Say hello, new BlackBerry

Okay, I’m really hooked: I upgraded my original BlackBerry handheld device to a newer model. The upgrade was carefully considered, and was to solve very specific problems. However, the new model is significantly better than the previous one in every way.

Let’s go back from before my colleague Alex Handy loaned me a second-hand BlackBerry 7230. My phone at that time was a first-generation Motorola RAZR, which I liked for five reasons: It was easy to hold/talk into, it had a flip to cover the keyboard, it had had Bluetooth, it had a great speakerphone, and it was slim enough to fit into my pocket comfortably. The other features of the RAZR, like the musical ring tones and built-in camera, were not important, and I never used them.

Then Alex gave me the BlackBerry 7230. It was (and is) terrible at browsing the Web, but it did a great job with e-mail, hooking up easily to several accounts, including an Exchange server and Gmail. With a bit of work, I was also able to get it to sync with my Google Calender. Even so, I swiftly learned that this model had three significant limitations.

• No speakerphone. This was the first feature I missed, and I missed it big time. When doing things like checking voicemail, or while waiting on hold, I much prefer to use the speakerphone instead of holding the phone up to my head, or messing with a headset.

• No Bluetooth. It didn’t work with my Plantronics wireless headset, and worse, with my Garmin Streetpilot c550 GPS, which included a Bluetooth hands-free speakerphone for car use. (During long drives, I found myself putting the SIM card back into the RAZR so that I could use the Garmin hands-free speakerphone.)

• Too quiet. The ringer on the BlackBerry 7230, no matter how much I tried to adjust the volume, was always pretty quiet. So, if the phone was in my pocket, there was a good chance that I’d not hear the phone ring.

A few weeks ago, I’d had enough. The straw that broke the camel’s back was that I was waiting for my son to call me, and when he did, I never heard the phone ring.

T-Mobile owed me a heavily discounted phone upgrade, and the result was a brand-new BlackBerry 8700g — the model I wrote about last May. Physically about the same size as the BlackBerry 7230, it has a much brighter, higher-resolution display, and improved ergonomics. For example, it has better-placed keys for making and terminating calls. The keyboard is also colored in a way as to make the phone-pad keys easier to read; believe it or not, that really helps. Most importantly, the BlackBerry 8700g solved my three key problems:

• Speakerphone. Check.
• Bluetooth. Check.
• Loud ringer. Check. (I verified this in the T-Mobile store.)

Meanwhile, I’m benefiting from the better screen and ergonomics. The Blackberry 8700g works with both GPRS and EDGE networks, which makes it faster than the GPRS-only Blackberry 7230. The browser is still nearly worthless, however.

I have been asked, “Why didn’t you buy an iPhone.” Wasn’t even tempted. Why? I have no interest in changing carriers to AT&T; T-Mobile suits me fine. (I also don’t want to buy a device just to hack it.) The iPhone’s price is ridiculous. I have no need for a music player in my pocket. (I own three iPods, but never carry any of them around.) End of story.