Ok, here we go. As much as I love this BlackBerry I felt that I had to post the issues me and my friends have noticed. 1. My screen has scratched so badly that I am depressed. Fell out of my pocket the ONE time I wasnt using the holster and there are little scratches EVERYWHERE. 2. The FAKE metal bezel around the screen is painted, that has scratched aswell...remember the white one on the 7230s? Looks like we have stepped back to that. 3. Good friend of mine who got the 8700 same day as me has said his backbutton, escape button, whatever you want to call it is broken. If he blows on it it will activate and go back...very shady. Plus this doesnt feel at all as solid as my 7290 a friends 7520 got ran over by a car and lived to type about it, there is NO WAY this will survive anything close to that...so sad. I will go drink myself to sleep.

I feel for you man. But maybe that's why they gave it to you on that first day, just trying to get rid of subpar units.

Sorry, had to crack that one, you've been rubbing it in to the rest of us for almost a week now

Hahaha, all good, I set myself up for that! But seriously, I dont mind if these units were bad, I am still going to get another on the official launch date to keep as a backup and compare the two...my guess is that they are so far down the release line with retail packaging etc that what have i you have will.

Boy Genius~ There are different reports in the press about the battery life of the 8700. Some saying the battery does not last as long as previous BB’s, others claiming (as I believe RIM does) that the 8700 has improved battery life over previous models.

What has your experience been?

There is nothing worse than dropping it. I have done it probably 3 or 4 times (concrete floor, garage floor) and each time I am fearful of a severe scratch. Never once have I thought that it would fail to operate. I feel for you. Scratches suck. That is one thing I hate about my iPod....scratches to easily. You may want to try Brasso. Many people have had success using this on there iPod screen or try displex it also is a great scratch remover for cellphones. I guess that is one great thing about the 72XX series have the recessed screen.

I really hope they did not skimp on the build quality since that is a major advantage of the BlackBerry's.

what about those pda screen protectors...i wonder if that would help the screen from getting scratched?

If you drop any handheld, it is going to get scratched (OK, maybe not on carpet, but certainly on pavment or sidewalks). Happened to my Moto220, other phones I've had and yes, my 7100G.

Also, pocketable means nothing else on pocket, no change, keys, extra battery, uncut diamonds, knives, extra magazines for your gun, etc.

Use brasso on my 7100 and it works like a charm. Just don't get it around the ear piece or cracks. I hope the 8700 does not go the way of the Nano as far as scratching.

No obviously the device will get scratched, my point is unlike the 7290 and previous screens this plastic is right ONTOP and is very prone to scratches, as much or more than the 7100's. Battery life is very good, I am using a couple AIM clients that are logged in non-stop and get around 16-18hours straight. Without the direct AIM connections it lasts about 2-3 days with HEAVY email use. I can't tell you about the phone, but I tried today and it really pissed me off I will NOT use this as my main phone, it wuold get frozen, I would call turn speakerphone on and the party couldnt hear me then I would try to turn speakerphone off and it wouldnt work for 3-4 minutes then flip out on me I would end the call and it would still be ON! even tho the call counter had gone away and it brought me to home screen...really freaked me out.

Hopefully this can be worked out with a firmware upgrade. BTW how well do the IM clients work on the 8700?

The units I tried at the show did not exibit the phone problems you are experiencing. I made calls and used the unit without any freeze ups. Have you loaded any other applications? Perhaps it is an interaction with some application. I specifically asked about the screen and was told that it was much more scratch resistant than the 7100 (same as the new screen on the 7105). I realize that concrete can be very tough and the unit can experience several G's of force in a 3 foot fall so maybe the screen isn't that tough but I would not expect the unit to scratch easily in your pocket or daily use.

only thing I have aftermarket is Yak-On. Yak-On works flawlessly, best IM client I have ever used. VeriChat is the worst thing I have tried, it NEVER reconnects, and I used it on Treo 650 and still get the same problem if I lose service it says to someone who ims me System COnnectivity error: the message __ was not received by the user etc.. yak-on is the way to go! Dropped sidekick while driving and it scratched on the carpet of my car! No not the winter rubber mat, the CARPET. So emotional

Boy you are hard on devices! Just for gigles, try it with Yak-on removed and see if you still have the same phone issues. Yak-on could work great and still screw up the phone.

A friend of mine works for RIM and has an 8700. I was playing with it the other day and noticed that the back button was quite loose/flimsy. I was also looking at the screen, though he didn't have any scratches I was curious as to how it would handle bumps/scrapes. My friend assured me that the production models will be more robust and that his was an engineering/pre-production sample. Hopefully the one that you got is not one of the ones that they're filling the channel with.

Regarding the bugginess of the firmware for making calls and the speaker phone, I suspect that will be rectified quite quickly. If you really run into problems check to see if Rogers has a newer handheld OS than Cingular, I know that Rogers are usually later to market with devices because they go through quite rigorous testing with their devices. I remember it took us almost 2 to 3 months longer to get handheld OS 4.0 compared to other carriers.

edit

After talking with the high-level cingular exec at the launch party he stated they have been testing the 8700 for almost 9 months now! How much more timie do you need? Tried uninstalling yak-on had same problem wtih phone...who knows..i dont use phone anyway...

I know there are a few others here that have the unit are they experiencing the same issues? Also boygenius, you had several units are they all displaying the same issues?

They haven't been testing the 8700 for 9 months... 9 weeks, possibly, but not 9 months.

Wow - So where can I buy a new 8700?

i think they will be available anywhere around the 16th-21st