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).