Ranting Canuck

About two weeks a lot of finally was able to do away with the Blackberry 8700 that I have been carrying for a couple of months. As I mentioned before, we were looking at moving to Telus for our provider but with the purchase of Orbex by Compugen we were staying with Rogers.

One of the main reasons I was not all the excited about us moving to Telus was that they did not have the 8130 Curve. I really wanted a curve because it a camera in it; I know the camera is only 2 mega pixels. But the main reason I wanted the camera is because I use to carry a camera in my notebook bag so when I was a client’s site I could take pictures of their environment. This allowed me to take little less copious notes when I was at a client and instead could focus on talking to the client.

Anyway about two weeks ago my new Blackberry 8130 curve came in and I am really impressed with it. This is the third black berry the first being a Blackberry 7290 then more recently the 8700, so I have been able to see how Research in Motions (RIM) devices have improved over the last three years. Comparing the 8130 to the 7290 is like comparing a Pentium 4 computer to a 286. The 8130 is must faster than the 8700 and 7290 in opening emails and attachments. There is so many more features on the 8130 then you could get on previous models.

The main features I like about my new Blackberry is that is has the built in camera as I already mentioned. It also has a built in media player that allows you to play audio and video files. This is a really nice feature for me since we have a 3-com VOIP solution at the office and I have all my voice mails emailed to me. So I can now listen to them on my mobile device, which is really handy since I am not in the office all that much.

The 8130 curve also has comes with the GPS capability which works pretty well. I don’t really use it since I have a navigation system in my Nissan Rogue, more on the new truck later. But if I did not have the navigation system I could see this being a useful device. 

From a usability standpoint the main difference between the 8130 and the previous devices that I have used is that the 8130 has a scroll ball in below the screen. My 7290 and 8700 blackberries both had scroll wheels on the side of the device so it took some getting used to the scroll ball on my device. It maybe took me two days get use to it, I know some users really don’t like the scroll ball they much prefer the scroll wheels on the older devices. Once I got use to the ball I found it just as easy to use as the wheel was and it gives you ability to scroll diagonally which is handy.

The only thing I do not like about the 8130 is that it does not feel a durable as my previous Blackberries. It is not as thick and does not have the weight, I am sure it is durable enough but I am also pretty tough on my technology. I known for dropping and tossing my previous units, so time will tell if the Blackberry 8130 Curve will be able to stand up to this abuse.