[Tri-Tip]

I've had mine now for about 8 hours, and it's another Blackberry. I came up from the 7750, so I now have a smaller screen, and having a little trouble typing as the buttons seem smaller.

What I like are the polyphonic ring tones (havn't really had time to play with those yet), the dedicated Call and End buttons for the phone, and the two extra programmable buttons.

What I don't care for is that the screen blanks after 30 seconds (can set to longer but it will probably drain the battery). If the screen could at least stay on when it's in the charger that would be cool, but it doesn't seem to have that option. The screen is also about 25% smaller than what I had on my 7750, which had an oversized screen.

Haven't really had a chance to make many calls on it yet.

I'll play with it more at home this evening.

[Sottozero]

Originally Posted by whsbuss

I tired after spending a few hours today getting everything transferred over from my 7103. Now my new 8703 is charging.

For those of us coming from the 71xx world, I STRONGLY suggest checking out Stinsonddog's Blackberry Tips document. The link is in his signature!

Is the full keyboard better? Worse? I have a 7103e and am getting increasingly frustrated with how some very common words are inaccurately predicted/entered. Plus, a wider screen would be nice.

How's the speed/responsiveness seem?

Is Blackberry Messenger included as a default install?

[thought]

Originally Posted by Sottozero

I'm getting my 8703 tomorrow, and I will be very, VERY disappointed if the unit is slow or in any way sluggish. Why in the hell VZW would not use the Intel chipset is beyond me.

Worse comes to worst, I keep my 7130e.

I agree that it's a bummer not having the Intel chipset.

However, that decision is not VZW, that is RIM's. From what I have read, that is dictated by engineering realities...apparently, there is an issue with the Intel chip working on CDMA.

While I haven't used the 8703 yet, I imagine that while it may not be as zippy as the Intel powered 8700s, it will still be very good and fast enough for most. And at least with the VZW version you get the broadband EVDO connection, which those using the 8700c or g don't get on either Cingular or T-Mo. That's a huge advantage.

[whsbuss]

Originally Posted by Sottozero

Is the full keyboard better? Worse? I have a 7103e and am getting increasingly frustrated with how some very common words are inaccurately predicted/entered. Plus, a wider screen would be nice.

How's the speed/responsiveness seem?

Is Blackberry Messenger included as a default install?

I too was getting frustrated with SureType on my 7130e. That's the main reason I switched (although the screen size is also much better). So far, the speed/responsiveness is a bit better than the 7130e. I downloaded the Wave-Icon theme from BB and uploaded two Plazmic themes. They work very well.

You will have to d/l BB Messenger from the BB site, as well as GoogleTalk, Yahoo Messenger. I used GoogleMaps a lot on my 7130 and on the 8703 its much better (Google Maps from your BB browser).

[pspiegel]

anyone have any unboxing pics?

[InPocket]

I love this thing... holy shit.

I placed the XV6700 in the garbage!!!!


how about an 8703e pin club???

301489F6

[cdd543]

Ok for those of you with the device..here is an official beg. Please give your thoughts on the browser speed compared to other pda's, blackberries you have used. I hate to grovel, but there it is. I am wondering because I was not impressed with the 7130 browsing..I just used it in the store. I have used many other evdo and non evdo smartphones.

[rpvitale]

Anyone know how to get music ringtones to it. The 8700 had a Cingular Media page where you could buy them.

[Sottozero]

Originally Posted by InPocket

I love this thing... holy shit.

I placed the XV6700 in the garbage!!!!


how about an 8703e pin club???

301489F6

Now see, that's great to hear.

I'm especially interested in hearing how the 8703e stacks up to the 7130e, because as of right now (and that means sans 8703e), the 7130e is the best phone/PDA I've ever had, bar none.

Quick question for any ex-7130e users out there: do you find the full keyboard better or worse? Faster or slower?

[Nahmeanz]

I picked up my 8703e and activated it thru CS. It says "data connection refused". What do I do?

[Postalrecon]

Originally Posted by Nahmeanz

I picked up my 8703e and activated it thru CS. It says "data connection refused". What do I do?

call customer service and tell them youre supposed to have a blackberry plan, then if that doesnt work tech support, and 3rd search button

[InPocket]

Originally Posted by Nahmeanz

I picked up my 8703e and activated it thru CS. It says "data connection refused". What do I do?

I would try activating through the verizon wireless website..

Im so addicted

[MHPHOCKEY]

I wont complain about slowness, it cant be worse than the 7250 that many of us are coming from.

[BB Junkie]

Originally Posted by MHPHOCKEY

I wont complain about slowness, it cant be worse than the 7250 that many of us are coming from.

You may or may not complain about that when you get 8703e, but I can imagine it might be little slower than 7250 since 8703E uses eye candy theme that 7250 doesnt have.

[junior1790]

Ok my impression is a good one so far. I had an 8700c for a long time and carried a VZW razr because cingulars reception is terrible in lower CT. 8703e IMHO runs great, i will say it is slighlty slow to respond in some areas but really how much?? and lets not forget guys, it's a blackberry not a laptop! BB messenger, e-mail both BES and BIS all running well, VZW BIS def faster than cingulars, pics shortly

[itsj]

inpocket, i am also a former owner of the xv6700, how does the 8703e compare speed wise to the xv6700. cause that crap box would hang all the time

[EagleTG]

I've had mine for about 8 hours now as well. So far, I have no complaints about speed.

A quick comment on my prior post of the JBenchmark results. To be fair, I will re-run the Benchmark without the wireless enabled. After I ran it and posted the results, I wondered if the wireless functionality might have been taking some horsepower in the background. I will re-run after this post.

I administer our BES server at work, and have experience with 6750, 7750, 7250, and 7130e (and the T-Mo and Nextel 7100's).

My previous phone was a Samsung i730 (with the recent Windows Mobile 5 upgrade).

This device "feels" faster than the other models I've used, especially faster than the 7130e. And also MUCH MUCH faster than the i730 in general menu response and navigation. Then again, the i730 was dog slow. I haven't expereinced (or noticed?) any lag in the menus, interfaces, or in anything I've been doing. I'm extremely pleased with the speed.

The screen is incredible, and on-par with the Samsung i730 I came from. I think the keyboard is phenomenal, but anything is better than the i730. I personally like the 8703e keyboard more than the 7250 and 7750 keyboards I've used. The keys on the 8703e are a little closer together as far as I can tell, but they feel bigger in a way.

@cdd543: Browser speed seems OK to me. mobile.blackberry.com was a little slow, but I think it was on their end. Then again, I didn't really notice much problem on the 7130e either. I'm usually in EVDO territory, so maybe that's part of why it feels so nice? Either way, it's definitely on-par with the i730 that I had.

I downloaded the Overlord-Icon theme from mobile.blackberry.com, and MAN it's nice... Very very nice, but then again, I'm a geek.

Some stupid little things I've noticed. I like the fact that the escape key clicks, makes for a much nicer tactile feedback. I also like the added shortcut key on the left edge. So far I love the auto-screen brightness (based on how bright the surroundings are).

Obviously, the 8703e has all of the tweaks that make the BlackBerry awesome. It was tough seeing all of the BlackBerries we were deploying, and how slick they worked... Comparing that to my Samsung i730 and how unstable, unreliable, and generally clunky it was (it doesn't even have a factory NumLock) makes the 8703e feel even nicer. So maybe I'm a bit jaded having used the i730 for the last two years.

As whsbuss mentioned, BBMessenger was not included. Was simple to install, and seems to work fine.

I've already dropped it once because of the dang "launcher" plastic belt holster. I've ordered a better belt clip/case. It can't get here soon enough... Heheh.

All-in-all, I'm extremely pleased with this guy. Then again, compared to the i730 I had, anything would be nice.

[EagleTG]

Originally Posted by itsj

inpocket, i am also a former owner of the xv6700, how does the 8703e compare speed wise to the xv6700. cause that crap box would hang all the time

YES!!!! My i730 hung CONSTANTLY, even with no third party apps installed. The 8703e has yet to hang, freeze, or show any instability for me.

[itsj]

YES!!!! My i730 hung CONSTANTLY, even with no third party apps installed. The 8703e has yet to hang, freeze, or show any instability for me.

im glad i could share with others my painfull memories of windows mobile, i knew you guys would understand where i was coming from and my worries about 8703e and its different processor/speed.....i like so many am suffering from processor speed issues, my name is J and I am a recovering windows mobile user.

[itsj]

well put Eagle TG