[grujaz10]

New to this forum,

I am planning on purchasing a new phone; However, I have Alltel service. Alltel has terrible phone choices, but a new phone they are providing is the Blackberry 7250 which I am assuming is the best phone out of the Alltel line-up. I am not a business owner, and I will not have a BES (I think) network which I think is the internet netwrok provided if you are connected to a company provider.

I want a smartphone that will provide me with good PDA operation (for random everday tasks), good internet connection, good phone quality, and feature rich. I understand that the BB 7250 does not have speaker phone or camera, but I think I could do with out those features. Will I be able to recieve internet connection without business provider, and will it be good? I do use my e-mail quite frequently, but not as extensivley as some of the business use on here.

Since I don't know too much about the detailed specifications or features of the phone (I did some research), in your opinions will this phone be a good choice for me? Since I want a smartphone which also lookes pretty cool, my only other option will be to switch providers and get a treo or motorola.

Thanks

[coreyg510]

Such is why i switched to Cingular and the 7290. I am also upset with no speaker phone, although it has bluetooth capabilities. I would also liked to have had a camera, but if i had it, i dont know how much i would use it, so i bit my lip and realized that the benifits that BB offeres are much more than a camera or speaker phone on the 7290 could provide.

[grujaz10]

Another question:

Will the blackberry e-mail system work with accounts such as hotmail or G-mail?

[Tremendo]

Originally Posted by grujaz10

Another question:

Will the blackberry e-mail system work with accounts such as hotmail or G-mail?

I bought the 7250 yesterday and have had great success using gmail.

Now if only I had a BES.

[grujaz10]

Tremendo, Why do you say "Now only if I had BES". What are the advantages of the BES network, and is the BB 7250 fine without BES?


To simplify and summarize my previous question, is the BB 7250 a good choice for someone using the phone primarily for non-business uses but still requiring excellent features, smartphone capabilities, and business like phone?

[Tremendo]

Originally Posted by grujaz10

Tremendo, Why do you say "Now only if I had BES". What are the advantages of the BES network, and is the BB 7250 fine without BES?

To simplify and summarize my previous question, is the BB 7250 a good choice for someone using the phone primarily for non-business uses but still requiring excellent features, smartphone capabilities, and business like phone?

I'm in exactly the same boat as you, but I bought mine yesterday without ever hearing the term "Blackberry Enterprise Server" (BES). What I've discovered is that if you want to get access to certain features (HTML browsing & instant message I think) you will need to have access to a BES.

I've spoken to the folks at citynt.com and they seem quite reasonably priced ($10/month). HTML browsing is worth $10/month to me, so I'm going to do it.

As far as the feature set goes WITHOUT a BES, I've only got limited experience. The email system works really well. I've used both the internal provider.blackberry account and my gmail, both to great success. The speed is fantastic and the coverage appears to be quite solid. Maybe it's solid everywhere, but I'm totally new to this.

Since the battery requires a complete discharge prior to its first synch, I can't comment on the non-BES synching capabilities (Outlook sans-Exchange etc).

The sound quality on the unit is great, by the way. I've been using a four year old LG for the past three years and this is a noticable improvement. Keeping in mind that I loved my old phone, this is a good recommendation.

Like yourself, I'm interested in a portable device to manage email, appointments and do a little surfing on. So far I've got 2/3, and I will report back when I get set up with the BES.

[grujaz10]

Could I get a BES network for my phone even though I am not directly involved or part of a business that uses BES? In other words, could I get the advatages of a BES network (by getting BES) as an individual BB phones user?

Also do I have to be in particular area to get BES networks, I am in FL. Does anyone know the cheapest BES. One more question, can I subscribe to the BES netwrok directly through Alltel?

Sorry for all the questions...

[Tremendo]

From what I can tell, you can lease BES access through places like citynt or link2exchange. I'm going to go with CityNT because it's half the price. With that, you get the ability to browse HTML pages and an Exchange account with which you can do what you want, I assume.

I think that the location of the BES is irrelevant. I imagine that the architecture goes SERVER <-> BES <-> (RIM NETWORK) <-> CLIENT RIM so as long as both you and the BES can see the RIM network, you're fine. Of course, I may be way off here but the reps from both places mentioned above didn't bat an eye when I said I was in Toronto.

[rhandel]

BES is a mail forwarder. It's original and main function is to sync your email account with your BB. I have no BES server attached but have Nextel service. I have all html search functions and download programs, ringtones, and backgrounds directly off the net.

BES isn't what allows you to surf as far as I know. The OS and carrier support is what allows you to do any of the data functions.

Why pay for BES? I use the free account that Nextel provides to email to my BB. Otherwise I can get my work email at work and my home email at home. I don't want to pay for data charges to email to my BB.

I'd look at the ROI of the total package. I am using the 7520 and got it for $50 ($250 minus a $100 rebate and a $100 trade in of my old Palm phone). I have unlimited voice and unlimited data (except for a 3Mb email limit) for $130 per month including taxes.

BES ain't all that unless you MUST have the first 1k of every email that you get.

Just my opinion.


R A H

[geekman686]

I have a Verizon BB 7250 without BES service.

You don't need BES service to surf the HTML internet sites. New BB loaded with Version 4.0 can access HTML websites without the expense of the BES Service.

[Tremendo]

I've got a plan with Telus Mobility in Canada, and they explicitly told me that HTML browsing is disabled. I am able to go to URLs directly through the WAP browser, but it is simply parsed text with no markup enhancements. I was told that I do need a BES to enable this. Am I missing something?

[mobile316]

The carriers can make decisions to enable or disable features in the phone or network specific operations at their discression. Usually these decisions are made before the handsets roll onto the market. i.e. Verizon disabled the OBEX data transfer in the Motorola V710 w/ bluetooth. So you cant send pix and info from your phone to computer or another phone via bluetooth. It sounds like Telus disabled the HTML and went strait to TXT coding. Most likely due to network limitation and traffic issues.