I received mine and installed it yesterday. Looks great. Aside from looking nice, the best thing about it is that the backlit keyboard is easy to read. That blue backlight was difficult to focus on, and the b/w is easy like my wifes 8703. I did not use the new siderails that were included - even though the adhesive came off when I took the originals off per the video, they still snap back into place.

So what's the total with everything? 43 for hte housing, 3 for the keypad, and is there anything else u need?

Bottom line was $51.98. I ordered the Full Housing, and the Keyboard.

About six of us at work have ordered the black keyboards for our Verizon 8830's. We have come to the conclusion that these are probably factory seconds. Some of them have keys in the wrong place or installed upside down. Even so, you can correct the error in about 30 seconds and all is well. We are all happy.

I just did my 8830 - keyboard and case - huge difference with the keyboard - I would recommend it to anyone....

Yeah, but if you look at the picture, its not the wrong keys in the wrong place, they actually printed the wrong letters on the wrong keys. the # and * are in the right place. very strange. looks good though, thinkin bout this for mine.

52 bux, i watched the video on the install doesn't seem to difficult but i noticed a tool they used on the side rails, looked like a non prying tool used for ipods..

It looks like I COULD do it, but i don't trust myself. Anyone in MA do this that might be able to assist?

This was a far easier disassembly than my 2nd gen ipod. This was about 20 minutes for me. I agree that the tape on the rails was deceptive, I thought it would be a much easier pull off the frame. But it was pretty easy. Yet again I am impressed with RIM and their products. I like the fact that I can order up a new display if I somehow manage to break this and replace it myself. I am really happy with the cover. I only ordered the front and keyboard since I have my 8830 in a silicone case most of the time. I'm not sure how long this cover will last without getting scratched up. It does not seem as scratch resistant as the silver. Time will tell. I would suggest anyone who uses the keyboard a lot to get the black keyboard, it is far easier to see the letters, but more importantly the symbols in both light, dark, and medium lighting. I am totally happy with CNN, it cost me $31 and change for the front cover, the keyboard, and an Orange bottom cover since I didn't want the Verizon silver base piece. The Orange logo is the smallest of the logos and looks the best to me. If in doubt, spend the money. I will probably end up getting another one for my wife's BB too.

I just completed my installation of the black shell and black Keyboard (8830 unbranded) everything was a snap to do. It took a little over 10 minutes and it's beautiful.

There is one problem though. I noticed that the battery door doesn't completely lock. It's a hair too short or something. This makes removing the battery much easier but you can see tiny gap above the silver rectangle at the top of the battery cover. Has anyone else noticed this? I made sure I am not crazy by sliding the old (silver) battery cover on and viola all fits snugly. I wonder if I should email CNN they seem to be helpful.

By the way there is a french keyboard and a Europe keyboard both of which have different lettering and symbol locations. It's not just factory seconds on the keyboards. Make sure you order the USA keyboard.

yep they sent me the wrong one before also.... got a replacement in three days....

I love my all black case and keyboard. easy to change so if i have to go to verizon.

I have noticed the battery door also...... maybe the clip is catching let me know what you find out, I may have to change the back cover also.

I emailed CNN and Steve Chan responded with this:

"I noticed the same thing on my own 8800, how big is the gap? Do you have a
picture? I think it might be normal.

Steve Chan"

I replied:

"Steve,

Its a very small gap. I don't think a pic would help. You can slide the door off without pushing down on the silver part if you know what I mean. Its a tiny bit too short."


He did not respond to the last email. I do, however have an update. My usb port was loose and the charger was not constantly charging the phone so I called verizon and they said to bring it in for an exchange. So, I had to remove the black shell and re install the OEM silver shell. When I did this I paid special attention to the back panel and battery cover. The problem is not on the battery cover the problem is on the top part of the back cover. there is a small "latch" in the middle of the cutout where the silver "micro SD" recangle goes that is missing. It is present on the silver faceplate and missing on the black one.

All that being said, I think I'm the first official black shell back to silver warranty exchange thusfar. Those of you who were worried, relax and get the black faceplate. Even the battery door issue is pretty much no big deal. it won't fall off but it slides off kinda easily.

YESTER18!!!!

Problem fixed. I had to slightly bend the two parts of the battery door on each side that stick out (black plastic parts) I did this by facing the silver part up and pushing the small clips one at a time into the corner of the table gently but hard enough to bend them a little bit. This worked prefect.

By the way Steve emailed me again. He was very concerned. That says a lot.

Sorry bro I am still confused as to what I need to bend?

Take the battery door off and look at it with the silver rectangle facing up. Near the right and left top edges there are 2 small "clips" one at each end. Those have to be bent very carefully up towards you. I hope that helps. Mine is perfect now.

The earlier post about the clip on the back faceplate is accurate. I just did the swap to black today and noticed the same thing. My battery door slides off too easily and I found your advice about gently bending the plastic tabs helps. Also I pushed the metal clip at the top of the silver rectangle firmly against the rectangle and now the cover fits almost as snug as my silver original. Would be nice though is CNN would step up and ship us backplates with the correct latch.
Am I the only one who finds themselves gazing at their new BLACK 8830. Damn it's beautiful....something must be wrong with me.....

the black clips are plastic they do not bend.

Still lookin for someone in Mass to do mine=)

Granite doesn't bend, plastic does. The plastic clips do change position if you apply gentle pressure (can't really tell by looking). Also, from my earlier post, if you push the metal clip firmly against the back of the chrome latch it will snap rather nicely into the back plate. Cheers.....

Yea what he said....

Also, I stare at my black blackberry all the time as well. She sure is a pretty one.

You can do this yourself, even if you think you can't. Trust me.

Just sit in front of your computer and follow the video they have on their website. It is EASY. The hardest part is teasing the side rails off since they are sort of glued down - but that is NOT very hard, it just requires a little patience.

I went VERY slowly, just to make sure I didn't break anything or miss any steps, and it STILL only took me a bit over 20 minutes.

Hey everyone. As a result of this thread and the awesome pictures of the black kit, I went ahead and ordered one about 2 weeks ago.

Then I switched to the Pearl.

Then the kit arrived yesterday.

So...... If anyone is interested in purchasing one of these kits brand new and unopened, and would like to make me an offer, feel free.

SOLD. THANKS!

Chris

Ditto on the pics (i.e. like the way it looked). That silver/blue keys was really my biggest hangup on this phone as I am not crackberry proficient.

I ordered the kit Friday (11/9) afternoon and paid the extra $16 for the "4" day service. I was shocked as hell to answer the door this morning (Monday, 11/12) and see a FedEx driver standing there with my order. IMPRESSIVE!

Let's hope the rest if it goes as smooth as for some reason I have worked myself up on doing the swap out. Panzy.

Anywho, shipping with CNN appears to be top notch with the company. Let's hope the product is on the same level.

Thanks for the link, idea, post and the pics.

If your original side rails are still in good shape re use them. This way you'll have a spare set of brand new side rails in case of a drop in the future. Just a little piece of advice.

sLpFhaWK in Mass, you can do this. Trust me. I got myself all worked up over it for no reason. I installed mine yesterday. WOW! Love the "new" look. The only difficulty I had was the glue on the side rails as previously mentioned. It's really on there. Just be patient pulling/seperating as it will come off. I did have an exacto knife handy and needed it for just this reason, but again, couldn't have been any easier.

I do recommend a can of air (as did someone else in this thread) in case dust gets on the screen (mine did but was quickly remedied). Other than that, I had no problems. I did not experience the battery door/side rail issue. Mine snapped right in and the battery door fits as snug as the original.

The only downside to this housing was the very noticeable smudging/fingerprints. I use bestskinsever, so that alleviated that problem once I put them on.

Overall, very happy this housing was suggested and put in the forum. The keys are so much easier to see, especially during the day and I really do like the black look.

Thanks again BB Forums!

Wow.

It's pretty cool to see a thread that I originally started get so much traffic.

For all you guys who did the switch, and are enjoying your fantastic new black case as much as I'm enjoying mine, congratulations--and I'm glad I could be of service to the BlackBerry community.

Keep on thummin'!

Okie I might have to bite the bullet and just attempt it myself.. The side rails are glued on and most people have problems w/ them, but if that glue is not sticky once you remove them would they just snap in place if i wanted to use those instead? And I seen in the video he uses a non prying tool, like a plastic tool to get them off, if you have nothing like that what are some other tools u could use, xacto knife i seen kramerica used, any other?

Also if you don't care about the oem housing and rails does it matter if they are dmged? besides putting it in for warranty work? thanks for the replies.

Well...

The rails are held on towards the top with some pretty hefty double-sided tape--not glue, necessarily--and it will remain tacky enough to re-affix the rails to the unit. In truth the design of the rails and they way they hook to the top of the unit makes the tape kind of redundant, which you'll see once you get them off.

Working slowly from the bottom up with the pry tool (included in the CNN kit) will separate the rails fairly easily. The odds that they'd actually be damaged during the removal is unlikely. I wouldn't use an Xacto blade on them simply because you risk scratching the rails or slicing your finger open with it--the forces involved in cleaving the rails from the Berry might be too much for a thin Xacto blade, and you really don't want to bunch up the tape getting the rails off.

An earlier poster suggested using your original Berry's rails. That's a dandy idea and I did just that; that way, I have a set of brand-new virgin rails ready to go on in case something untoward happens to my Berry (unlikely because I use the Blackberry silicone rubber skin). Besides, the rails that com in the kit and your original rails are identical--sort of a smokey chrome that goes equally well with both cases.

Just ordered mine.. w00t

Yeah I just got my 8830 swapped out via Warranty w/ Verizon so my rails now are fairly new and not marked up. I'm going to do the same, use the old ones and have a fresh new pair if anything happens. Thanks guys!

Did mine today. It was fairly easy. Looks real nice. No problems with the battery door. No problems at all. It all snapped into place. The double sided tape actually made taking the back off a little harder though. But after watching the tape, it was clear that they pushed the back plate up (towards the top) before taking it off. The back plate was the toughest part to remove. I thought it was going to break. Anyway, if I can do it then anyone can. I'm not known as Tim the Tool Man by my wife for no reason. Go for it sLpFhaWk. You can do it.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8830/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/104)

Has anyone yet noticed if swapping the shells makes the phone more prone to gettint lint behind the screen? I feel like this phone is really good at not doing that, but I am wondering if tearing it open will change that

Can't tell you of course, since my shell has been on for about three hours. But now if it does, I can take it apart and clean it! We'll see.

I just got mine today - ordered way back on 11/5 so it did take a long time (I used the cheapest shipment method.) Of course, I'm on the east coast so that probably adds a few working days to the shipment time.

The installation went very well - I did the whole thing (KB, case, side rails, ...). Looks wonderful. I've got one frustrating thing right now with the green send button - it doesn't have a good "feel" (no click) and is hard to press now. I took it back apart to see if there was something blocking it but I can't seem to free it up properly. I'll use it for a couple of days and see if it "self - heals". Otherwise I'll drop the company an email and see if they would be willing to send me another KB to install. At least it's just the green send key... i don't use that too much.

Reiterating other folks comments... man the black really is much nicer all-around than the silver. Just looks so much crisper and more professional and the keyboard is lightyears more usable.

I put a bestskinsever on it so it will last much longer in the electronics hell that is my pocket!

All black w/ skin applied

are the side rails re-usable, meaning, do the rails go back on after you've pulled them off? or do i have to buy new side rails along with the keyboard?

Side rails go back on. They are a little stubborn to get off due to the sticky tape used. Just use the plastic tool you got with the case and they will pry off with a couple of unsettling snaps. Gentle but firm effort is the rule. The tape is not really needed as they snap back on and are held in place by the battery cover area screws.

is there replacment tape? i feel like that might be helping keep out dust and hair from getting behind the screen, and i realize i could just crack it open. but opening it up every week would probably ruin the side rails with time.

I've asked that question here before but was told that new side rails come with the double faced tape already on. I haven't looked, but your local craft store might be the ticket. It makes me feel better that there is someone as obsessed as me when it comes to my berry. I dropped it last week and am still depressed about the scratch......grrrr

Didn't see any double sided tape on the rails that came with my shell. And truthfully, it's not needed. The rails snap on and are very tight. The double sided tape is only a centimeter long or so. It's not what keeps dust out of the unit. It's only at the top of the unit on each side. I'm kind of glad it's gone. Now I can snap on and off the rails very easily if I need to switch out again.

well i have ordered a whole case, so I hope the tools still come with it. I only am switching out the keyboard and midplate for now, the other parts i will hold onto for later, when my screen starts getting all tore up. I will be sure to post about my proceedings!

I received my kit the other day and was able to change it out without to much trouble.

The kit includes the side rail extract tool & the torx driver.

I reused my side rails so that, as others have mentioned here, i will have a new set incase i need to replace them in the future. Although thats doubtful since I also put a BES skin on it.

There was a comment earlier about the quality of the keyboards, that they may be factory seconds(?) I'll have to agree with that as a few of my keys no longer have that nice 'click' fee to them.

sinnfein07 - I have the exact same problem as you do. I think I'm going to write them and ask for a new keyboard.

Overall I'm very satisfied with the way it looks.

Personally I didnt end up using the 'mid plate' as I didnt see a need to disassemble it that far. Is there any one who did or didnt and has any comments on the pros or cons either way?

Thanks,
Dave