Beware of Fragile BlackBerry 8830 (Opinion)

Research in Motion Ltd. has gotten mixed reviews online for its BlackBerry 8830 World Edition SmartPhone. Mostly, the top-shelf handheld device is lauded for tres chic aesthetic improvements over its 8800 series siblings.

Its differentiation point is automatically switching between Code Division Multiple Access and Global System for Mobile Communications signals while roaming. (For world travelers, GSM is the standard channel for 82 percent of the world’s cell phone use, according to the GSM Association.)

By all accounts, for $282 after a $100 rebate, the 8830 is a texting and e-mail titan. Used in conjunction with a company exchange server — which is a must — the device delivers on its promise of fully integrated e-mail service.

That means as you read or delete a message on the handheld, it shows “read” or “deleted” in your office-based e-mail. (First-generation BlackBerry users who weren’t on exchange servers understand why that’s noteworthy.)

The voice dialing and dictation applications are particularly handy for harried business people.

Critically, there’s a lot of e-babble about the 8830s inadequate ring tones, incompatibility issues with Bluetooth stereo headphones and some lacking GPS functions.

But back in January when I bought mine at a local Alltel Corp. retail store, it wasn’t for any of that stuff.

I don’t need the latest Buckcherry ring tone, to “zone out” with “Flo Rida” or to “hit up” my “BFFs” with the “4-1-1” on my “crib.” (For those of us born before the Ford Administration, suffice it to say that’s listening to music and sharing directions. At least, that’s what I’m told.)

I simply need a dependable phone with e-mail capability for business use, and this appeared to be the best value.

For two years prior, I had mostly good experiences with the original BlackBerry.

Then I got BlackBuried.

Just two months into ownership of the new model, it started steadily holding less charge. Within a week, it stopped charging completely. It was a gradual debilitation logically associated with a manufacturing defect.

During mid-rant about not having a half day to get in and out of Alltel, my lovely wife offered to take it by for me after work.

She was quickly told that the charging port was damaged. It’s a problem not covered by the manufacturer’s warranty, and that we basically had two choices:

Pay the $95 insurance deductible for a replacement phone through specialty underwriter Asurion Corp., or try to take it to a licensed Alltel affiliate which might be able to fix it on the cheap.

She tried the cheap route. That store shared that they had seen “lots” of 8830s come in for the very same problem. In my case, of course, the port had snapped off its plate and was not fixable. That left as my only option paying nearly 50 percent of the original cost of the item to replace it 60 days into use. (Surely there’s a case for usurious practice here.)

I was hotter than a Salma Hayek e-vite.

A hundred bucks is not the end of the world, but it was the principle.

The thing was only two months old “FCOL.”

The Alltel store people who helped me were nice enough, but they were lost as three geese when it came to understanding the problem. Basically the response was, “Well Mr. Wood, it’s a very delicate phone.”

Delicate? The thing is marketed as a business work horse. I felt like Tom Hanks in “A League of Their Own.”

“There’s no crying. There’s no delicate in business.”

We inevitably got on the phone with Asurion, where the polite customer service woman also confirmed that her company has seen “lots and lots” of 8830s with the same problem. I asked her to tell the Alltel rep the same thing. He finally nodded, but it didn’t matter since RIM is the maker.

Ultimately, I understand Alltel and RIM have no way of knowing if I’m misusing the phone. I could be bouncing it off concrete for all they know.

But I’m not, and since routine use rendered the latest and greatest BlackBerry useless in two months time, I will be more selective in the future.

In case you find yourself BlackBuried, RIM, based in Waterloo, Ontario, may be reached at 519-888-7465.