RIM BlackBerry 7250 (Verizon Wireless)

Summary: I've had a Treo 600 for the past year. In that time, I'm on my 3rd one. Haven't had to much luck with build quality or voice quality with the Treo. With the new Treo 650 coming down the pike, I thought, maybe I should wait until it is released to see if the flaws of the 600 were addressed. But then Verizon released the Blackberry 7250 with Bluetooth, and I thought, there must be a reason that almost all of the Fortune 500 executives use Blackberrys. That being said, I went down and picked one up 3 days ago.

I'd consider myself a power smart phone user. I'm on the phone about 2-3 hours a day and receive around 150 e-mails dailey as well, so in the last 3 days, I've put this thing through the gamut...

Here's the Pros:

1. E-mail push technology is the best. The device pulls e-mails about every minute and any e-mail you receive is automatically pushed to your phone and they make it there quickly. No more pulling e-mails for minutes on end like on my Treo through the Pop or IMAP technology.

2. Typing e-mail is a snap. The keys are large and the phone is intuative with adding periods when you double space between words and apostrophes when spelling words that contain them..

3. Viewing e-mails is great, as well as attachments. The screen is almost 2x as wide as the Treo. Now, I can actually read a document and see the formatting. This was far too cumbersome with the Treo.

4. The device syncs with Outlook's calendar, contacts, To Do items and Notes perfectly. So for people looking for a good PIM, this device will do it, just like the Treo and other Windows based phones.

5. Bluetooth: I purchased the Jabra BT800 (verdict is still out on this device, I almost think it does too much in a small device and am questioning the sound quality compared to what I've read about the Motorola HS850), but the Bluetooth seems to work and sync well from what I've experience thus far.

6. Verizon's service. By far the best in South Florida and I've used them all.


Ok, now the Cons:

1. RIM (Blackberry's manufacturer) really needs to make their web service or redirector software more comprehensive. You have to use one of these two items if your company doesn't use the Blackberry Enterprise Server. The Web Service and Redirector software are free with your phone service, but the Enterprise Software costs at a minimum $1,500 for a 5 user license, plus you need to run Exchange Server or Lotus Notes on a seperate e-mail server to get the device's full functionality. What do I mean? Well, Blackberry's web service will send you e-mails using your corporate account with about a 5-10 minute delay. Not too bad, I can live with this, however, it does not sync with your inbox when you delete e-mails. If you are anything like me and get a lot of e-mails every day, you will need to delete them on your blackberry and also delete them on Outlook/Notes when you get to the office. This really stinks. So the other option is to use the redirector software. The redirector will sync the deletions on your blackberry and computer, only you can't recieve attachments through the redirector (Word/Excel) documents. Come on RIM!!!! I know you guys want people to purchase the Enterprise Server Licenses, but not everyone needs a 5 user license....

2. Just below the Trackwheel used to scroll and select items is the Escape key. When you want to disconnect a call, you just hold this button down. Well, if you are not careful, you will hang up on people too. I've done it 3 times already in 3 days. RIM really should try to find a better location for this button or make the device use the track wheel after hitting the escape key to hang the phone up.

3. Lacks a Speaker Phone.

4. Battery life could be a little better. I've run mine down 2 out of 3 days and will likely need to buy a back up battery.

So, that being said, the Blackberry 7250 still reins far supreme to the Treo I've been using. Since Verizon offers a 15 day guarantee, I'll likely play with this device for a few more days and decide whether to keep it, or switch to their Windows based smartphone that will sync with my Outlook, but make typing e-mails cumbersome with the tiny keys those devices have. In the end, that is really my biggest gripe with the phone.

If you don't mind deleting e-mails on both your handheld and computer, or work for a company that has the Enterprise Server, I can't recommend this device enough. I really do like it and may end up keeping it until I can justify installing the Enterprise Server into my corporate environment