RIM Blackberry 8820 Smartphone - Reviews, Specification Details

RIM Blackberry 8820 Review

The Blackberry 8820 was the fourth hit of the year 2007. The other three were the Blackberry Pearl, Blackberry Curve and 8800 respectively. It is almost well known to all of us that a smart phone without Wi-Fi is really very hard to survive in the current market. That was one of the major reasons why the blackberry smart phones were not able to attain that coveted sell outs. Now, blackberry has come up with its first Wi-Fi enabled phone, a long awaited one. The 8820 is similar to 8800 in many ways such as the design, and features which have been just upgraded.

Design - a cloning of blackberry 8800

Talking about the design, it is a cloning of the Blackberry 8800. It feels quite bulky with the large QWERTY keyboard and with its dimensions being (H x W x D) 114 x 66 x 14 milli meters and weighs 134grams. The wide design of this smart phone make it very difficult for it to be held as a normal phone. It has a 2.5″ display which has a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels giving a widescreen viewing area. The display is very sharp and bright. Just below the screen you will find the basic four buttons and a track ball. The 8820 is entirely black with silver letterings and silver buttons in the sides. The trackball is white and is a real breeze to use, it makes scrolling through the web menus and selection of various icons in the menu very easy.

QWERTY keyboard:

The QWERTY keyboard is of great help when in comes to typing out your texts, and it feels to be a better system than that of the SureType predictive system that is employed in pearl. The keys are large and are placed side by side in ergonomically. The keys are flat which some people might like and some will not prefer it though. The blackberry pearl might be a good performer as a phone with its half qwerty keyboard but as a messenger and composing mails, 8820 smartphone from Blackberry does a better job.

Memory and memory card slots:

Only 64MB of internal memory is provided, you can expand it though using microSD cards. But since the slot is available under the battery cover you will not be able to swap cards without switching off your blackberry. It would have been a much better option to have the memory card slot in a more accessible fashion. But the happy news is that, blackberry supports the SDHC cards and hence you can increase you memory to up to 32GB.

VOIP facility:

Weather or not you can make voice over IP calls depends on what the phone is prepared to allow as blackberry uses the UMA protocol and not the SIP. The network will be in control and if you do have the facility, then blackberry 8820 switches automatically from Wi-Fi and GSM network to make voice and data connectivity.

Robust mobile email:

Similar to the other blackberry smart phones, you have several options for mobile email. You can use the internet services of blackberry to receive your mails of POP and IMAP for up to ten accounts in case you are a stand alone user and you can also opt to use the BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server) if you are in a corporate.

Wi-Fi - finally:

Setting up the Wi-Fi connections can be done in seconds. All that you will have to do is, just select the dedicated Wi-Fi icon in the menu then select the network and just enter your password, that’s it. When you start using the Wi-Fi you will sense the difference in the speed immediately. The pages get loaded much quickly and the browser feels far more responsive than that of a GPRS connection. The manage connections utility that had been added by RIM helps you to manage your Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GSM very effectively. The integrated GPS antenna and the maps application that was available in the 8800 can be found in 8820 also. When it is used in conjunction with the GPS, it is not as satisfactory as a stand alone satellite navigation system or that of a CoPilot in a mobile. It is extremely slow taking about five minutes at times. It gives a feel that these functionalities have been included for the sake of specification and much work has to be done with the implementation and its respective execution. Another fact that must be taken in to consideration is that, since the maps are being downloaded through air, depending on your tariff, this service can prove to be costly for you too.

However since the support for 3G is still unavailable, web browsing can be very sluggish and the pages on GPRS might be testing your patience.

Multimedia:

In Blackberry’s effort to change this mobile email device in to a device that is filled with features to compete with the current mobile and smartphones, RIM has also included a music player application whose performance is satisfactory. A full battery charge gives you just more than 10 hours of music which is quiet good for a mobile phone. You can also enjoy stereo Bluetooth output.

There is no camera in Blackberry 8820 from RIM, as was the case of 8800. The absence of camera is a welcome feature by big companies as for the security reasons. When it comes to the hardware, it is all similar to 8800. The blackberry 8820 operates on the Microsoft windows mobile operating system. The miscellaneous applications that are included are, address book, calendar, memo pad, task lists, alarm, calculator, voice dialling and mobile email. The software that is bundled along with the 8820 included the Roxio Media Manager that helps in file conversion and transfer.

Security:

In case of loss or theft of the BlackBerry 8820 SmartPhone, RIM provides you a lot of options to choose from. There is the password protection and the basic keyboard lock feature. Also there is a support of the AES or the Triple DES encryption when it is integrated with the BES. It is also validated with the FIPS 140-2 and has an optional support of the S/MIME too.

Battery:

The battery life of the RIM Blackberry 8820 depends fully on how much of the GPS receiver and the Wi-Fi features you use. On the whole, it is pretty decent giving you around six hours of talk-time and three weeks of stand by time.

Verdict:

The upgrading has done good for Blackberry. If you already own a blackberry mobile without the WiFi and looking for a replacement, another blackberry like this one will itself do the job for you as you will not be able to find better mobile email options elsewhere. The Blackberry 8820 Mobile Phone is a great option for the business users.

Read Blackberry Bold Reviews, Blackberry Storm Reviews in this website.

BlackBerry 8820 - Cheap, Best 10 Deals

RIM Blackberry 8820 Smartphone - Technical Specifications, Features

Manufacturer	RIM BlackBerry
Model Name	Blackberry 8820
Phone Series	8800
Colour	Black and silver
Form factor	Candy bar
Dimensions (H x W x D)	114 x 66 x 14 mm
Weight	134 grams
Screen and display	2.5-inch LCD screen
Display resolution	320 x 240 pixels
Main navigation	Track ball
GSM frequencies	900, 1800, 1900
GPRS facility	Yes
3G	No
Connectivity	Bluetooth, WiFi, USB and GPS receiver
Messaging facilities provided	Short Messaging Service (SMS) Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) Internet browser WAP 2.0 protocol supported E-mail client Java
Memory	64MB
Memory expansion	Yes - microSD
Phone features	Polyphonic, Real music ring tones Vibrating alert Calendar Alarm clock Speakerphone Voice dialling Voice recording
Audio playback	Yes
Accessories	Head phone, USB cable and the Wall charger
Security options	Yes
Battery	Lithium ion battery
Talk time	300 min
Stand-by time	528 hours
Warranty	One year