The latest Blackberry phone is the 8700. In New Zealand and Australia this will be the 8700V model. Its not officially available from Vodafone NZ yet however I have managed to get one and it is better than the present BB 7290 model.

 

It is slightly smaller, support quad band network access (850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS and EDGE), the battery lasts longer. The 7290 has 32MB of memory whereas the 8700 has 64MB.

 

The 8700 supports MMS, has a built-in speaker phone, supports polyphonic and MP3 ring tones and is 2oz lighter and smaller in every dimension than the 7290. The 8700 will last 16 days on standby versus 9 days for the 7290.

 

Two features that 8700 has that makes it a better phone is a light sensing screen and the normal green/red phone buttons to answer and end a phone. Both of these features make it a much better phone.