Other wireless options include Bluetooth 2.0 with support for wireless headsets, hands-free kits, dial-up networking, and A2DP for stereo Bluetooth headsets. Disappointingly, the BlackBerry 8820 doesn't work on AT&T's 3G network, so you'll have to settle for EDGE speeds. For easy access, there's a Manage Connections menu option where you can turn on and off all the various radios.
On a brighter note, we're happy to see that the smart phone continues to offer integrated GPS like the BlackBerry 8800 does. With the built-in radio, you can use a location-based service, such as AT&T's TeleNav GPS Navigator, and you can get color maps and text- and voice-guided driving directions, and points of interest right on the device. Just be aware that if you choose TeleNav GPS Navigator, this is an add-on service from AT&T that will cost $9.99 per month for unlimited trips or $5.99 for up to 10 trips; check out our full review of TeleNav for more information.
As far as other voice features, the RIM BlackBerry 8820 offers a speakerphone, voice-activated dialing, smart dialing, conference calling, speed dial, and world roaming. The phone book is limited only by the available memory (the SIM card holds an additional 250 contacts), offering room in each entry for eight phone numbers, e-mail addresses, work and home address, job title, and more. For caller ID purposes, you can assign a photo to a contact as well to a group category, business or personal. Another AT&T-specific offering is push-to-talk capabilities. Plans start at $9.99 per month, and with it, you can instantly see the availability of your contacts before calling them and make individual or group PTT calls.
Of course, we cannot forget what makes BlackBerrys famous in the first place: e-mail. The RIM BlackBerry 8820 offers the famed push technology and can sync with your company's BlackBerry Enterprise server with support for Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino, or Novell GroupWise to deliver corporate e-mail in real time. All in all, the device can support up to 10 accounts, including POP3 or IMAP4 e-mail accounts, and there is an e-mail wizard on the device to guide you through the setup process. An attachment viewer is also onboard to open popular file formats, such as those from Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Corel WordPerfect, as well as PDFs, JPEGs, GIFs, and more. Other messaging options include text, multimedia, and instant messaging, although the IMs are once again limited to the proprietary BlackBerry Messenger client. The BlackBerry 8820 includes a number of PIM tools for the business users, including a calendar, a tasks list, a memo pad, an alarm, and a calculator.
For fun, the BlackBerry 8820 has a media player that works with MP3, WMA, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, and MIDI music files and MPEG4, WMV, and H.263 video formats. The music player is pretty basic. Aside from standard stop and play functions, you can create playlists as "folders" and shuffle and repeat songs within a certain folder. It also displays some track information, such as title, artist, and album art if available. You can continue to play music as you use the device's other programs, and if you happen to get an incoming call, the BlackBerry 8820 will pause the music and pick up where you left off after you hang up. The BlackBerry 8820 also works with AT&T Mobile Music, so you can listen to your songs and watch music videos, shop for music, listen to XM satellite radio, identify songs, and more. The XM access and Music ID services require a monthly subscription of $8.99 and $3.99, respectively.
For videos, the player has play and stop buttons, and you can fast-forward and rewind clips by clicking the trackball and scrolling right or left. There's also an image viewer, so you can check out your favorite photos. Just remember there's no camera on the 8820, so you'll have so you'll have to get your images onto your device another way: via USB, multimedia message, etc. There's about 64MB of flash memory available, but we suggest using a microSD card to store large media files.
Performance
We tested the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; GPRS/EDGE) RIM BlackBerry 8820 in San Francisco using AT&T service, and call quality was generally good. We noticed a slight background hiss on our end, but it didn't prevent us from carrying on a conversation, as voices still sounded loud and clear. We were also able to interact with our bank's automated voice response system. Meanwhile, our friends said we sounded slightly tinny, but it was nothing so distracting that they couldn't continue with the call. Activating the speakerphone actually yielded mixed results. Our callers said we sounded better and even more clear, but we found the volume to be a bit weak and had to adjust the audio to the highest setting. On the upside, we had no problems pairing the BlackBerry 8820 with the Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth headset.
General performance was decent. We didn't experience any long delays when working with the device. Music playback sounded OK through the phone's speakers, but again, volume was slightly weak, and pumping up the volume would just blow out the sound. Video performance was quite good and offered clear image quality, although there was some pixelation during action sequences, as is to be expected. As we noted earlier, we had no problems connecting to our Wi-Fi access point, and we enjoyed speedy Web browsing. We were also able to surf the Net via AT&T's EDGE network, but the slower data speeds tested our patience.
The RIM BlackBerry 8820 is rated for 5 hours of talk time and up to 22 days of standby time. In our battery drain tests, we were able to get 7 hours of talk time on a single charge. According to FCC radiation tests, the 8820 has a digital SAR rating of 1.16 watts per kilogram.
What You'll Pay
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