[gustav213]

ok so i am in the market for a new BB phone. Ihave been looking at the Pearl for a while it looks realtively nice. But i have also seen the 8700g and it looks pretty good too. I would like a camera even though its not the most important thing in the world to me. I was looking at the 800 but it seems to expensive for em right now, while I can get the pearl or 8700 practically free at wirefly. I am moslty interested in the organization format of it, to keep contacts and to do lists on it. I am not the biggest web surfer so having a great web browsing capability doesnt mater to much that much. IU jsut want a form of pda and phone all in one. I have an ipod so music doesnt matter but i do want to have mp3 ringtones.

i am a freshman college student which BB do you recommend for me? The 8800 is not really my top choice since I can afford almost 300 dollars right now. so its the pearl or 8700g and i will use it, probably until the 8800 comes out with a built in camera and cheaper.

[JSanders]

Wirelessly posted (8700g: BlackBerry8700/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

I think you have 2-3 deciding factors:

1- Form/size, the 8700 is a bit wider and has the full QWERTY keyboard, while the 8100 is more narrow like like a traditional cellphone and has the condensed keyboard layout and Suretype. Suretype takes about 2 weeks to get used to and you will never notice a difference.

2- the camera you mentioned.

3- "cool" factor: some would say the 8100 is bit cooler and slicker, while the 8700 still has the "business" or traditional BB image.

4- the 8100 is running a newer release of the OS(4.2), but it should be out soon on the 8700. To the casual user, there is big difference in the OS.

5- both 8700 and 8100 have the base 64mb mem, however the 8100 has the expansion card up to 2gb.

My rec is to visit a retailer and hold both working units and get a feel for then in your hand. Like I said I have the 8700g and love it. I had the 7100 with suretype and never had a problem, it took a while for me to adjust back to full keyboard on the 8700. I just bought my wife the 8100 and I like its feel very much.

Good luck and welcome to the BB community.

[gustav213]

yeah, i will have to go look at them more closely. right now stuff like cool or camera dont matter to me. size really isnt a big issue since i am a big guy. and that is true about the expandable memory, which i didint think about before. right now i am leaning towards the 8100, and then see if later the 8800 comes down in price or they lanuch a new BB and ill sell the 8100 on ebay and get a new one.

[Dubdub]

The first thing you MUST do is chose a carrier. Check out which one provides the best coverage where you will use the phone, then decide on which phone to get. Also, keep in mind that a BB dataplan will add at least $30 a month to your cell bill. No BB data plan, no email and no Internet.

[hailer]

Originally Posted by Dubdub

The first thing you MUST do is chose a carrier. Check out which one provides the best coverage where you will use the phone, then decide on which phone to get. Also, keep in mind that a BB dataplan will add at least $30 a month to your cell bill. No BB data plan, no email and no Internet.

All good ideas before you even consider which device to buy.

Since the thread creator said he is a bigger guy you need to personally hold and test the devices. Make sure the one you choose is comfortable and you can type on it with relative ease.

[JSanders]

Wirelessly posted (8700g: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0) BlackBerry8700/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

Originally Posted by Dubdub

The first thing you MUST do is chose a carrier. Check out which one provides the best coverage where you will use the phone, then decide on which phone to get. Also, keep in mind that a BB dataplan will add at least $30 a month to your cell bill. No BB data plan, no email and no Internet.

Ah, TMobile BB Unlimited Data Plan is $19.99 added to any calling plan.

[gustav213]

i keep reading that no BB plan then theres no internet, but i know tmobile offers for around 10 bucks unlimited internet, wouldnt that work with the pearl if i used a browser like opera etc.

[gustav213]

because the main reason i want to have a BB is for the contact and organizations views of it, not really the internet capabilities. im not running a business just want a phone i can sync with my computer and sms ppl. i cant afford to pay 80 bucks a month for a phone right now. so i wanted to use the internet for emails but not really important, sms are more important. worse case scenario ill get the sms package for 5.99.


if i can use the tmobile internet instead of the bb plan.

[Businessceo1]

I'm in highschool with an 8703e.
I often use the calender, to do's, memo, etc. I cant imagine using them without a full QWERTY keyboard.

[JSanders]

Originally Posted by gustav213

i keep reading that no BB plan then theres no internet, but i know tmobile offers for around 10 bucks unlimited internet, wouldnt that work with the pearl if i used a browser like opera etc.

gustav213, you've asked this BB Data Plan in a different thread also, and you keep getting the same answer... no BB Data Plan, no internet, no email, etc., you have only a phone with SMS capability. I understand that you don't want to pay so much for this each month, I would rather not pay it either.

If you can't accept the answer so many have given you, you are very free to get the Tmobile internet plan you prefer and see how it works for. I'd only ask that you post back and let us know how it goes.

Good luck.


I'm editing this post to add this link to your other question where another user has it working as you prefer with Sprint...
http://www.blackberryforums.com/gene...data-plan.html