Blackberry WorldMode 8830

Telecom Mobile customers wedded to CDMA network technology often lament the lack of overseas roaming capability and that lack has become especially acute with Telstra in Australia planning to switch off its CDMA network this month.

By Ted Gibbons / Tuesday, April 29 2008

In the recent past, one kludgy solution to the roaming problem for regular travellers was simply to borrow a GSM phone from Telecom. Now, however, Telecom has begun to release dual mode phones like the business-savvy Blackberry 8830 that house both a CDMA and a GSM radio. The 8830 comes with a Telecom branded GSM SIM card that you simply slot in under the battery cover, as you would with any Vodafone GSM phone. You can then set the 8830 to automatically select either a GSM or CDMA network, depending on which country you’re in and which provider Telecom has a roaming agreement with.

The 8830’s CDMA radio works on both the 800MHz and 1900MHz bands and it supports Telecom’s 3G 1xEvDO network for fast data downloads. The GSM radio supports both 900MHz and 1800MHz bands and GPRS data but, no, you can’t just cheekily hop across to the Vodafone network here at home to dial up some free calling. Neither, unfortunately, will the 8830 support Telecom’s new UMTS network due to be rolled out by the end of the year.

In terms of data download, the 8830 is launching with two plans here at home, $35 for 5MB and $45 for 15MB. When roaming, however, that price shoots up to $30 per MB. Yes, the Blackberry compresses data and only downloads email headers, allowing you to choose whether to get the whole email, or any attachments, but it will still pay to be careful if the mood strikes you to start surfing the web overseas.

Features
The 8830 itself is a handsome unit with its black livery and chrome sides and a very slim form factor. It’s lightweight in the hand but it’s also very wide. The breadth didn’t bother me as it allows for a generous-sized keyboard with good, big buttons and a 62mm widescreen display.

One thing that is immediately obvious about the 8830 is that it does not have a camera. This is a business-oriented device with push email being its primary claim to fame.

Blackberry veterans will immediately notice that the 8830 has acquired the Blackberry Pearl’s central trackball for navigation and dispensed with the familiar side-mounted jog wheel and back button. The trackball certainly makes for a different style of navigation but it still lends itself to easy one-handed operation and I appreciated the fact that you can adjust both its horizontal and vertical sensitivity. The menu key and escape key flank the trackball; and the call and end buttons round out the navigational controls.

The 8830’s screen has great resolution and clarity and is easy to see both inside and out. The keyboard is a breeze to use in the daylight, and has prominent ridges on the buttons to guide your fingers but its blue backlight is very dim, even at 100% brightness. The bright, white trackball, on the other hand, is unmissable in the dark.

A convenience key on the left side is handily placed and leads you into the voice command application by default but it’s very easy to bump unintentionally. In fact, I bumped it nearly every time I picked the Blackberry up.

The 8830 uses a 2.5mm stereo headset jack and an USB-mini charging/syncing port. A handsfree headset is provided but the non-standard 2.5mm jack size means that any pair of stereo headphones you already own will most likely not fit. The power button sits on top of the device on the left. Pressing the power button will turn on the screen backlight and pressing and holding the button will turn on or off the BlackBerry. A mute key on top right side can also put the 8830 in standby mode if you hold it down which can prevent accidental dialling; however when a phone call comes in while the device is in standby mode, the phone will ring and the screen will turn on.

Another good feature of the 8830 is that while the microSD memory expansion card lives under the battery cover, it is not under the battery and is hot swappable.

Applications
The 8830 comes loaded with a stack of applications but apart from the familiar organiser apps, push email and the ability to download and read attachments, the real standouts are the GPS functionality, a mobile Facebook app, Yahoo search, Yahoo messenger and Google Talk. I’m not big on IM at any time, and I’m not convinced Facebook is anything but a waste of time but I was keen on the GPS. Unfortunately, and this is the case for other smartphones featuring GPS capability, there were no maps for New Zealand. That’s a serious black mark in my book.

Performance
Sadly, the PC World editorial budget did not stretch to me jetting off overseas to test the 8830’s GSM roaming capabilities. However, here at home on Telecom’s CDMA network, reception was very good and I found voice quality to be clear and natural-sounding, if a little lacking in volume.

Of course, email is where it’s really at and here the 8830 excels. Setting up an account couldn’t be easier. Just plug in your email address, user ID and password and the Blackberry will do the rest. I had my home account and Gmail account up and running and pushing email through in minutes. Working with emails is a breeze and you are given the ability to choose to delete emails just off the handset when you’re done with them or to delete them from both the handset and the email account itself.

The 8830 also has a good, fast web browser that does a very good job of formatting most websites for its screen. The trackball really comes into its own here too for navigation.

Finally, the 8830 is not all business, it also sports video and audio players that support a good range of formats. For video you can view MP4, H.263 and WMV files, and for audio MP3, AAC and WMA are supported. To ensure smooth playback of all files, the included desktop software will optimise all files as you transfer them from your PC.

I like the 8830. It doesn’t have a trendy touchscreen but it is so well-sorted in terms of functionality and ergonomics that I didn’t really miss it. It’s not the ultimate multimedia device either, but nor is it meant to be. It’s a very good business tool with a bit of entertainment on the side. Shame about the GPS though.