Research in Motion's (RIM) early attempts at mating its popular wireless email device/handheld with a mobile phone didn't turn out as well as the company had hoped. But the BlackBerry 7230, RIM's first colour-screen model, is a different story. Offered by T-Mobile, Vodafone and O2 in the UK for around £200 (inc. VAT), the 7230 combines a GSM/GPRS world phone, a handheld and wireless email capabilities in a slim, 136g unit that doesn't require an earbud to talk on.
Design
Some jokingly refer to the 7230 as a 'BlueBerry' rather than a BlackBerry because of its blue casing. At 7.4cm by 11.3cm by 2cm, the unit is compact for a smartphone -- male buyers will probably wear it clipped to their belts using the included swivelling holster.
The high-resolution 240-by-160-pixel colour display supports 65,536 colours. Although not as bright (even with the backlight on) as the displays found on Pocket PCs or Palms, the screen is readable and is made for viewing in direct sunlight. As for the keys, they're reasonably large and raised, making them quite tactile. In fact, the 7230's mini-keyboard is among the best available.
The first thing you'll notice when you go to dial a number manually is that RIM has created a traditional number dial pad over the keys on the left side of the keyboard. When inputting numbers as part of a text message, you may be initially thrown off by the layout. However, the arrangement is essential if you want to dial numbers on the 7230 as you would with a traditional phone.
As with RIM's earlier combo units, you can plug in the bundled headset to make a call, but this model also features a built-in earpiece and microphone. It's not the most comfortable implementation, but it's quite usable as a phone as well as a wireless email device and handheld.
Along with the familiar scroll wheel and the Back button (which you press to end a call) on the right side of the unit, you'll find a port for a USB cable/charger on the left side. On top, there's a quick-launch button for phone mode, plus an infrared port. The removable Li-ion battery can be replaced.
Features
Although it has no SD (Secure Digital) card expansion slot, this model ships with a healthy 16MB of internal flash memory and 2MB of SRAM. BlackBerrys are known for their email prowess, and the 7230, which supports world roaming (GSM 900/1800/1900 plus GPRS) with the appropriate SIM card, worked well in this department and easily synchronised with Microsoft Outlook on our desktop computer. Lotus Notes is also supported.
If you don't work for a company that has BlackBerry Enterprise Server installed on its servers, you can opt for BlackBerry Web Client, which allows you to have email messages wirelessly forwarded to your 7230 from up to 10 POP3 email accounts. Setup is fairly simple and can be done on the Web or via a wireless Web connection on the device in a matter of minutes.
While the enterprise version offers real-time email delivery and wireless calendar syncing (a secretary can wirelessly update an appointment from the office), the email pushed to the 7230 by Web Client has about a 15-minute delay. And Web Client now offers some wireless syncing; if you delete email on the 7230, it will also be deleted on your desktop. Previously, this feature was available to corporate customers only.
The BlackBerry's address and calendar applications aren't quite as snazzy as a Pocket PC's or Palm's, but most users will be pleased with the device's handheld side. Other core electronic organiser applications include a task manager, a memo pad, a calculator and an alarm. The BrickBreaker game comes preinstalled, and you can add third-party applications just like you would with a Palm or a Pocket PC.
With J2ME on-board, RIM is touting the BlackBerry's expansion into the Java realm, which is a plus. You can now open a wide variety of email attachments -- most importantly, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, as well as Adobe PDFs -- and view them on the device. Unfortunately, you can't edit a Word or Excel file, save it and send it back to a colleague. This is a read-only situation.
Like other BlackBerrys, the 7230 is lacking in the multimedia department, but that's not a sin, especially since this is a business-oriented device. However, in an ideal world, we would like to have seen a speakerphone and Bluetooth support for wireless headsets.
All the phone basics are here, including a robust call history, the ability to dial contact numbers directly from the address book, two-way SMS messaging, and a vibrating ringer option. Phone and handheld elements are well integrated. A Web browser is on-board, although we mostly used T-Mobile's T-Zones text-only WAP site to check the latest news and sports scores.
Performance
You'd expect a colour screen to have a serious impact on battery life, but the 7230's display is designed to use the backlight sparingly; you'll need to activate it in only a dimly lit environment or at night. As a result, you can expect decent battery life that's on a par with that of the most energy-efficient smartphones currently available. RIM says you can get up to four hours of talk time and 10 days of standby time. In our tests, we hit the talk-time number and managed to go a full week on standby. With normal use, however, you should expect to recharge after every third day, or every two days to be on the safe side.
Using T-Mobile's GSM/GPRS service, we had a generally good experience. Occasionally, we lost the sweet spot of the speaker on our ear and had to adjust the phone accordingly. But the BlackBerry was fairly loud, and we appreciated that we could raise and lower the volume using the scroll wheel in the middle of a call. On their end, callers said we sounded clear with no static. In noisier environments, it helps to use a headset, but it's not essential.
Specifications
| Connectivity / expansion | |
|---|---|
| Docking cradle | No |
| Wired connections | USB |
| General | |
| Form factor | candy bar |
| Dimensions (W x H x D) | 113x20x74 mm |
| Weight | 136 g |
| Messaging & data | |
| Messaging services supported | SMS |
| Email client | Yes |
| Email protocols supported | POP3 |
| Networks | |
| 2.5G | GPRS |
| OS & software | |
| Software included | adress book, calendar, task manager, memo pad, calculator, alarm; WAP, HTML browsers |
| Synchronisation software | yes |
| Phone | |
| Vibrating alert | No |
| Alarm clock | Yes |
| Display | |
| Native resolution | 240x160 pixels |
| Colour depth | 16 bits |
| Memory | |
| On-board memory | 16 MB |
| Power | |
| Talk time | 4 h |
| Standby time | 240 h |
| Expand | |
Images
Member reviews
I now have my email mail with me all the time. I can make phone calls access the internet and do all the functions I need on the go. The battery life means I only have to charge the BlackBerry once a week which is better than my old phone. I don't know what I would do without it.
- 10.00 out of 10
10.00 out of 10Everything that the Blackberry does it does brilliantly! The mobile email is such a godsend, especially when working with people in multiple time zones! I literally save days on my schedule by being able to react immediately thanks to my Blackberry. The telephone is good too, very clear and holds signal well even when in lifts! The ergonomics’ are brilliant, with the keyboard having the perfect feel!
Bad points.
Why did the US government insist on disabling the infrared port?!?
No Bluetooth or proper cradle car kit.
No way to expand memory or create "offline files" if your Outlook in box reaches its limit.
OK I know it’s a business tool, but a radio or MP3 Player would be nice, people that use these spend far too much time in airports and the like!
My final bit.
Wonderful tool, I cant wait for Blackberry / RIM to bring out one for the 3G data networks!!
- 9.00 out of 10
9.00 out of 10What a superb product! The battery life is tremendous, and the push email is the most useful data service I've ever used.
- 9.50 out of 10
9.50 out of 10Does anyone know how to buy a Blackberry Enterprise Server 3.6? Tried to buy from Blackberry (UK) with no luck, but was referred to the seller. Tried seller but got referred to Blackberry (they didn't even know what it was). Blackberry UK Web site has no price information (US one has.. .).
- 6.00 out of 10
6.00 out of 10This device satisfies almost every users's requirement to stay in touch while mobile. The "read only" for office attachments can be somewhat addressed by installing "eOffice" and "eFile" allows editing on a shared network area.
If they can add Bluetooth and 3G, then this is a winner.
- 8.50 out of 10
8.50 out of 10I don't know how I've managed before Blackberry came on the market. It's great and am over the moon with it. Sound quality when making calls is excellent too and as for emails, well superb piece of kit.
- 10.00 out of 10
10.00 out of 10I don't really use it as a phone, just for mail and calendar, and its invaluable.
The vibrate is so strong you can never miss an alert.
- 8.00 out of 10
8.00 out of 10Good piece of kit. And you can send faxes on it too. 10/10
- 8.50 out of 10
8.50 out of 10I bought mine from www.getblackberry.co.uk, and it's really amazing! Instant email on the move, so I don't need to worry about whether I'm in the office or not, and can use travelling time productively. A great boon for me, and so good I recommend it to everyone I meet!
- 10.00 out of 10
10.00 out of 10The Blue ... er ... Blackberry is a great device. The only shortfall is the missing BLUETOOTH feature.
- 8.50 out of 10
8.50 out of 10Only lacks Bluetooth, but you can't always have everything. The keyboard takes a bit of getting used to -- especially the number pad and the shift function.
Way better for email and texting than a traditional phone.
- 8.50 out of 10
8.50 out of 10The push email is excellent -- nothing to do except read and reply to emails, continually and pemanently synchronising with our Exchange server. With the Enterprise Server we have Web access to our intranet and Internet filtered via our usual corporate rules.
Battery lasts for at least a week !
- 9.50 out of 10
9.50 out of 10It's quite big and unwieldy, can't use my Plantronics Bluetooth headset.
- 5.50 out of 10
5.50 out of 10- 8.50 out of 10
8.50 out of 10Very user friendly software and clever ergonomic features. Like the scroll wheel, no need to do the two-handed screen tap thing.
- 9.00 out of 10
9.00 out of 10The convergence between email/Outlook/phone is a great feature. However, just looking at cell phone features, it has to be in the bottom 10% of all cell phones produced in the last 5-10 years, and is certainly the worst I have ever used.
Extremely un-ergonomic and very bulky. Battery life makes it very inconvenient, and apparent lack of availabile car charger is a killer.
The wireless email and address book synch with Outlook are time-savers, but there has to be some answer that doesn't sacrifice the simplicity that most cell phones have had for a number of years.
- 5.00 out of 10
5.00 out of 10This unit works ideally for myself, as I am in and out the office and in meetings constantly. But I am in constant touch with the daily running of my team.
- 8.50 out of 10
8.50 out of 10- 5.00 out of 10
5.00 out of 10- 8.50 out of 10
8.50 out of 10- 10.00 out of 10
10.00 out of 10