It may sport the same silky-smooth trackball for navigation and chrome accents on the sides, but there’s no mistaking the 8800 for its 
smaller brother. This dark metallic blue device weighs 1.5 ounces heavier than the Pearl (4.7 versus 3.2) and is noticeably wider (2.6 inches versus 2 inches). At the same time, the 8800 is a tiny bit thinner than the Pearl (0.55 versus 0.57 inches). The bottom line is that you’ll notice when the 8800 is in your pocket, but it’s certainly less bulky than the Treo 750.
There are three main benefits to the 8800’s girth: the larger 2.4-inch screen, a bigger battery for longer talk time, and a real QWERTY keyboard. The full-sized treatment is certainly an improvement over the SureType keyboard on the Pearl (because you don’t have to hope your smart phone guesses the right word as you peck out messages), but we found the 8800’s layout to be a little cramped. RIM compensates for the tightly packed keys by giving each one a slightly raised groove to keep your thumbs from slipping. Still, some may prefer more spacing between the keys, whether on the Samsung BlackJack, Palm Treo 750, or an older BlackBerry 8700.
:: LAPTOP Magazine • BlackBerry 8800 ::