Review: RIM Blackberry 8800 smartphone

RIM’s last launch - the Pearl 8100 - was aimed at the consumer and designed for those that want to carry a regular phone sized device but also want access to email on the move.

Creating a device that's both small enough to appeal to the average phone user and sleek enough to not look out of place in the fiercely competitive handset market is no easy task - but the Pearl largely pulled it off.

With a slick design and some new toys, it was only a matter of time before elements of the Pearl cropped up in other models in RIM’s line up.

The 8800 takes the styling and roller-ball navigation of the Pearl but packages it for the traditional Blackberry user that wants a full keyboard and large display.

One of the major criticisms of the Pearl was the keyboard, which combines letters two-to-a-key and uses predictive text-like software to guess what you’re trying to write. Getting to grips with its nuances can be a frustrating process and it takes time before you're fully up to speed with the system.

With the 8800, however, there's no learning curve - assuming you've used a Qwerty keyboard before. The keys on the left-hand side double up as numbers, while those on the right can also be used for symbols, but for straight typing every letter is directly accessible.

The 2.4in display is also wider than that of the Pearl - stretching to 320x240 pixels - so you can see more information without having to scroll.

As you would expect from a Blackberry, setting up email is extremely simple - just enter your mailbox details via the website and new mail will be automatically pushed to your device when it arrives.

There's no built-in camera, though for corporate markets this may actually be a good thing - some businesses don’t allow cameras on their premises so bundling one would mean having to check the 8800 at the door.

In its place, however, is something more interesting – built-in GPS. This combines with the bundled Maps application so you can find your location no matter where you are in the world.

Maps works in a similar fashion to Google Maps - rather than store the map data on the device it downloads the information it needs one bit at a time. This can make scrolling around a slow process, as you wait for the new data to load.

It’s also not the best piece of route-planning software ever made and you can’t search by postcode, making finding locations frustrating. It’s also a little slow to register your movements when you’re out and about; you can be halfway down a street before it’s noticed you’ve moved and updated the display.

Furthermore, there doesn’t seem to be a way to make it say the directions out loud, so you have to either look at the route plan or switch back and forth between the directions list and the map view.

Despite losing the camera, the 8800 retains a media player so it can play back video and audio, and the built-in speaker is pretty good. If you run out of storage, you can also expand it via the MicroSD slot - this is accessible without having to remove the battery, unlike with the Pearl.

If you like the idea of the Pearl, but prefer a full keyboard, then the 8800 is the device for you. It’s bigger and lacks the camera, but it does have a larger screen and built-in GPS - so at least you’ll never get lost.

Also consider:
Nokia N800
An open-source web tablet

RIM Blackberry Pearl 8100
A Blackberry aimed squarely at the consumer market

Palm Treo 680
An intelligent mobile phone with a full keyboard and a simple operating system

All mobile phone reviews

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