DisplayThe 2.5" TFT display on the 8703e is capable of 320x240 resolution at 65,000 colors. While this isn't quite state of the art compared to high-end multimedia phones, it's more than capable for everything the 8703e is meant to do. The screen looks great in most lighting conditions, and an configurable backlight makes for easy adjustments.
BlackBerry's user interface isn't going to win any awards, but it's not as bad as I always fear it will be before picking up one of their devices. The icon-driven menu system is straightforward and looks pretty nice on the 8703e's screen, either in list or grid view.
Text and graphics render nicely on the screen, and it's got plenty of room for viewing email attachments, composing and reading messages and Web browsing. Menu items are customizable so individual users can have quick access to email accounts and most-used applications; BlackBerry is all about on-the-go productivity.
Audio
Call quality on the 8703e was very good. The dual-band CDMA (1900mHz and 800 MHz) CDMA radio performed well most of the time on Sprint's network in the San Francisco Bay Area. I had a few "bad connections" that resulted in broken-up voices on one end or the other, but a quick hang-up and redial fixed the problem in every case. I had no issues getting a signal nor with dropped calls.
Quality was good using the built-in speakerphone, and the 24 pre-installed ringtones played loud and clear through the speaker. Some of them were capable of getting quite loud, as a matter of fact. The phone supports MIDI, wav, and mp3 ringtones.
Bluetooth 2.0 on the 8703e includes support for headsets, and I was able to easily pair and use a mono headset for calls. Stereo over Bluetooth is not supported.
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4.5
