To me the biggest difference between the 7100 and any other BlackBerry, is the keyboard. The 8700 is said to have a full QWERTY keyboard like all BlackBerrys except for the 7100, which has two letters per key and uses suretype technology to essentially guess what word you are typing. (There are some words that use the same keys, like see and are, that it will not be able to guess).

I adapted to the 7100 and like it a lot. I am able to bang out emails just as quickly on the 7100 as I was on my old 7230 and I consider the 7100 a far superior phone, which is a necessity for my job. (I've never had the problems that many have had with sound quality on the 7100).

All that being said, I will be the first one to jump on an 8700 because I like to have the newest toys and I'm ready to go back to a full QWERTY keyboard.