Blackberry 8703e Review…still not perfect
I recently upgraded from a Blackberry 8700 (on the T-mobile network) to an 8703e on the Sprint network. The primary reason was so that I could get a local phone number for business as well as access corporate e-mail, etc. Previously, I did not have cell phone service with my 8700, just enterprise e-mail service. Now I have the best of both worlds.
My main gripe right now is that the phone quality is really poor. I can’t tell if this is the design of the Blackberry or if it’s Sprint’s network. Calling my wife’s cell phone our or home Vonage line with my old Nokia 6820 on Cingular’s network results in a much better quality call that doesn’t drop. In a week of use, I’ve experienced poor phone quality and more frequently dropped calls. Apparently it’s also difficult for people on the other end of the line to hear me at times, whereas with my Nokia, they can hear me just fine.
Phone quality problems aside, my life is just about perfect with this phone. E-mail, internet, ssh client, AIM, Yahoo! IM, Google Chat, Gmail, SMS messaging, and the ability to look at Word/PDF attachments makes traveling much more convenient. It’s a great enterprise phone for the business user, but still lacks the following:
- mp3 playback
- video playback
- HTML e-mail support
- no camera
- web browsing experience is OK, but still is not a “true” browser, despite its emulation capabilities
I still am highly anticipating the iPhone. However, with just about all of my life consolidated into one device (I forward my calls from my old Nokia on my Cingular account to my BlackBerry, now), I may wait until the second generation iPhone instead. This is almost good enough for me to not really need the iPhone, but it still doesn’t quite do everything. I have yet to purchase a true iPod (I just have an iPod Shuffle), so the iPhone essentially solves that need, plus gives me the added benefits of being able to do just about everything else I could ask.
For now, The Blackberry continues to be an excellent tool for business use.
[... I recently upgraded from a Blackberry 8700 (on the T-mobile network) to an 8703e on the Sprint network. The primary reason was so that I could get a local phone ...]