BlackBerry 8830 World Edition review

Even though this phone isn't exactly recent, I thought I'd share my thoughts and experience with my first CDMA BlackBerry.

On the signal front, the 8830 does well, and I am in a flat in which the Telus CDMA network is weak unfortunately, but the 8830 does a good job at latching on the network, data speeds were constant.

On the call quality front, it's TERRIFIC. There is a nifty little option to tweak the call audio with full bass, that with the volume level means it's very possible to have a conversation in a loud place and still hear the caller just fine. Truth is, there is not much difference between the MiKE iDEN network and the CDMA networks purely on a call quality front.

Battery life has been a consistant two and a half days, and that includes an always-on data connection to the EvDO network, use of BlackBerry Messenger, MSN Messenger, a LOT of music playback, too.

Speaking of music playback, it was with a lot of surprise -- and delight -- that I discovered that the 8830 works PERFECTLY with my Bluetooth headphones! I can also easily operate the media player without taking the Berry out of it's holster, by using the volume keys on the side I can adjust volume AND change tracks.

The 8830 also played very nice with my 8GB microSD HC memory card.

The 8830 is an older and slightly larger handheld, but the extra bulk is a worthy trade for one of the VERY BEST QWERTY keyboard I have ever seen. I liked the 8350i, but the keyboard was just not as good as the 8830. I type BLAZINGLY FAST on the 8830, because the keyboard is THAT DAMN GOOD.

I installed an hybrid version of BlackBerry OS, an hybrid of 4.5 and 5.0, 4.5 being the highest version supported on the 8830. But don't get me wrong -- even BBOS 4 was rock-solid. Some compatible files from version 5.0 were included in this hybrid OS, the result being more free memory, and smoother browsing.

There is no camera on this phone. This perticular Berry is clearly for the corporate user. The good thing is that they are cheap because they are older phones, mine costed ~CAN$45.

The 8830 World Edition can also connect to GSM networks in Europe because it also comes with GSM 900/1800 radios as well as the CDMA radios. Only this edition has the GSM radios.

If you are on a CDMA network such as Bell/Telus/Verizon/Sprint/blah, the 8830 is a great no-nonsense BlackBerry. Data speeds on EvDO are very good, even more so because BlackBerries compresses data for even higher speeds. I have 1GB of mobile internet in my plan, and I find myself using more than I thought I'd use.

Thanks for the update. I actually understood a lot of what you said. Have no idea what a CDMA network is except that Verizon is one.

CDMA is the network's core technology. In the beginning, there was the analog network. Despite it's flaws, it had one of the longest lifespan for a mobile network, existing from 1983 to 2008, I believe.

For many years, the analog network was fine, but as cellphones grew in popularity, the networks started to become overloaded. The FCC allowed more spectrum for the analog networks, which in turn increased the capacity of the networks, but this was only a temporary fix. Work began on a new standard, the 2nd generation standard to replace the analog network. CDMA was one such standard. In Canuckland, Telus and Bell deployed a CDMA network as their second generation network, while Rogers deployed a second generation network based on TDMA technology.

Leaving the difference between TDMA and CDMA aside, both second generation networks DRASTICALLY increased capacity. The digital encoding of the signal also required significantly less power than the analog network, improving battery life.

The original second generation CDMA network was revised and upgraded to become 3rd and 3.5rd generation technology.

On the user end, the result is the same -- phone calls, SMS texts, data. There are some technicalities that make each core network technology unique, and all of them have pros and cons.

I chose to move from iDEN to CDMA because data speeds/web browsing on my 8350i were TERRIBLE, I mean really bad. My BlackBerry uses 3.5th generation CDMA, and data speeds are zippy and fast.

Thanks, TON. I have often wondered why the cell phone I had when I moved here in 2000 had such a short battery life. I needed two batteries and even then had to turn the phone off or have a car plug-in when traveling.

My current battery lasts and lasts.

Crappy battery life is a telltale sign of using an analog network. Analog networks were also susceptible to interference, I bet you had some calls plagues by static and some other white noise, right?

The biggest advantage of CDMA is that a CDMA phone can use multiple base stations at once, evaluating the signal quality of each base station and using the best. If you are in a call and the phone detects a base station with stronger signal, it will hand the call to hat base station with no interruption, something that was not possible with TDMA/GSM.