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BlackBerryToday > Hardware Reviews > Review: RIM Adds Bluetooth with BlackBerry 7290 Review: RIM Adds Bluetooth with BlackBerry 7290
By Gerry Blackwell
It's a quad-band (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) GSM/GPRS world phone with a color screen and traditional BlackBerry form factor. The 7290's most notable distinguishing feature then is a Bluetooth radio to support hands-free functions, so you can use it with a Bluetooth wireless headset. Like all recent BlackBerrys, it works well as a phone and continues to offer the best e-mail experience of any smartphone, and performs more than adequately as an Internet device.
The 7290 is currently available from Cingular Wireless and AT&T Wireless (now one) in the U.S., and Rogers Wireless in Canada. It is identical to the 7250, a 800/1900 MHz CDMA2000/1X version available from Verizon Wireless in the U.S. and Bell in Canada. The 7290 and 7250 in turn have virtually the same form factor and feature set as two tri-band GSM/GPRS 7200 series models, the 7280 (850/1800/1900 MHz) and 7230 (900/1800/1900 MHz)—though neither of these models has Bluetooth. Cingular/AT&T sells the 7290 with a 2-year contract for $250 (after a mail-in rebate). Rogers sells it for about $370 (after rebate) with a three-year plan. Verizon sells the 7250 with a 2-year contract for $350. Bell has it for about $325 with a 36-month plan.
Design Like most BlackBerry smartphones, the 7290 retains the broad, short, and flat form factor that makes room for a generous size screen—240x160 pixels (2.16 x 1.41 inches) supporting over 65,000 colors—and the full 32-key QWERTY keyboard that has been BlackBerry's hallmark since the beginning. The exception is the more recent 7100 series that adopts a longer, narrower, more phone-like form factor with a smaller screen and fewer keys that do double duty. RIM has released several different 7100 with slightly different form factors, but otherwise the same features.
I personally never saw a problem with using the more traditional BlackBerry form factor as a phone that you hold to your ear. Plus now you can go hands free without wires.
Navigation It might be my imagination, but I detected subtle differences between the feel of this thumbwheel and on those on some earlier BlackBerrys. This one seemed a little stiffer and doesn't seem to stick up above the surface as high. I found my thumb slid off it more easily. This is a quibble, though. Together with the Escape/Back button—located just below the thumbwheel on the right-hand edge—and the QWERTY keyboard, the BlackBerry interface remains one of the best on any PDA.
Phone Battery life, as with most BlackBerrys is a definite plus. RIM claims four hours of talk time and nine days of standby time. (This is as measured using the GSM Association's standardized PRD TW.09 Battery Life Measurement Technique.) There are other devices that now come close to or match the BlackBerry's performance on battery life, but RIM remains an industry pace setter.
In our test calls on the Rogers network, even in an area with relatively low signal strength, the 7290 delivered very good voice and connection quality—clear, good volume, little break up. This was no different than our experience with other recently tested BlackBerrys. Internet performance was adequate but less impressive, though it's impossible to tell if that was the phone or the connection.
Bluetooth You enable Bluetooth (turn on the radio) from an Options submenu, and then click Add Device from the pop-up menu. If you've turned the Bluetooth headset on and put it in "discoverable" mode, the 7290 will find it.
To set up the Logitech Mobile Bluetooth Headset I used, you have to key in a four digit code on the BlackBerry before it will associate with the headset. With some other Bluetooth products, you don't have to do this. Once I keyed in the code, the 7290 immediately found the headset.
With some phones, once you turn on the headset and it's associated with the phone, it becomes the default speaker and microphone. With the 7290, you have to activate the headset, either using the menus on the 7290 or, in the case of the Logitech product, by pressing the multifunction button on the headset. On subsequent calls, the headset comes on automatically.
E-Mail/Apps The most important reason to buy a BlackBerry remains the e-mail software and service. Companies with a BlackBerry Enterprise Server can "push" mail from a corporate e-mail box to the handheld with no human intervention. The user doesn't have to check for mail on the handheld either: it just arrives—not just the header, the whole message. BlackBerry also makes it possible to retrieve and read attachments.
Users with hosted e-mail accounts can use the BlackBerry Internet Service to integrate up to 10 e-mail accounts on the handheld, either corporate or hosted. They receive the same push e-mail service as corporate users.
The organizer content stored on the handheld can be synchronized via the included USB cable with popular PC and server-based organizers and databases such as Outlook, Lotus Organize, Novell GroupWise and others. Pocket PC and Palm organizers may have more features, but the BlackBerry applets will be more than adequate for most users. If the 7290 users work for a company that runs a BlackBerry Enterprise Server, they can have updates to their calendar pushed to them along with mail. It's also possible to integrate the BlackBerry Enterprise Server with existing enterprise applications to give mobile employees access to corporate data. Bottom line: another excellent product from RIM. A great choice for any user who doesn't care about games or music or snapping pictures with their phone—but does want an unparalleled e-mail experience and a good phone all in one. This one is all business.
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