[esbe02]

Hi all,

I need some advice... I'm a loyal BB user and I'm thinking of upgrading my girlfriend's phone to a kickstart. Although she wouldn't get a data plan and use the BB to the fullest potential, I think it would be a good way to introduce her to the BB world.

I checked out the BB at the t-mo store and the first thing that struck me was the "cheap" like feel as opposed to BB's like the curve and pearl.

Costco has a promo where it's only $29.99 (after rebate) to upgrade... I notice the t-mo store has it listed for $149.99 so I almost jumped the gun at upgraded on the spot, but before I proceeded, something inside told me to wait it out a day or two and get some advice and do some research...

your thoughts?

[zerog46]

Most carrier's will give you a grace period to try the BB out. I have heard good things about the 8220.

[zerog46]

Give the 8220 forum a check, there should be some reviews.

[akosnitzky]

Wirelessly posted (Verizon 8830)

As Zero was alluding to, she should see a carrier where she play around with the phone for a few days to see if she likes it.

[beav626]

I felt the same after playing with the new flip. But I have learned it is actually nicer than my old pearl-it just has new materials

[KeyLoveMobile]

Originally Posted by esbe02

I need some advice... I'm a loyal BB user and I'm thinking of upgrading my girlfriend's phone to a kickstart. Although she wouldn't get a data plan and use the BB to the fullest potential, I think it would be a good way to introduce her to the BB world.

I've got a Pearl Flip and haven't had any issues with it, I quite like it. I think it would be decent as a simple phone, especially since it has the hot-swap memory card (for music/videos) and the camera.

A note of caution: in my experience, a BB without a data plan can be an extremely frustrating experience. Even though the phone has WiFi, most data apps do not work if you have not received the data plan service books from your carrier, yet the icons for all those data apps are still there on the home screen for her to generate errors with. You may want to hide all those apps.

[gshine666]

I did the same thing and got my g/f one. We had been waiting for t to come out. (her old phone was near death.)

She really likes it. I had to keep telling her to give suretype a try and after a couple days she found she liked it a lot.

She also does have the data plan.

[mas90guru]

I've got one on loan from T-Mo pending a review within the next week or two.

Overall I like it a lot. A few people made off-hand remarks about "not dropping it" or it'd break. So far I haven't noticed any "cheapness" to it. I think it's definitely a lower end of the market phone -- but not overly cheap.

A few things that I love about this model:

1. UMA - You can connect via Wi-Fi for voice and BB data. There's no separate plan required though if you do subscribe for about $10 extra per month you'll get unlimited voice minutes whenever you connect via UMA. This is a cool feature for anyone traveling overseas because so long as you connect via Wi-Fi it potentially removes ALL roaming (voice/data) costs.

2. Battery life in standby has been excellent -- I haven't measured it officially (yet) but seems like three or four days have gone by since I've put it on the chargers.

3. T-Mo offers a $9.99 BlackBerry email only plan (no web browsing) that's the cheapest that I've seen anywhere.

Here's what I think is bad about it:

1. Suretype. If you are going to do a lot of typing - especially trying to enter abbreviations -- SureType will leave you pulling your hair out.

2. Lack of (good) apps versus competition. One of the BlackBerry apps that I point to as being especially terrible is Facebook (very dated look on BB). There's also only one Twitter client for BlackBery (that I'm aware of).

Overally for a flip BlackBerry this isn't that bad. I predict for most people the decision to use it is not so much the build quality as the ease with which they can type on the SureType keys.

[stonent]

Best Buy has the 8220 free with a 2 year upgrade plan or new activation.

[xxaarraa]

8220 does feel cheap. Mine also suffers from the now common first lot build quality issues that RIM is becoming infamous for. Creaks and squeaks and wobbles all over. But its a decent phone overall.

[NJBlackBerry]

We have a bunch of them in the company (and a couple in my house), No creaks or squeaks in any of them. Generally the feeling is that it is the best GSM Pearl around, and much easier to use than the original ones, due to the larger keys.

[xxaarraa]

Originally Posted by NJBlackBerry

We have a bunch of them in the company (and a couple in my house), No creaks or squeaks in any of them. Generally the feeling is that it is the best GSM Pearl around, and much easier to use than the original ones, due to the larger keys.

I have noticed you mentioned this before in one of the threads. I also noticed you said there were no lags on 174. But no on both counts for me. Battery door wobbles. Right convenience key squeaks. Volume keys rattle. OS lags a lot. Coming from an iphone 2.1, I am used to the lag by now but could have done without it.

Also, not sure if its a Vista problem or the 8220 but syncing outlook calendar via desktop manager takes effing FOREVER.

[NJBlackBerry]

You may have a bad device. Are you still within a return/warranty window?

[Berry One]

Originally Posted by xxaarraa

Battery door wobbles. Right convenience key squeaks. Volume keys rattle. OS lags a lot.

What is 'Made in' country of your 8220? You'll find 'made in' sticker under the battery.

Mine is from Mexico, no build quality issues whatsoever.

[xxaarraa]

Originally Posted by NJBlackBerry

You may have a bad device. Are you still within a return/warranty window?

OK I think I sorted the lag issue. I googled up a few posts about it being caused by constant media scanning. I had a memory card full of documents worth 2 gig or so and the damn media player was scanning it all the time. Excluded all the folders and there is no more lag.

The hardware build quality issues remain though. I have noticed a trend going back to the curve, pearl, 8800 etc. The first lot that ships usually has these minor hardware issues and subsequent lots get better. oh well..

[mas90guru]

Regarding Build Quality:

I'm even hearing that the BlackBerry Storm has problems with creaking battery doors