BlackBerry 7130e Review

The Bottom Line

Good productivity phone with some software annoyances. Mostly for those who need mobile email more than anything else.

Pros

• Reasonable, but not superior, battery life
• Good keypad. SureType helps but does not equal a full keyboard

Cons

• Somewhat cumbersome software
• A bit bulky, at 4.70 ounces, but still smaller than regular BlackBerry devices
• Speakerphone volume could be higher

Description

• Technology support: CDMA
• BlackBerry Push email
• SureType almost-full keyboard

Guide Review - BlackBerry 7130e Review

Believe it or not, this was my first time reviewing a BlackBerry 7100 series device, even though they have been around for more than a year. Too busy, but I just tried the BlackBerry 7130e. First impressions: BlackBerry's have always been and will always be work-oriented phones. So if you are looking for a leisure phone, read no further. No camera, no MP3 playback, clearly, this is not a trendy teenager phone.

The BlackBerry 7100 series is clearly for those who like the BlackBerry approach of push email but prefer a form factor closer to a phone. Some software features were annoying me: one of them forces you to use the trackwheel to select an answer whenever you missed a call, got a voice mail or various other system alerts where you need to select "listen" or "cancel", etc. Why can't I just press the red key and skip to something else? Sound quality was good, as well as earpiece volume, but the speakerphone could have a higher output volume. It's more difficult to get used to the BlackBerry 7100 series as to most other phones but once you get used to it, there are some nice rewards, such as a series of quick in-phone shortcut keys that make things more productive. The BlackBerry 7130e is for workers who see value in handset-based email and don't need or want multimedia features.