Unboxing: Cingular BlackBerry 8800
Yes, the BlackBerry 8800 has started to ship to Cingular Retail stores. I’m not going to bore everyone with the details because by now they have been covered, through, and through. Let’s just say RIM has refined the device a lot compared to the test unit I have. Wall Street, CEO’s, Corporate America…this is your device. Check out the full unboxing after the jump!
Any idea if 8800 is coming to India soon?
will a new blackberry come out for verizon?
any ideas on when T-Mobile will get the 8800 and how much it will be selling for?
I called the Menlo Park Mall store in Edison, NJ this morning and confirmed that they received a shipment of 8800’s and that they were available immediately. When I went there this evening to pick one up, I was told that they weren’t allowed to sell them because they were ringing up at $0.00. I was pretty annoyed since I made the trip over there for no bloody reason. They then informed me to come back on Thursday – 2/22/07 – to purchase it. Well, at least they put my name on one of them…
I got mine last night in Ventura, CA. I just called and asked if they had 8800’s in stock, asked the price ($299 after $50 rebate for upgrade) and went down and picked it up. I was the first person to buy one and from the employee reactions, it was the first time they had seen one.
tcrawford,
TeleNav Navigator is available on their OTA site. You’ll need an active account to use it.
Version 4.7 is SWEET!!! with 3d nav.
thanks blah – are you using it on an 8800? it only supports up to the 8700 – no option for 8800.
I bought the 8800 yesterday. I have been a Treo 650 for over 2 years. 8800 is a good unit, but hard to read in sunlight. I like the trackball a lot better than the 8700C that I tried (hated the wheel). Great sound quality with and without the bluetooth. I liked the Treo (650, 750 & 680) but had a lot of quality problems!!!!! Have to use Companionlik to sync with ACT 2006. Still looking for the perfect unit!!!!
TeleNav works okay. The maps don’t look very good compared to my Garmin. Just make sure your phone is provisioned for TeleNav.
looks like I got had then.. In austin TX I was sold the 8800 for $399 after $50 mail in rebate, if it is $299 I am heading back to the store!
Different markets have different pricing from Cingular.
I got one at my store yesterday, and I too was the first one to pick one up. While the wifi would be nice on the upcoming model, this one feels solid. I tried the pearl and liked the size, but the keys were just a tad too small. This guy has just the right spacing for my bear paws, and it certainly feels a lot more substantial! As noted, the call quality and screen resolution is good. The silence button works well on the top. While i understand BG’s desire for a plastic case, I have to say that the leather case is quite a nice perk. It’s about time you got a decent case for spending some bling on such a $$ unit! All and all, its a solid BB. I will have to play with the GPS a little more. As others have said, I’m not shelling out 10 bucks a month to TELNAV when my Garmin QUE works great!
do you know if you can use the 8800 with the old ATT SIM card (like you can do on the 8700c
I have a question about the GPS. Does the mapping software run on the unit, or does it have to go over the air? My question is: is this just a cool application that runs on the BBerry, or is this a service offered by Cingular that is similar to the Verizon Navigator service?? Also, how well does the software work? Can it almost replace one of those units you would use in a car??
George,
I’d suggest you visit http://www.telenav.com. They offer a service for as little as $5.95/month. The service uses your device and GPS, and then it downloads in real-time the maps, directions, and audio cues. I use it quite often, so i opted for their unlimited plan.
re the using the old ATT sim card with the 8800… i highly doubt it. even with the 8700’s they made us switch our blue sim cards to the orange ones. the orange ones go to the new billing system/new plans and also have more physical memory in them… even though they’re changing their name back to AT&T i doubt they’re going to switch back to their older billing system. heck, it wouldn’t suprise me if they wanted to be real jerkoffs and switch to some 3rd billing system and then charge everyone to switch to that…
…re the GPS system… does anyone have any great feedback on this? seems a lot of ppl here saying it doesn’t work. my SO has a pearl and had a bluetooth GPS but it didn’t work worth the damn… they RMAed the phone twice and tried 2 brands of bluetooth gps, but it still kept crashing with software errors (uncaught JVM errors, etc).. googled around and found that it was a common problem maybe. the 8800 probably uses similar firmware for the GPS connectivity and still uses the blackberry maps… so if they haven’t updated it i wonder how well it could work.. when it was working (prior to crashing), i’d say it rated about a 5/10 with how well it works compared to a real GPS. it’s only marginally useful as a bonified GPS system … it’d be nice if the maps didn’t have to download over the wire in real time (why this is listed as a “feature” is beyond me… it *could* be a useful feature some day but if it’s just to get maps then it’s not really a feature it just saves memory… it could be more useful as a “feature” if it also downloaded real time traffic data or something to reroute you in real time–like some XM enabled GPSes do)
also, i’ve been following the 8800 for a few weeks but today is the first i’ve heard from a user of mine requesting it. he saw an ad for it somewhere, so apparently they’re advertising it heavily now. http://www.blackberry8800.com/ is a web site they have for it
if this is the evolution up from the pearl, it’s disappointing that they took the camera out …
… it always seems like there’s something they leave out just so they can come up with a better model the next year to sell more.
When is the 8800 going to be released by t-mobile
That cut on your left thumb should be pretty easy to give you away….
release date for blackberry 8800 for tmobile… april or may of 2007
I have had the (cingular) Blackberry 8800 for a couple of weeks and generally love it. Telenav works suprisingly well with one BIG complaint. Directions are audible from the speakerphone or earbud but NOT through a bluetooth headset. I called telenav support and they confirmed this. What gives? Will some future patch fix this? Is there a hardwired (non bluetooth) carkit base that will put the telenav directions through my car stereo speakers?
Is the 8800 going to come out in T-Mobile?
“tcrawford, I’m assuming you have the Desktop software to support the 8800 installed on your PC? This should provide the necessary drivers to the OS so that you can use it for more than a mass storage device. It sounds to me like these drivers aren’t loaded.”
Hi– I’m a Blackberry newbie in Hong Kong, just got the 8800, and am having these similar problems (unable to download themes, etc). Because I am a Mac user, how do I download Desktop software? Is it even available?
Thank you,
Samantha
I had to have the old ATT SIM switched to the Cingular SIM card to correct the DST change. The Cingular SIM went into my new 8800.
Will I be able use other carrier data plans such as Tmobile on my blackberry 8800 unlocked in case if I change providers. Thanks
Made you?
I have used an 8700c with my old AT&T sim card since the 8700c came out without a hitch.
Here’s the current issue.
I purchased an unlocked, Cingular branded 8800 and upon inserting my AT&T sim, both the media net and blackberry browsers disappeared, leaving me with the now useless “Mmode Browser”.
Any ideas?