BlackBerry 8820 (AT&T)

Pros: WiFi enabled, great sound quality (nice speakers too), super simple and friendly emailing, GPS, great screen quality, charges via USB, easy and intuitive button placement, and trackball

Cons: poor access to media card from the device, akward and confusing folder/filing operating system, proprietary IM out the box, limited instructions out the box.

Summary: Often times I read reviews of products that really amount to nothing more than "I'll show you how smart/saavy I am by pointing out all the limitations that I can find."

That being, said this review is for people who just like gadgets - useful gadgets.

I'll start by saying this: -- This phone is one fine machine !!!!!!!!!!

Here's why.
It is a Blackberry cell phone and, as such, there are 2 fundamentals - - - phone and blackberry.

First fundamental - the reason why anyone would purchase this (I hope) is because it's a phone - first and foremost. So the important thing is how does it function AS A PHONE? I used to own a Treo 650 and I loved that 'phone'. My biggest problem with it, however, the call quality was abysmal. With the 8820, everyone can hear me just fine and I can hear them clearly. I can easily adjust the volume on the right side of the device

Fundamental 2 - It's a Blackberry.
I've never owned a Blackberry before, but I hear they are unrivaled - not even close. And experiencing the 8820, I can see why. Setting up/linking ny email account(s) could not have been any easier. All you do is go tothe email setup mode, enter your email address and password, and voila! You're done! No SMTP/POP server information; No confusing setups or configurations; Just hook right up and you're ready.

And unlike the iPhone, your inbox notification is real time (not every 15 minutes or so) and you can see the title and who its from at an immediate glance.

You can even set up different notifications for different email boxes so you'll know which email account is receiving messages.

Now the rest is gravy and very good gravy I might add.

Some will notice right away that there is no camera with this phone - I say so what? I've never been in a spot where I found a great photo opportunity and the image from a cell phone camera would suit. I have a real camera that handles that job rather nicely and I'd like to keep it that way.

In place of the ubiquitous camera in the 8820 is the highly desired and useful WiFi. Just like a laptop it locates signals and connects with a push of a button. This has practical or business and personal purposes. Geat job RIM.

The calendar/planner is very similar to the Palm (Treo 650) so you get the benefits with your scheduling, alarms, reminders, and so on. But Blackberry's "Desktop Manager" software makes synchronization to your desktop/laptop a snap. And you don't need Outlook (Microsoft) to do it.

To use AT&T association with TelNav GPS direction system, there is an additional monthly fee. I say why bother? Simply download google maps from your device and you get a great GPS direction/mapping system free of charge. They just don't offer the voice.

Should you want to store media on your device, you'd have to buy a micro SD card and depending on the size of the card, you'd have all the pictures, music, and other files that you would need. to enjoy whenever you like, however you like. And although the music and video players are as basic as it can get, the quality for a device this size is pretty impressive.

I've read critism about this phone not being on the 3G network but EDGE speed to me is fine. In fact, I really don't understand this criticism at all because I don't wait much longer for my pages to load than I do from my computer. Sheesh.

Voice dialing is seamless and the profile settings completely are customizable - FANTASTIC.

Not so great is the structure of the files. It takes a while to figure out how to maneuvure to what you want to do. They don't make it easy. As well, the "getting started" guide is just that. I had to go online to get more defined functions.

And although there is a lot of software out there that can integrate different instant message (IM) clients, Blackberry's proprietary IM is a miss in my book.

I must say that I do miss my stylus and touch screen capability from my Treo. But the track ball is a pretty good runner up.

All in all, this an extremely impressive product. And when you couple it with some of the third party software like Google and Handmark, it is just flawless.

Remember people, you get all this functionality from a mere CELL PHONE - and at that price point it's going to be hard to beat.