I am a proud owner of a BlackBerry 8830 and I absolutely love it. I’ve changed many phones in the past. I’ve had Treo 600, Treo 650, Treo 700, and at least 3 or 4 different flip phones. BlackBerry 8830 has its cons, but the pros far exceed its cons and is best phone out there in my opinion.

I also use Verizon Wireless so network reliability, internet connectivity, G3 availability, and such can varry from carrier to carrier so I will try to keep this review on the phone itself rather the other attributes mentioned.

I always like to read the cons of new gadgets and then the pros so here are the main cons of BlackBerry 8830 are:

• Too expensive – if bought without all the sign up deals (ex. if you are just switching your device in the middle of your contract) it costs over $500.
• The default browser loads all pages like every other mobile browser (no styling and hard to follow and scroll). HOWEVER, you can download a hack and install Safari on it which makes the internet browsing similar to one on iPhone.
• It is not a small phone. In terms of width and height it is larger than average PDA phones. But again, the fact that the phone is not nearly as thick as others makes it actually more practical.

The pros of BlackBerry 8830:

• It has THE best reception among all the phones that I have had or used or seen. I get good reception in the basements, in the underground pathways, in my labs, … – Almost everywhere there is signal, this phone will pick it up
• True business phone. You can manage every aspect of your business with it.
• Great softwares out there for it. I use my BlackBerry to manage my contacts, emails, messages, costs, notes, tasks, everything!
• Keyboard: The keyboard is fast and very easy to use. It is actually practical to send a one or two paragraph email with BlackBerry 8830 without spending 10 minutes on it.
• It has G3 which is FAST.
• Despite the fact that this phone is slightly wider and taller than other phones, I prefer it over other PDA phones (especially the Treo(s)) mainly because it is thinner so when put in side pockets it does not  stick out much or bother you the whole time.

I’ve had this phone for close to a year now and not once wished I had bought a different phone instead of it (not even iPhone – even though Verizon still doesn’t have iPhone). i Phone is a cool phone to have and Apple is improving it to bring it business standards, but to me iPhone is still the “cool” toy phone to have and play with .

One piece of advice: If you buy the BlackBerry 8830, definitely buy the cover (shown in picture above). It will be surprisingly protecting.

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 1st, 2008 at 2:35 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.