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The BlackBerry mobile email client is an amazing piece of technology, this much is undeniable. When RIM (Research In Motion) created the BlackBerry, it took mobile communication to the next level and made “pocket email” a reality.

Although you can access your email via pretty much any PDA/mobile combination or smartphone, you are still required to connect to your mail server and download the email that's waiting for you. But with the BlackBerry client, your email is sent directly to you, so you can pick it up as easily as you can an SMS message.

But great as the original BlackBerry is, it’s a bit too large to be used as your default mobile phone. As a result, many users tend to carry their BlackBerry in their bag/briefcase and a small mobile phone in their pocket. RIM was obviously well aware of this issue, and set about creating a device that incorporated all the functionality of the original BlackBerry, with a more pocket friendly form factor – enter the BlackBerry 7100v.

Vodafone has managed to get an exclusive deal on the 7100v, for the time being at least. In the US T-Mobile has a very similar device, with the unsurprising name of 7100t. The 7100v is definitely smaller than the BlackBerry 7230 (which Vodafone also offers), but there is a very good reason for this. The BlackBerry 7230 has a full qwerty keypad which makes typing emails very simple, but also adds to the physical dimensions of the unit. However, the BlackBerry 7100v doesn’t have a full qwerty keypad – instead, there are two letters squeezed onto most of the keys in order to save space.

So, it will come as no surprise to any mobile phone user that the 7100v uses a form of predictive text input called SureType. Now I’ve been using T9 predictive text input for years on multiple mobile phones, but I have to say that SureType is a definite improvement. Of course, with a maximum of two letters per key, SureType has a much easier job than T9 which has to deal with a keypad that has up to four letters per key. But SureType is definitely an intelligent predictive text application, and is even smart enough to insert apostrophes where applicable – of course this isn’t infallible – typing “dont" will be corrected to “don’t” but typing “Ill” won’t be corrected to “I’ll” because ill is also a valid word.

However, even though SureType is excellent, it’s in the usability department that the 7100v really stumbles. But before I get into the problems with this device, let me give you an overview of it. The 7100v measures 110 x 55 x 17mm (HxWxD) and weighs in at 124g – all in all a reasonable size and weight considering the functionality of the device.

The front of the 7100v is dominated by the 2.5in colour screen. There’s no denying that this is an excellent display with a bright and detailed image that’s easy on the eye. The screen characteristics remind me of an e-book reader, which isn’t surprising considering you’ll be spending most of your time reading email on it.

Directly below the screen you’ll find the “call” and hang up” buttons, with a shortcut to your WAP bookmarks nestling between them. Below these buttons is the main keypad. The centre 12 buttons make up a regular numeric keypad, but these are flanked on either side by further banks of four buttons. These extra buttons allow for a more usable text input environment. I’m sure that RIM has done its research when it comes to this keypad, but I can’t understand why the letters M and L have been given a whole button to themselves, while more used letters like S or any of the vowels have to make do sharing.

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