I know here has be a lot of discussion on these, but i could not find anything that talked about the keyboard differences, if any. Anyone know ?

Also, anyone have a feel for how much a 7290 is gonna cost without activation ? I already have a plan and 6230 through t-mobile.

Don't know about without activation. If you are out of contract, though, you should be able to get it for the discounted price.

If corporate customers are getting it for $299 with activation, I have to believe that it will probably be around $349 with activation for personal customers.

The keyboard size is about the same, but the key caps feel a lot better on the 7290 for the vast majority of people. It's much easier to thumb type.

The 7290 quadband also has better reception than the 7730 triband, especially if you go to California, where T-Mobile uses Cingular antennas, and Cingular has 850 Mhz band which the 7730 doesn't have.

Also, at 32megs, you'll see the hourglass less often on the 7290 than the 7730, especially under BlackBerryOS4.

Also, the 7290 benchmarks about 30% faster.

I currently have the 6230 and get fine coverage in California. Does my current phone have that band ?

TIA

Ray Fugitt

The 6230 is tri-band (900/1800/1900) according to the specifications found on the BlackBerry web site at http://www.blackberry.com/products/h...erry6230.shtml