When the Blackberry was first released, it was strictly the tool of corporate business, tapping into your company e-mail and bringing you your important messages while you were on the move. To be honest, it wasn’t anything for ordinary e-mail users to get excited about. The device itself was, well, a bit boring.Since then, the Blackberry has had some welcome improvements. For a start, it got a phone function built in (albeit one you needed a headset to access), and support for webmail accounts. And the latest incarnation of the Blackberry, the 7230, is definitely more consumer-friendly.
Affectionately nicknamed the ‘Blueberry’, the Blackberry 7230 has a built-in phone and a colour screen. The phone has a hot key to access it, and you can make calls without any need for a headset. It has a built-in telephone speaker and microphone — although the blackberry isn’t quite as slimline as the executive phones you may be used to, it’s not an embarrassment to use.
Hanging up on a call takes a bit of practice — you have to remember to hold the ‘Escape’ button in until the call is cancelled, or else you might find your subsequent conversations are being broadcast to all and sundry. Basic controls are looked after by a track wheel; scroll to select the function you want on the icon-based user menu and then push the wheel in to open it. You have almost everything you need, from a memo pad to take notes and an address book to store your contacts to the calendar to keep track of important dates and the Brickbreaker game to keep you occupied during those boring moments.
The QWERTY keyboard comes in handy for sending text messages as well as e-mails — no more predictive text pains. As an e-mail device, the Blackberry is very easy to use. As a phone, it takes a little more practice, but being able to combine the two can only be a good thing — less clutter in your pockets and less money from your wallet. However, don’t expect the Blackberry to come cheap; the handset currently costs over €400, with the wireless email service
setting you back EUR*30 per month for up to 3Mbyte of e-mail. It may not sound like much, but it’s estimated that this will get you access to about 2,000 e-mails a month.
Blackberry 7230 – €419
Size (L by W by D) : 11.3 by 7.4 by 2.0cm
Weight: 136g
Features: Backlit QWERTY keyboard, thumb-operated trackwheel, full colour display, embedded RIM wireless modem, built-in phone speaker and microphone
Memory: 16Mbyte flash memory, 2Mbyte SRAM
Live! Verdict
It hasn’t quite progressed to touch-screen and the functions of the XDA II, but the Blackberry is a handy device to carry around. If your email is critical to your business, this could clear up some technical clutter for you.
06/09/04
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