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| Home >> Handheld & PDA Reviews: Blackberry 8830 Smartphone (Sprint) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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User Submitted Blackberry 8830 Smartphone (Sprint) Reviews (cont...)Date: 2007-11-23 Great phone Previously owned an 8700. I use for both personal and business, nice enhancements over previous models I have owned. Haven't played with media player yet, but expect that will bring an additional level of satisfaction once I sync videos. First use of the included Roxio desktop media manager is it is nicely designed too. Date: 2007-11-09 Bad for talking, good for other uses First of all, let me preface this by saying I LOVE my phone. The reception is usually stellar. It's far sleeker than other models of its kind, especially the original bulky BlackBerry - you feel like you're carrying around an actual phone rather than a computer. I can use it overseas, and as a travel writer, this is vital. I've never had another American phone that I could enable when I left and disable when I came back into the country - most phones don't have that option. Before, I've always been forced to buy a foreign phone and SIM card each time I traveled, but it's so nice knowing I'll be able to get on the Internet whenever I need in nearly any country I'm in. For a PDA, the battery life is amazing. I use my phone a fair amount, and I usually only charge it ever third night. Coming from the Motorola Q, which would die halfway through the morning every day, this is an awesome asset. Also, the case that it comes with has some sort of function that turns the LCD off automatically when you put it in there and saves battery life. It's compatible with PCs and Macs, so you can upload your pictures, videos and music. There's no longer a need to carry around a wrinkled photo of your toddler in your wallet, when you can automatically bring it up on your phone. All that said, there are definitely some drawbacks you should know about if you decide to go with the 8830: -If you do a lot of talking outside of your own home, this is NOT the phone for you. The 8830 picks up every bit of background noise and often gives the person on the other line a severe headache. I tend to use this phone more for texting and Internet; however, when I'm phoning my mother and boyfriend while walking around New York, they always complain they can't hear a word of what I'm saying. I used to think this was just them being fussy, but then a friend got the same phone and when she called me on the way to work, it sounded like she was in a wind tunnel. I couldn't make out what she was saying at all. Other 8830 users have complained about the same thing. And there is no way to adjust the mic sensitivity. When I called BlackBerry's customer service, they acted all shock, like this was the first complaint of that kind they had gotten. But I'm 100% certain it's not. I've now had two different 8830s (first one was stolen) and each was just as bad. They said there is no way to adjust the mic sensitivity. If you generally just talk on your phone in a silent home or car, this shouldn't be a big issue. But if you're often in places with even the slightest background noise, it will be a problem. -This isn't a big issue, but there is no predictive text function. For someone who texts a lot, this is pretty annoying. However, to make up for that, the 8830 automatically punctuates and capitalizes for you, which is nice if you care at all about your texting grammar. It also has a spell-check function. -No camera. I didn't think this would be a problem, as I never used my old camera on my phone much, but when I receive picture messages, I have to look at them online. -You can just start typing a name and the number of whomever you are trying to reach will come up, which is nice, however if you then highlight the name, it automatically starts dialing, which is annoying, especially if you're just trying to look up a number. I often do this to send a message, and I have to quickly press end because it's already calling the contact. A minor annoyance but still. -It freezes an awful lot. Mostly, it seems, when I have just finished writing an insanely long e-mail and have yet to push send. Then I have to turn it off, wait for it to boot up again, etc. But I think this is how it is with all PDAs (or so I'm told). -The overseas function is often iffy. Before I went to Iceland and Germany last month, I called to make sure I could use it in both places. I was told that I could call and text from Iceland and not get on the Internet and use all functions from Germany (it varies by country). However, it turns out I couldn't send texts from either country, but I could receive them - both from people in the country and people from the US. I also could call and get on the Internet from both places, so I was a little baffled. It is expensive, though, at $1-$1.50 a minute, I believe, to talk and use the Internet, and $.50 a text. Know the rates before you go! I don't even want to see my phone bill from those three weeks! So if you can get past all of that, then definitely buy this phone. To me, the pluses far outweigh the minuses! Date: 2007-11-05 So far so good Have had the 8830 for about 2 weeks. So far, I have been happy with it. Took me a whilte to get used to the ball. Pros: -Spell check (which is awesome) -Looks nice -Better phone than my old bbery (better audio quality, more logical phone output) Cons -No camera (don't really care though) -Takes some getting used to Date: 2007-10-28 8830 Did Not Work Overseas My 8830 worked flawless here in the United States, but failed overseas. Several days before traveling overseas, I contacted Sprint International desk to have my phone provisioned for use in United Kingdom. Sprint International Customer Service hung up on me. I then went directly to Sprint store and supposedly activated the phone. When I got London, the phone did not operate on the GSM network. I contacted Sprint International desk from overseas and was greeted by a phone message that Sprint International was unavailable, please call back later. I called the Sprint International via their local phone number and got right through. The customer service agent stated my phone was not provisioned for overseas. The Sprint representative supposedly provisioned my phone and advised my account would now work overseas. When she performed that function, the phone sputtered and responded with a message, "App Error 205." The phone never worked again. Two weeks later, when I returned to the US, Sprint had to replace the Blackberry 8830 with a new one, but they did not provision my email, so my email did not work. Last night, I dropped the Sprint 8830 and went back to my Treo. Date: 2007-10-25 Great Device!!! Great device but some minor challenges, October 25, 2007 By Dennis Bosman "bozhed" (Napa, CA) - See all my reviews I have had my 8830 now for about 4 months and I must say that it is the best phone I have had in a long long time, and I have tried and own a lot of cell phones. Below are some of the items I have noted over the last few months: Pros: - Good reception - Excellent call quality on my end - Syncs with my mac computer with Missing Sync - Love the applications and games available - Syncs with my paid yahoo mail account - Speakerphone Cons: - Call quality on the other end for listeners is occasionally not good. It is like the mic is too sensitive - No camera and can't receive picture messages - Occasional issues with syncing with yahoo account. Have had to call support three times due to some emails coming through but others not.
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