Blackberry gives great service, shame about its looks

Email in the hand is nice but the Blackberry 7230 is no head-turner.

The Blackberry is one of those devices that periodically sweep around the world like a kind of technological Mexican wave, creating all kinds of fuss and palaver before reaching icon status. But is it all it's cracked up to be and what, to be blunt, does it actually do?

The Blackberry, built by Canadian company Research in Motion (RIM), is a cross between a pager and a cellphone and is designed to deliver your email to you wherever you are.

If that sounds a bit simple, it is - but that's the beauty of the Blackberry. It does a very limited range of things very well. The Blackberry's key ingredient is that emails are "pushed" to the device from the email server so users don't have to even think about logging on to check their email - it just arrives. That makes it great for non-technical users; executives, sales reps - anyone whose business life revolves around speedy and ready access to email.

In the US the Blackberry has been a huge hit with Government staffers who live or die, in working terms, by email. The New York Times has reported on Washington insiders using the devices for everything from arranging high-level meetings to setting up dinner dates without having to actually talk to a member of the opposite sex.

Our Government officials are somewhat less prone to flights of electronic fancy and it's been reported the Government Communications Security Bureau is looking at the Blackberry from a security point of view. This is probably appropriate because, as with any portable device, security is a big concern. And rightly so - the Blackberry I'm using has an option for a password but one that can be turned off. I have, because I stupidly chose a very long password and it annoyed me having to enter it every time I used the device. Bad user practice, I know, but that's something to take into account.

While the device is tightly integrated with email, you can't simply go out and buy a Blackberry and start receiving your email on it. You have to tie it in with your email server and that requires some technical assistance. Vodafone New Zealand offers the Blackberry in two packages: the enterprise solution, for companies with their own email server; or the internet version for users who don't have their own email server.

If the Blackberry service is great, and it is, the device itself is something of a problem. The US customer base is built up of users moving over from a pager and that's reflected in the 7230 model's design.

To all appearances it's a label printer, to put it kindly, and when I sit it next to my cellphone it looks quite out of place. You can use the Blackberry as a phone but it takes some nerve to hold that up to the side of your head in public.

The giant plastic belt-clip holster is also a worry for those of us who never took to dangling bunches of keys off our belts. Holsters went the way of the dodo years ago but the Blackberry uses its holster to switch the device into sleep mode. An optional smaller, leather holder is worth checking out.

The device itself is straightforward to use. Most of the functions are controlled with a clickable scroll wheel - simply move to your email icon or your calendar or whatever and click. I found it was easy to roll off the icon and click the wrong thing because of the way I was holding the unit. It's wide, so needs big paws to use one-handed.

I was also surprised to find you need multiple clicks to do most things. I'm not a fan of the "are you sure?" school of software design. I'd rather live with the odd mistake than put up with having to confirm every action. Opening an email requires a click to open the inbox, then another click to select the email, then yet another click to open it. The delete option is also at the bottom of the list rather than closer to the action; it sometimes disappears off the list altogether, requiring much scrolling to reach it, and yes, you have to confirm that's what you want to do.

But these are minor concerns. I can clear my email on the bus on the way to work in the morning; the unit doesn't demand frequent charging; it synchronises addresses and calendar entries whenever I plug it into the PC; and the new 7100 unit looks far more like a regular cellphone.

Telecom is also looking at the Blackberry and a number of the cellphone vendors, like Nokia and Sony Ericsson, are licensing the interface for their phones.

Forget the hardware - it's the service that makes the Blackberry worthwhile.

The Blackberry

Price: $999 for the unit and service fees from $35 plus GST a month

Pros: Great service, good battery life, can look at attachments if need be, synchronises well with PC

Cons: Device looks like a label printer, horrible holster, should synchronise appointments as well as email on the air

Herald rating: 9/10 for the service, 5/10 for the 7230 device