Mini Review of the Sprint BB 8703e
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Well I was persistent in calling Sprint stores yesterday and I finally found one in Dayton OH, quite a ways from my house in Indiana that had just one. I was sure that they were mistaken so I talked to the tech who said that it was the one they just got this week. I had them put it on hold and then 1.5 hours later I had this device in my grubby hands. Here is my first impressions and a mini review. I wont touch on everything since it is mostly the same as the VZW phone with the exception of the opened GPSone System.
Fit and Trim...
Not much new here, same sexy black case with sliver surround. It sports the new Sprint logo on the screen face very small and inconspicuously. Keyboard is solid as is the case with all previous models with the exception of the pearl. In my limited time using this phone, I have not detected any creaks or noises. I think the only thing I have a qualm about is the weird looking speakerphone speaker on the back of most of the "new style" berry's. Ixxx8217;m not a big fan but oh well.
Features...
Same as VZW except for the open GPSone system (I'll talk about this in a bit). I love the "new style" berry button layout. The dedicated send and end buttons make the phone more usable. The addition of 2 programmable buttons on the device is a nice touch as well. The first thing I really noticed was the screen. Since this is a 262k color screen, things look sharp, really sharp. In fact of all of the PDA phones I have owned, it is by far the best. Brightness is set automatically by the ambient lighting conditions, but can be set to the highest (blinding) setting using the power button on the top. Speaking of the top buttons, there is a dedicated mute button for muting during a phone call, also a nice feature found on the "new style" berry's. As far as the applications, everything is as normal, those used to the button shortcuts and apps will feel right at home.
GPSone...
On to the good part. Sprint decided to open up the GPSone chipset to navigation app's on the phone. This is really good, as this makes for a nice little navigator for the price. You are not going to get the accuracy of a dedicated GPS system, but it is good enough to make your way about town or across the country. There is no default app for doing navigation on the berry itself, but once your data service is active, use the internal browser to navigate over to the Sprint download site. I believe it is the first link in the bookmarks called Mobile Web, then downloads and GPS applications. The dedicated application for this is called TeleNav. I was able to easily download this application and install it to the device. Where I have problems is getting it activated with Sprint. Using this system requires a $10 a month fee. That being said, there is not a sole at Sprint that knows how to add this to your account, and it is Sprints job to do that. I am currently on the phone with a TeleNav rep who was kind enough to call Tier 2 tech with Sprint and get this added to my account. Once it is added and I have used this on this device, I will revise this review to include info on how well it works. From what I see it has turn by turn directions, voice guidance, and POI's for restaurants etc. I am pretty stoked to use this, and will test the heck out of it in the wilds of the Indiana farm fields.
Update, my GPS is up and running, and I am at a loss for words as to how awesome it is. I stood outside my front door and had it find my relative location, and it mapped it out. I then typed in a sample route to the airport and the voice came on telling me where I needed to turn. You have got to love it. I think the TeleNav guy got fed up with Sprint and just added an account for me, so I will have to make sure it got added to my account after Sprint gets their act together. There are all kinds of cool features on this, like compass with speed and distance, and the POI's are great. I selected gas stations and it found all of the nearby stations and listed their fuel prices. It then offered to navigate me there...So cool... I will add more reviews as I use this tomorrow. But it is a killer feature.
Experience with Sprint...
I must say that I have never seen Sprint bumble a rollout the way they bumbled this one. Maybe I was not supposed to have this phone yet, but there are no reps who seem to know that Sprint even has this Berry. I attempted to activate it last night only to be told to call back today. Since I was doing an ESN swap, I am sure this added to their confusion. So after about 3 hours on the phone today and a lot of angry moments, they finally got this on my account and added the unlimited blackberry plan. As of earlier this evening my data was not working and a trip to the store reveled that they post dated my data service to my next billing cycle. They got it active now and within a few mins the browser showed up.
Moving Forward...
I am going to get my email accounts on this device and test the heck out of telenav and report my findings. I also understand from another posting that there is a newer software update for this, Ill probably put that on and remove the unneeded languages.
If anyone who is awaiting this wants to ask me questions about it, I will answer them as best as I can. All I can say is, your going to love this phone!!!
Last edited by bit_bucket; 10-02-2006 at 10:00 PM..
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