Home > Consumer Reviews > RIM Wireless Handhelds 957 BlackBerry Internet Edition - 386 RAM: 512 KB - ROM: 5 MB

I have had a 957 Blackberry for about 5 months, and it has changed the way that I stay connected. No more dialing in to get e-mails, no more Palm mail synchronization woes. With a Blackberry you are connected 24x7 and if you purchase the optional MS Exchange server software you don't ever have to worry about leaving your computer on to forward messages from your desktop.

The small thumb keyboard took a while to get used to, but after a couple of weeks, I can safely say I was able to type messages and notes faster than on my Palm. The small trackwheel is intuitive and easy to use, and the 5MB of RAM have proven to be more than sufficient for several weeks worth of mail, notes, address book, etc.

I also purchased GoAmerica's web service and although it can sometimes take a few seconds to access, it is well integrated with the rest of the functionality of the Blackberry and offers extensive web coverage.

The screen for the 957 is large enough for email and web browsing, and it's also well lit with a back light for "night" reading.

My only complaint is the lack of coverage on non-large metropolitan areas--RIM has little to do with this, but one gets so used to the full time connectivity and reliability of this device that it is frustrating to travel somewhere and find yourself out of reach.

I strongly recommend this product.

My company ordered one of these after reading an article about BlackBerry in The New York Times (9/21/2000). It's a beautiful piece of technology. Unfortunately, it looks like we'll be returning it, for two reasons. First, we use AOL for business email and we only found out belatedly that AOL does not support BlackBerry at this time. We had called BlackBerry before buying the machine, and a customer service rep assured us that AOL and CompuServe and were supported. AOL confirmed to us that this is not the case. Second, BlackBerry's wireless partner, Aether Systems, has very limited coverage outside of major coastal cities and some cities like Chicago. Large portions of the country, especially the so-called "flyover" states, are not covered.

We're probably going to go with a Palm. Check out the BlackBerry VERY carefully before investing your money.

I like to refer to devices that help people to communicate with each other as 'enabling' devices. The Blackberry is one such device and it does a great job at it. It's worth it's weight in gold and then some!

The RIM 957 just works well, period. It does what it's supposed to and does it well. And it doesn't try to do everything. For instance, it's not really a good subsitute for a PDA. It's address book is more useful to store emails and the calendar does not compare to Palm's. I had previously tried the Palm i705 and had a terrible time with it, despite the fact that it includes other non wireless PDA functionality. The Palm service coverage kept dropping out and it was not reliable. The Blackberry on the other hand is wonderfully reliable and proven. It has a better screen than the i705, and has a built-in small QWERTY keyboard that is a joy to use. It's quick to type on and all functions are very user intuitive-a great design.

It's difficult to put a monetary value on something that enables me to be in email contact all the time wherever I am. The unit is like a pager and stays on all the time and I can read and write emails with ease. I also opted for the web browsing option through my service provider and although it can really only browse WML (WAP) websites, the screen holds a lot of text and it is quite useful for both emailing and browsing.

The way the Blackberry service works, is that you forward your home email to your Blackberry email address. Most ISPs support this, and you can even opt to also have the emails left on your ISPs server so that they are also downloaded to your home computer. When you use the Blackberry to send or respond to an email, it is setup so that emails come from your home email address. In this way, people do not even know that I am using a wireless device to send them email!

Now I don't have to be tied to my home or office computer to be in contact. In fact, I find myself not turning on my home computer as much. It's really cool to be able to do email without a computer.

I got mine through Earthlink, ... Granted, the device is a bit expensive but more so is the service. To me it's totally worth it and is still less then my monthly cable TV bill, yet is so much more useful!

I have owned a dozen pagers, PDAs, Palms, WinCEs, etc. The Blackberry is the revolutionary breakthru. It holds 5000 of my contacts, 1000s of calendar items, 100 memos & notes, and 1000 emails. It is revolutionary because: -it has real-time, synchronized email capabilities -it has a screen big enough to read multiple paragraphs of information -it has a keyboard that allows users to type one page emails -it can be operated with a single hand -it has an effective micro-web browser (Go America) -it has self-recharging batteries that never run down

I carry this device everywhere. It has untethered me from my office, allowing me to work at home, at restaurants, on the beach, etc. It also replaces note pads. I just ask people to email me the notes I need.

A subtle point: now, instead of making notes to myself about things that I need to do "when I get back to the office", I just do them (i.e. email a direction to someone when I first consider the issue). This has placed much more velocity into my life & decision making.

This product is addictive. You will love it.

I have owned a Blackberry 957 since June. This product is awesome. The keyboard is great, it sychronizes well with desktop PIM software and the best thing of all, I get my email everywhere (well, almost everywhere). It is light in weight. I will recommend this product over any Palm or PocketPC. It also has a JVM (at least mine does) for running java programs.