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The BlackBerry 7130g and nearly identical BlackBerry 7130c, two quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE phones from Research in Motion (RIM), use a refined version of the phone-like form factor RIM introduced with the 7100 series products. They also build on the 7100 series by adding important function upgrades: more memory, significantly enhanced battery life, a speaker phone, automatic adjustment of backlighting for LCD and keyboard and support for EDGE networks and multimedia messaging.

Like the earlier 7100 series products, the two new models offer all the key features of the more PDA-like BlackBerrys such as the flagship 8700 series. They do voice, e-mail, text messaging and wireless data access, and include address book, Internet browser, calendar, memo pad and tasks applications. And they perform these functions as well as or better than past BlackBerrys.

The 7130g and 7130c are nifty additions to RIM's line-up, though traditionalists who didn't like the 7100's SureType alpha-numeric keyboard won't like it any better with this iteration. Gone is the full QWERTY keyboard familiar to most BlackBerry users, replaced by a packed-tight 20-key layout in which most keys do triple duty - a number or special key and two letters.

However, the other stalwarts of the BlackBerry interface, the click-able thumbwheel and multi-mode escape key, remain.

The 7130c is available from Cingular Wireless. Cingular sells it for $199 (with rebate) if you take a two-year contract. The 7130g works on the Rogers Wireless network in Canada and on networks in the UK and Australia. Rogers sells it for $249 with a three-year contract, $449 with a two-year contract or $499 (all figures in Canadian dollars) with a one- or two-year contract.

Both phones can be used for international roaming between North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific as they work on 850/900/1800/1900 MHz networks. The two phones differ only cosmetically - and very little there. The cosmetics of the g version is virtually identical to the 7130v, which is also available in the UK and Australia (but not in North America).

The new form factor shaves tenths of an inch off the dimensions of its predecessor, the 7100g. The product measures 4.5 x 2.2 x 0.7 inches (115 x 560 x 180 millimeters) and weighs the same as the 7100g - 4.2 ounces (120 grams). It has a nice feel to it and will easily fit in a shirt pocket or purse. The keyboard seems a little more cramped - possibly the result of the reduction in exterior dimensions. It's still surprisingly useable, though, even for the fat fingered, like me.

The SureType keyboard is probably not for everyone. It combines phone and QWERTY layouts. Most of the keys on the top three (of four) rows include two letters and one number or special character. The numbers are arranged in the center of this array in the same layout as a conventional numeric phone keypad and are set off from the other keys by using black against silver rather than silver on black. An ALT key in the bottom left corner gives access to numbers and special keys when typing text. A separate shift key raises or lowers the case.

The beauty of the SureType technology is that you don't - most of the time - have to use the laborious method of inputting text familiar from other smartphones, in which you hit the key once for the first letter, twice for the second, three times for the third - or more times to get special characters or numerals. With this phone, you only press the key once and RIM's impressive artificial intelligence (AI) technology predicts which letter you wanted based on the letters before and after.

It works surprisingly well, though it does fall down a bit when you're typing proper names. Even then it quite often gets it right and if not, you always have the option of shifting to the laborious multi-touch input method.

The trick when using the one-touch method, is to keep typing. If you get to the end of a word and there is more than one possible interpretation, you can use the thumb wheel to select the correct one from a list displayed on the screen - or just carry on if the first one is correct, which it usually is. Typing on the SureType keyboard takes a little getting used to, but it does work.

In all our tests of basic device functions - phone, e-mailing, SMS, synching with a PC - the 7130g performed as admirably as other recent BlackBerrys. I tested it on the Rogers Wireless network. Voice quality on phone calls, even from areas with only moderately strong connections, was for the most part very good - clear and loud enough.

The most important of the new features, support for EDGE, makes a big difference in Internet applications. Rogers' EDGE network now extends to my mid-size city so I was able to test it. Even pictures from the Pocket Express (updated news, weather, sports) application included on the review unit displayed quickly enough to be useful.

Downloading pages from the open Internet was another matter. To anyone accustomed to broadband landline connections, it's still very sluggish. This probably has as much to do with the device's modest processing resources as the network throughput. Still, it's a definite improvement over GPRS, which is hardly surprising given the increase in network speeds from GPRS to EDGE - up to eight times. If you're going to use your phone for data applications, you definitely want an EDGE-capable model.

The increase in battery life is also very important. Talk time remains the same as the 7100g, four hours, but standby time has more than doubled, to 18 days with the 7130 phones. This means you can go longer between charges when the phone is only in light use, a real boon for those who travel constantly - and those who just like to procrastinate.

The speaker phone is a nice feature to have and it works very well. On good connections the voice from the other end was very clear and plenty loud enough. My collaborator on test calls reported my voice fading in and out a little at times but not enough to interfere with clear communication.

The additional memory - from 32MB of flash memory and 4MB of SRAM on the 7100g to 64MB of flash and 16MB of SRAM on the 7130g/c - makes room for more data and programs. RIM included downloaded programs on the review unit I tested - Brick Breaker and Texas Hold 'Em games, and online applications, Google Maps and Pocket Express. (Note: none is included with the 7130g/c and the last two are subscription services.)

The support for MMS is useful, though not strictly speaking for multimedia messaging. You can attach a picture, but the 7130 doesn't include a camera and I could see no way to download pictures to the unit from a PC. So you're confined to the images already on the device when you get it or that you can download from the BlackBerry Web site using the included Pictures utility. And there aren't a lot from which to choose.

You can also attach audio, but again, not audio you generate yourself. I was able to send a birthday greeting with an animated picture of a cake and an electronic rendering of "Happy Birthday."

The saving grace of this feature, at least for business users, is that you can attach an appointment from the calendar - which could be an appointment synched from your desktop Outlook calendar - or an address record. It's not exactly what most people call MMS, but it could be useful.

The automatically adjusting backlighting for LCD and keypad is a nice to have feature that BlackBerry introduced on some earlier models. It means you can see screen or keypad well in most lighting situations and it also saves battery power.

Bottom line: I could see little to complain about in this product - except perhaps the keyad/keyboard combo. The 7130g is a little sleeker, a little more elegant than predecessors and it includes some important upgrades. If you like the slimmer form factor of the 71xx BlackBerries and don't mind the keyboard, the 7130 offers an excellent upgrade path from the earlier products.