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RIM BlackBerry 8820 Smartphone review

We Like:
Another outstanding business phone for RIM in the BlackBerry 8820. This time they added a WiFi connection that will please all business folk. It is a smart phone that also has Bluetooth, GPS, and e-mail functionality, push-to-talk feature and multimedia functions. Rounding out our likes was the long lasting battery life even when talking.

We Didn’t Like:
Two major dislikes on this otherwise great phone are there is no camera. That is a real bummer that could have put it over the top. he second let down is no 3G support on the BlackBerry 8820. There is also proprietary instant messaging client and the QWERTY pad can be slippery on your fingers.

Overall:
A really nice mobile smartphone that does just about everything you need minus the camera. The addition of WiFi has solidified it as a great business tool on the go.

This is the first BlackBerry phone to offer a WiFi connection built right in. The WiFi card is good enough to support 802.11a/b/g standards and is compliant with Wi-Fi security protocols. This gives BlackBerry users the best and easiest way to connect to the web while on the go. Having the WiFi connection has somewhat taken the sting out of not having 3G support on this mobile phone. The BlackBerry 8820 continues on where the 8800 left off with Bluetooth, GPS, push e-mail and multimedia features. The mobile phone is not as stylish as the BlackBerry Pearl or Curve but this one has been designed for business users and not mass market appeal like the others. There is not even a camera option on the 8820.

Design:
Since this is the next generation of the BlackBerry 8800 it is no surprise that the BlackBerry 8820 has borrowed its looks from the older model. It is not as sleek or compact as the newer BlackBerry Curve but its not to big either. It has a classic look with shiny black casing and only measuring 4.5 inches tall by 2.6 inches wide and 0.5 inch thick while weighing 4.7 ounces. The bigger size can be a pain for some heavy phone users but a bonus for those who text alot.


The RIM BlackBerry 8820 (left) next to the trimmer BlackBerry Curve.


The screen is nice and big with 2.5 inches of 65,000 color display at 320 x 24 pixel resolution. This makes the screen nice and bright for all your photos and videos. The screen can also sense external lighting conditions and adjusts the backlight accordingly to save battery life and improve viewing. The display is fully customizable to suit your personality with themes, background images and menu styles.

The navigation and fully QWERTY keyboard have been borrowed from the BlackBerry 8800 and see no modification in look or function. This is not a bad thing as the 8800 was quite easy to use. Right under the screen is your quick access bar that gives buttons for Talk, End, Menu and Escape as well as the trackball navigator in the middle. This makes the phone quite easy to use, one word of note is that some users will have issues with the keyboard since the keyboard is quite small and users with bigger fingers may find that cumbersome. The keyboard also has a lacquered finish that looks great but does make the keys a little bit slippery.

The BlackBerry 8820 features the same keyboard found on its older sibling, the BlackBerry 8800. Though the buttons are large, they’re a bit slippery and lack spacing in between.


On the right hand spine we find the volume control buttons and the left hand side features a 2.5 millimeter headset jack ( should have been 3.5 standard if you ask us. ), a mini USB port and a quick launch key that starts up AT&T’s push to talk (PTT) services but can be customized to do anything you want. There is a microSD slot on this mobile smartphone but it is located under the battery so it is a bit of a pain if you have to change it often. Power and mute button can be found on the top of the unit. Since it is a business unit there is no camera as most companies ban phones with cameras in the work place.

Also in the sales package is an AC adapter, a USB cable, a leather belt holster, a wired headset, a software CD, and reference material.

WiFi:
Lets start with the most obvious new feature and that is integrated WiFi connection. This is a first for BlackBerry, although there are other models now with this, and it supports 802.11 a/b/g. This is handy since you can connect to just about any wireless network whether in the office, cafe, or at home. For enterprise users there are security features including WEP, WPA, and VPN settings. From our tests the connectivity was great with all these features and we were cruising the web in not time at all.

The 8820 is the first BlackBerry to offer integrated Wi-Fi.


Connectivity:
Continuing with wireless is the Bluetooth 2.0 connection that supports wireless headsets, hands-free kits, dial-up networking, and A2DP for stereo Bluetooth headsets. Again we have to bring up the lack of 3G support so you will only be able to use EDGE Internet connections and the slower speed. There is a management application that lets you turn different antennas off and on.

Just like the BlackBerry 8800 it has a fully integrated GPS system so you can use features like AT&T’s TeleNav GPS Navigator or access color maps and voice guided driving directions right from the unit. If you are going to be using the TeleNav GPS service be aware that AT&T will charge you for its use. It is $9.99 a month for unlimited use or only $5.99 for 10 trips.

Voice Features:
The BlackBerry 8820 is loaded with voice features also with speakerphone, voice-activated dialing, smart dialing, conference calling, speed dial, and world roaming. Just like other BlackBerry phones the phone book is only limited by the amount of memory on your 8820. You can also store upto 250 contact on your SIM card if you didn’t know. Each contact entry lets you store upto eight phone numbers, e-mail addresses, work and home address, job title amongst other things. When your phone book is set up you can assign photos to contacts and contact groupings also.

Email:
This is what made BlackBerrys bread and butter and the way they have found mass market success so it is no surprise that the 8820 continues its fine tradition of great email service. The BlackBerry 8820 comes with the famous push email technology and sync with BlackBerry Enterprise servers, Microsoft Exchange Servers, IBM Lotus Domino, or Novell GroupWise servers for real time corporate emails. The BlackBerry 8820 can support up to 10 email accounts including POP3 or IMAP4 accounts. To make life easy there is a wizard built in to get you connected no matter what your email is. For ease of viewing attachments there is a built-in application that supports most office documents like Word, Excel, Powerpoint. Naturally the 8820 can also view PDFs, JPEG, GIF and other image formats. There are numerous options for messaging like text, multimedia and instant messaging. Word of caution on instant messaging is the you are limited to use the BlackBerry Messenger software. There is also a host of other standard features like alarm clock, calendar and the rest of the organizational tools.

Music:
All work and no play would make for a lousy BlackBerry experience so the 8820 includes a media player that can support the most common music types like MP3, WMA, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, and MIDI. This is no iPhone when it comes to music players but you can start, stop, skip and all other basic functions. You can also create playlists in a basic form and turn on shuffle or repeat. The music player also shows you what track is playing including album art if you have it. Like other media phones you can listen to music while using other features, if you get a call while listening to music it will automatically pause and start ringing instead. After you finish your conversation it will automatically start where you left off. Since the 8820 is a AT&T phone you can sync up to the AT&T mobile music service and listen to songs or watch music videos using the service. There are some bonus features that you can subscribe to like XM radio access or Music ID for an additional monthly fee.

Save all your large multimedia files on a microSD card. Just be aware that it’s a pain to access the 8820’s expansion slot since it’s behind the battery cover.


Video:
There is support for video on the 8820 but with no camera on the phone you will have to import or download your own videos. You can control video playback using the trackball or the play and stop button. You can get your own video to the 8820 using USB, Internet downloads or multimedia messaging. Be wary there is only 64mb of internal memory but you can get a big microSD card for your multimedia.

Performance:
When on a call the phone has pretty good clarity. During testing we could only hear a light background noise that was not distracting unless you really start to focus on it. On the other end the folks we called said we sounded a little bit tin like but no worse than other mobile phones. When the speakerphone was activated some of the people we called said we sounded better and clearer and others said it was much worse so there are mixed reviews there. If you are using speakerphone its suggested you set all audio setting to maximum for best performance. If you are using a BlueTooth connection for phone calls the audio quality is better than the unit alone.

Using the rest of the features was a enjoyable experience also as there were no long delays or freezing. Listen to music was Ok for external mobile phone speakers but like all phones the volume is a bit weak. Video playback was good also until you had scenes with alot of movement which caused some pixelation. If you plan on watching lots of CGI movies maybe look into a different phone otherwise this phone works just fine for video. WiFi is a breeze on the 8820 and surfing the web is quick and reliable.

Battery Life:
The manufacturers specs call for 5 hours of talk time and 22 days of standby on the BlackBerry 8820. So we put it to the test and came back with about 7 hours of talk time on a single charge.

In Review:
The BlackBerry 8820 is a great and powerful mobile phone. With the addition of WiFi to an already great email solution this is about as good as it gets for business users. Only two strikes against the 8820 are the lack of 3G and camera option on the phone.