Business review: RIM BlackBerry 8800

The BlackBerry 8800 is the latest handheld from Research In Motion (RIM), adding satellite navigation capability and a more smartphone-like appearance to the BlackBerry’s traditional strengths as a mobile email device. However, it also replaces the thumbwheel of older models with a miniature trackball that may not be to the taste of all users.

Announced in February and available now from Vodafone and Orange, the 8800 is slimmer than previous models but weighs about the same at 134g. It keeps the keyboard layout introduced with last year’s BlackBerry 8700, but the keys have sculpted caps to ease typing. The screen is also bright and easy to read. The device is a quad-band phone but only has GPRS support, while many rival handsets now have high-speed 3G or Wi-Fi capability.

The major new feature of the BlackBerry 8800 is built-in GPS reception, which enables users to get directions to a destination with the BlackBerry Maps application. This links with other tools so that a location from the handset’s Address Book can be set as the destination, for example.

We found the satellite navigation worked well, but the 8800 can take upwards of five minutes to get a fix on its location. BlackBerry Maps only shows a flat view of the route from above, unlike the 3D views supported by other navigation tools. However, it does support maps of Europe, North America and some locations in South America and Asia.

We were given access to a mail account on a BlackBerry Enterprise Server, and were impressed with the speed of delivery of messages sent to us. Typically, emails arrived just a second or two after we hit send from our corporate mail system.

We found we could key in text at a respectable rate, despite the BlackBerry’s small keys. This model also features a mini trackball, first seen on the Blackberry Pearl. At first, we found this less convenient than the thumbwheel of earlier models, but it does allow greater flexibility and it makes it possible to pan and scroll in the BlackBerry Maps tool.

Another new feature is Voice Dialling, which lets users call a contact by speaking their name into the handset when prompted. On our review unit this was activated by a control on the left side, but this makes it easy to accidentally trigger when picking up the device.

Other applications include the BlackBerry browser, which displays most web pages well enough but often re-formats the page to fit the device’s 320x240 display. The handset also includes RIM’s BlackBerry Messenger IM client.

Battery life is quoted as five hours of talk time and 528 hours (22 days) on standby. Our tests suggest that users will get plenty of use out of the BlackBerry 8800 between charges, depending on how much the GPS function is used. An internal memory card slot next to the removable battery can hold a MicroSD Flash storage card to expand on the handset’s 64MB built-in Flash.