An awesome BlackBerry accessory setup for under $50

In the past few months we’ve done a lot of work investigating the best in BlackBerry accessories. There are many categories of them, and for the most part they’ll all help you in some way or another. But how do you put it all together? That’s what we’re here to do today. There are a few different setups you can try, and in the next few weeks we’ll go over various combinations at different price points. Today we’ll go with a pretty killer setup that won’t set you back even $50. Item 1: Charging cradle I absolutely love this thing. It not only lets me stand up my BlackBerry while charging, but it charges a spare battery at the same time. This is great when I’m on the road and won’t be around a charger for a while. It’s basically insurance that I don’t run out of battery, even if I’m using my BlackBerry extensively — including tethering it to my laptop. This is the centerpiece, if you will, of this setup. It’s a bit big, especially with the AC adapter for the battery, but that’s OK. Sometimes an awesome rig is dominated by one awesome piece. This one takes up $23.70, or just under half of our allotted budget. get the Mobi Products Cradle with spare battery slot, and make sure to change your device at the top of the screen so you get the right size. The key here is to use your exiting power plug. That’ll save you a couple of bucks. Running Total: $23.70 Item 2: Privacy screen cover It seems our privacy is coming under fire from every direction. Whether it’s Facebook, a hacker, or just the person sitting next to you on the bus, people are always prying for our information. You can stop people from viewing your personal matters by applying a privacy screen cover to your BlackBerry. It’s cheap, it’s simple, and it gets the job done. Just apply it as you would any other screen protector. Once it’s in place people won’t be able to see your screen. You won’t be able to see your screen, in fact, unless you’re looking at it straight on. Which isn’t a problem, since that’s what you do anyway. But that guy on the bench, glancing at your screen? He can’t see anything. You can Amazon’s selection to get the battery that’s proper for your phone. Remember, get an original and not an extended. That extended battery means getting a new battery door, which means you can’t use the cradle, and it renders your extra battery unnecessary. Running Total: $38.65. Do we have room for a case? Item 4: OtterBox Impact Series case And finally, we get to the case. Here’s the thing with cases. First, they can be one of the more expensive items in an accessory arsenal. That doesn’t work with us, because we — meaning I — picked the cradle as the centerpiece. It’s quite difficult to have two items in this package over $20. Second, with the cradle you have to remove the case. That means avoiding big, bulky cases. Thankfully, the OtterBox Impact series fits the bill Here you can get the OtterBox Impact series for the 9900. A quick search will yield results for all other BlackBerry models, too. As you can see in the accompanying picture, it’s a pretty basic shell. It covers your device without making it too bulky. At the same time, it provides more protection than other cases its size. That’s the advantage of OtterBox. But, perhaps most importantly, it’s cheap. You can nab one for around $11. That’ll help keep us under our target. Running Total: $49.65. Just made it.

About the Author

Joe Pawlikowski is the Senior Editor at MobileMoo.com and has been covering the mobile industry full time since 2007. When he's not writing about the tech scene, he can be found discussing his personal love - baseball (and more specifically the New York Yankees) as well as writing on his personal blog.