With the BlackBerry 8703e now available on Verizon and due for release on SprintNextel October 1, there's lots of love for the BlackBerry 8703e in an ever-expanding Howard Forums thread entitled The "Get My 8703" Thread.

The thread was started by HoFo-er retroinspired, who wrote in his thread-opener that he is "freakin' stoked" to activate his new device. He follows that up with a post on what he thinks so far.

But for the most complete assessment on this thread, you'll want to check with HoFo'er sparky12.

"It seems to me that the screen is even better than to the 7130," he writes. "I'm not sure if it is but it looks to be a little sharper. I happen to also like the auto contrast function as it makes it a lot oeasier to view in different lighting situations. The 7130 was not good in this respect. I like the tactile feedback of the keys much better than the 7130 and really enjoy having the full size keyboard again.

Then sparky12 writes that he is also a big fan of the extra programmable convenience key. Makes life a little simpler. The device is also a little shorter, though it is wider.

"I like the feel of it a little more than the 7130. I did have the extended battery on the 7130 which added a lot of weight too," he writes.

"Obviously there are a lot of similarities between the two but the 8703 just seems so much more 'BlackBerry' than the 7130."