My Blackberry 7290 started to crap out on me a couple weeks ago (in the middle of a call the audio for the microphone circuit started just randomly dropping out on both Bluetooth and internal mic calls), so the timing was right to work with a test of the new Blackberry 8700. I've been using it for a few days now, and while this will not be a complete review (maybe later), here are a few thoughts about the new BB Phone.

First of all, this is by far the best-designed Blackberry device yet. Seriously. I have lots of kudos and only one (somewhat) real complaint for the 8700.

And in classic geek-review style, let's start with the bad stuff first, get it out of the way, and move on to a few positives.

The Not-So-Good (note - edited after a few days of use):

Battery life so far - compared to the 7290, the battery life is nowhere near as good. Before anyone starts off telling me the display is brighter, etc etc etc, understand that (as I have described before), the Blackberry is a business tool, and long battery life has been something I've always been able to count on. I will cycle the battery top to bottom a few times and see if it helps, but my initial observation is that the battery life is somewhat disappointing. (-1)  EDIT: Since my initial observations, and now that I have run the battery down and fully charged it a few times, battery life seems better. It's not what it was on the 7290, but it is also much better than the intial couple of charges yielded. It's in the ballpark of reasonable to good now. (+-0)

  • I could say no camera (okay, I said it) and no dial-by-voice (hmmm), but those are just would-be-very-nice-to-have options (one of which they really should build, and the other of which could be a software update) (-0.5)

The Good (and there's so much of it):

The handheld's display is excellent - bright, sharp and bold (+1)
FAST FAST FAST - Gone are the lags associated with things like "Delete all prior" and any of a bunch of Blackberry functions that were sluggish on previous models. No more Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer video animation lag on this one (by the way, I watched that classic show again the other night - is it just me or is it painful to watch by today's standards?) (+2)
Finally some ring tones I can enjoy! No more electronic football sounds from the 80's - It's grown up, finally! (+1)
Auto-complete of addresses in email creation - you have to experience this to understand how great it is. Create a new email, and you have the TO and CC fields in the header of the new email, so you just start typing a name, and you're presented with a list of matching names from your address book, much like Outlook or Thunderbird or other desktop mail clients do. On top of that, if you add someone to the TO or CC field and fill in the first recipient, the device automagically insets a new, empty matching TO or CC field so you can just start typing the next recipient name. Completely gone (yay!) are the days of Scroll, click, add-TO, scroll for a name, click, select, blah blah. Just type and hit enter and you're done. Sweet. (+2)
The display themes are terrific, and the Cingular theme on the device is very, very good. (+1)
No more "make sure your ear lines up exactly with this pin-head sized hole and then make sure it doesn't move, or you won't be able to hear the person you're talking to" problems. Well, okay, I am exagerrating a little, but if you've used the 7200-series BB phones you know what I mean. And I hate earbuds. I also don't like the Bluetooth Star Trek Fan Boy headsets, either. I use Bluetooth with the phone in my truck, which has a Bluetooth speakerphone system built into the audio system. But now the 8700 gets the handset earpiece just right - loud, clear and works great. (+2)
Speakerphone - ah hah!! (+1)
Programmable quick-button - By default it opens the Profiles screen, but you can point it at other stuff

  • Hand-up and Dial buttons - about time

There's a whole bunch of other new and improved features, but since I have to leave town now for a few days, it will have to wait to write about those. A few days of carrying the thing will give me more opportunity to get to know the device.

Anyone else using one? If so, what do you think?