Saturday, March 29, 2008

Rim BlackBerry 8820 Review: A Sweet BlackBerry for Bussines


This new BlackBerry adds three varieties of Wi-Fi 802.11a, b, and g - to AT&T businesslike BlackBerry 8800. There’s not much use for the new connectivity, but that’s okay, because the 8820 is a fine enterprise handheld anyway. And it isn’t all business- the 8820 also includes the latest BlackBerry music and videoplayer.


Unfortunately, the 8820 doesn’t let you make voice calls over Wi-Fi, and Wi-Fi doesn’t speed up e-mail delivery or Web browsing. But it will give you e-mail access indoor, in places where you my not have a cellular signal. The handheld’s enterprise focus is underscored by its support for business-friendly 802.11a and a range of VPNs, including Cisco and Check Point.

Otherwise this is essentially a BlackBerry 8800, and that’s a good thing. It shares the 8800’s very good quad-band world-phone performance, beautiful screen, long battery life, TeleNav GPS navigation, and easy-to-use BlackBerry e-mail. Sadly, it also shares the 8800’s lack of 3G cellular networking, which is frustrating for road warriors who want to use the 8820 as laptop modem.

If you business demand that you use a device without a camera, the 8820 will help you get your work done efficiently, Wi-Fi or not.

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