Box Contents

Inside the box you get a protective case, USB cable, mains cable and a user manual/CD.

Design

The product measures 114 (H) x 66 (W) x 14 (D) mm and weighs 134g, which is a touch heavier than the Curve range. The black shiny finish does look very business like and professional, with strong build quality to match. But like most black finishes it does attract finger prints.

The Qwerty keyboard underneath the 2.4" (320 x 240) hi-res screen was surprisingly comfortable to use - considering the keys are touching each other. Plus you can still press each key with the center of your thumb and produce quick emails or texts in the process.

Features

As mentioned the 8820 lacks a front and back camera but in fairness the product is not designed for the consumer.

Once again the lack of 3G support will put some people off but the reason why RIM have never needed to introduce this technology is because the Blackberry devices seem to cope perfectly well without it.

But the inclusion of dual Wi-Fi will make up for the previous, which when used with the setup wizard will allow you to link up your 8820 to your wireless routers quite easily - well we thought so when connecting up to our test router.

If this was not all you also you have a GPS receiver built-in which was also impressive, it acquired our location quickly (even in-doors) via the supplied Google Maps software, but we must point out it will use your GPRS data connection.

The only snag with the receiver is the limited support for 3rd party applications, however we used Oranges own SatNav software - that also uses your GPRS connection - for our road tests and it could cope perfectly fine on route (with the satellites maintaining our position accurately).

The screen did pick up a touch of glare from the hi-res screen, but it was not that noticeable - however we are in the winter months, so expect the glare to be slightly higher in the summer.

As a bonus because the device is small you can also use the 8820 for pedestrian navigation quite easily.

Software

As well as the Google Maps software you get a web browser (with push support) multimedia suite, which allows you to play videos and listen to music and you also have PIM style applications for making notes, calendar entries and storing contacts.

Of course you have the excellent push email facility for linking up to corporate email solutions or internet services - for smaller businesses - which allows the 8820 to receive emails automatically as and when they arrive. You can even view any PDF or Office style document attachments using its own API interface.

Memory

As with most Blackberry devices its low on the memory front with only 64MB of memory at your disposal, but the expansion slot (housed underneath the battery cover we must add) can handle 4GB/8GB microSDHC cards to boost storage further.

Call Quality

During our test conversation the (Quad-band) call quality was extremely clear and we could not detect any interface at all.

Battery

Battery life is well optimised on the 8820 with 528 hours of standby time, but using the Wi-Fi or GPS seems to impact into its general performance a lot more than general use.