The BlackBerry RIM 957, one the original BlackBerry devices, was a compact mobile e-mailing solution and personal organizer created and manufactured in 2002. The PDA and ‘mobile office’ solution offered wireless email, corporate data access, an organizer, calendar, calculator, paging and wireless internet services.

The embedded RIM wireless modem and 32-bit processor gave the device the ability to integrate seamlessly with existing enterprise email accounts or up to 10 personal and business email accounts, supported by 8 MB of flash memory capacity, plus an addition al 1 MB of RAM. With the RIM 957, a user could receive email forwarded from any email address and reply through the same email for quick mobile communication anywhere in the country.

The device operated in conjunction with a base system, which when turned on redirected email to the handheld, wherever it might have been. The handheld would then chime, vibrate or give the user an on-screen or LED indicator that a new message had arrived.

Weighing in at 4.8 ounces, the device utilized a backlight, QWERTY keyboard and tracking wheel, to improve the user experience, simplifying the sending and receiving of emails, perusal of documents and selection of text on the device. Users could select at 16 or 20 line display on the large, high-resolution display screen, making it possible to read emails quickly and process longer emails more efficiently.

At 4.6 in height, the device looks like a thin stack of cards. It is 3.1 inches wide and almost one inch thick, making it’s compact design an easy fit for purses, pockets or briefcases of on-the-go executives, and with an internal, rechargeable lithium battery that could support up to one week of data or email usage per charge, the RIM 957 was a powerful organizing tool.

A main disadvantage of the RIM 957 was its inability to send attachments, a functionality that most mobile computers find absolutely necessary for out-of-the-office work. It also couldn’t run third-party programs, another distinct disadvantage to its Palm counterparts. This device also synced to a PC, to synchronize scheduling and emails in a flash.

The MuMoH physical collection includes a BlackBerry RIM 957.

References:
http://searchwinit.techtarget.com/handhelds/blackberry957/0,294190,sid1,00.html
http://www.geek.com/review-rim-blackberry-957/
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/devices/archived/857957.jsp#tab_tab_957specs