Powerful, sturdy device with great screen
Pros:
long battery life, bright screen, does it's job very well
Cons:
a little bulky (big AND thick)
The Bottom Line:
Great device for those who need to be able to send/receive email on the go, and who want a full QWERTY keyboard.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
I have had an 8700c for just over a year. I love it. I use it for work, and it is more than adequate for my needs. It does the basic PIM functions very well, (Address Book, Calendar, and Tasks), but what you can't beat is it's screen. I upgraded from a 7280, which had lasted 3 years. I am very, very hard on small electronic devices; I break them, I drop them, I just don't treat them well. And in over a year of mistreating the 8700c, it has performed like a champ.
It has a long battery life, and the built in profiles work just fine for me; if they don't work for you, they are editable, and you can configure the alerts at a very granular level.
It's got a very bright, very crisp screen. It's very easy to read email on this device, and you can (of course) adjust the font size if you need it a little bigger.
It is a bit big, and there are newer devices that are more in line with the bulk of the cell phone world, but they don't all offer a full QWERTY keyboard. I really like the QWERTY keyboard on this model; my colleage has an 8800 with it's funky keyboard, and I did not find it to be intuitive; this one is much easier to use, if not as sexy.
It supports bluetooth, as well, which is just about a must these days. But if you don't have a bluetooth headset, it supports the "standard" 3.5 mm headset, which is very easy to find. I like that the volume is controlled by the thumbwheel. It's easy to put yourself on mute, but it's a little more effort to take yourself off mute, which can cause a delay in answering questions posed to you while you are listening to conference calls on mute (such as while driving).
There are a fair number of games available for this device, and I like that I can sync some photos to it, but not too many.
It will not work as an MP3 player, though, and it does not support any sort of flash storage media, so it's not expandable. (This is not a problem for me, but if that's what you are looking for, this device is not for you.)
