Choose between 8703 vs 8830
 

I am upgrading from a 7250 to a new blackberry and need some help on the decision. I can get the 8703 for $50. Or, I can get the 8830 for $200.

I do not travel out of the country.

Any inputs?

My first instinct is to advise you to get the 8703e. If you don't travel, it doesn't make much sense to get the 8830 at all. Unless you want the media player, trackball, or other features you get with a 4.2.2 OS... which you don't mention anything about.

Why not stay with the 7250?

My 7250 is getting beat up.

I have never tried the trackball. The media features are nice, but not required. I want a speaker phone. I may go to the Carribean islands, so have additional networks would be nice.

It's a toss up, and really only you can really make this decision.
The 8703e won't work in the Caribbean. The 8703e doesn't have a media player.
It's also a lot cheaper than the 8830, which will most likely work fine in the Caribbean, and does have a media player.

That's basically the only differences. You need to balance your own budget against the need/want for available features.

Kick the tires before you buy
 

Absolutely test drive the trackball on the 8830 before committing to it. A friend at work got the 8830 last week. Like other BB users in the office, I definitely did not like it. We agreed that the 8303e is preferable. It's a personal preference kinda thing...

YMMV...

8703e 4 50$ go 4 it
 

I would go for the 8703e for that money. More memory x2, speaker is very nice, a reliable unit for me so far.

The 8703e might work in the Caribbean, depends upon where. The USVI and Puerto Rico work fine, I used mine there last Dec.. Definitely upgrade out of your 7250, either the 8703 or 8830 are much nicer. I just upgraded to an 8830 from 8703 on Sat. and it's a keeper for me. Have to get used to the trackball but it's fine.

I’ve also upgraded from 8703e to 8830 this past week.
A few things to note:

• Some of my previous applications are no longer working with the new unit for (example: bbspell)
• I got used to having two convenience key options, now I only have one.
• The keys on the keyword are to squeezed together, compared to 8703e

The 8830 has Spell Check built in to the OS. You don't need bbspell anymore. :)

Yep, one less app to pay for. (y)

Go with the 8830, the trackball is a huge step up from the trackwheel. The media player + MicroSD card is quite handy and you have the flexibility of using it in countries that you may some day travel to. Yes, the keyboard is smaller though.

If you don't need GPS and have large hands, wait for the 8300. Trackball, media player, camera and wider keyboard.

I was just in San Juan yesterday, and my 8830 took a huge, steaming dump as soon as I turned it on. If I tried to pull data with it, I'd get a device error and be forced to reset. That meant I needed to be real fast--I had to turn it on, enter my password, and navigate to shut down the wireless radio before it reset itself. Voice worked fine once I shut off data services.

Due to a family emergency, I never made it to St. Maarten or St. Barth's to test the GSM/GPRS side.

I'm very happy with my upgrade from the 7250 to the 8703e. Volume is better, Screen is much clearer to read and the extra convenience buttons (custom configured) cinched it. $50.00 is hard to pass up but I agree with others that a $500.00 investment is a bit steep especially with the 8300 around the corner. I got 8703 on eBay and am reserving my every two for the 8330.

Me too. An 8330 would be sweat! Although I will test drive the 8830 in the VZW stores next week to see how the trackball works.

My two cents... I just upgraded to the 8830 from the 8703e last week. I manage all our units and generally get new ones right away so I can bless the decision for someone to move up. (Lucky me!)

I love the 8830. I loved the 8703e. It took me about an hour to get the hang of the trackball and buttons. About a day to stop going for the side wheel when I first started use. I like the screen MUCH better. More rows (6 vs. 5 in the theme I am using. I like the thinner unit and looks, not that they matter, are far above the 8703. Everyone wants to see/play with the new one.

I put a 1GB microSD card in it and have some video of my kids, pictures, and about 50 songs on it. Speaker is great. I haven't played with any stereo headset yet. I was always leery of introducing storage/camera to the blackberry. I will take the storage, they can keep the camera. I wish I didn't have the pain of the crippled VZW unit. MMS is disabled (still getting an answer why from VZW) and of course the GPS is disabled for use outside 9-1-1.

I have some photos attached to my address book. Very cool, but just cool. Certainly not required. Wondering if Lotus Domino 8 address book photos will sync OTA to the Blackberry when it comes out.

The number one improvement. BLUETOOTH. Every Berry I have ever owned left a lot to be desired on Bluetooth volume to me. Always cranking it up and in a moving car always strained to hear. First time I connected my Motorola H700 to it and used it, I thought I broke my eardrum. Very loud and don't have it turned up except in very noisy conditions. Great improvement from the 8703.

More than two cents I guess, but my take on things.

I say the 8703. My 8703 had a few keys on the keypad not working, and I was within my Verizon 30 day return period, so I went in to exchange it. I noticed the 8830 there, and I did my exchange for it instead. I was very unhappy in a matter of hours. The memory is severely lacking, and you can only use the storage card to hold media; you can't save and run programs from it. That leaves you with about 20mb of free memory for your own personal use. To top that off, there is a memory leak of sorts. 5-6 hours after purchasing the unit, my memory had dropped to 14mb free, and I hadn't installed any apps, nor had I even transferred my address book and calendar.

Where did the memory go? I have no idea, but I did a google search on the subject and found that people across the country are having the same problems.

Other things I didn't like had to do with the form of the phone. The casing is just too damned slippery, I dropped it 3 times during one handed use purely because of the material they used. The track ball is superior for general navigation, but the scroll wheel definitely wins for one handed use, just due to it's position on the phone. The keyboard was a mess by my standards as well. I lost a good 10-20 wpm on my BB typing speed just due to the way the keys are shaped and how crowded together they are. The keypad backlight is awful too.

The media player, and a few tiny upgrades in the OS weren't enough for me to overlook all the things I didn't like. After my foray with the 8830, I was back into an 8703 in less than 24 hours.

It's your personal opinion obviously, but my opinion is to go with the 8703.

Tom

I am a longtime BB user and moved from the 8703 to the 8830 about 3 weeks ago. I have to say that both or great devices and which one you want is purely a personal decision. Overall I am extremely happy with the 8830. The trackball is terrific over the old trackwheel. It does take some getting used to. After 5-6 years of using the trackwheel it took a couple of days to stop trying thumbing the side.

The only real con I can think of on the 8830 over the 8703 is the keyboard size. It took me a while to get used to it, but I am now back up to full speed with it. You have to use more of the tips of your thumbs, or even the nails to really type on it (at least for my big thumbs), but it feels pretty natural to me now.

I didn't really think the media player would be a big deal for me on the 8830, but I bought a micro SD card just to test it out. I have since ditched my other mp3 player and am exclusively using the 8830 for normal daily use. It is not the best mp3 around for sure, but it gets the job done, and having one less thing to lug around makes it worth it for me.

Good luck with your decision.

8330?? For Verizon
 

Thanks for all the feedback everyone...very helpful. When does the 8330 come out? Will Verizon be a provider for it?

Buy the 8830
 

I also upgraded from a 8703e to 8830. There are some advantages for 8830 over 8703.

> Great Design - Very Sharp looking device
> Expandable memory - You can sync your folders or documents that you need to have access to so you can email them as attachments on the go, which you cannot do on a 8703e ( I send a lot of emails with attachments it was a blessing to have the ability to attach files in 8830)
> Trackball - Yes the first few hours it was a little confusing because you get so used to track wheel but trackball makes the navigation so much better and easy across the screen.
>Key Board - To tell you the truth - The key board is "Different" but not small. I did not have any problems with it. In-fact I type the same speed or more on this keyboard. I have the sprint version so the I really dont have the Keyboard backlight problem as Verizon users.
> Latest OS. Lots of little neat things. One of the thing that I like is the ability to view messages in 2 line (Sender then Subject) and lots of other things.
> I always try to buy the latest model if I can. Ofcourse it all boils down to finances.

I would suggest that you buy the 8830. You will love it.