Is there a huge difference in the 7230 vs the 7290? i used to have a blackberry 8700g and switched to a sidekick 3 because i wanted the more fun phone and after having it for a year i've realized the only thing i want in a phone is a qwerty keyboard and since i've always been in love with the 7290 model i figured i'd get one now that you can find them cheaper. i keep seeing ads for the 7230 in ebay though and while i realize it's and older model i'm wondering are there any major differences in the two? i'll really only be using the phone for texting as well as the occasional phone call so i don't know which would be better in the long run. thanks!

the key differences between the 7230 and 7290 is that the 7230 lacks the 850Mhz band in the United States and 7290 is quad band (800/850/1800/1900). so you may notice the 7230 doesn't penetrate building very well in some cases. also the 7230 has half the memory (16MB vs. 32MB) of the 7290. This is a big deal when you are storing 30 days or more of emails and call logs - one tends to exhaust the device memory, and for some reason garbage collection of memory was poor on this model (from my recollection) and caused some problems as a result. But maybe a later O/S revision fixed that.

but if the phone is to be used for light texting and the occassional phone call (like you mention) then either device is probably fine.

BlackBerry - BlackBerry 7290 Wireless Handheld Device | With Quad-Band Smartphone, Bluetooth & Email

BlackBerry -7230 - Archived Devices

thank you! i'll probably be switching back and forth between it and my sidekick so i'm sure i won't have a problem with it. thank you so much though! i really just want something i can text on and still fit in my pocket

You're welcome.

Another option might be the 6280. It had 16MB but had a monochrome screen. I liked that text was visible in most cases without the backlight. This model had 850Mhz band. I don't recall it T-Mo offered these, but I had users on Rogers and the former AT&T Wireless with these at one point.

Happy hunting.

Aaron