The new BlackBerry 7100 from T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless' V710 get examined by the Washington Post's Rob Pegararo with regard to how they both leverage Bluetooth technology. The verdict? Let's just say that he was underwhelmed.

The Web browser included on this phone can display standard Web sites, but it frequently hangs up while trying to download their content. Like other BlackBerry devices, this one can access your e-mail — but RIM has yet to offer non-business users the option of turning off mail delivery. As long as the 7100 is on T-Mobile’s network, your e-mail will keep piling up in your inbox, whether you care to read it or not.

The 7100 ships with Windows-only desktop software to synchronize the 7100’s applications with Microsoft Outlook and a few other applications via a USB cable. The Bluetooth on the 7100 — a first for a BlackBerry — does not allow data transfer between computers; the only thing I could do was use a wireless headset.

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And that brings me to the Motorola V710. Verizon, having decided to offer Bluetooth for the first time, made the same mistake as RIM, but much more so — it went out of its way to take away Bluetooth capabilities.

Specifically, the V710, sold by Verizon for $300 with a one-year contract, can’t use Bluetooth to synchronize its address book with the one on your computer, nor can it transfer files to and from your computer — even though Motorola built in both features.

Instead, the V710’s Bluetooth support is limited to allowing a connection to a computer as an external modem — a task so poorly explained by Verizon’s documentation that I resorted to a Google search for help, which turned up usable instructions in somebody’s weblog — and linking the phone to Bluetooth headsets and hands-free kits.