blackberry smartphone????

A: This depends on a number of factors. First and foremost, are you looking to remain on a CDMA network? or are you looking to switch to another carrier? That also said, what carrier are you currently on?

Blackberry has only a handful of current options available to consumers on the CDMA networks: the Blackberry Pearl (8130) Blackberry Curve (8330) and Blackberry 8830 world edition. The Pearl and the Curve come with built-in cameras (2 megapixel, with flash). All work on the EV-DO network. The differences are that the Pearl has the suretype keypad (2 letters per key) while the other two use a full qwerty keypad, and the 8830 is able to go to Europe/Asia and use the GSM network there. Before you ask, no, it does not work on the GSM networks in North America.

If you are willing to wait a few months, the Blackberry Storm (a full touch-screen unit) will be launching on Verizon in the USA and Telus in Canada.

If you are looking to switch to a GSM carrier, your options are a little more open by a single unit. You have the Pearl and Curve again (with different models available depending on the features available on a given provider's network), the 8800 instead of the 8830 (this is simply a quad-band phone rather than a tri-band phone), and the all new Blackberry Bold. The difference between the Bold and all the others is that the Bold is the first Blackberry designed to work on a 3G network.

I'll be frank, the Blackberry Curve will probably be the most comfortable for you, it is the one most like your old moto Q when it comes to layout, size, and function. Pearls are nice and small, but the sure-type keypad can be a real pain in the posterior to work around if you are a heavy messenger. Unless you see yourself in Europe or Asia every few months on business, you don't need the extra cost the 8800/8830 will yank from your wallet the day you buy it.

Now if you are absolutely dead-set on a Blackberry, read no further, however I do have a single significant warning. Blackberry handsets are exceptionally reliable as far as mobile phones go, HOWEVER, they do have an achilles heel. Every few months, Blackberry goes to update their servers to allow for increased traffic on their service. Unless you've happened to miss it, it's been in the news that the servers do crash sometimes during these updates, leaving Blackberry users out of the loop and without their lifeline to... essentially everything... for hours if not a full day at a time. This can sometimes be more than a mere inconvenience, depending how you use your device. That alone is what prompted me to skip the blackberry and go for an HTC Touch Diamond.

Does the Blackberry 8800 smartphone have a camera?

Q: I am thinking of buying a blackberry smartphone but I really want it to be cheap, colour screen and have a camera. I really like the Blackberry 8800 but I can't find a pictures of its back so I can't see if it has a camera. Can anyone shed some light on this?

A: The 8800 series is more for buisness, and no it does not have a camera. I don't know what carrier you have, but more than likely they have another Blackberry that does have a camera. The 8800 series are the only newer blackberry phones without a camera.