Oprah Might Like a Blackberry but I'll Take a Strawberry

Author's Rating:

Pros: Feature rich, can e-mail at the mall, great toy.

Cons: Can't use as a modem; big to hold for long, some annoying features.

The Bottom Line: 
I am rating this average because you will be paying a lot for e-mail, Internet along with the cost of the phone. Some will love it.

Author's Review
We bought the Blackberry 6230 wireless e-mail PDA with an integrated phone 12 days ago. We have 2 more days to decide whether to keep it. This will be my new phone/computer/PDA. I have wanted a PDA for a long time and this seemed to be a dream come true. Especially since we thought it did what the salesman said it did and one of the prime reasons it was so desirable- we thought it acted as a modem! This is being written by the “person on the street” in person on the street language. I will leave specifications at the bottom but I hope my review will help you decide in plain language if you want this phone.

It comes with a SIM card, a battery, USB cable, travel charger (not a car charger), a holster and Blackberry Desktop Software installation CD.

What I like about my Blackberry:

It has a lot of features. Some of them are the same as what is on my previous Samsung which took me 3 days to figure out how to work. The Blackberry is still challenging me!

Some of the major features I like:

There are 18 icons on the face of the Blackberry illustrating just how feature rich it is.

The message icon illustrated by envelopes and as with all the icons words stating what the icon does allows me to do one of my favorite things. I love being able to e-mail people wherever I am. That is one of the best features of this phone. I prefer e-mail over using phones. This feature, however and others using the Internet cost an additional $30 per month, (and more if you are not a T Mobile customer). This is an add on. So don’t think you will buy this phone and just start e-mailing people. Anything that uses the Internet will cost you at least $30 each month on top of whatever service you choose. The e-mail feature was one of the easiest to figure out. I was e-mailing people within the day the service got activated. Just as on your computer you can mark your e-mail as opened, saved, reply to or forward. This is done on a side bar menu.

The compose and memo pad icons allow me to type rather than write. This phone has no stylus and you won’t be writing on a screen. You will only be typing. This has its advantages for those of us who can’t read our own writing. I like that the keys are not as tiny as some even though the keyboard is small. The keys are a tad less than 1/4" except for the space bar which is almost 3/4".” You can save your work just by clicking save on the menu.

I like the ease of typing. It is suggested that I hold the Blackberry in two hands and type. I do this and have no problem. However sometimes if I am typing a lot my hands get tired so I put it down and type. Note most people with large finger tips will have a hard time using the pads of their fingers. Mine are not large but I use my nails to type. (Good information to file if you have tips on your nails)

The t-zones functions whose icon looks like a globe are complex. You will find “my settings” which is where you will be able to get a link to surf the Internet; my AIM, as well as games, weather, travel and almost anything you can think of. You can set it up like my stepson in CA has done. He has his Blackberry programmed to ring when the surf is up so he can go windsurfing. I have gotten to epinions and eBay just by typing in the link in a box that will come up when you click find on the menu.

As with other computers you can add a bookmark, view bookmark subfolders and essentially do what I can do on my home computer. Another thing to note is the Internet function will only work in areas where you have phone reception. For example I subbed in a school yesterday and today. I wrote e-mails that didn’t get sent until I left the building. I couldn’t surf the Web either because I had no reception. I could play with the calendar, the "to do tasks" screen and my address book but anything that costs $30 a month couldn’t be accessed until I left work.

Some of what I don’t like:

The screen is small. That is the nature of these phones. If I keep this I will get used to it I’m sure. We chose the 6230 because it was "only" $250. It is not a color screen. That model would cost $100 more. When I asked the salesperson why I would go with the upgrade he asked if I watched TV on a black and white TV or a colored TV. Good point! But I went with this one anyway. You can use a contrast feature to lighten and darken the screen. I find the screen large enough to be able to see it easily.

I have changed the font size which you can do to make it larger. When you are surfing the Web, the small screen gets trickier. If you are used to a large desktop this will be quite a different experience.

Some of the features are very difficult to figure out for this average person on the street. The manual is useless; the Quick Reference guide is helpful; both the T Mobile and Blackberry websites have interactive demos that were helpful, there are help menus on the screens which were somewhat helpful; I’ve talked with tech people and that has been helpful, you can take courses on how to use the Blackberry, though I haven’t; I’ve spoken with people at 3 T Mobile stores none of whom had a clue how to use this gizmo. What Blackberry needs is a step by step manual on how to work the Blackberry icon by icon.

I suspect the CD mentioned above might be used as a guide but we couldn’t download it on either of our computers so I can’t know for sure.

The trackwheel is what takes you from icon to icon and moves you up and down the menu which you'll find on the right side of the screen. The trackwheel is located on the upper right of the phone in an inconvenient spot. It is almost too easy to move. It almost slides so if I am moving it from edit to save, for example, it easily slips to delete and that it is annoying. It won’t delete! I would have to push the escape button located right below the trackwheel to delete anything.

Another annoyance is in order to go from one function to another you have to click on the menu and scroll down using the slippery trackwheel and click close to shut that screen. That has to be done on every page.

The battery lasts for 5 hours on call. (Just to compare the colored screen’s battery lasts for 4.) I don’t like that it can only be charges when the battery is depleted. I don't like to wait until then but with the Blackberry we are told not to charge it with battery life left.

I have not bought a case for my Blackberry. It comes with what they call a holster, which is the most ridiculous piece of plastic I have seen. It has a clip on the back so you can clip it to what ever you like. The phone slides into it with the face not showing? Huh?? I can’t figure that one out except that maybe this is intended to protect the phone and not allow unwarranted calls to be made. (Although you can lock the phone.) The worse part is taking out the phone. It slides in easily but to get the phone out you have to hold it right where the trackwheel is and pull on the clip of the holster. Essentially the holster comes off rather than the phone coming out. This is yet another annoying fact of this Blackberry.

The Phone:

If you get the Blackberry you will first have to figure out where to put it and how to hold it. Even if you aren’t using the tiniest of phones, this one will feel large in your hand and pocket.

This blue phone is 4.45” long x 2. 91” wide x .83” deep. It weighs about 4.8 ounces. (Compare this to my Samsung- 4.10 inches x 1.64 inches by .68 inches) It is the width that really makes this phone almost hard to hold. The salesman said most people use it with the headset but I don’t. (Though I would in an airport to look like everyone else.) The clarity of voice and sound is fine. I hear no difference –good or bad among all the phones I have used. The reception is about the same as well but that is more a function of the provider I think.

The salesman was happy to point out that the Blackberry, unlike other phones, plays show tunes. Truly I am not impressed with the show tunes or the fact there aren’t that many. Most of the tunes are traditional rings.

I hear very well. For me the volume of the ring is not loud enough. I have it on loud; there is quiet and a discreet option as well and though I can hear it, I keep trying to make it louder! It vibrates better than my Samsung so that is a plus. I can hear it vibrate more than I could others and certainly can feel it vibrate better if it is in my coat pocket.

You can choose if you want the alarm, calendar, tasks, and messages to vibrate and/or ring in and out of the holster. That function took me days and days to find. Not that I even care really since I think the holster is useless but you might.

Another annoyance that no one can answer is how I get my address book from the SIMS card to the phone. In my Samsung when I opened the address book all names came up whether I saved them to the phone or the SIMS card. Not so with the Blackberry. When you click on the phone icon, the phone address book comes up where my numbers were not stored. I had them all on my SIMS card. In order to access my phone book I had to upload the SIMS phonebook each time I turned on my phone! No one knew if I could switch the card to the phone all at one time so I have done this one person at a time!

One major reason we bought the Blackberry was because we were told that it could be connected to our laptop and used as a modem. We travel a lot and are planning a 3-month trip in May. The laptop is wireless and there isn’t always a hot spot to get Internet access. A phone would give up that ability. Along with that ability would be my having a toy as my phone.

After several days of trying to download the software which is what we thought would be the first step in giving us modem capabilities and having no luck I called T Mobile and Blackberry and was told that it cannot be hooked up to a computer. The manager at T Mobile, who has a Blackberry asked why we would even want to use it as such since it is a computer... sigh...I explained that using this as our main computer for 3 months would get a bit hard. Not only would it get tiresome but there is no way to back up material. Our work is too important (Especially my husband’s!) to just click "save" and hope for the best.

There is a $99 camera phone that we may get that will act as a modem. It may not be as feature rich as the Blackberry but it will accomplish our needs and I can live without e-mailing people while at the mall!

Specifications and features not noted:

~Keyboard: Backlit QWERTY keyboard
~Phone: Integrated earpiece and microphone
~Notification: Tone, vibrate, on-screen or LED indicator
~Display: High contrast monochrome screen
~Memory: 16 MB flash memory plus 2 MB SRAM
~Modem: Embedded RIM® wireless modem
~Email: Integration Options; Integrates with an existing business email account; Integrates with an existing personal email account; Integrates with a new handheld email account
~Works with BlackBerry Enterprise Server supported by:
Version 2.1 or higher for Microsoft® Exchange or
Version 2.0 with Service Pack 2 or higher for Lotus® Domino™
~Network Tri-band: 900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS networks
Works In: US (1900 MHz) Canada (1900 MHz) Europe/Asia Pacific (900/1800 MHz)
~Speeds up to 56kbps.
~Battery: Lithium Ion rechargeable battery
~Standby time: Up to 12 days
~Built-in Paging
~Caller ID
~Conference Calling
~Call Waiting and Call Hold
~Voicemail with Message-Waiting
~Call Forwarding
~1000 Text Messages
~300 Text Messages

Jo’s final thoughts:

Writing reviews often clarifies my feels about a product. This is a great toy if you have nothing else to do with $250 plus an additional $30 + for Internet use just for your phone. I do wonder how much Oprah got paid to say that Blackberry was one of her must have items. I doubt she takes her own calls and I am confident she didn’t learn how to use it by calling the company and sitting at the computer watching interactive videos!

There are pros to the Blackberry. It can be used as a modem if you purchase what is called a Cierra Wireless Air Card which will run you about another $250 after a rebate and an additional $20 per month to use! We are now up to $50 per month and that is not including the basic monthly charge!

I would keep it for the e-mail capabilities if this were give to me as a gift. The ease of composing, using the calander and tasks are nice as well. However, I still prefer my paper calendar and until they are not made anymore will probably use one.

In general I do not find the Blackberry user friendly. I’ve come a long way since I first got my Samsung and didn’t have to to much work to find the “leave a message” function but if this is your first phone be prepared to work!

Please, if I have left out crucial information, if you have a question or comment either e-mail me or go to the comments section.

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