I've been using a Blackberry 8820 for a couple of months to keep an eye on emails when I'm not near a computer. I'd like to think that I haven't become as addicted as some though.. I can see why the thing is nicknamed a Crackberry!
I was asked by Joel yesterday how I was getting on which made me think about what I thought.
It's great for email! It just works. Removing the 'sent from Blackberry' line on the bottom of every email made it better! It uses IMAP to poll my mailbox periodically.
It doesn't do html email. Paraphrasing from here, it's all very well being a text only email purist but the other 99% of the population don't care if an email is plain text or html, in fact I'd say they like having different fonts, colours and pictures available. I'm going to give BBSmart a trial over Christmas to see how I get on.
RIM (the people behind the Blackberry) send the emails for you which meant a little playing around with SPF and SRS settings for the domains that I'm sending email from.
I've got MidpSSH installed which gives me emergency SSH access if I really need it.
I've also got Opera Mini installed which is great but took a little while to get working due to Orange UK's lack of defining an APN on the device.
One thing that the two applications above highlight is that the Blackberry is a 2G/EDGE device. It's a lot slower than the 3G access from my regular mobile. But as a result of not having 3G the battery life is tremendous (as long as you leave the wireless network turned off when you aren't using it). The speed experience also stopped me thinking about one of the current iPhones.
Another thought is to pair the Blackberry to my 3G phone when I need that extra bit of speed. Something else to play with..
All in all the Blackberry is a decent well thought out product.
