Might as well face it - I'm addicted to you (Blackberry 7230)

Member Name: Delicate_Orchid1

Product:	Blackberry 7230
Date:	02/01/06 (1226 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: convenient and constant access to email, filing system

Disadvantages: internet access and speed, keyboard

When I was first informed by my boss that I would be getting a Blackberry on loan from work, I was actually very unhappy about it. The last thing I wanted was a PDA, a device that would be attached to me, go everywhere I went and make me feel like I was permanently at work. The first weekend that I had the PDA, I was stressed out. Did I need to check this device every second to make sure I did not miss an important email that would tell me to come into work? Or could I leave it in my bag and ignore it until Monday morning?


***What is a Blackberry?***

A Blackberry is one type of PDA in a range of different devices on the market that provides consumers wireless access to work, friends and family. It is essentially a mobile office - allowing you to access email (including attachments), telephone and the internet while you are on the move and away from your normal work station. In addition to these normal features, the Blackberry also offers you many functions that Microsoft Outlook would offer to you - for instance an address book and calendar which show you exactly which appointments you might need rush off to next.

The Blackberry 7230 is just a little bigger than a deck of cards in size, almost square and round along the edges. It is designed to perfectly fit into the palm of your hand. Although it only weighs about 150g (or 4.9 ounces), the Blackberry feels quite heavy and is in fact very sturdy, however, when you are not using it, you should always ensure that you put it in its hard plastic case in order to protect the LCD screen. One of my colleagues dropped his Blackberry on the floor - and it cracked the LCD screen. This is an accident that was not covered by the warranty, even though it was a brandnew Blackberry.

The Blackberry 7230 also has a convenient light switch at the bottom right hand corner ensuring that the user can also access information when traveling in a dark taxi at night or sitting in surroundings which are not well lit. The information is displayed in high resolution on a display measuring 240x160 and it supports over 65,000 colours.

In addition to phone, email, SMS, browser and organizer applications, the Blackberry 7230 enables its user to fully synchronise the Blackberry with their desktop PC. The tri-band device operates on 900/1900/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS wireless networks - in other words, the user will be able to use it internationally in North America, Europe and Asia. It has 16 MB worth flash memory and 2 MB SRAM

The Blackberry 7230 comes with a handset, travel charger, USB cable, battery, holster, hands-free headset, SIM card, BlackBerry Desktop software.


***My experience***

I found the Blackberry quite difficult to get used to. It essentially has a small keyboard underneath the LCD display, which lists letters, numbers and symbols. On the right side of the Blackberry is a track wheel, which acts as a mouse - you can scroll with the track wheel by moving it upwards and downwards and then select the option you want by pressing onto the wheel once. Below the track wheel is another button which enables you to go back if you accidentally clicked on the wrong thing.

Once you log into your Blackberry, you are presented with a screen with several symbols. Scrolling with the track wheel from symbol to symbol will display the function at the bottom of the screen. In the first line you have the most important features - such as access to your inbox, your calendar and the internet. The second line has a few useful functions such as the "compose email" button and a filing system. Most users will rarely venture beyond these couple of lines of functions.

Clicking on the first symbol will take you straight to your inbox - which will contain exactly the emails that you would receive at work. From here you can read the email, respond to it, forward it to someone else or simply file it away.

I found the Blackberry very useful for checking my email, but I sincerely did struggle with using the keyboard at first. It is in fact very fiddly. The buttons ate about the size of half a tic tac, which makes it difficult to press them downwards. If you want to use a capital letter, you have to use a special "cap" button located at the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. This makes typing painfully slow - and most of the time I opted to just respond to emails short and sweet in lower case. The real pain with the typing is when you need to use a number - you will need to hold down the button on the third row on the far left of your device at the same time as pressing the button with your number - which means that you really need two hands for that and cannot have the Blackberry lie in your hand comfortably.

There is, however, one great advantage to having a Blackberry to access email - and this became very apparent when I was away from the office for three days and kept checking my emails for important news. Usually when you return to your office after a longer absence, you find yourself having to sort through emails for absolutely ages. If you have your Blackberry - you can either file emails away or even delete the ones you do not need - either from the Blackberry alone or from both your Blackberry and desktop PC at the same time.

Another convenient thing about the Blackberry is the way it alerts you about emails. There is the option of having it ring or setting it to vibrate - but that is kind of irritating. Nonetheless, if you set it to silent - you will see a red light flashing at the top of the device whenever a new email comes in. This lasts a good while - but if you do not look at your Blackberry for a substantial amount of time, you are better off checking the screen itself rather than relying on the red flashing light.

The Blackberry will also enable you to open certain attachments. These currently are Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Powerpoint, Adobe Acrobat, Text files and WordPerfect. If an email does contain an attachment, this will be displayed at the top of the email. You need to click the track wheel and then select "Open attachment". Then you need to select "Full content" followed by "retrieve" to access the attachment. This generally takes quite a long time - and if the attachment is very large, it is really better to leave it for later reading - as it is not the easy to decipher long documents from the small LCD screen.

A couple of times I did try to access the internet. I found the process rather painstakingly slow. It takes a long time for webpages to load up. When they do load up, they do not appear the same way as they would on your PC - in fact, the sites are really unrecognizable. In addtion, when you are trying to access websites that require you to log in, it becomes very fiddly with jumping from box to box and pressing the correct buttons. It requires a high level of concentration. I have succeeded to log in to my Hotmail account and send a small message to a friend - but it really was not worth the effort. And for those of you who think they might want one of these to rate Ciao reviews on the way to work - forget it. It simply takes way too long and becomes way too frustrating.


***The cost***

The cost of the Blackberry 7230 fluctuates much as the cost of a mobile - it depends upon which provider you choose to go with. Personally, I do not have to pay the bills. I have seen the device on its own minus service contract priced around £80.


***My verdict***

I have to admit, I quite like this device. It comes in very handy to file emails and to ensure you are not missing anything important at the office. It also allows you to keep in touch with your friends and pass boredom on trains and buses. Once I got used to the presence of the Blackberry, it did not stress me out anymore either - I have learned to avoid checking it on weekends unless instructed to do so by my boss. I am very reluctant to return this device to my employer in a few weeks time, as I found it quite convenient - despite some downsides like difficulty with typing and inability to access the internet properly. However, as much as I have grown addicted to my little pal, I doubt that I would ever get one if I had to shell out my own money for it.


***Further information***

www.blackberry.com

Summary: A great little device that keeps you connected to work, friends and family at all times.

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