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BlackBerry 8800 Review - Organizer

Alfredo Padilla Published on May 22, 2007 Comment on this

Intro Making/Receiving Calls Software Other Features

Tour & Design Messaging Battery Life Value & Comparisons

Audio Quality Organizer Connectivity Conclusion

Imaging Multimedia Hardware Ratings & Specs

Synchronization Ease of Use (6.33)
The BlackBerry Desktop Software that you use to synchronize your BlackBerry with your PC is straightforward and easy to use. It is not as pretty as the new Windows Mobile Device Manager, but it gets the job done and it's reliable. With the BlackBerry Desktop Software, you can synchronize your calendar, contacts, tasks, and notes. You can also use the software to move files back and forth to the device and backup your BlackBerry. Synchronization is supported via USB and Bluetooth.

The BlackBerry Desktop Software works with Outlook or BlackBerry's Stop Manager. The 8800 does not synchronize natively with a Mac; however, there is third party software available to enable this. The free program PocketMac for BlackBerry allows you to sync the 8800 with Mac's PIM software, including Apple's own iCal and iWorks programs. However, this program is not included with the 8800; you have to download it to use it.

Alerts (9.0)
You can create alerts for both calendar events and tasks on the BlackBerry 8800. When creating alerts for calendar appointments, you will need to choose a time period before the appointment occurs. There are a wide variety of choices available, so most won't have a problem with this, but it would have been nice to also be able to choose a specific time as you are able to do when creating an alert for tasks.

When an alert actually goes off, you hear the sound/vibration assigned by your current profile. The screen stays off if you are not actively using the device, but when you activate it, you see a dialog with the option to open the appointment/task, dismiss the alert or snooze for five minutes. The alert sounds for one minute, and if you miss it, you will see the dialog on the screen the next time you turn the phone on. The LED also blinks red when you have an alert.

Over the Air PIM Sync (4.0)
The BlackBerry 8800 can synchronize your contacts and calendars over the air via a BlackBerry Server and Exchange server. It does not support synchronization out-of-the-box with services like Yahoo or Google. This is not surprising considering that this is an enterprise focused device.

Address Book

Adding Contacts (6.13)
To test how easy it is to add contacts to the address book, we time how long it takes to go from the home screen (unlocked) until we have added a contact name and phone number. We repeat this process for five different contacts with diverse names and then take the average for our score. The BlackBerry 8800 took an average of 16.3 seconds to add a new contact. This is slightly faster than the BlackBerry 8700's 17.9 seconds, but it's slower than the T-Mobile Dash (13.44 seconds). We found the interface when adding a contact to be easy to use and intuitive, as with most things on the BlackBerry platform.

Looking/Sorting/Search (6.5)
You can sort your contacts by first name, last name, or business. You can also view groups of contacts. You can search through your contacts easily by first or last name. To search by company, simply type the name you are looking for. The list automatically filters the list of contacts based on what you have typed. We were pleased with the array of sorting options available on the BlackBerry 8800 and found searching through contacts to be very easy.

Fields (5.6)
When creating a new contact, the BlackBerry 8800 provides you with 25 different fields (with multiple fields for each of two addresses) and the ability to add an additional two email addresses. You can also add a contact photo and a custom ring tone, and we were happy to see a notes field where you can enter any information you need. We were disappointed that there was no ability to create a custom field as Series 60 phones allow you to. Despite the large number of fields, it doesn't match the 40 fields the Treo 750 offers. It should be sufficient for most business users' basic needs however.

Speed Dial/Voice tags/Voice command (5.67)
The BlackBerry 8800 supports speed dial and voice command but not voice tags. A speed dial can be assigned to any letter on the keyboard by simply holding the key down until a dialog pops up asking if you want to assign a speed dial to it. Speed dial can only be used for contacts or phone numbers but not for applications. The voice command application on the 8800 did very well in our test, recognizing all five diverse names of our test contacts. It can also be used to check the status of your phone, things like battery life and signal strength. Voice tags are not available on the 8800; however, given the excellent performance of the voice command software, this should be of little import to most.

Calendar

Adding Calendar Items (14.45)
To test how easy it is to add calendar items, we time how long it takes to go from the home screen with the phone unlocked until we have entered a simple lunch appointment for the next day with an alert 15 minutes beforehand. We repeat this test five times and take the average for our score. The BlackBerry 8800 took 6.92 seconds on average to add our test appointment. This is an excellent time better than the T-Mobile Dash's 7.38 seconds and about the same as the Treo 750's 6.76 seconds. It was significantly better than the BlackBerry 8700's 11.1 second average time. The 8800 was helped by the fact that you can create an appointment simply by scrolling to the appropriate date and time and begin typing. The 15 minute alert is set automatically for new appointments.

Calendar Views (4.67)
The BlackBerry 8800 provides four different calendar views: daily, weekly, monthly, and agenda. The daily view is the default view when you open the calendar and shows the current date between 9am and 5pm. Appointments are listed at the appropriate time, with the title and indicators for recurrence and alerts. The weekly view is a grid with the days of the week along the top and the hours of the day (9am to 5pm again) along the left. Appointments are indicated with orange bars showing what time block they cover. When you move the cursor over an appointment, you will see the title and time of the appointment at the bottom of the screen. For both weekly and daily views, you can change the default hours shown in the calendar options.
The monthly view shows a single month with a small bar to the left of the date that indicates days that have appointments. Unfortunately, there is no way to see what appointments are scheduled. If you press in on the trackball, you will be taken to the currently selected day's daily view. The agenda view is a list of all your appointments arranged chronologically. Both appointments and free time are shown by default, you can choose not to display free time in the calendar settings. The appointment's time is listed on the left with the title next to it on the right. There are no indicators for things like recurrence or alerts.
Overall, we found the calendar views on the BlackBerry 8800 to be very useful. We liked that the weekly view provided information for the currently selected appointment, but we were disappointed that the monthly view did not do the same for the currently selected day. The BlackBerry 8800's calendar views are as good or better than any other smart phone we have reviewed. We were disappointed, however, by the lack of support for filtering your views and also would have liked to see a yearly view.

Fields (11.0)
When creating a new calendar appointment with the BlackBerry 8800, you can enter a title, start/end, location, choose to create an all day appointment, recurrence, reminder, and note. As with other Blackberries, we were happy to see that you can set a time zone for appointments. We were also pleased at the range of options for recurrence, with the ability to create complex patterns like appointments that only happen on certain days of the week. In addition, you can add invite contacts to appointment. We were, however, disappointed that there was no support for categories especially since categories are supported in tasks.

ToDo/Tasks

Adding ToDo/Task (5.32)
To test how easy it is to add a task to a phone, we time how long it takes to go from the home screen until we have added a simple task reminding us to pick up groceries. We repeat the test five times and take the average for our score. The BlackBerry 8800 took an average of 18.8 seconds to add our test task. This is slower than the BlackBerry 8700's 15.8 seconds and much slower than the Treo 700p's 12.9 second average. We found that we were slowed down on the 8800 because when we entered the date of our task, we were forced to select month and date separately, rather than entering a simple numeric date as on many other devices.

ToDo/Task Sorting and Prioritizing (7.0)
You can sort your tasks by name, priority, due date, and status, as well as filter by category.

Fields (10.0)
When you create a task on the 8800, you can add a title, due date, set priority, a reminder, category, and note. Just like calendar appointments, you can also set a time zone for the task as well as a recurrence.

Notes

Adding Notes (3.81)
To test how easy it is to add text notes to a device, we time how long it takes to go from the home screen unlocked until we have created a new note reminding us about a lunch appointment. We repeat this test five times and take the average for our score. The BlackBerry 8800 took an average of 13.12 seconds to add our test note. This is slightly slower than the BlackBerry 8700's 11.1 seconds and even slower than the Treo 700p's 8.3 second average. The BlackBerry 8800's notes applications is stored in an applications folder on the home screen, adding an extra step when compared to the 8700.

Note Interface (7.5)
When creating new notes, you can add both a title that is displayed in the list of notes and a body. Notes can be categorized, and you can filter notes by category. We were also very pleased to see that just as with the 8700, there is a search function that searches through note's titles but not the body of the note. Accessing the menu is of course as easy as hitting the menu key. Overall, we found the interface both simple to use and powerful.

Note Formatting (0.0)
Unfortunately, the BlackBerry 8800's notes program is not as good when it comes to formatting notes. You cannot change font type, size, or color from within the program. You also can't add formatting like italics, bold, or underlining. We should mention that most notes programs lack this type of functionality, but that doesn't mean we wouldn't like to see it.

Voice Memo (1.0)
Unlike the BlackBerry 8700, the 8800 does include a voice notes application, although its implementation leaves something to be desired. Located in the same applications folder as the text notes applications, the voice notes application can only be used to record a voice note to send via MMS. We are unsure about why RIM and/or Cingular would choose to include a crippled voice notes application since most regular phones, much less smart phones, include fully featured voice notes.

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