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[techguru]

As opposed to any other pda phone? They just seem to be a like another pda phone with a little less functionality. Email seems to be the big thing but you can email from pretty much any type of phone. Is it there just easy to use? Or is there something I am not getting? As why does it need it's own name when it's basically a pda phone!

The original Blackberry was actually an email-only appliance, this phone stuff is relatively new for them.

One advantage of a Blackbery over most phones is that they tried to emulate a QWERTY keyboard. Beyond that ... I don't really know, I would guess it's probably less expensive.

As something to compare stuff to, I have something which calls itself a PDO, a digital organizer. It's made by Royal, and is called a Linea 10 (as in, 10 MB) It doesn't come with email, though that is available as an extra. What it does have is a touch sceen, their version of something like Graffiti, an optional keyboard, standard sorts of organizer features (calendar, address book, appointments, to do lists, clock) and a sketchpad - and all for about $50 US, if I recall. (I see on their website the Linea models are no longer listed, I suppose most people prefered a real PDA.)

The point being ... PDAs do have more features. They have a real OS, you can download games or other programs for them. But if you really don't need those features, is it worth your money?

A lot of the low end cell phones have really small screens. The Blackberry has a larger screen than that, a better keyboard for typing with, and the main features of a PDA.

Though I suppose someone who actually uses one would be better able to answer ...