BlackBerry 8800: Initial Thoughts
I had the chance to play around with a BlackBerry 8800 for a few hours over the weekend and here is a brief summary of my initial thoughts:
The BlackBerry 8800 for the corporate business user is not a bad upgrade if you are coming from a device older than the BlackBerry 8700 and are already a Cingular subscriber. Outside of the BlackBerry Media Player and GPS, the 8800 doesn’t do much more than the 8700, however, has that sleek design to it that QWERTY BlackBerrys have been lacking until now.
If I would have been buying the BlackBerry 8800 purely for it’s GPS capabilities, I would probably return it and wait until the next version comes out where RIM has all the bugs worked out. It is slow compared to on-board navigation in my SUV and really slow compared to a handheld satellite GPS unit that a buddy of mine has. Actually trying to get BlackBerry Maps installed on the 8800 was a nightmare. Fortunately BlackBerry Forums Moderator, Stinsonddog, came up with a walk through to install the pre BlackBerry 8800 version of BBMaps on an 8800. I would have never figured it out on my own.
I am not impressed with the BlackBerry 8800 at all from a consumers standpoint. It looks cute, however, lack of Wi-Fi and a digital camera along with the archaic implementation of the Media Player really just miss the mark for me. There are other smartphone devices, i.e., the Q, the BlackJack, the Dash, etc. that for the same money or less, have lots more bells and whistles and seem to be better phones.
Written by Robb Dunewood on February 26th, 2007 with
7 comments.
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J
Michael
dayjayvw
#1. February 26th, 2007, at 8:35 PM.
Ouch, that hurt Mr. Dunewood! Well, I can’t agree with your thoughts more though (I hope Rim heard that.) As a Consumer and not a business user, I feel as if the 8800 isn’t as much of an upgrade, as it is a new look. The blackberry 8800 and the blackberry 8700s question regardinng whether or not to upgrade, reminds me of the problems people were facing when the sidekick 3 was released (let me explain.) When the sidekick 3 came out, it didn’t have much more going for it to be considered a whole another device, compared to the kick 2 - it had “EDGE” (or what Tmo considered Edge,) bluetooth, expandable memory, a better cam, and a music player. Yet, that was pretty much it nothing truly ground breaking, and if you really look at a comparison, the only new editions was bluetooth, expand. mem., music player and Edge but that was it! I hope that this is making sense and people are seeing the comparison here. If not, maybe reading below might help to clarify.
Now with the 8800, it has a new casing, media player, expand. mem. and GPS - that’s it. No camera, no wifi, nothing that would really make the consumer market jump for joy. Yet, if you were to compare the sidekick 3 with the blackberry 8800 and which device has had a better “Upgrade” so to speak, it would have to be the sidekick 3! As rediculous as it might sound to some, remember this is from a consumer’s perspective and NOT a business user’s. The sidekick 3 had more added features than did the 8800 and for less or of equal value depending on how you look at it.
I would have to say the same as Mr. Dunewood, that for the same amount or lesser value, you can get a smart phone with a camera and more glits and glam than what a 8800 would cost and have available to you. I sure hope that Rim is now going to consider these facts and elements when deciding on a newer model. Perhaps in the future, Rim will implement a long awaited qwerty with a camera and some much deserved wifi. Until than, I will be perfectly content with my 8700 thank you very much.