Review of BlackBerry 7230

As promised earlier, I would write a review on this new gadget, now I am doing it. After one month’s use, this gadget has become indispensable to my every day life. After only a few day’s use, I bought the sync software, I think US$29.95 is a fair price for something that has virtually no competitor in the market and actually works. I just received the first bill from Three HK today, go to the details now …

Price & Costs

I must admit that the price tag is a bit steep. BlackBerry 7730 is priced at HK$3,800. Definitely there are so many better-looking mobile phones or PDAs which cost less than them.

Nonetheless, I must also admit that no other such phones or PDAs can do what it does. I have owned many PDAs (PocketPC/Palm) and phones that are all capable of receiving/sending emails, but none of them does the job well, or cost-effectively.

For PDAs, I have to use either Wi-Fi or GPRS connection to get online. For Wi-Fi, most PDAs Sunday’s $168 unlimited GPRS plan, but first I need to shelf out some $1,000 to get a GPRS modem for the PDA or connect the PDA via Bluetooth/cable to a GPRS-enabled phone, or simply use that mobile phone to get online. So the same problem is - I am either stuck with Sunday’s poor reception/coverage or I am going to pay an unreasonable fee for GPRS data transfer with other carriers.

One more problem, since PocketMac for BlackBerry for OS X and it has worked flawlessly so far, despite some negative comments I found on google. Upon a USB connection, the software detects my handheld and I could sync all my contacts (on Address Book), my notes (on Stickies) and my schedules & tasks (on iCal). Nothing is lost except the Chinese texts are not displayed on the Address Book of BlackBerry (the fields become blank). There’s something they must work on. I hope it’s the issue of the PocketMac not BlackBerry.

Size & Weight

The 7230 weighs 136g, size is 113(L) x 74 (W) x 20 (H) mm. Completely acceptable for a handheld phone. The 7730 is a bit heavier but has a slightly bigger screen, which I don’t need, I changed the screen font size from 14(default) to 8, it saved so much space and I could still read comfortably.

Screen

Spoiler! This is the weakest thing and the only thing I am not really happy with. Although it has a 65,000 colour screen TFT display, the contrast is so low! It looks worse than the first-generation color palm like Palm IIIc! The display looks like it is a dummy one, when it is compared side-by-side with my Sony T630 mobile, I wonder why it cost HK$3,500! Even with the backlight on, it doesn’t help. The backlight is OK only, yes, only when it is almost or completely dark.

Conclusion

I would give 4 stars out of 5 for it. It must improve the screen contrast and drop the price a bit. Then it’d be perfect.

A recap of how much I have spent:

BlackBerry 7230 : HK$3,492 (HK$194 x 18 months)
PocketMac for BlackBerry for Mac OS X : HK$234 (US$29.95)
Monthly fee for 18 Nov ~ 17 Nov : HK$198

(note: available at Three HK, 1010, One2free. Only Three HK offers free voicemail, call forwarding/waiting, caller display, etc. for 12 months)

Finally, I just knew that there is a 1010 + BlackBerry bundle offer for HKU Alumni (valid through 31 Dec 2004), not useful for me even if I haven’t got mine, since I don’t have the BEA HKU Graduate Credit Card.

Tags:

This entry was posted on November 20th, 2004 and is filed under Gadgets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.