Verizon Blackberry 8830 – I Fell Off the Crack(berry) Wagon

I had been clean for almost two years, yet today I fell off the wagon.

Yes after being a Blackberry addict until 2005 – then switching to a Treo 650 – I’m now back in the habit, thanks to the new Verizon Blackberry 8830.

It’s a beautiful phone, very thin and extremely easy to use. I’d forgotten some of the nice touches about a BlackBerry, such as hitting space to use a “.” or “@” in email forms or the powerful email client. Some nice surprises include just how well Google mobile products work with BlackBerry – Gmail, Talk, Maps and Reader all work so much better than with the Treo.

Also a piece a cake is the syncing with Bluetooth devices. I already have it syncing calendars with Outlook, connected to my headset and high-speed internet on my laptop.

There’s a few things I miss. I miss the simple “mute” switch on the Treo for silencing the ringer and alerts – the 8830 has a button that says “mute” but I think that’s just for muting calls – and the 8830 doesn’t have a camera. But, so far I’m liking it.

Bonus – it works on all bands, so I can use it all around the world!