Digital Trends

Blackberry 8700c July 5th, 2006 | by Stewart Wolpin

Features and Design

Blackberry's raison d'etre is its secure push email, either from your individual POP3 or IMAP account or connected through Blackberry's Enterprise Server for Microsoft Exchange and all other major email server programs. For the sake of brevity, we'll assume that you have at least a passing familiarity with Blackberry's rich font of email and PDA features, benefits, and its intuitive interface and controls. The 8700c contains all these usual Blackberry attributes, so we'll concern ourselves with how the 8700c compares to other Blackberry models. If you need more basic Blackberry info, see Blackberry's own site (www.blackberry.com).

The 8700c has a few extra features that set it apart from both previous Blackberrys, with full QWERTY thumbpads, and the new "NURTY" keypads (an expression we just made up). QWERTY keypads cleverly compressed into and around a standard numerical array found, such as included on the new 7100 series models. One prominent advantage of the 8700c over other Blackberrys is its copious 64 MB internal memory, which enables you to download and store more ringtones, applications, and (horrors!) games from Cingular's online store.

While fattening up its digital storage capacity, RIM has trimmed the 8700c's waistline. At 4.3 x 2.7 x .77 inches, the 8700c is nearly a half inch trimmer than the 7700-series models, and almost a quarter inch trimmer than the 7500 and 7200 series models. This may not sound like a substantial difference, but anyone who's had to maneuver around their belt clipped Blackberry to get their hand into a pants pocket or wiggle the phone out of a suit breast pocket will appreciate the 8700c's heroin chic thinness. For folks with hands smaller than an NBA player, the thinner 8700c is also a bit easier to palm and operate with one hand.

In return for this handier size, however, the keyboard keys have been smashed closer together when compared to other full QWERTY models. While still roomier than the keyboard on other popular QWERTY PDA phones such as the Treo, 8700c's tighter thumbpad does raise the chubby thumb/typing mistake ratio.

The 8700c is also squatter than all other Blackberry models, which means a little less LCD screen real estate. But the 8700c's 320 x 240 pixel LCD is far brighter and more colorful than previous Blackberry models. It also includes RIM's light sensing technology, which brightens or dims the display and thumbpad backlighting depending on ambient light.

One unfortunate thumbpad ergonomic anomaly also has been added. Like all Blackberrys, the numerical dial keys are integrated into the left side of the QWERTY thumbpad, with the "S" and "4" sharing one key adjacent to the "D" and the "5" key. In previous Blackberrys, these keys were two-toned, with the numbers appearing white-on-gray atop the gray-on-white letter. The 8700c eschews this edifying two-toning and leaves the co-alpha/numeric keys all white. Normally not a big deal, except that RIM's sans serif font renders the "S" under the "4" nearly identical to the "5" over the "D" on the neighboring key. If you're one of those folks who use the center "5" on any numerical key pad to unconsciously orient your fingers before dialing, the momentary confusion over the neighboring "S"/"5" keys could cause continual disconcertion.

Image Courtesy of Research in Motion