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BlackBerry Curve (8300) Review

Some have called it the best BlackBerry ever, and I tend to agree with them. The curve is only my second BlackBerry, previously I was using a BlackBerry 8700r.

Now there was nothing wrong with my 8700r, and the only reason to upgrade to the Curve/8300 was the fact that the rest of my department was in the process of standardizing our phones.

Its going to sound corny, but the Curve is sleek, its stylish, and its very light. Did I mention that this phone is *light* its incredible. It took a couple of hours to get used to the trackball, having used the famous BlackBerry wheel for a year or so, but now I would have trouble going back to just the wheel.

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Highlights of the Curve/8300

• Media Player — MP3 player sounds great, only complaint is that its a bit clunky feeling compared to an iPod, but its a minor complaint.
• 2.0 Megapixel Camera with Flash. Works great, takes great pictures for a camera phone.
  Voice activated dialing! – Works as advertised, no complaints so far.
• The OS interface changes (Menu key, trackball, escape key placement) all add up to a great user experience, its much faster to use the applications.

Whats in the box (Rogers Wireless):

• BlackBerry Curve
• BlackBerry C-S2 (same as the 8700)
• International Travel Charger
• USB Cable
• Software CD-ROM
• Quick Start Guide
• User Guide
• Stereo Headset
• Leather slip case[1]

Now, the only thing that disappointed me with the BlackBerry 8300 was that it did not come with a Belt Clip/Holster. I really liked the hard plastic one that came with my 8700. The leather case that comes with the 8300 fits in your pocket nicely, but it just doesn’t work for me personally. I recommend picking up the BlackBerry 8330 Lambskin Belt Clip Holster, its a great stylish phone case, even the SWMBO commented on it (which is rare).

Call Quality on the curve is excellent, my 8700 was excellent as well, and it was nice that the such a small smart phone can keep pace on the call quality side. Major kudo’s to RIM on this one.

The keyboard is excellent, its a bit different than the 8700, but I’ve easily adjusted to the Curve.

Build Quality is excellent, some have called it the sturdiest BlackBerry ever, I havn’t dropped mine yet, so I can’t comment on that front, I am very hard on cell phones, so if it can be easily broken, I’ll break it. I will go out on a limb and state that I do not expect to break my 8300.

Its worth noting that I did not break my 8700, it has a lot of scars, but still works well. (I’ve broken 4 Treo’s, and 5 iDen (Telus Mike) phones previous to going over to BlackBerry.

If you plan to use the camera, I strongly recommend that you get a microSD card for the phone. Once you have the microSD card installed, you will be able to download the camera phones using “USB Mass Storage” which means your phone will simply appear as a drive letter in Windows, and more importantly, no proprietary software required! (I use Linux, so this is very important!).

I highly recommend picking up the Curve if you are in the market for a BlackBerry.

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