RIM BlackBerry 7290 Phone (Cingular)

Rating:
Summary: Bluetooth vs. Battery Life vs. Slow Processor vs. Bugs
Review: Fifteen months ago I bought my first BB7210, and feel it's one of the best business tools I've ever used. Battery life was good for at least two days talking 3-4 hours per day or 5-6 days in low use, and the integration of Outlook with the phone was AWESOME. In Dec. 04, I upgraded to the BB7290 mainly for the Bluetooth feature. WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT! Battery life barely gets me through a day, and the lag time from menu to menu is much slower than the BB7210. The unit is slightly larger and heavier than the BB7210. After using the device for only two days, callers could NOT hear my voice, though I could hear them clearly, and I had a great signal? Cingular is replacing the device; however, RIM will need to make some serious changes for me to be as enthusiastic as I was over the BB7210.

Rating:
Summary: SSSSSLLLLLLOOOOOOWWWWW!!!!!
Review: I bought this Blackberry for use on the Cingular network after using a Nextel Blackberry that my wife got for her work. I assumed that this device would work pretty much the same as hers.

Boy was I disappointed. The data access was unbearably slow, to the point that I just had to return this thing. I tested the device all over town, and it was always slow.

A couple days after I returned it, I received a welcome pack from Cingular with a coverage map showing which areas had their new high speed access and which areas didn't. Unfortunately, original map is color, but the copy mailed to me was black and white and it was almost impossible to tell which area I was in. I live in Southern Cal., which according to Cingular's web-site is in their newer, high speed data area. Given the speed of this device, I'd guess that I'm in the lower speed area.

I've also tried using Sprint PCS's version of Blackberry (which just came out) and it was very fast, but doesn't not have bluetooth, which is what attracted me to this device in the first place.

Rating:
Summary: GSM Blackberry Much Improved
Review: I got the Blackberry 7290 to replace my Blackberry 6710 which was one of the first generation GSM devices from Research in Motion. The 6710 was always a little slow and reception was spotty perhaps because of being limited to dual band coverage. Still it worked well enough all over the world.

The 7290 is a great successor to the 6710. The color screen is far superior to the earlier 7200 series and it is easy to read without backlight in normal daylight conditions. The screen is also designed with a "no glare" finish that is very nice.

The new device is quad band and so reception seems better in the areas that I travel in. A friend of mine is travelling in a remote part of Asia now with a new 7290 and he is giving it a big thumbs up.

Not much to complain about. The older larger 6710 fit my hand better but such is life. Perhaps a little more use will turn up a few more quibbles.

It is also convenient that the batteries from my 6710 fit the new device.

Overall, I would say the 7290 is a great choice especially if international coverage is an issue for you.

Rating:
Summary: Love it!! A new door has been opened by RIM
Review: I have patiently waited for a blackberry with Bluetooth and it came! I'll start with the Cons, the bluetooth sucks the life out of the handheld when it is connected to a bluetooth device, 1.5 hours drains 50% of battery. However the upgrades in the software, inlcuding picture capability, password manager, and more ringtones, plus a more sophisticated PIm makes this the best handheld to date that has been released that features e-mail push technology. The screen is much clearer than previous versions, a wonderful toy!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Arrggggh to Cingular Wireless
Review: I share the experience of the previous consumer who tried to upgrade phones and switch from AT&T to Cingular. I, too, had to call Cingular more than a dozen times and call both AT&T and Cingular, even though they are purportedly the same company. They could not have made the experience more taxing or less pleasant. Every problem I encountered was my fault, not theirs . . . and I've been an AT&T Wireless subscriber for more than 6 years. I'm switching companies. Great merger, guys.

Rating:
Summary: Great Device!!
Review: I've had a 7290 since they first started shipping. The first one I had had the problem that many of the early ones do -- after a while, the person on the other end can't hear me, but I can hear them fine. Cingular replaced the device and now it works fine.

The web access is very slow. I don't really care about this feature, and anyway that's a Cingular network problem, not a 7290 problem.

As an email device and a cell phone, the 7290 is superb. The bluetooth works very will, and the bluetooth headset integrates nicely with the 7290. The battery life is great -- while using a bluetooth headset I don't need to charge the battery for 3-4 days.

All-in-all I'd very highly recommend the 7290 for anyone that needs a mobile email device, cell phone, and PDA.

Rating:
Summary: Beware if you return it!
Review: Its a nice phone. I have had a 7230 for years and thought that this would be a nicer screen etc. But, the screen quality was the same, so it is quite a small upgrade really.

The biggest warning to everyone is that returning this through Amazon is a true nightmare. If you read the fine print, Amazon will take it back, but you have to call Cingular immediately separately.

Here is what you have to make sure to do:

1. Make sure to get the UPS tracking number for the return package. That is the only link between Amazon and Cingular. Amazon doesn't take any responsibility for the plan and if you don't have that tracking number then they will say they think you still have the phone.
2. The phone activates the second that it ships so you are paying charges the whole time even if you never turn the phone on. So if you talk even one second on the phone, you are paying for at least a week of shipment time as well, so if you don't like the phone don't turn it on.
3. Cingular doesn't know anything about Amazon as a reseller and Amazon doesn't know anything about Cingular, so what you have to do is to call Cingular and have the UPS tracker for the package so when you return you can prove that you really did. Also, you'll need to print out all the return web pages and fax it to Cingular to prove you really returned it.
4. It takes about an hour and a half, but if you are lucky like me, you can get it taken care of.

Rating:
Summary: This phone wastes my minutes
Review: My first experience with Blackberry. Would still consider getting another one, but right now, I'm considering getting my money back from Cingular.

Only one HUGE Problem:

I got one of the first 7290's (the ones in the white box). After a couple weeks, the signal strength was good, but the person to whom I was talking could no longer hear me. It was as if the Mute button was on. After a couple days of bearing with this annoying "feature" I returned to the Cingular company store, and they were quick to replace my BB with a 7290 in the Orange box. Apparently, Cingular & Blackberry both knew that the first shipment of the 7290 was defective (but after the fact, of course). But if they knew it was defective due to the mute issue, why weren't they contacting us. Surely they knew I had a Blackberry because when I called Cingular Customer Support, after I entered my mobile number, the first thing that the Voice Response Unit asked me is if I wanted to be re-directed to Blackberry Technical Support.

Anyways, I got the new unit, and all was well for a couple weeks. BUT THEN IT HAPPENED AGAIN!! Cingular says come on in, and we'll give you another Blackberry. But that's annoying as hell, because I've got to re-program all my AutoText shortcuts. And let me tell you, doing an initial sync when I have 1500+ contacts in my Outlook Address Book is not easy.

As a result of the mute issue I've had two problems:

1) my minutes increased tremendously. Sometimes I would have 6 phone calls to the same person, simply to have one conversation. This increases the minutes used. Cingular offered my 100 minutes free added to my Rollover. But I've no idea if this is fair to me because I don't have the time to sit at my desk calculating what my minutes should have been versus what I actually used.

2) My blood pressure has doubled, I'm certain, due to this fiasco. Clients, my wife, my mistress, my friends, won't take my call because who knows long it'll be before they can't hear me?

3) I've increased my alcohol consumption. This is driving my crazy. Sometimes, the mute issue doesn't occur for a couple days; then suddenly, it'll occur for 3 or 4 phone calls.

Does anyone have any extra ammo because I'd like to get rid of my BB 7290?

Rating:
Summary: Same voice problems
Review: The same review above. This is my second phone where gradually over time people stopped hearing me even though I had full signal strength. I took out the battery with the power on- waited 30 secs and it seems to work, we'll see...

Rating:
Summary: Great phone, lousy service
Review: This is a great phone, if your primary use is email; If you really need voice service, and only occasional email, consider the Audiovox SMT5600 instead. Regardless, I hope you have more luck with Cingular than I did. There's simply not enough time or room to recout my problems with Cingular but I'll provide a brief recap.

I have service with Cingular and with AT&T. The problems began when I tried to merge my two services into one account (Cingular did acquire AT&T, right?), upgrade my service plan, and upgrade the AT&T phone. Simple enough, right? Wrong.

After (literally) four visits to the store, 10+ phone calls (and speaking with over 30+ people), and completing several forms on the web I thought I had finally solved the problem and everything was fine. THEN my phone showed up ... it was the wrong one. Attempts to get the problems resolved on the phone failed (we can't do that here), attempts to return it to the store failed (that was sent to you by our phone sales group, you can't return it here), and a final desperate attempt to resolve it through Cingular's Office of the CEO was meet by "you shouldn't have tried to transfer your service from AT&T to Cingular" (i.e. it's your fault) and "you're trying to order the most expensive phone we have, what do you expect us to do, give you a free one?" (i.e. you're trying to cheat us).

My experiences can basically be catagorized in the following fashion:
* You're an AT&T customer, you'll need to call Cingular for that.
* You're a Cingular customer, you'll need to call AT&T for that.
* You're a corporate customer, we're the retail group. You'll need to call business services for that.
* You did that over the phone, you'll need to take up that problem with telesales.
* You did that in the store, you'll need to take up that problem with them.
* That can't be done over the web.
* I don't know how to do that.

I think the crowning touch however, was the retail store that refused to sell me the phone because my account is tagged as a "sponsored" account that gets an equipment discount. The manager wanted to sell it to someone who would pay full price!

Good luck!

...msg