Display
A large 2.4” LCD screen takes up about half of the 8800’s front panel and is more than up to any task the device is capable of. This 320 x 240 display is only capable of 64,000 colors - as compared to the 262,000 or even 16 million found on other handsets on the market - but proved clear and bright in virtually all lighting conditions. An ambient light sensor automatically adjusts the display’s brightness to best suit the conditions you’re using the phone under, and I found it to work very well in bright sunlight, dark rooms, and everywhere in between. About the only negative thing I can think of to say about the 8800’s display is that it’s pretty prone to fingerprints and smudges. I seem to write that about every phone I review these days, though.
BlackBerry’s user interface took a big step forward over the past year or so, and while the drop down menus on the 8800 still have that “retro” VAX terminal feel to them, the home screen and icon-driven submenus are more Mac OS than MS DOS. Icons can be arranged in grid or list form, and the home screen displays the number of unread messages you have, both in individual accounts and as a total tally. I guess that’s either a good or bad thing depending on your personal relationship with your Inboxes.
While there aren’t a ton of customization options to be found on this BlackBerry, you can set the display font face and size to your liking, which is pretty important on a device meant for heavy email usage. The display also did a fine job of display Web and album art graphics, images (there’s a built-in image gallery app despite the lack of a camera), and video clips.
Audio
I tested the quad-band GSM 8800 on T-Mobile’s network in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. The handset was pretty good when it came to voice calls - a little muffled here and there, but nothing to really complain about. Signal strength was good and folks on the other end of the line generally didn’t have to say, “What? I can’t hear you,” very often. The built-in speakerphone was also about average for a cell phone - usable in decently quiet surroundings, but not so great in noisy areas or plopped on a table for group calls.
The 8800 has an integrated 2.5mm stereo headphone jack and came with a set of wired stereo earphones with an inline microphone. I used the ‘phones for calls and listening to music, and for cheap stock earbuds they actually weren’t bad.
The device also supports Bluetooth earpieces, though stereo Bluetooth is not supported. I easily paired the 8800 with a couple of wireless headsets, and performance was good during voice calls.
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4.5
