Ever since the court battle that focused around the RIM Blackberry there hasn't been much new from RIM. The new T-Mobile Blackberry 8700g certainly adds to T-Mobile's wide variety of cellular phones. It's very much like the Cingular Blackberry, the 8700c, which is a very good thing. It features many of the things that we would hope for in a Blackberry and then some.
The RIM Blackberry 8700g is the smallest and sleekest Blackberry on the market today. It measures about 4 x 3 x 1-inches and weighs a very light 4.5-ounces. The Blackberry 8700g comes with a full QWERTY keyboard, which is very nice for typing and web surfing. In addition to that, there's a very vibrant and detailed QVGA display that measures about 2.5-inches diagonally. The screen is rated to display 65,000 colors and a 320x240-pixel screen resolution. Colors and text displayed are the most vibrant and gorgeous that we've ever seen. This is also very useful for browsing the Internet or viewing pictures. The display also has a light-sensor which adjusts the screen's brightness depending on your environment's lighting. Under the LCD display and above the keyboard, there's the usual send and end buttons and soft keys that are on all of the Blackberrys. The center soft button can be conveniently programmed to do anything you would like.
The internet memory of the Blackberry 8700g is a little slim for our likings. You get 64MB of flash memory and 16MB of SDRAM. Because of this, the phone book storage is a little on the slim side. Inside is a very fast 312MHz Intel processor and it's T-Mobile EDGE network supported, which means that it has a much faster Internet browsing and download/upload times than non-EDGE phones. Bluetooth 2.0 is also included on the 8700g. That means you can use wireless headsets and connect it to your laptop or desktop wirelessly for uploading. The digital antenna is also quad-band, so you can use the 8700g outside the United States.
The Blackberry 8700g's e-mail support is very nice, as with all Blackberrys. With the 8700g, it supports up to 10 POP3 or IMAP4 e-mail accounts and the ability to sync with your company's Microsoft Exchange, Novell GroupWise, IBM Lotus Domino, and BlackBerry server. Setting up a server connect and e-mail accounts couldn't be any easier thanks to the Blackbery Set up Internet E-mail program. It walks you though the entire process and all you have to do is supply the e-mail account address and password.
Other features besides e-mail include the attachment viewer that opens many popular formats, including Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Corel WordPerfect, GIF, JPEG, and PDF. You can view these files and do so without multiple programs or any fuss. There is also an instant-messenging client on the 8700g. However, there's been quite a few complaints about it on previous models, but RIM seems to have fixed all the issues with the 8700g. It supports all the popular IM applications, such as AOL, MSN, ICQ, and Yahoo. Other includes programs are a Web browser, calculator, calendar, tasks list, note pad, and an alarm.
In terms of call quality, it was pretty decent. There were a few times where the call would have a little static in the background, but nothing bad at all. Most conversations were pretty clear and had excellent volume. The built-in speakerphone is also very effective and clear. Web browsing with the Blackberry 8700g was excellent thanks to the T-Mobile EDGE network. The battery is able to last for about 6.5 hours of talk time and around 15 days of standby time, which is outstanding.
In conclusion, the Blackberry 8700g is a very nice addition to the RIM Blackberry family. It's also a definite contender if you're looking for a Blackberry. It's full of excellent features that come together nicely and work hand-in-hand and all in a sleek and small package. It's a definite winner in our opinion.
Pros: Very vibrant and colorful screen, fast and responsive, good call quality, easy to use and setup, Bluetooth 2.0, QWERTY keyboard
Cons: No external memory expansion options, small internal memory
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