I’m very familiar with the BlackBerry 8830 but I wanted to know what a non tech savvy person would think of the BlackBerry offered by Verizon Wireless. So I did an experiment and gave my friend Amanda the phone for a week on a trip to Mexico to see what would happen. She came back feeling so cool after impressing her family with all the cool things she could do. This phone coupled with Verizon’s Broadband Access, worldwide phone and internet support, and BlackBerry’s amazing software can make anyone into a high tech nerd. This BlackBerry has easy to setup push email, complete internet access for yourself and your laptop, easy to use trackball navigation, a microSD expandable slot for your music, a high resolution LCD to make it easy to read, and is a dual CDMA and GSM so you can take this phone worldwide.

Look and Feel
The phone has a really nice silver case with chrome like side panels. It’s a very clean slick look. It’s not the thinnest smart phone but very slim. The case is 4.49” x 2.6” x .55”.

The traditional side wheel has been removed and replaced with a new trackball. It has a very light touch and very easy to use. To select with the trackball you push it down. In the dark the trackball looks pretty cool though can be a bit bright and the keyboard backlight isn’t bright enough. The front of the phone has the trackball with the menu, escape, call, and end call keys. It also sports a full sized keyboard with nice sized buttons that are bigger then on the Treo series phones. The left side has a convenience key you can set to Voice Command or anything else, a mini USB port, and a 2.5mm headphone jack. The right side has the volume up and down. The top left is the power button and the top right is a mute key which if held can put the phone into standby mode. The loud speaker is also located on the top. The back is the battery cover and a microSD card slot.

My friend Amanda told me that she was intimated by the phone at first. It has so many buttons, programs, and looks totally different from the traditional flip phone.  She has carpel tunnel and was worried about using the keyboard. With this phone that’s no problem because you only need your thumbs to be able to navigate and type away.

The screen was very clear and easy for her to read. It is a very sharp 320 x 240 pixel screen with an ambient light detector. This adjusts the backlight to the appropriate levels depending on how much light there is.

There is no camera on this phone so she was a little disappointed but business persons will be happy because many companies ban camera phones for confidentiality reasons.

Features Listed

    * Wireless email
    * Organizer
    * Browser
    * Phone
    * BlackBerry® Maps
    * Media player
    * Corporate data access 1
    * SMS
    * MMS 1
    * GPS 1
    * 64 MB of memory and expandable memory via microSD card*
    * Full QWERTY keyboard
    * The tethered modem capability lets you use the smartphone as a wireless modem for your laptop or PC¹
    * Dedicated Send, End and Mute keys, a trackball navigation system, plus user definable convenience keys
    * Speakerphone and Voice Activated Dialing
    * High capacity battery
    * Bluetooth® capability for hands-free dialogue via headsets and car kits
    * Stereo headset capable
    * Integrated attachment viewing
    * Compatibility with popular Personal Information Management (PIM) software
    * High resolution, light sensing screen that adjusts lighting levels automatically for ideal indoor and outdoor viewing
    * Easy email set-up directly from your BlackBerry® 8830 World Edition smartphone via the set-up wizard
    * Rating for hearing aids (PDF): M4, T4
 

Phone use
Amanda took this to Mexico so the first thing she did after arriving there is turn on the BlackBerry 8830 and called home. The call was super clear and melted away her worries. Anytime she was just a phone call away from anyone in the States. This phone is dual CDMA and GSM so you’re connected to Verizon’s CDMA service in the states and includes a Vodafone sim card for GSM use internationally. That means you can travel pretty much anywhere in the world and have reception with the same phone. The sim card is Vodafone locked but luckily they are big and have a deal with Verizon Wireless. You can travel to over 100 different countries including all of Europe. Amanda tested this phone all over Mexico while out on the boat, snorkeling, and traveling and not once did she have any trouble connecting her phone calls.

The phone ringer volume was unusually quiet although music and videos sounded normal. There is a hidden feature that lets you raise the volume much more. You can select the “loud” setting on the ringer then go into “profiles” on the main menu, then click “pre-loaded” , find the ringer your using, click on the track ball, then use the side volume keys to raise it even further. It’s natural to think the “loud” setting is the highest it can go. Why did they make it so hard to raise its volume even higher?

The speaker on the phone is very nice and clear. You can blast your MP3s from it and hear it clearly. Aside from the difficulty with setting up the ringer the speaker phone is Very Loud and defiantly good enough to do conference calls with it. Amanda had no problems anywhere with the clear speaker and clear phone service. For fun she called her family from every tourist stop like the Verizon commercial and had no troubles at all, “Can you here me now? Good.”

Internet use
The phone is truly what it is when bundled with the BlackBerry’s international data plan. After Amanda started feeling more comfortable after making a few calls she attempted email. Using basic internet she was easily able to get on the internet and check her mail with high speed internet even when internationally traveling. Then she setup her email using the BlackBerry’s very easy to use setup and had all of her mail integrated into the phone no problems.

Of course the sharp LCD and full keyboard on the phone are nice for the internet but Amanda without any problems easily setup the BlackBerry 8830 as a broadband modem for her laptop. Not even really knowing what a broadband modem is she followed the simple instructions and was instantly the envy of the entire family. She was easily able to hook up the BlackBerry to her laptop and not have to pay those daily hotel fees to access Wi-Fi like everyone else in the lobby. Most phones and providers try to hide the ability to hook your phone to your computer as a modem but Verizon clearly states this on the box of the phone and promotes this. You can even use it as a modem anywhere in the world.

The international BlackBerry data plans launched the same time this phone did. For $64.99 you can get 500 megs of data a month and 24 hour a day customer service for any problems you have anywhere you are. In the United States it connects to Verizon’s EVDO and while roaming it uses GPRS.

Software
This phone let Amanda easily setup her email. Just follow it’s very simple guide and soon you’ll have integrated emails. Never once did the phone crash for Amanda. It lets you access up to 10 different email accounts. Like all BlackBerrys it can connect to Exchange Servers, and etc to sync with corporate servers.

BlackBerrys also all have Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Memos, and Alarms so you can manage your day. The calendar is integrated with the email so you can receive and send meeting requests.

The BlackBerry 8830 also has built in GPS with maps of North America that is disabled by Verizon in the BlackBerry Maps application.

This BlackBerry smart phone just works. Other smart phones I’ve used crash on you all the time. My windows mobile 5.0 device needs to be tweaked to run well and reset every other day. The BlackBerry platform runs on java and is starting to have more and more third-party applications as the BlackBerrys are growing even more in popularity beyond the business person.

Battery life
The battery life on this phone with all its super capabilities give is the same life as any other smart phone, about one day. It comes with a 1400 mAh battery which is huge but it has to power the GSM and the CDMA antennas. The talk time is said to be 5 hours on GSM and 3.6 on CDMA. Standby time is 16 days for GSM and 9 days for CDMA.

Overall
Amanda fell in love with this phone. Using it all over Mexico, having the ability to call home anywhere in the world, having internet right there and on your laptop, and being able to setup push email with no problems made her feel like a techy. This phone made her super popular with her family and left a lot of people asking her, “how are you getting phone service here?” “What phone is that?” “What service is that?” With the Verizon Wireless BlackBerry 8830 anyone, even the non tech savvy, can stay connected through the phone and internet all over the entire world.

You can get the BlackBerry 8830 from www.verizonwireless.com.
More Information about the phone can be found from www.Blackberry.com.

Specifications