Cowboy Caleb the liberal arts, grown-up stuff & random mischief

Conclusion: BlackBerry Curve 8300 Review

I’ve used the BlackBerry Curve for about 6 months, so it’s due for a few words. First of all, this is a conclusive review - I’ve received a huge huge discount voucher from Singtel for my next mobile set upgrade. Apparently when you consistently chalk up huge phone bills every month, Singtel assigns a flag to your name and does everything it can to keep you as a customer. My Blackberry Curve is falling apart due to abuse and heavy travel so I need to get a new phone ASAP.

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My current Blackberry 8300 is the Curve model given to me as part of the Blackberry Seeding Programme by the PR firm LEWIS. It’s traveled with me to Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Macau, Hong Kong and China (where I currently am) and so far it’s done a pretty decent job because it’s a quad-band GSM phone (800/850/1800/1900MHz) and will pretty much work anywhere on the face of the earth. The BlackBerry Curve is the first prosumer phone from BlackBerry. It’s got pretty much what the other BlackBerrys have, without the GPS and Wifi.

The Blackberry Curve is the best phone I’ve evar owned period. It’s made it impossible for me to switch back to Windows Mobile based phones. The Blackberry OS doesn’t crash and doesn’t reset itself every other friggin day. The Blackberry is about email, and it does email ridiculously well. Your emails just keep steaming in, no matter which part of the world you are in.

The first things that struck me is how light it is - only 111 grams. I’ve never owned a phone this light. You can drop it into your shirt pocket and never even realize its there.

There is no 3G, but the Curve supports EDGE and GPRS. I tried accessing the web everywhere I went and had little problems. The built-in browser displays my football betting websites and most other sites with no problems.

A holster comes bundled in the box to sheath the Curve when its not in use. It’s one of those nice classy black leather types.

The keyboard is a vast improvement over the previous models, handling my fat banana-sized thumbs with ease. I’ve been writing novella length text messages to my folk thanks to the Blackberry.

I am a very heavy user when it comes to voice (2-3 hour voice telecons daily). Although the Curve’s battery life is supposed to be 17 hours on standby or 4 hours of talktime, I only found myself recharging the batteries every other night. But the voice quality is very good and it filters out background noise so the other party won’t hear crap from your end.

Thanks to this phone, I was able to spend 2 weeks away from the office to be with my grandfather in his hospital room, without any loss in productivity. My team just simply kept in touch with me via email and called me whenever required.

And with the built in camera, I found moblogging not to be the tedious exercise it used to be. It’s a snap to just take a photo and immediately moblog it.

Strangely, the Curve is resistant to most forms of abuse. I have dropped it numerous times, once from a second storey window. And in a drunken rage, kicked it several times across a pub counter. Some of the paint came off but everything is intact and works just fine. So if you’re an angry young idiot like me, you should be right at home with the Blackberry Curve.

One more thing you may want to note: When an airplane lands, almost everybody whips out a Blackberry to check their SMS, Emails etc. That’s right. No Nokias, Sony-Ericssons or iPhones. Business users rely on Blackberrys. I should know since I fly at least 4 times a month.

Round-up
Weight - very light
User-friendliness - Very
Battery Life - Long enough
Network - Extremely good
Text SMS - very very good
Email - Ridiculously good (Blackberry invented this game)
Bluetooth - Bad, headsets are ok but file sharing doesnt seem to work
Voice - Good. Has voice filtering too.
Keyboard - Good, nice feel to it
Durability - Good, survived Cowboy “Hulk” Caleb liao

The final verdict - Highly recommended for young working adults. Students who like to blog and stay in touch may want to consider it as well.

iPhone ftw!

i’m sure i read ruok’s comment as iphone for the whore.

anyway, i’m slapped with an older blackberry now, the 8700 series and it fails in comparison with the curve.. especially when you’ve got two of them to play and contrast with.

I am using BlackBerry 8300 and it Rocks, truly professional and equipped with every thing one can think!!

3G, after my 12k phone bill, is now in my opinion overrated. Stick to GPRS unless your phone is on Ah Gong account.

Granted Blackberry push stream is good for the busy executive but I think you owe it to the reader how much extra in term of data charges would you be incurring or unless there is a fixed monthly rate? the again if Ah Gong account then bor chup lah.

I am sticking to my Nokia E90 due to the bigger keyboard and wider screen. And yes, there times, I don’t want to see any emails.

Eh how u incur 12 K for your PHONE BILL????
Seriously….

methinks 3G is overrated as well. esply in msia when the 3G network is slow and overcharging. also, not many places got 3G connection lar.

Hi all.

thank you for posting your comments and view.I am wishing to buy a new Blackberry curv. i am just worried about its battery life.Can anyone explain me about its battery life