BlackBerry Curve 8900 Review
Overview
Pros:
- Sleek Design
- Large Display
- Amazing Connectivity
- Perfect for Email and Messaging
- Decent Applications
Cons:
- Lacks 3G
- Small buttons on the keypad
- Slower than the Bold.
Review:
RIM produces the best and the most successful line of business smart phones in the market today; however, it is still light weight when compared to players like Nokia. But, the first thing that comes to mind when people think of RIM is email. Yes, e-mail. The last decade marked the rise of BlackBerry as the champion device for email while on the go. Today, it has become a need for most professionals who travel a lot. In 2007, RIM launched the Curve, a phone that was not only used by business professionals, but also by the regular users. 2008 marked the launch of Bold, a more serious attempt at penetrating into the market. This year, RIM launched the BlackBerry Curve 8900. A solid addition to the T mobile’s smart phone line up, it replaces the older Curve 8300 series. The phone brings several notable improvements, including a sleeker design, a faster processor and a 3.2 MP camera. The Curve 8900 is a full QWERTY messaging smartphone with integrated Wi-Fi with UMA support. Perhaps the biggest disappointment is the lack of 3G support, something that could have given it a great edge over all its competition. Despite this, it is an amazing phone and is absolutely recommended for both consumers and professionals.

Design:
No surprises:
A typical QWERTY device, there are not many surprises in terms of form factor or design. The Curve 8900 PDA Smartphone looks like all its predecessor BlackBerry handsets except for the half QWERTY models that are slimmer. Whereas the Blackberry Bold was more elegant and classy, the Curve is more sporty and hip looking which would appeal to a wide variety of users. The phone casing is entirely built out of plastic and it reminds you of the Nokia E71. RIM used several finishes and paint applications to make the handset more durable. However, the E71 is built out of metal and weighs 125 odd grams more than the Curve. At 109 x 60 x 13.5 mm, the Curve is about the same size as the original, appreciably much thinner though. The overall build quality of the device is good except the loose fitting rear battery cover.
Display:
The 8900’s display is a beautiful 480 x 380 pixel unit that has a diagonal length of 2.4 inches. Smaller than the Bold, it has more pixel density than the Nokia E71 and runs on a TFT LCD which bundles the resolution along with 65k colours. The display is more legible than the Nokia business phone and it retains more vivid colours when exposed to direct sunlight.
Controls layout:
The BlackBerry layout of controls has 2 call keys, a back and a menu button as well under the screen. The centre piece is the trackball, stunningly black and equally stunning comfortable to use. The keyboard has a four row layout and the num pad is on the left. The side controls allow for easy one handed operation, all keys except the space bar are of the same size. The spacing is sufficient and their shape is very comfortable to use. The keys give a very tactile feedback and the keyboard is adequately backlit.
The left of the BlackBerry has one of the convenience keys that allow you to start the voice dialling, by default and you could change that according to whatever suits your needs. Another such key is on the right side of the handset below the volume rocker and the 3.5 mm standard audio jack. There is the microUSB slot that allows you to charge your phone. On the bottom of the phone is the microphone pinhole.
Ports and connectivity:
On the top of the model is the ear piece alongside the BlackBerry logo. On the right side of this is the LED indicator. Seen it somewhere? Yes, this part of the phone is a replica of the Storm. There are 2 more keys here – one for locking the phone and the other for muting it. The smooth surface might make you miss those keys and the only way you can tell is by feeling them.

Features:
The Interface:
The BlackBerry runs on the BlackBerry OS v4.6 and the interface is no different from the Bold’s UI. The home screen and the main menu are neat and simple and have yet very appealing icons. The main menu and the standby screen can be customized beyond recognition and look more attractive. As mentioned earlier, the text sub menus are non customizable and their frequent appearances are irksome. The eye candy might not impress users who are bothered by functionality. We suggest that RIM should do some firmware updates to fix the looks of the deeper UI levels. The home screen is pretty well organized and has 6 shortcut buttons placed at the bottom and the status icons on the top. The profiles can be accessed from here and as well as the 2 other features one chooses to assign for the convenience keys. The Menu navigation of the Curve does not use soft key based navigation where the available options for every options for every menu item. There are no lag or jerky motions while navigating. Though the processor is slower than the Bold, one would not notice any difference. The 8900 is a business device and the audience would mind the dreary look of the deeper sub menus. The UI responded well and though it is not the biggest cheer of the phone, it is not that bad either.
Connectivity:
To get connected, one has 3 options: Wi-Fi, BIS or EDGE network that T mobile provides. The RIM Blackberry Curve 8900 has a Wi-Fi network that allows you to check email, shop online, stream videos and music and even make phone calls. Setting up a Wi-Fi network is easy and one can switch back from a carrier service seamlessly. The upside of the integrated Wi-Fi is UMA support which allows you to make and receive unlimited calls over a wireless network. In order to make this work, you need to sign up for T-Mobile’s Unlimited Hotspot Calling plan which is available separately. However, what is lacking is the inclusion of 3G support. Excluding it might hurt its sales in the long term perspective. The browsing speeds were pretty good even on EDGE and yet inclusion of 3G would have made it a killer phone. There is the Bluetooth v2.0 which sports A2DP and a microSD data memory card slot. One reason why 3G was excluded is the fact that UMA features would interfere with HSDPA networking. We would still want to see 3G included on the phone.
Web Browsing:
One of the biggest disappointments in the BlackBerry Bold was the web browser; the Curve features a much improved browser. Far from perfect, the browser’s home page was nicely rendered. The thumbnails were placed far too side of where they should have actually been, but otherwise the pages seemed natural. Pages loaded slowly on the EDGE but on Wi-Fi, they loaded with ease. The support of HTML Browser with support for RSS feeds and streaming media is an amazing addition.
Email:
One aspect where RIM manages to outshine any of its competitors is the email functionality on the BlackBerry. The smooth and sleek feeling of email functionality is unique to the series. The 8900 extends to the legacy of IMAP4, POP and the BES emailing system. Like the other BlackBerrys the 8900 can sync with the company’s BES with support for IBM, Lotus Domino, Novell GroupWise or Microsoft Exchange. It takes just about 10 seconds to set up a new account in the BES. The Curve 8900 can handle up to 10 email addresses. There is a unified inbox for email as well as separate account folders. The email system is undeniably robust, but we wish that the email apps were not dependent on the menus as it was tiresome to keep selecting menus through search, copy and forwarding emails.
Applications:
Being a phone that belongs to the business segment, it has all the basic applications which tend to be handy like the Calendar, Memo Pad, Task List, Voice Recorder, a password keeper, Encryption services, zip services and archiving services performing as usual. The calendar application badly needs a visual update which would make it more usable. The calendar is robust and has plenty of fields that keep track of appointments and meetings. Sadly, it has been the same wireframe box that it was when the original BlackBerry hit the market. For Office Documents handling, there is the DataViz Documents to go. It is not a complete premium edition, to use the other features, you will have to pay to upgrade it. The phone allows you to make minor edits to word documents and Excel spreadsheets. There is the built in GPS designed to work with BlackBerry Maps and other location based software to help you figure out your location.
GPS:
There is an in built GPS receiver and comes with A GPS support. There is the BlackBerry maps pre-installed, however for it to work, one needs to activate the BlackBerry internet plan. So you cannot have voice guided navigation till you upgrade it. The Maps provide basic functionality and voice guided navigation and it allows you to send your location to anyone via email or SMS.
Multimedia Capabilities:
In spite of being a business phone, the Curve 8900 is pretty good on the multimedia front. The music player has conservative looks and a decent functionality. The music player sorts the music library automatically according to artist, album or genre. One can make playlists and add album art. Sadly, custom equalizers are not available. The player can be minimized to play in background and go back to it via the task manager. There is the headphone jack that allows you to listen to music on your headphones. The microSD card could be upgraded and we wish there was more memory. The Media Sync app searches your iTunes library and allows you to synchronize music playlists with your BlackBerry. The transfer was slower than what it would have been on an Apple device, yet the inclusion of the feature to allow you to sync to your iTunes playlist is cool.
Video Player:
It was pleasant to watch videos on the Curve. Though it cannot rival the Storm’s screen, its higher pixel density and landscape orientation provide excellent quality. The Movie player played back video clips great, scaling the video without much trouble. For managing videos, Media Sync does not provide any help here. One can set to work in full screen with the virtual buttons by a key press. But here is the best part; Curve’s video player comes with DivX and XVid support along with MPEG 4 and WMV. A good deal on the whole.
Camera:
Like the Storm the BlackBerry 8900 Curve is equipped with a 3.2 MP auto-focus camera and a LED Flash. The imaging capabilities of the device are pretty limited and it produces images that look okay and good for a camera phone, even thought nothing that impressive. The snaps are pretty decent, but at reduced zoom, the loss of detail is obvious. It does a nice job with mixed lighting as well. The Camera interface could have been much better as the status message hides a good portion of what actually ends up in this picture making proper framing impossible. The UI is uncomfortable and there are no shortcuts available either. But perhaps, the saving grace is the image geo-tagging which allows one to record ones location in the images EXIF data. In the settings, white balance, colour effects and image stabilization, picture size and quality are available. The picture quality is sadly below average in the 3 MP league and most of the photos have a distinct oil painting look. There is a problem with the corner softness, though that would not bother most of the users much. Nothing impressive here!
Video Recording:
If it sounded like the Camera was bad, the Video recording was worse. A disaster If one wants to take full featured video recording. The videos are captured in 3Gp format and can have colour effects applied.

Performance:
Call Quality:
Call quality of the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900 was satisfactory. There was some background noise and made audio quality less pristine than the other smart phones. There is the Enhance Audio option where once can boost treble or bass, but that would not improve the call quality either. The speakerphone was OK and there was some hollowness in the voice of the callers. If it was not for the cut off bass the Curve could have been amongst the best sounding mobile phones in the market.
Responsive:
The Curve has a 512MHz processor and is fairly responsive and you would not notice much difference between the more powerful Bold’s performance. There was some sluggishness when we tried accessing our photo album or camera. But that would not be much of a bother either.
Speakers:
The 8900 has a speaker that cannot rival the Bold’s output yet is not bad either. The Video playback was impressive and the picture quality was smooth and the picture looked great on the high-res screen.
Connectivity:
Connecting to Wi-Fi was easy and the EDGE speeds were OK too. The GPS navigator worked reasonably well and one can summarize that the RIM 8900 performs as well as its predecessors.
Battery Life:
The Curve 8900 runs on a 1,400mAh lithium ion battery with a rated talk time of 5.5 hours and up to 14.5 days of standby time. We got about 8 and a half hour of continuous talk time and its digital SAR rating is 1.01 per kilogram. The reason that these figures are better than the Bold is perhaps because of the lack of 3G. Using GPS drained the battery very fast and a car charger would come in handy.
Accessories:
T-Mobile ships the BlackBerry Curve 8900 with a travel charger, a USB cable, a 256MB MicroSD card, a protective case, a software CD and a reference material. It lacks the 8 GB memory card that the Storm offered.
Warranty:
There is a warranty of one year provided on the BlackBerry Curve 8900 from the date of purchase.
Verdict:
The Curve 8900 is a great addition to the BlackBerry series. It is a gorgeous and a powerful device that is packed to the brim with excellent features and hardware. The display is beautiful and a decent camera, a puffed up 512MHz processor, and is excellent for email, messaging and multimedia. It lacks 3G and that is probably what might dent its sales. Apart from that, this has everything a regular user looks for. Yet, it does not deviate from its main target : The Business class. Definitely a must buy and highly recommended if you are looking to own a business phone that simplifies things and your work.
Check other 2010 Latest Blackberry Phone Reviews in this website.
BlackBerry Curve 8900 - Technical Specification Table
| Manufacturer | RIM |
| Model Name | BlackBerry Bold 8900 |
| Product Type | Smartphone |
| Colour | Black |
| Dimensions H x W x D (mm) | 109 x 60 x 13.5 mm |
| Weight | 110g |
| Display | 2.44? Transmissive TFT LCD colour display |
| Colour resolution | 65k of 480 x 360 pixel colour display |
| Operating system | BlackBerry OS; 4.6 |
| CPU | 512 MHz processor |
| Messaging | SMS, MMS, Email, IM |
| Browser | HTML |
| GPS | Yes, with A-GPS support |
| Camera | 3.15 Megapixel Camera, Flash, Camera, Settings,Video Player and Recorder |
| Messaging options | Text messaging or SMS, multimedia messaging or MMS, Instant messaging or IM, and email |
| Audio features | Alert types: Vibration, MP3 ringtones Speaker phone: Yes 3.5 mm audio jack |
| Memory | 256MB storage, 256 MB RAM microSD, up to 16GB. |
| Supported audio format | MP3, WMA |
| Supported video format | DivX and XviD. |
| Data | GPRS: Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps EDGE: Class 10, 236.8 kbps WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UMA Bluetooth: Yes, v2.0 with A2DP USB: Yes, microUSB v2.0 |
| Games | Yes + downloadable |
| Product features | The personal organizer with a Phone Book, Calendar, Alarm Clock, and Task List. Specialized BlackBerry Operating System with a Full QWERTY Keyboard, a Trackpad Navigation,Document Viewer. Handsfree speaker, media player, video player and recorder, camera, Browser, Corporate Data Access, Built-in GPS and BlackBerry Maps, SMS/MMS with Wi-Fi support and game options for added entertainment 32 polyphonic ringtones MIDI , SP-MDI, MP3, WAV. |
| Battery | 5.5 hours of talktime and 15days of standby time |
| Security | Password protection, keyboard lock, AES or Triple DES encryption, FIPS 140-2 Compliant |
| Warranty | One year |






