Blackberry 8830 World Edition Versus Motorola Q

I recently switched from a Motorola Q to a Blackberry 8830 World Edition. Both phones were for Verizon Wireless. What follows are my impressions of each phone.

Size: These phones are almost exactly the same size.

Weight: Again, very similar weights.

Screen: The Blackberry has an adequate screen with a very nice automatic adjustment for low or high light environments. I believe the Q had slightly better picture sharpness. Interestingly, the Blackberry screen seems to be more readily visible in bright sun light.

Keyboard: Both phones have qwerty keyboards. The backlighting on the Blackberry is blue and a bit busy at times. In addition, its keys are closer together than the Q. I would have to say I prefer the spacing of the Q's keyboard.

Camera: I was never pleased with the camera on the Q. The pictures were of low quality even when set at the highest resolution possible. In addition, I found my camera often caused the Windows Mobile software to lock up. That being said, the Blackberry 8830 doesn't have a camera. Not a big deal to me, but could disappoint some users.

Internet: I use both phones as a modem for my laptop when I am on the road. I find the Blackberry to be far superior to the Q in this configuration. There are fewer steps to setting up the connection. The speed seems to be faster. And the connection seems to be more stable.

I also use the browser on the phone extensively. I am not terribly fond of the Blackberry browser, preferring the browser on the Q. However, I found and downloaded the Opera Mini free mobile browser and this solved my issues with the BB.

Battery: The Blackberry's battery far out-shines the battery on the Q. The Q's minimal battery life had long been a problem for me, eventually requiring a replacement with a long-life battery. This required a new battery door which ruined the sleek look of my Q. The Blackberry also has a very handy auto on/off feature that allows you to schedule the Blackberry to power itself on and off at certain times of the day.

Function: The software on the Blackberry seems to be far superior to the buggy Windows Mobile platform on the Q. Battery removal was extremely common to reset the Q. In addition, the Q often seemed to have a hard time resetting itself when restarting. I have not had any of these problems with the Blackberry.

Unfortunately, the Blackberry does not allow for applications to be installed on the memory card. This means if you add a lot of after market software, you can quickly run out of memory on your Blackberry. The Q did not have this problem.

Both phones required a fairly intensive learning curve. However, the Blackberry seems to have a number of very intuitive, computer-like, keyboard short cuts. These features make the Blackberry more user-friendly in my opinion.

Conclusion: While there are drawbacks, I am very pleased with the Blackberry and consider it a significant up-grade from the Motorola Q.