[canoe04]

I'm afraid that I'm quite a newbie when it comes to blackberries. I'm hoping that I might find some help answering two questions I have. I'm looking to purchase either the 7780 or 7280.

Obviously one of the main differences between the two models is the screen size. Is there any consensus on which is better? If I'm mainly using the BB for e-mail and to open the odd e-mail attachment, is it that much easier to look at the larger screen on the 7780? Or do people find the 7780 too bulky?

My second question relates to roaming. Both the 7780 and 7280 are tri-band 850/1800/1900. I've heard that not having access to the 900 MHz band can make roaming difficult in Europe (I'd mainly be going to the UK, France & Italy). Is this true, or is it quite feasible to roam on 1800? Maybe I might be better to wait for the quad-band 7290?

I'm eager to learn and would really appreciate any suggestions. Thanks very much.

[Skive]

If you are going to be roaming a lot in europe then having 900 would be very useful at the very least, but it mostly depends on who your carrier has agreements with e.g. if your carrier only roams with o2 and vodafone in the uk then 900 would basically be vital since those carriers only use 1800 to boost capacity in certain areas since they are predominantly 900 carriers.

As far as the 72xx vs 77xx issue, there is no definitive answer since you will get many people claiming that one or the other is better. Personally, I didn't see much benefit from the larger screensize of a 7730 and went back to a 7230 as it smaller and used the same usb cable as my mp3 player and camera unlike the 7730 that uses a non-standard one.

One other thing that people like on the 7730/80 and 7290 is the backlight since its brighter than the one on the 7230/80, although you obviously reduce the battery life by having it.