Blackberry 8700 first impressions
by Volker Weber
Executive summary
- I like.
- No need to upgrade from 7290.
The two most remarkable things about the 8700 are the screen and the improved speed. You notice both when first scrolling through a few pages of messages. When you look at a 7290 you will hardly believe that it has a screen resolution of only 240 x 160 pixel. It is so bright and readable, even in broad daylight, that I was surprised to hear it was only 240 pixel wide.
Research in Motion does not talk about pixels. They say "high resolution color LCD screen provides ample workspace" when talking about the new 320 x 240 pixel display of the 8700 which is less than the 320 x 320 screen of a Treo 650. Having said that, the 8700 screen is very readable, an ambient light sensor provides just the right backlight and other than on the 7290 it always turns it on when you touch a button or the thumb wheel. When the light is off, so is the screen. You cannot see anything until you touch the device. This is a big change from the 7290 which you could read when placed on an office table in front of you. No more peaking at the screen during meetings. ;-)
The speed change is obvious. I don't have a benchmark, but the difference is the same as between 100 and 250 HP. 100 is enough, but 250 feels better. The 8700 also has twice the memory of the 7290, but then again, I never ran out of memory on the 7290. What else is new? Three new buttons on the front: Make and break calls (green/red) and a programmable key which loads the web browser by default. I changed it to load the message list. Another new programmable button at the left side, which defaults to "Profiles". Left it there for now. The top has two buttons: On/Off and Mute. I will see how often I am going to use them. The top phone button of the 7290 is gone; I know a lot of people who never noticed that it even existed. The green button now takes you to the phone application, the read button to the home screen. That is a good design. If you press the escape key (below the thumb wheel) during a phone call, the phone app asks you whether you want to continue the call while leaving the phone application. It defaults to "yes". If you want to end a call on the 8700, it is best to hit the red button.
I have the 8700v which is branded by Vodafone. They have done a nice job doing that. The first devices that I saw had a bright red stripe at the bottom of the screen but this one now has only the Blackberry brand at the top and the Vodafone brand at the bottom. Both are printed in silver on black, and the Vodafone line contains a small logo. Not obtrusive and generally well done. As with other Vodafone Blackberry devices, you can replace the Vodafone theme with one of the defaults or a theme that you download. I like BB-Insight (Icon) which came with the device.
One of the things I changed was the LED indicator which now blinks green while you have GPRS coverage. Since I always seem to have this coverage, I have switched it off and let it only blink when new messages arrive.
[To be continued]
Comments
Nice summary!
For me the screen whilst being lovely to look at is a clincher - I miss being able to peek at it without pushing a button, I find it difficult to read outdoors and it scratches so easily!
The polyphonic ringtones might just win me over...we"ll see.
Thank you for the review! But why do you actually prefer a Blackberry to a Treo with Chatter Email? You mentioned it before and I don't see, why Blackberry with BIS (which you use) tops a Treo... If you had a BES, the situation would indeed look different...
Good question, simple answer:
With Blackberry I do not have to expose my mail server.
Chatter is a hack. And I was having stability issues with the Treo.
Great review, I learned several things from it. I actually came here via googling for *HOW* to turn off that blinking indicator light. If you happen to see this question would you mind commenting how? So far I don't see it inside the Options categories.
@Anya: It´s in the Settings Menu.
Screen/Keyboard: LED Coverage Indicator - set to Off
Thanks for such a fast response!
