I have been thinking about the BlackBerry 8800 a bit lately seeing how it is about to come out in a week and a half. It has trackball, is a bit thinner than the BlackBerry 8700, and has removable media. Other than that, what is so great about the BlackBerry 8800?
Now that the release of the 8800 is near, I don’t really find myself all that excited about it. Even though the 8800 isn’t coming out on Verizon just yet, I am not so sure that I would upgrade to it if it was. In fact I know that I wouldn’t if they were offering the same cameraless version that will first come out on Cingular.
Are you going to get a BlackBerry 8800 when it first comes out. If so, why? Let us know via the comments.
I have T-Mobile and am hoping they announce a Wifi model for them to be released no more than 30 days after Cingular’s version. The main reason I want the 8800 is because my 8700C (unlocked) was lost/stolen on New Years and my 6230 isn’t holding up too well.
I’ll stick with the Pearl. Its a matter of preference, depending on what KB you like and if you prefer the thinner model.
As with anything else, it’s personal preference. Based on what I can tell, I don’t see any reason to chuck an 8700 for this 8800 (especially if it meant having to switch to Cingular from VZW). I don’t think the upgrades really make that big of a difference. Now back to personal preference: had this version been more of a true “Pearl with a full QWERTY,” meaning, among others things, that it had a camera for example, I’d be all over it.
I currently have a 7290 and almost upgraded to the Pearl this week, but decided to wait. I’d like to compare the Pearl and the 8800 before making a decision. The one feature on the 8800 that has my interest is the rumored GPS integration.
I don’t have a Blackberry at all and have been waiting to switch to one for months now. Someone in my T-Mobile family plan complain of dropped calls and I need a BB to handle emails and keep my life organized. So either a BB from VZ or Cingular would do, preferrably the former. I would’ve gotten the Pearl when it came out but I don’t like its condensed keyboard and the awkward location of its memory card. That’s the reason I’ve been holding out for the 8800, hoping that it would solve both issues. It seems that the keyboard would be a non-issue. Does anyone know anything about the memory card location?
I think it’s all about OS version 4.2.
And the Trackball.
I’ll be able to play Sudoku just fine with that.
after finally seeing the live pictures of the 8800 i was very dissapointed.
i have been waiting months for the 8800 to come out..from what i see its trhe same size just a little thinner.
looks like the same body as the moto q.
i ended up upgrading to the pearl white. i was very aggainst the 2 letter per key option, but after playing with it, it is by far the best berry on the market.
I don’t have a blackberry at all, but do use a full qwerty Nokia 6820.
The screen on the nokia is just too small and the media net web is
not useful for checking flight status.
I am a business professional and need email and sms (though I
will use the bb personal unlim plan). I use sms for instant
communicatons and am not too interested in push email.
I am also a cing/att customer.
I cannot say how long I will use this bb once the iPhone comes out.
The iphone web access combined with the email and sms will
be the ultimate combination of communications for me.
Then again, after forking out $300 for this I may need a little longer
to fork out another $600 for the iPhone.
PS. I could have got the 8700c instead of waiting, however that
technology is at least a year old, I believe, and I prefer how
this phone looks.
This new BB will be a step in the right direction for two reasons. 1) The SD card that will be used to expand the device.
2) The trackball which will make navagation easier.
I am new BB user.That being said the reason I feel that this would be good was because not you are able to expand the device. One of the main draws to device’s like Palm and Microsoft is that you are able to expand. I only hope that T-mobile will have one.
As a soon-to-be new blackberry user at the end of this month, I’m going for the 8800. I’m ready to go and it just so happens a new model is coming out. That’s my reason for going with the unit.
Regretfully I’m in the same situation than Rob. My system is CDMA EvDO, as a matter of fact it’s a Verizon subsidiary, so I’ll have to wait until a compatible version wil be out there…
I am very dissapointed with the Cingy 8800 release, in fact, I feel as if this blackberry is a step back. Rim just came out with the pearl and all though it was not a fantastic phone, it was a solid device with a much anticipated camera – something the “other” percentage of the Rim market wanted. I just think it was dumb of Cingy to pick up yet, another cameraless version blackberry. I mean, when it comes down to it, the 8800 is not at all that much different from the 8700. It’s gotten some plastic surgery and now has a trackball and mini memory…so what? Of course, it could be argued that the “business types” can’t and would not desire a camera on there blackberry, but than couldn’t they stick with their 8700 (a little hastey generalization?) I mean, what does the Cingular 8800 offer that would make a “business type” or anyone else for that matter that doesn’t desire a camera, toss out there 8700? I am not a business man and I don’t know anything about Rim’s sales, but I wonder if Cingular would make more profit off of a 8800 with a camera….I hope that Cingy gets wise to this idea and hopefully, releases a 8800 with a camera later on (wishful thinking.) Come on Cingy, get with it!
I would jump on it if it came to Sprint. Sprint needs this bad for their business customers.
GPS, VAD, media features, larger battery, and trackball like it or not are good reasons. Depends on the budget.
GPS
Music
Video
Built in RSS Reader
All those are reasons enough for me to splurge and get the new 8800. The 8820 is the real one I’m waiting for.
Sprint does have the 8830. I have the 8800 on the AT&T network and while coverage is not the optimal where I live and work (but relatively good)–I love this machine! My only issue is that it does not show as many fields in the address book as my TREO had so as a result, some of my data ends up hidden. After having a Palm-based machine for 6+ years, it’s just a matter of some tweaking. Just to prove to myself that I didn’t need to carry both phones around anymore, I forwarded my Sprint (TREO) phone to my Blackberry and I’ve not missed it one bit! Thanks, Motorola!!