WAP is ALL you're getting. If you want to run "native" TCP/IP apps that require "Socket connections", you need to take your blackberry to "The Next Level". When I say "Socket Connectons", I mean applications that attempt to interface with other services over the internet via the TCP/IP protocol. That "Next Level" is associating with a Blackberry Enterprise Server that has Mobile Data Services (which I'll call BES/MDS from this point on). Your existing workplace may already have a fully functional BES server with MDS enabled (it's not enough to JUST have access to a BES, it HAS to have MDS enabled). Most applications you can install on your blackberry will requires a BES/MDS association. Applications such as "Idokorro SSH" and "Web Messenger" are just two examples of applications that require A BES/MDS relationship for socket connectivity and will not function otherwise.
To understand what this means, you have to bear in mind that Blackberry as a company has chosen its market to be "Large Enterprises". They do NOT cater to simple "Mobile Phone" users. While they do accomodate them with their simple "Web Client for Blackberry" service, their primary business is selling blackberries coupled with the sale of a BES/MDS. To put things in perspective, a 5 user license for a BES/MDS is roughly $1000. That expense in and of itself is staggering. But you wouldn't be done there. A BES/MDS has to be associated with an Exchange Email server, which has its own set of infrastructure requirements.
The bottom line is, setting up your own BES/MDS is not an option unless you're willing to throw a ton of money at this project. Your only alternative is to find another BES/MDS provider. Luckily there are several of those around, but this is where things start getting expensive. Since your best chance of doing anything "real" is with a BES/MDS, you need to find a service that provides an Exchange inbox with access to a BES/MDS. I currently use a provider called "Mailstreet" for this functionality, but the costs are significant. For instance, an exchange inbox for a single person is $13/mo. Another $9.95 gets you BES/MDS access. That's over $20 above and beyond what you're paying to AT&T for GPRS data coverage.
To add insult to injury, you'll almost always be charged $50 as an activation fee for the BES/MDS portion, just about anywhere you go. ON TOP of that, the best instant messenger application (WebMessenger, supports all major IM networks) costs another $50/year.
At the time of this writing, Nextel is the only other company that offers a blackberry with access to a BES/MDS as part of its mobile data plan. For me, that's not an option. Nextel stinks in my area, and their voice quality is the lowest of the low - even if they toss in some niceties like walkie-talkie functionality and a speakerphone.
So, if you're with any other carrier and unlucky enough to not have access to a BES/MDS at work, you're stuck paying extra for bona-fide internet accessibility.
But you know what? Call me silly, but I think the $75ish/mo i'm spending for this kind of service is worth it. Why? Because the 7280 simply performs all of these duties with an ability that is UNMATCHED by any other device. No PocketPC or Palm can do what the blackberry does as well as the Blackberry can. I can't tell you how many times I've laid in bed with this thing, surfing through web pages on the non-restricted BES/MDS-associated web browser. If i'm out shopping with my wife, that extra 15 minutes she takes trying on "yet another dress" flies by as I chat on irc or with a buddy on an instant messenger. If I take the bus to work, I can catch up on the news, email, chat, surf, etc.
AT&T's GPRS network, while only rated at "56k", does a GREAT job of delivering pages quickly, particularly ones designed for mobile applications. While there's fewer limitations with the BES/MDS web browser, some still exist (no Javascript, for example). But the experience is a WHOLE lot better than AT&T's M-life browser which is restrictive beyond belief. I've also used Idokorro's SSH (secure shell, a unix command prompt utility) with great success. But this piece of software carries a hefty $195 price tag, and also has the same BES/MDS requirement.
In closing, if you are looking for the BEST online experience while on the road, AND want a great mobile phone to boot, the 7280 should be strongly considered. Yes, the apps are expensive, and access fees are high (Over $70/mo). But if you DEMAND the best mobile internet experience, can justify the $2-3/day it costs to run it and don't want to carry a separate mobile phone, the blackberry simply has no equal.
4 out of 5 stars. For me to give this unit a 5 star rating, Blackberry would have to somehow ditch the BES/MDS requirement to do anything other than Email, i.e. socket connectivity would have to be "built in".
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 150
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Epinions.com ID:
kweckstrom
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Member: Karl Weckstrom
Location: Emerson, NJ
Reviews written: 100
Trusted by: 99 members
About Me:
Voted "Most Likely to be Photographed as a Bigfoot Sighting" by his senior class.
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