BlackStorm

 (黑莓)  is a mobile email system designed and promoted by Canadian company Research In Motion(RIM). It suppports email、mobile phone、word messages、internet facsimile, web browsing and other wireless information services. It was invented in 1998，when RIM’s strategist thought the squeezed small standard English black keybroad on the little wireless product looks like seeds on the surface of strawberry，he gave it a name – Blackberry. My first use of BlackBerry was in 2005 when I worked for Goldman.  Now, let’s take a look the uniqueness of BlackBerry new model 8800！

PRODUCT OUTLOOK   

8800 is made by traditional Blackberry materials ：black piano baking varnish with metal frame outside. With the first glace，8800 is very much like a big black pearl，but definitely more durable. 8800 is about 114mm x 66mm x 15mm，and 134g. It has a QWERTY keybroad，an ALT key that can quickly access information and a high resolution screen(320×240). It can automatically control brightness to provide excellent visibility under all circonstances，at the same time it saves batteries. The distance between its opposite angles on screen is 2.4".  

All applications are easy-to-use and all operations can be done manually. Its navigation interface can be controlled by pressing the center button of the keybroad. The voice dail button is located on the right side, the phone jack and the mini USB connection are  on the left side. The power-on button and the mute/play/standby button are on the top of 8800. The MS card is under the back cover. If users wants to take out the card , it is no need to restart 8800. It is equipped with a leather carrying case，it can be put in the case when it is not in use. One thing is needed to be pointed out，under strong magnetic field ，it automatically turns itself to standby mode，and it will go back to normal mode under normal condition. 

FUNCTIONS 

• Quad-Band: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS, EDGE + Wi-Fi. Did you say WiFi? Yes, WiFi.
• 320×240 screen
• 106mm x 60mm x 15.5mm. Whew, that’s certainly thinner than Paris.
• USB Connection
• Full QWERTY keypad. No more of that “SureType” crap.
• Email and SMS
• Organizer
• Internet
• Blackberry Maps
• Possible on some versions of the 8800 (Camera – 1.3 mp, 5x digital zoom, flash and maybe even video recording)
• Media Player
• 64 MB Flash, expandable memory (Micro SD)
• Advanced noise and echo cancellation
• Voice activated dialing, speaker phone, Bluetooth 2.0

Like early-designed Blackberry products ，8800 has powerful communication function and efficient information transmission function. In terms of communication times，by far the longest conversation of GSM8800 is  4 h 50 mins. In term of battery life, it surpasses other similar products. In the late night, it can be switched off.

8800 has an highly advanced internal system，although its user interface looks very ordinary. It can save PIM data information such as Microsoft Outlook. In its telephone book，numbers and addresses can be saved in different categories. But it cannot save birthdays，this is a pity. All records from the first to the last can be found by keybroad operation. At the same time，it can show records in list form. 8800’s phone connection is very fast，any key on the keybroad can be speed dialer key.

8800 also supports some common functions，e.g. Bluetooth2.0 and USB connection. To secure driver’s safety，Bluetooth 2.0 can be used with Advanced Car Kit. 8800 can connect to PC for interface management.  Its data transmission is slower than EV-DO. More，it can transfer files from PC，upload music from PC，download the latest firmwares upgrade from the internet.

 

USER INTERFACE 

8800’s user interface looks like that of MicrosoftWindows DOS. But  the screen cannot support Linux-based user interface at all. However，it has certain advantages. For instance，it can connect to PC easily to realise further functions.  8800 provides an user-defined interface. It supports Autotext function，users can change the size of characters，even font，including black and Italics. There are about 100 themes avaiable in 8800，and background pictures on standby screen can be chnaged easily. The main menu，on 8800，is very presentable. Different icons represent differenct functions，all icons can be shown or hiden.  Users can use “Show All” order to view file list.

TO SUM

I do think 8800 is an excellent mobile phone because its extremely easy-to-use interface and powerful communication functions. It is a state to art intelligent handset. Most importantly, its powerful word input scheme and newly-designed navigation menu bring us a freshing experience.