BlackBerry as a phone: newer models seem to be improving

Whenever I travel, I always seem to notice at least a few BlackBerry owners who use their Berry as a PDA but also take along a cellphone for voice calls.

The perception fueling that dual-handset use is that by and large, BlackBerrys are not very good phones.

A new Howard Forums thread entitled Impressions of 8800 as a phone? appear to show that perception may be changing.

Two comments seem to encapsulate the view that as a phone the BlackBerry 8800 is pretty darn good:

Greg Gebhardt, a veteran BlackBerry user and Howard Forums member with nearly 4,000 posts:

Been using my 8800 for a week now and The earpiece speaker and volume is better. The speaker phone speaker is MUCH better. Bth louder and clearer.
As far as RF reception, my area has excellent service and both the 8700 and 8800 are excellent!
Overall build quality of the 8800 is FAR superior to the 8700.

Archer6, an avowed "phone collector" who has owned and used four BlackBerrys to date:

I second this, my 8800 has performed very well. The 8800 displays a bit better RF reception than my 8700 in the "traffic patterns" that I drive which are in a range of 700 miles. So mine gets tested out quite completely on the road.
By far the best BB I've had so far.