Cingular's BlackBerry 8800 unboxed

He got us those original BlackBerry 8800 shots, so we're guessing these unboxing pics of the phone here were no sweat for Boy Genius. We still can't claim to be crazy about the device, which launched last week, but we're sure plenty of suits will be glad to replace their aging CrackBerries with this fancy new QWERTY version. As a side note -- could Cingular's boxes be any more boring?

[Mrmean @ Feb 20th 2007 11:37AM]

yawn...crackberry

[Hong @ Apr 13th 2007 5:53PM]

Nor impressed with it. The multimedia player sucks.

I have been using a Nokia E61 and I am really enjoying the experience of having an "all in one" device. I could check e-mails through BlackBerry connect. Listening to music files in eACC+ format (the size is about one third of MP3 format so I can store 200+ music files in a 2GB miniSD and still have room for video files) and watch video (files as long as almost 2 hours). Not to mention the voice experience is always great on a Nokia phone.

I mentioned all these things about the E61 so you have an idea on how I am using the device. Now, let's me share my experience when I tried to do the same with the 8800.

i) Audio. The audio is pretty good on the 8800. I wish there were equalizer controls. There was one strange experience which I think is a bug. I copied the eACC+ files I created using the Nokia software to the 8800's device memory (the memory space came with the device). The files played well. When I copied the same files to the media card memory, it gave me this error "The media being played is of an unsupported format". I thought the files were corrupted during the copy. However, when I copied these same files back to the device memory, they played fine. Why is there a difference on where (device memory vs media card) I put the files? Copying files caused another bad experience. I can only copy files one at a time. Also, when a file is copied into one folder (video, music or ring tune), I cannot move that file from one folder to another (ring tone folder to music folder). When I stored my music in several subfolders, I can only play music one subfolder at a time. It does not look like the BlackBerry has a real file manager (unlike Symbian or Windows Mobile). Each individual program is doing its own file handling routes instead of passing the requests to a central file manager to process. I guess third party applications also use their own ways to handle files.

ii) Video. Not able to play full screen means you cannot enjoy the full experience playing your home video on this BlackBerry unless they are recorded in 16x9 format. I am under the impression this BlackBerry has a faster processor and the video experience should be excellent... you would think. After 2 to 4 minutes of playing a video, I started to notice pauses and stutters on the playback. The video and audio would be out of synch for about 5 seconds. I did a test by playing the same video on both E61 and 8800. The video started first on the 8800. However, after about 8 minutes of playing and several pauses on the 8800 side, the Nokia E61, which is playing in normal speed, is actually ahead of the 8800. The video streaming seems like a problem. I think this shows you the BlackBerry is designed like an old OS (i.e. MSDOS) with poor multi-tasking ability.

If you have a 8700, stay with it. If you want multimedia experience, I think the Nokia E61/E62 are pretty good for their price. Of course, you can wait for the iPhone. Buy the 8800 only when it is less than $100.

[zulu @ Feb 20th 2007 1:30PM]

Not that the design of the box matters,... since Cingular is no more.

I highly doubt that an AT&T box will be any better. At least the Cingular colors "pop".

[carlo @ Feb 20th 2007 12:27PM]

haha, yawn. exactly. i don't see exactly what all of the blackberry hype is, but i've never had one.

i like that AT&T/the new cingular/the new AT&T is trying to keep things as fresh with their new name as they are with their phone... and they're still calling themselves Cingular.

Cingular... nothing to do with "singular"...