Blackberry 8830

The Verizon BlackBerry 8830 World Edition Smartphone:

This phone is very capable but like the iPhone it is far from perfect. What gets me is the first Blackberry that I have ever owned was the best blackberry ever made. Although it was not a telephone it work flawlessly. It was the Rim 950 Blackberry Internet Edition Wireless handheld. This Blackberry came out in 1999. You would expect that this new Blackberry 8830 would simply be full of great improvements and still have all the same flawless functionality.

I will start with the good features since there are not many.

The 8830 is light and fairly thin. Nice form factor. The screen is nice. Unlike most Verizon phones in the past you can type out names and get the exact person you are looking for instead of hitting "A" and scrolling past Adam Smith, Adam Thomas, Alan, Allen, and Amanda to get to Anthony.

Ok that is it. Other than that it is not worth the money and Blackberry must be full of new engineers because they completely had no clue what worked well and what didn't work well.... It seems that phone and pda manufacturers only care about trying out new features and designs and completely disregard what users like and have been totally happy with for years.

What sucks about the Verizon Blackberry 8830 World Edition Smartphone:

The ringer is freaking useless. Because kids and young adults will read this I am using the word "Freaking" when I want to use a much stronger adjective. You cannot heart the phone when in car or an area with any low to mid level noise. If in a moderately noisy environment you will be lucky if you get to feel vibration or you will miss your calls.

The keyboard sucks. The keys are too small. You cannot see what letter or number you are typing after the sun goes down. How in the world did the design team and engineers manage to screw up this feature? Do they not test the keypad in low light or the dark? They seem to only worry about getting a new device in the store and have no concern for quality control.

This mouse button sucks. It could have easily trumped the thumb wheel after a few weeks of getting used to the change. However, because it was improperly engineered you will miss the thumb wheel. What happens when you get to a list of four people named John and you want to scroll to the third John its sensitivity / functionality will annoy you time after time. You must use the perfect amount of pressure and time your scroll speed just right or it will not move or it will go too fast and go right by the person you are trying to stop on to call or send a message to. It takes too long to turn on and off.

The pop up menu is annoying. Each time you want to do something and you hit the menu key you will get a short list of options, you will also get the option to select a full menu. This will take some time to get used to and it is annoying.

There is a software / technical glitch for taking a call that comes in while on an existing call. IE Call Waiting. If you get the call and use the send key "which is what we have all been used to on every single phone on the planet for over a decade" you will put your phone into "locked up mode" and possibly conference your new caller in on your existing call. What you have to do in order to use your 8830 to make a phone call after this is remove the battery and pop it back in and then turn on your phone. After you have done this you will then be able to make a call or receive a call. How unbelievable is that? Please tell me their engineers and executives were not in such a hurry that they put out a phone that really doesn't work...!!! What you are forced to remember or retrain yourself to do is to push the mouse button and choose to accept the call. The equivalent of a misplaced flash button.

After you have stopped using your phone for a few minutes or you just take it out of the holder to get to the entire screen of icons you are forced to click on the Menu button!!! Unreal. Why do I need to do this. I am hopeful that there is a way to turn this off and I have simply not changed the way my phone functions. You have to push a tiny key on your keyboard to activate the speakerphone. Its not too annoying but never the less it is annoying for the price and considering they have been making phones for a very long time.

It cost too much because it's a working piece of garbage. Shame on Verizon and Blackberry.

Motorola needs to bring back the Startac and RIM needs to bring back the bullet proof double AA powered Rim 950.

At least if you are a mechanic you can find old wrenches that still function and do the same job for as long as you are working. When you're employed via the internet and your life and work revolves around data you don't have the luxury of being able to function with older equipment in most cases.

New buttons are not always cool. Thinner is not always better. Smaller keyboards are never better, unless they have been proven to be better.

Please make new and improved. Stop simply making "NEW".