The BlackBerry 8700g is the latest of RIM's wireless email devices, adding a higher resolution screen and a new, slightly smaller keyboard layout. The device is also more responsive than earlier BlackBerry devices, but upgraders will find the new keyboard cramped and less easy to use.
Available now from T-Mobile, the 8700g is the first BlackBerry with an Intel XScale chip. However, its most important features are the familiar BlackBerry functions of push email, phone capability and web browsing.
We found the 8700g generally easy to use and very responsive. A thumbwheel and escape/back button on the side of the device let users speedily navigate and select functions, while the 320x240 colour screen is bright and clear and is one of the best we have seen on any handheld.
RIM has made some changes to the user interface to speed common functions such as email composition. There is now an autocomplete feature that fills in as you type an address, and users can search the address book directly from an email via a click of the thumbwheel.
The user interface now supports various themes, analogous to the desktop
themes on Windows PCs. Our review unit featured a handful of these, some of
which arrange functions as animated icons while others show a more minimal list.
The BlackBerry 8700g is more compact than models such as the 7290, but weighs
about the same at 134g. This makes it heavier than standard phones, but lighter
than most smartphones and PDAs.
Because of its reduced size, the keys of the 8700g are spaced closer together and are more calculator-like than earlier models. While no more difficult to type on than many other handhelds, current BlackBerry users are likely to prefer the keyboard on existing models.
The BlackBerry 8700g also has an improved browser to offer a better web experience, but we found its display of pages less satisfactory than that of newer Windows Mobile devices such as O2's XDA Mini S.
We tried out the built-in viewers for email file attachments such as Microsoft Office documents and found that they worked to a certain degree, but could be improved. For example, viewing an attached Word document shows the text, but does not seem to preserve the formatting.
As a phone, the BlackBerry 8700g is obviously chunkier than most handsets, but it is small enough to be comfortably held to your ear while calling.
This model adds the dedicated green and red "call" and "end" buttons first seen on the phone-like Blackberry 7100, and also gains a mute key and a speakerphone function. This device also keeps the ability to link with a Bluetooth headset or car kit and has quad-band GSM capability for roaming.
Battery life is quoted as up to four hours of talk time and 16 days on standby. We used the device intermittently for at least a week on a single charge, whereas Windows Mobile devices typically need recharging every day or two.
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