Customer Reviews

BlackBerry 8830 Phone, Silver (Verizon Wireless)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

FINALLY! A SmartPhone that keeps you productive and doesn't hassle you with malfunctions!
As you can probably surmise, I'm coming over from the Windows Mobile platform. After several years of wrestling with those units (especially Treos), I decided to give the BlackBerry 8830 a try, and am I glad that I did. I've had the opportunity to own/use this unit for several months now. There is just no comparison. The 8830 lives up to its promises, and is actually enjoyable to use.

This model is
- Reliable: It just works, and it keeps working. No hiccups, malfunctions or resetting.
- A Great Business Tool: As a PDA power user, I need a unit that reliably synchs wirelessly with our mail server to keep my email, calendar, contacts, tasks and notes current. The 8830 does this real-time without getting bogged down and crashing. It excels in this area.
- Readable: You can change the default screen font in the Options settings to enlarge and/or embolden the display text across all functions.
- Call clarity: Conversations are clear and audible on both ends.
- Smart: RIM built in some nice behavior that changes the display brightness with environmental lighting and also changes the ring mode when the unit is holstered.
- The keyboard offers excellent tactile feedback.
- The blue-tooth has worked with headsets and hands-free speakers nicely.
- Robust: I dropped the unit a few times (once on a marble floor), and it still works great.

I've found several minor drawbacks:
- The ringer, even when loudest, isn't quite loud enough in noisier environments. Often, I won't hear the ringer in the car.
- There is only 1 alarm. I've been accustomed to having the ability to simultaneously set alarms that ring during the week, on weekends, etc. The 8830 offers these modes, but not concurrently.
- The speakerphone volume isn't very loud. Honestly, this seems to apply to most of the phones that I've owned.
- I've had problems with the voice-command accuracy.

Recommendation:
This is likley the best SmartPhone I've ever owned. Its very functional and very reliable. I highly recommend it.

I got this as a corporate replacement for a Verizon XV-6700. What a difference! Blackberry sets the standard for smartphone design & engineering, and it shows.

Pros:
+ great battery life (4+ hours of talk time & 80+ hours standby time)
+ great coverage in my area (YMMV)
+ integrated clear screen protection to minimize breakage
+ integrated trackball for fast navigation without touchscreen
+ internal Mini-SD slot to minimize loss
+ lightweight and flat-profile makes carrying easy
+ Bluetooth works well
+ solid Outlook integration (Mail, Calendar, Address, Tasks, Notes)
+ actual keyboard and buttons for dialing
+ standard mini-USB plug for charging and data connection

Cons:
- Voice Dialing button active by default (remapped to Keylock)
- frequent re-crypt is an annoyance
- Blackberry Enterprise Server required for Outlook 2007 (MS broke)
- Verizon disables GPS to sell their stupid service

Overall, the Pros solidly outweigh the Cons. Blackberry makes a good phone, and I recommend it.

The audio quality on the Blackberry 8830 is horrible. The audio sounds muffled and most of the time it's very hard to make out what the person on the other line is saying. The effect gets more pronounced when the person on the other end also has a Blackberry. It's so bad, I am now seriously considering replacing it with something else after trying to convince myself for the last four months that it's me and not the phone.

I do love everything else about this phone. Especially it's ability to sync with my Google calendar and deliver (after about a 10 minute lag) all my hotmail/gmail emails to my phone (Only if you have the Blackberry data service package). I also downloaded google maps on to it, which is free and helps me locate approximately where I am and I can use it to search for any businesses in my area. So for example, if I am in the city and feel like Italian, I can search for Italian restaurants and it will show me a map with all the nearby Italian restaurants, their hours, and the phone number, which I can then auto dial right from the map.

But the audio is the sticking point. It is REALLY REALLY bad. I have good hearing and it's so difficult to make out what others are saying. My friend recently got the Blackberry Pearl, and when he talks to me, sometimes whole sentences come out as a muffled blur. It's like constantly talking to someone who has a pillow in front of their mouth.

If audio quality is important to you, pass on this phone. Or if you have poor hearing, definitely skip this phone. I've come to find out that Consumer Reports also noted this phone for it's poor audio quality. I really do want to love it for it's data and time management software, but it doesn't deliver in the one area that a phone is mainly used for - helping one hold a conversation. I had a four year old LG phone before this, and that trumps the 8830 for clarity and quality of the audio.

Battery life is also very short. It can only go one day before needing a charge if you talk more than an hour, or two days if you don't. I have never gotten more than two days without a charge.

It also has what must be the worst voice recognition software known to man. For example I just said "Call Dad" and it asks me if I want to call Jenny, Lynn, or Allan.

If I had to choose again, I would go with another phone that is rated better for audio quality. I hate using this phone now to talk to anyone because I am constantly asking people to repeat themselves.

Get this phone and your new favorite phrase will be "Can you say that again?"

The 8830 was my first smartphone/pda and it was a great choice! The Blackbery operating system is incredibly user friendly and simply just works.

As far as Blackberries are concerned, this one is great. They screen and keyboard are slightly larger than the more popular Curve. The phone itself feels sturdy and much more rugged than other Blackberries that tend to have a plasticy feel.

I have one 2 complaints. First is that the Blackberry browser sucks compared to most others.

Second is that this phone doesn't have a camera. Didn't think I'd miss it since I never used my camera on previous cell phones. However, with advancing mobile technology and the capabilities of smartphones, there is so much you can do with a camera these days. Blackberry App's like the one for Facebook are great if you have a camera.

If you don't want a camera, select this phone over the Curve...you'll be happy.

UPDATE Dec'09: No longer the best phone I've owned. It really struggled once the Blackberry AppWorld was released and I began to download apps. Now on a Tour, its great!

Switched to this from AT&T 8800 to this Verizon 8830 because of better reception in my region (Massachusetts). Works dramatically better for voice than my At&T did and has significant faster data speeds. Finally makes GMail usable on the BlackBerry. But Verizon cripples GSM, limiting it to their $10/month Navigator. This means that Google Maps only works with triangulation, a real downer for an otherwise very nice device.

I got this phone a year ago as an upgrade and consolidation of personal cellphone + work BB. I had a T-Mobile BB, and I miss it.

This phone has a delayed reaction to many things (marking multiple messages opened--even if only two at a time; delayed movement oncreen vs. trackball, etc.). I am told that it has something to do with the software coming from Verizon, as I had an 8800 series as well via T-Mobile). If this is the case, Verizon then needs to step it up.

Other thing, my trackball has a mind of its own. It highlights and calls people whenever it so chooses, sends blank text messages and also actual messages with text (it has highlighted phrases from some other message, copied and pasted into a new one while obtaining a recipient from my address book!). I am currently just lucky enough that it hasn't sent anything incriminating to anyone. Or at least I'm hoping it hasn't done that so far, I will never know.

Either my BB is possessed, or it sucks. I'm guessing supernatural forces are not a part of this equation. Other downside for me is that the ringtones are extremely low compared to other BBs, I have increased the volume on all of them and they don't match the lowest volume on others. If there is a happy medium in terms of ring volume between this one and the others, RIM will be golden.

In overall BB's defense, when exorcism is not needed and the handheld is working properly, it's great. Great for efficiency, makes lots of sense (once you get the icons down), and so easy with a full QWERTY keyboard to draft the emails in the middle of the night. Just be careful of emailing post-happy hour.

Don't let even a few drops of water get on the keyboard, or some keys will stop functioning permanently, and you will have to go thru the hassle of exchanging your unit for a new one.

Other than the non water-resistant keyboard, the big gripe I have is that it is difficult to navigate the menu system... espcially hard is the difficulty in navigating to the proper dialog that allows one to enter a Internet web address.

Having said all that, the device has become indispensible to me in my daily work - allowing me to access e-mail(and even scrunched-down Internet web pages) anyplace and anytime.

The reason we have to use this phone is that we aren't allowed to have cameras at work, and there are only a few cell phone models these days that don't have cameras.

After being snookered into purchasing an unlocked Verizon BlackBerry 8830 World phone, and after endless research, I learned that, due to a frequency that Verizon uses (that other "unlocked," BlackBerrys don't use), this phone cannot be activated for use in the USA. Don't make this mistake! If you want an unlocked phone, DO NOT BUY THIS ONE!!! I've heard that Sprint BlackBerrys are better...they use a different frequency (?) AND you can use a sim card from other US services, which you cannot do with the Verizon BB phone.

Cons:

Poor battery life

Poor speaker quality

No easy sync for contacts/calendar

Tracking ball

Slow downloads

No camera

Dial pad doesn't have letters (Try dialing 1-800-ILoveOralSurgeons without one)

It's time for RIM to retire this dinosaur

This is a fantastic Blackberry. It delivers all of the Blackberry fortes in great style and does it all with ease and BLAZING SPEED! Did I forget to mention that it will do this here in the US and ALL OVER THE WORLD! Audio is great! Speakerphone sounds awesome, even when it is on the passenger seat of my car and I'm going 80mph!

Email, audio, video and of course- the network is amazing! Never dropped a call in 2 years and I travel through NYC's canyon of skyscrapers and the tunnels into NJ all of the time.

You really can't go wrong with this piece. And, it is 3g to boot! Put this thing up against a Blackberry on a GSM "edge" connnection and you'll run circles around it.

What more is there to say? Get one...pronto!