| Mini-Review of the Blackberry 7510 |
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The Blackberry 7510 is the iDEN version of RIM’s recent line of devices that include built-in cellphones. RIM has made sure they don’t miss any boats by producing iDEN, GSM, and CDMA versions of the same basic product. This review focuses solely upon the iDEN version, and like other reviews of PDA-like devices, it concerns itself primarily with the phone side of the device. Last Updated: 24-Oct-2004 |
Before reading this review, please read Some Thoughts on Phone Reviewing.
The first thing that one notices when using a Blackberry as a phone is the
form factor. Most cellphones are tall and skinny, while the Blackberry is short
and wide. This feels a bit odd at first, especially if you’ve used cellphones
for many years. Despite the odd feeling however, I quickly adapted to the phone
despite the limited exposure I got. Clearly you could grow accustomed to the
feel within less than a week.
Compared to the GSM version of the Blackberry, the 7510 is a bit thicker to
accommodate the speaker for Direct Connect and speakerphone operation.
The larger size also accommodates a higher-capacity battery, which is a good
thing since iDEN phones don’t seem to squeeze as much out their batteries as GSM
phones (and this goes for RIM as well).
If that speaker was of low quality I wouldn’t have been particularly happy with
the space it used up, but it’s actually among the best speakerphones I’ve tried
in ages. The speaker is larger than the one on my
i730, and as such it has slightly higher maximum volume and slightly richer
sound quality. Overall I was extremely impressed with the speakerphone.
The screen is one of the only color displays I've ever seen that works
without the need of a backlight. When used in an area with a normal level of
lighting (where reading books would be possible) the color and clarity of the
display is exceptional. The display works equally well in direct sunlight. The
only downside is that the backlight itself isn't very bright, and so the display
is actually rather difficult to see in dark areas.
I wasn’t particularly impressed with the keypad (as viewed from the perspective
of a phone user). While the keyboard is great for non-phone functions, the
numeric keys needed to dial numbers are not physically distinguished in any way
from the other keys (there isn’t even a little bump on the 5 key). This is
perhaps the worst phone to try and use while you’re driving. Using the keypad
requires that you look at the phone when dialing. To its credit the 7510 assumes
that pressing any of the standard phone-related keys while the unit is idling
means that you want to make a call, and the unit goes instantly into
phone-dialing mode.
The sound quality of the built-in earpiece is
very good. I’d been expecting to be disappointed, based on some of the comments
I’d read about the Blackberry, but I was instead very impressed. Overall the
sound compares to my i730 in much same way as the speakerphones. It’s slightly
louder overall, and slightly richer. The sweet-spot for the earpiece is a little
small compared to the i830, but not quite as
small as on the i730. Outgoing sound quality is also very good. I’d been given
plenty of opportunities to here how that microphone sounded when communicating
with the owner of the 7510.
We took the Blackberry to Fairview Park Mall in Kitchener to test the
RF capabilities. While Telus has a Mike
repeater inside of that mall, thus providing excellent signals in most places, the
repeaters don’t serve the department stores. Because there are no Mike sites
close to the mall, the signal gets rather weak when repeaters aren’t nearby. We
found areas inside of Wal-Mart where the signal dropped to as low as -104 dBm,
which gave us an opportunity to test the ability of the 7510 to hold onto a call
compared to my i730. Both phones performed almost equally, which means that the
7510 is just as capable as the i530, i830, and
i730, all of which I’ve compared for RF capabilities.
Overall the Blackberry 7510 provides phone functionality that is second-to-none
(the awkward keyboard notwithstanding).
If you have a need for the non-phone functionality of a Blackberry, but at the
same time you want an iDEN phone too, the 7510 is the best of both worlds. It
doesn’t force you to compromise by giving you a poor-quality phone, as is the
case with many of the PDA-phone devices I’ve tested to date. If I actually had a
need for the other features provided by the 7510, I wouldn’t hesitate buying one
myself.
NOTE: I’m aware of the high failure
rate of the i730 which has caused many people to believe that the i730 is
actually a poor performer. However, there are i730 models out there that work
exceptionally well, mine included. I’ve reviewed the i530 and i830 previously,
and I compared their RF performance to that of my i730. All of the phones came
out about equal, and so if my i730 is a bad performer, then so is the i830, i530
and the Blackberry 7510. Clearly that it isn’t the case.
