AT&T BlackBerry Curve 8300 Review
I was promising myself I would get around to writing this review and frankly, I should have had it done BEFORE I did the iPhone review, since I still have this phone and the iPhone was returned to the store. Despite the fact that traditionally the BlackBerry platform is thought of as a business phone with email, I think that these two phones should be directly compared. BlackBerry has been moving away from pure business with the release of the 8100 (Pearl) and now the 8300 (Curve) phones, with multimedia functions and cameras. I will write this review on the merits of the BlackBerry and assume the reader (you) knows something about what the BlackBerry platform is and why you should care. I have a pretty comprehensive background with BlackBerry on a corporate level. I manage around 50 BlackBerry devices on a corporate network at my job and work a lot with the less interesting models of BlackBerry (7100t, 7105t, 7130e, 8700g for instance).
I’ll go over the basic functionality any blackberry possesses, and then build on that with information about what the Curve does that other models of BlackBerry don’t do, or don’t do as well. I will also throw in a few tips about very useful 3rd party software you should install that will make your BlackBerry truly useful as a consumer device, and perhaps maybe an iPhone killer… it was for me.
The BlackBerry Curve was released at the beginning of June 2007. At the time of this writing it is an AT&T exclusive device, but rumors on the internet claim a T-Mobile version with Wi-Fi (the 8320) is on the horizon soon. I bought mine without a contract at an AT&T store for $449+tax. Since it is a GSM phone it can be unlocked for use on other GSM carriers that offer a BlackBerry data plan. I am currently a T-Mobile subscriber, so I then paid a service advertised on blackberryforums.com $20 to send me a SIM unlock code and off I went on T-Mobile’s network. I had some difficulty with the web browser not immediately showing up, but found out this is an issue with T-Mobile not having this phone yet, not so much with the phone itself. There were workarounds to get it back which I also found on that forum (it’s a great resource!).
The BlackBerry OS 4.2′s key functions include best-in-class (in my opinion) push email, an address book, a web browser, a calendar, a task list, and lots of configurable user options. A few things the BlackBerry Curve has in it’s OS that most older corporate BlackBerry phones don’t have are the ability to do MP3/WAV ringtones, a media player, and a 2 megapixel camera. The BlackBerry 8100 (Pearl) has similar functionality, only it has the less-useful abbreviated keyboard other BlackBerry models in the 71xx series have, and has a 1.3 megapixel camera.
The preferences/options area of the built-in apps in the phone allow you to get extremely granular with almost every option. Especially complicated (if you want it to be) is the area of the OS related to sound Profiles. You can change so many options here with how you wish the phone to behave when it rings, receives a text message, or many other alert noises, similar to the “Sounds” control panel in Windows. When you install new applications, they add new options here to configure.
Themes are a great way to change the entire look of your device. The Curve includes 3 themes, the AT&T default theme is very nice, but there are several other great ones, including hacked ones from other BlackBerry models on BlackBerryForums.
Most internet functions on the BlackBerry are controlled by BlackBerry Internet Service, otherwise known as BIS. As a consumer, you pay for BIS as part of your BlackBerry data plan. On T-Mobile, BlackBerry unlimited data costs $19.99 a month on top of your included plan minutes. It costs $29.99 on most other phone providers but may be bundled with additional items such as text/picture messaging, which is not included on T-Mobile without paying extra.
Reviewing this device as a consumer, I’ll focus on performance with BIS, not the BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server) corporate product, which syncs a lot more of what you do with the device than BIS can.
The BlackBerry Curve 8300 comes in at a very svelte 4.2 x 2.4 x 0.6 inches. It is shorter in height than an iPhone, and the smallest and thinnest BlackBerry with a full keyboard. It looks similar to the BlackBerry Pearl, only it is silver in color and has the wider, QWERTY “Curved” keyboard (hence the name, Curve). The sides of the device are rubberized making it easy to hang on to, which is one thing the iPhone sorely needs. It shares the white, illuminated Trackball with the BlackBerry Pearl and 8800 series. Personally, I think this is the best designed BlackBerry, period.
The screen on the BlackBerry Curve is bright and very sharp. Text is clear and readable. It is not amazingly easy to see in direct sunlight but how many phones really are?
Battery life on the device is better than my Sidekick 3, but not amazing. With heavy use the battery needs a good charge every 2 days or so. On standby when the device is not constantly seeking new wireless towers, the device can go 4 days or more without a recharge. The battery is user-replaceable and cheap. Lots of eBay knockoff batteries available for $1+shipping for this, and it uses the same BlackBerry battery as all the current generation models.
The email software within the BlackBerry is the same across the entire platform. It has some small enhancements in OS 4.2 (which is used by the Curve, Pearl and 88xx series) and adds the ability to email your camera photos and multimedia items to emails as attachments. The integration with the address book here is vital, as you only need to type a few characters of someone’s name to get their information to appear in the fields. You can have an email sent within a few seconds with a 1600×1200 (2 megapixel) photo attached.
This is one current limitation of the iPhone I spoke about in the earlier review, the ability to only send one photo per email and only at 640×480 pixel size, with no EXIF data attached to the image.
There is one feature here that the iPhone wins at over the Curve, which is the ability to render “rich text” email. Currently the BlackBerry only supports plain text email, so any email composed entirely of HTML code with no alternate text version is very difficult to read on the BlackBerry, but most emails come through fine, (and with lightning speed I must add). The email client supports viewing of several popular attachments.
The Curve can handle up to 10 personal email accounts at once. BIS also allows you to create a special BlackBerry email address just for your device. On T-mobile, it takes the form of (name)@tmo.blackberry.net.
After testing the iPhone’s “full” web browser and coming back to my BlackBerry Curve, one one think a person would be a bit disappointed in the rendering of websites, but I really wasn’t. The BlackBerry makes most websites quite usable and many popular websites have specific mobile/blackberry versions that load in a snap on the BlackBerry browser. There is also a 3rd party version of Opera, Opera Mini, if you find you don’t enjoy BlackBerry’s browser. Web browsing speeds on EDGE data are much faster when you’re not loading a full website, but T-Mobile’s EDGE loads a lot of sites at a semi-respectable pace… certainly good enough for mobile browsing.
BlackBerry’s browser supports JavaScript and can browse to secure sites. I’ve used it to order pizza before while I was on the bus ride home from my job, ain’t the internet grand?
BlackBerry browser also supports a neat feature that will go refresh your bookmarks automatically, on a specific time interval, similar to how an RSS feed operates (there are 3rd party RSS readers also, and the Browser does support RSS). I use this feature to do a 1-hour refresh on Weather Underground for current Minneapolis, MN weather.
I think this is the best browser on a BlackBerry yet and the trackball is much better for navigating around large websites than the older scroll wheel.
The phone features of the BlackBerry handhelds are at least a part of the reason why I find Windows Mobile based devices to be so crappy. I haven’t personally used Windows Mobile 6 yet, but Windows Mobile 5′s phone was really poorly integrated into the device. the iPhone’s dialing interface is definitely on par and even exceeds the BlackBerry in simplicity in some ways, but I still think this is a more friendly phone overall.
Dialing out of the phone book is simple… just start typing someone’s name on the full QWERTY keyboard and it will find them in the phone book, click on their name and it will give you options or just dial them. Simple as that. Works like a charm. Calls, missed calls, and voicemails all show up in a central history area.
One feature I am loving more and more on this particular BlackBerry is the Voice Dialing function. You press a key, it asks you to say a command. You say “Call [whoever]“, adding “Mobile” or “Work” if the have multiple numbers (it will ask you which if you don’t). This function requires no recording of people’s names and works almost every time if spoken clearly to. It can also be used to check things like signal level or battery status without actually looking at the phone itself, which would be very useful while driving. The phone supports Stereo Bluetooth if you desire that feature (I don’t have a use for it just yet).
The BlackBerry’s biggest advantage, right here. This is the reason I went back to the BlackBerry Curve after buying an iPhone (more on that in my iPhone review).
Since BlackBerry has been popular for several years now, there is a very large development community dedicated to making applications for the device. The BlackBerry is written in a form of Java, which almost anyone can learn with enough effort, but there are some real great apps being developed and supported by programmers worldwide. I’ll list a few of my favorites below:
Google has developed 3 very good BlackBerry programs:
- Google Maps – hands down, the most useful and best program on the BlackBerry. Very similar to the iPhone version, it allows you to set favorite addresses, do turn-by-turn directions on the go, and supports Satellite view and Traffic.
- Google Talk – a great, free version of Google Talk for BlackBerry. Has 90% of the features of the real PC client for Google Talk and is similar to the web version. Even allows you to store active conversations in the messages list with your email, keeping them all in one place.
- GMail – a great interface directly to your google mail messages.
Other great applications I use (free, unless noted):
- JiveTalk – hands down the best combined (multiple services in one buddy list) instant messaging client on BlackBerry, period. It costs $19.95 but has a 30-day free trial (in which I guarantee you’ll get hooked). It supports AIM/Google Talk/Yahoo/MSN/ICQ and Jabber. The interface is similar to the Mac OS X IM app called Adium or functionally equivalent to something like Miranda IM or Trillian on PC.
- JMirc – A very stripped down, basic IRC client. Not the best I’ve ever used, but it’s free, and I use IRC all the time.
- Beyond411 – Beyond411 provides free and convenient mobile search on your Blackberry. It’s cheaper, more effective, and more complete than calling 411.
- FreeRange – FreeRange is a free RSS reader for BlackBerry.
- TwitterBerry – TwitterBerry is a mobile client for posting/reading updates to Twitter.
- JaikuBerry – JaikuBerry is a low-bandwidth, very basic way of posting presence updates to Jaiku
- Opera Mini – has web page zooming and other features not present in the BlackBerry Browser.
This is a very short list, but there are thousands of programs, games, and other software written for BlackBerry. Some free, some not. Lots of other programs exist to do many things that the base operating system applications can’t do, and these 3rd party applications do it very well in most cases. To me, this is the reason the BlackBerry is a better platform for people who want to get the most out of their mobile phone than the iPhone is.
This is a multimedia-focused BlackBerry, but it is not even close to the iPod features in iPhone. The media slot in the Curve supports MicroSD cards up to 4GB and supports SDHC. It is inconveniently located UNDER the battery, so if you want to change cards, you have to power off (hey, at least you can remove the battery!). I currently use a 2GB MicroSD card in the slot and store a few mp3 ringtones and lots of photos on it.
The Camera is a 2 megapixel sensor and has a cheap flash. It takes very nice photos for a cell phone camera — look at some of the skyscraper photos on my flickr page for examples.
The Curve supports mass storage mode, so you can connect the device and download/upload your photos/music/ringtones back and forth between the device and your computer. The device comes with a Roxio application for converting video and other media for use on the unit but I haven’t bothered using it as of yet, as it doesn’t have any use for me.
I’ve read in other reviews that if you are an AT&T customer you can stream XM radio to this device through the AT&T Media center. Since I am not on AT&T I was unable to test this feature.
Additionally, you can transfer and receive files to/from this device over Bluetooth to many other popular phones. I transferred a ringtone in WAV format from my Curve to a friend’s Motorola Q over bluetooth and it worked like a dream.
Elaborating a bit more on the Keyboard. The Curve has a keyboard no other BlackBerry has at the time of this writing. It is full QWERTY and curves to make it easier for thumb typing (and probably easier for them to fit more keys on the small frame of this phone). I find I can type about 20-30 words per minute with two thumbs, and without even looking at the keys, which is nearly impossible with the iPhone or the earlier, SureType-based BlackBerry products. It does take a few days to get used to how small the keys are, but I was typing fast in no time with occasional errors. I don’t have extensive experience with the 88xx series keyboard, but I find this one to be much better.
The trackball is new to the current generation of BlackBerry, previous to the Pearl, BlackBerry devices had a scroll wheel and a “back” soft button on the right side of the device, making them pretty much a right-hand only device. It worked well, but not nearly as well as the trackball does overall. Scrolling through E-Mail messages and webpages can be just as fast (if not faster) than the old scroller. Holding in the ALT key on the device in some areas of software lets you scroll in a page by page view which is a lot faster. I find the trackball to be just sensitive enough for me, but it is configurable in the options.
The BlackBerry Curve is a pretty awesome smart phone. It’s not too expensive if you wish to lock into a service contract on AT&T, and is still $150 cheaper with no contract than a 8GB iPhone costs with a 2 year lock-in.
Overall, I feel like this is the best cell phone I’ve ever used (right now). I switched initially from the T-Mobile Sidekick 3 to this device, and thought I’d feel like I was missing something… and I really don’t. Having the ability to freely install software is very liberating, and the MP3 ringers are great (why this isn’t on either the sidekick 3 or the iPhone I have no idea).
The downsides to the Curve are few, but the ability to read Rich Text email would be nice. Wi-Fi would also be a welcome feature for web browsing and larger picture transfers. The web browser could render as well as Safari in another generation or two, but right now is only decent. Rumor has it the Curve 8320 on T-Mobile will support T-Mobile’s new HotSpot@Home service over Wi-Fi, who knows if there’s any truth to that at this point.
I recommend this phone to anyone who wants a smartphone that really gains additional value from 3rd party software, and isn’t locked into an over-simplified set of applications, like the iPhone is. That is where this device excels. If you’ve never tried a BlackBerry before, this is the one to get. You may not care about all the stuff I talked about in my article and think the iPhone is good enough, but for me, it was enough to return it. I’m staying with the Curve for now.
Photos: I have photos of the phone (and photos taken by the phone) on flickr.
Wednesday, July 25th, 2007 @ 10:47 pm 
Accessories, Cell Phones
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October 9th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
HI! Thanks for the informative posting. I am having a phone dilemma!! I currently have the sidekick 3 (I am not a kid, I am a mom, but use all of its features). I want to upgrade my phone and possibly give my sk3 to my son. But I cannot make a decision WHAT to get. What do you think is a better phone, the t-mobile curve or the new sidekick LX?? HELLLLLLLP!!
Thanks
Denise