I'm trying to decide between the 7130e or 7130c and this might be one of the deciding factors. I like the form of the 7130c better, and I'm trying to figure out if the EVDO advantage is enough to make me go the other way.

Is anyone here familiar with both EVDO and EDGE in New York City? How big of an actual difference is there in speed?

Maybe even people who have tried both in other markets can chime in....I've read a bunch on this forum about theoretical speeds, but in reality how big is the difference when it comes to things like web browsing or IM. In loading a website (say cnn.com) would it be 2 secs vs 3 secs, or 2 secs vs 10 secs.

Again, looking for actual experiences here, not specs/theoreticals....

There really is no big difference.....Verizon for voice is far superior, as for DATA, everyone has their own opinion, YMMV

EVDO vs EDGE speed, EVDO is faster but you may not be able to tell it on a Berry, ie difference of a couple of seconds. The images will load faster from EVDO but not that significant. If you tried on a laptop card, you would see the difference.

EVDO is far superior but it is the BB itself that may not have the horsepower to make the difference perceivable. Might be different on the 7130e since it is based roughly on the more robust 8700.

On a treo or ppc the difference is night and day.

Just read an article from pc mag that had some relevancy.

from pc mag:

"Since the BlackBerry e-mail system is optimized for slower networks, the fast EV-DO network doesn't shine quite as brightly when you're using the BlackBerry as a handheld. The system just doesn't transmit enough data for EV-DO's speed to become important. E-mails arrived at the same speed as on a T-Mobile BlackBerry 7105t, which uses the much slower GPRS network. As the BlackBerry Internet Service boils most attachments down to formatted text, we didn't see much of an advantage there, either, though scrolling down through attachments was noticeably snappier on the 7130e than on the 7105t.

Web browsing was definitely faster with EV-DO than with T-Mobile's GPRS network, but not by the tenfold difference we'd expect from sheer throughput speeds; pages like www.expedia.com and www.pcmag.com downloaded and displayed two to three times as quickly on the 7130e as on the 7105t. Perhaps processor speed is the limiting factor; the 7130e didn't do any better on JBenchmark Java benchmark tests than its predecessors did."

I can definitely see a difference in browsing speeds, the Cingular 8700 has been the fastest I've tested, but I'm chalking most of that up to unit guts, not network speed.

Tethering to a laptop, I'd give the edge to Verizon right now, although I've only tethered 7250's from Verizon and Sprint. It's not a huge difference, but the coverage and speed are just slightly better for me...

If you don't plan to tether, I don't think it makes much of a difference. I remember seeing a review/thread comparing EVDO to regular BB for browsing on the device and the speed difference wasn't significant with the limitation being the processor. Not sure how the new phones stack up. From GPRS to EDGE it was a big difference.

On the other hand, if you plan to tether, no question, Verizon wins. Verizon has a $15/mo unlimited data tether plan with EVDO speed (400-700k). Cingular add is $30/mo for EDGE tether as the Cingular BB isn't 3g capable. So it all really comes down to "do you plan to tether or not". If not, and you like the feel of the Cingular device better, go for it. Personally, I like the sound quality of Cingular phones over Verizon, but I have more "call failed" and dropped calls with Cingular.

You can probably try both at a local store or go for the trial period. Cingular will credit your activation fee if you return it within three days too, otherwise they give you thirty days.

Regards-Michael G.

Thanks for all your help guys.

As of now, I don't have major plans to tether. I have cable internet at home, a LAN connection at work, and the blackberry by itself should be sufficient for any email/internet needs I have in between.

Since it seems there's marginal difference between EVDO and EDGE on the BB itself, I'm probably going to go with the Cingular BB. I'll be using my BB as my primary work AND personal phone. I'm not a hip-wearer when it comes to phones, so I want something that can fit in my pocket when I go to work, bars, wherever. The 7130c form factor wins there.

Also, I work for a huge firm that has contracts with each cell provider, and there are pretty much zero fees for any of them (activation, early termination, etc). If something better comes along for Verizon (a better 71xx or new 87xx), then I might switch back.