Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) focused on speed with this latest model of the BlackBerry, which was introduced at the recent Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA) trade show in Las Vegas and uncorked by T-Mobilelast week.
For starters, the 8700g is powered by an Intel PXA901 XScale processor running at 312 MHz. It's got 64MB of flash memory, 16MB of Synchronous Dynamic RAM and runs on T-Mobile's EDGE (Enhanced Data Rate for GSM Evolution) high-speed network. RIM has also tacked on features to speed up mundane chores such as message composition and e-mail setup.
The 8700g borrows some of its styling from the slimmer, more phone-like BlackBerry 7100 line, but it retains the "traditional" blocky BlackBerry shape and ease of use. The quad-band Global System for Mobile Communications/General Packet Radio Service phone can work overseas and supports Bluetooth 2.0.
T-Mobile USA Inc.'s new BlackBerry 8700g
At 4.7 ounces, the 8700g is just a tiny bit lighter and smaller than the BlackBerry 7290, which weighs 4.9 ounces. Its 35-key backlit QWERTY keyboard is slightly smaller, too, with the keys more closely spaced together. I found it OK to use, but good luck to folks with larger hands or those used to the older-style keyboard, because this one is pretty tightly packed.
More impressive is the 8700g's bright, 65,000-color, 320 by 240 QVGA display. A new built-in light sensor automatically adjusts the screen's brightness depending on the ambient light, so, for instance, it'll change as you walk into a darkened room or bright sunlight. I particularly liked this hands-off feature, which worked as advertised and made the sharp screen readable indoors and outside. Of course, you can tweak the settings manually, too.
Pick up the 8700g, and the first thing you notice is that its snazzy plastic case feels a little, well, toy-like, making me a little suspicious about how well it will hold up under rigorous usage.
You'll find the BlackBerry's fabled trackwheel and escape/back button on the right edge. A headphone jack, a Universal Serial Bus port and a programmable soft key that can be configured to open applications are on the left side. Power and a new mute button are located on the top edge, with a speakerphone on the rear.
The 8700g also features new dedicated send and end keys for phone calls and a second programmable soft key just above the keyboard. A color-coded LED above the top right of the screen blinks to indicate wireless activity (green), low battery (yellow), incoming messages (red), and Bluetooth connection (blue, of course).
Sure, the BlackBerry is a workhorse aimed at mobile professionals. But you'll find some frills lurking among the business applications such as themes to spice up the home screen's wallpaper and icons, and it supports MP3 ring tones.
The review unit I received came installed with the usual BlackBerry organizer applications (address book, calendar, task list, etc.), as well as some useful (Google Inc.'s local search) and not-so-useful add-ons (a link to T-Mobile's entertainment-laden T-Zones service).
RIM has also expanded instant messaging options beyond BlackBerry Messenger, adding support for AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo, MSN and ICQ. You can also download Google Talk and send messages via Short Message Service and Multimedia Messaging Service.
So, what about e-mail, BlackBerry's bread and butter? Of course the BlackBerry 8700g supports push e-mail and access to corporate data via BlackBerry Enterprise Server for Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino and Novell GroupWise.
Personal accounts can be configured with the BlackBerry Internet E-mail application to retrieve mail from services such as Yahoo, AOL and Comcast. Yahoo mail users now get real-time mail delivery, a feature announced at the CTIA event. I found it a breeze to configure, and it worked without a hitch.
In general, setting up corporate and personal e-mail is pretty zippy on the 8700g because you can do it directly from the device. To set up for use with BlackBerry Enterprise Server, you simply click the "Enterprise Activation" icon on the home screen, enter an e-mail address and an IT-provided activation password, and the device syncs your work mail, calendar, task list, memos and contacts.
For personal accounts, click the "Set up Internet e-mail" icon, and you're whisked to an online setup screen. In most cases, you simply enter an e-mail address and password, and in about 20 minutes mail starts hitting the in-box. The device supports up to 10 corporate/personal accounts.
Icons appear on the home screen for each e-mail account you create, but you can turn those off. All mail appears in your main in-box. Sync features vary depending on which online e-mail service you're using, but, for example, if you send e-mail from your Yahoo account via the 8700g, it'll appear in your sent folder when you log onto Yahoo mail on a computer.
Composing e-mail and text messages is also slightly faster now that you can highlight and click on an address or phone number in any e-mail, calendar entry or text message to launch them. And when you start to enter an e-mail address, matching entries in the address book automatically appear in a drop-down menu.
I had mixed results opening attachments on the 8700g, which supports Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and WordPerfect file formats as well as JPEG, GIF and PNG images. The Word documents lost some formatting, and two Excel files didn't display properly. I had more success with a couple of PowerPoint files.
I found Web browsing and downloading applications over the T-Mobile EDGE network on the 8700g was indeed zippy.
As a phone, the 8700g performed fine. Calls were clear, and the speakerphone was impressively loud.
BlackBerries are known for long battery life, and the 8700g is no exception, even with the bright new screen and beefy wireless features running. It's rated for four hours of talk time, and 16 days of standby. After five days of normal use, I found that the battery indicator on my review unit was a notch below the half-empty mark.
The 8700g comes packaged with a travel charger, holster, headset, USB cable and a CD containing BlackBerry Desktop software. T-Mobile is hawking it for US$299 with a two-year service plan and $349 with a one-year plan.
Michelle Johnson is a freelance writer in Boston. Her e-mail address is mijohn@mail-me.com.