[strommsarnac]

I spent about TWO HOURS at the store messing around with one, installing software, browsing the net, etc. I walked out completely convinced that I loved this phone.

Less than 48 hours later I was walking out of the Sprint store again, but with a Touch.

I haven't looked back. I love the Touch, hated the 8830.

I really think the ONLY reason to get the 8830 is if you have friends/coworkers on the Blackberry network.

One thing to keep in mind is the msg'ing is BASIC. ALL msg's, including your non-BB email is in plain old text.

I thought the browser would work better with the trackball, but nope. It really just about like moving through using my old Sanyo 7400's browser.

I found that software is really geared towards PPC OR Smartphones. Some of the things I wanted were not there for Smartphones.

I really didn't like the configuration apps. I'll admit, I'm a Windows guy (MCSE/MCT) and things just were not where I expected them to be.

I did like the size. It's bigger than the Touch and since I have big hands it just felt better. I did like having an actual keyboard, but I've used a Palm PDA for so long that I fly when using the Touch's recognition.

If you're all hot for a Smartphone, go with the Motorola Q9c. I would have done so, but I decided to just go all out so I didn't have to worry about changing again.

BTW: The BB's keyboard is different than other phones of the same form. The biggest thing is the period key on the 8830 needs one to press ALT+M. Yep, it's not like normal keyboards where you just hit one key. This drove me nuts. What's worse is the $ IS a single key press.

Go Figure.