A BlackBerry?
That cheap Nokia I bought didn’t work out as well as I had hoped. The keyboard was really bad, and it didn’t work in the U.S. That last point isn’t a huge problem, but it was inconvenient.
So, pictured above you’ll see a hand-me-down BlackBerry 8100. After unlocking the phone, adding a new trackball, battery, battery door and a silicone case, I have a nice phone with a much better keyboard. Surprisingly, all of those parts only cost around $20 USD.
I can’t really give a complete opinion on the phone as I’m using it on a voice/text only pre-paid plan. However, I will say that the 8100 is a nice size with a nice keyboard and a decent display. The camera is a bit of a disappointment, but it does an adequate job. The USB port for charging/data transfer is a huge improvement of the proprietary Nokia connectors, and the semi-common 2.5mm headphone/mic jack had proven useful. The built-in MP3 player is clunky, but functional, and is a reasonable substitute for carrying my iPod shuffle. Other than that, the interface is fairly nice, and the trackball is a reasonable input device (when it isn’t dirty).
Since I don’t have much else to say, here are some shots from the camera in different lighting conditions:
The Eriksen at Eagle Park
A foggy Winter day at Fox Creek
An Amtrak train
Rusty bridge
An archway
Tags: 8100, BlackBerry, Nokia
