Despite being a literal royalty with corporate handsets and push email, BlackBerry has only been catching up all these years and has been struggling to lead the way with not so popular handsets such as the Bold 9780 and 9700. So, it was time for RIM to take the situation more seriously if they had to be in the Smartphone race for long. These above-mentioned 5 feature-bumped handsets has the following on offer – supports NFC (near field communication) chips, a zippier WebKit browser, enhanced HTML5 performance, additional preloaded apps like the famous Documents To Go, physical keyboards complementing the touchscreens (in the Bold), etc., to name a few. RIM boasts the Blackberry Bold 9900 and 9930 to be their thinnest Smartphone ever with a fairly sleek frame of 10.5mm. Also, RIM has finally decided to take the initiative of incorporating a relatively new technology – the Near Field Communication chip – something that has been talked about only for a while now, while its competitors are still dilly-dallying about the same. Now, with such overwhelming choice of handsets, we sure do understand it is kind of dicey to determine which of these form factor suits you the best. Well, we tried to ease out the problem a wee bit by reviewing the Blackberry Bold 9900, the thinnest of all, which might prove to be of little help in deciding if it is the phone for you. So, are we all set to determine whether the Bold 9900 Smartphone can pull together in this already crowded and competitive Smartphone arena? Join us in unboxing the 9900 and inspecting its controls, design and display!

Box Contents

• The BlackBerry Bold 9900
• A charger
• microUSB cable and headset
• A leather pouch
• Cleaning cloth
• Europe continental and UK plug adaptors

Hardware Impressions

After having seen quite a number of BlackBerry Phones, it takes just couple of minutes to hold the 9900 in your palm before you realize the fact that this could possibly be the slimmest BlackBerry designed by RIM. It sure does come as a premium offering from the BlackBerry family, proving to be the best of the “Bolds” unveiled till date, truly living up to its name. While the sizeable keyboard and dimensions of the Bold 9000 sure does make a bold statement, it looks kind of overdone with its faux-leather and plastic-chrome trims yielding an image of a BlackBerry bejeweled in cheap jewelry. No offense meant, but it is still grabs your attention for sure. With this next generation Bold, looks like RIM has decided to take a conservative approach with downsizing the handset and giving it a more Curvy look. In terms of styling even as it looks tasteful, it perhaps is still a little too modest to be called Bold.

The new Bold 9900 Blackberry Phone epitomizes what the brand is all about – “luxury by design” by getting back to the 9000’s favorable wide-body design, but with the usage of premium materials and in a much sleeker design. So, it is Hello Metal and bye-bye plastic-chrome! Well, with the addition of hardware platforms on the inside and touchscreen on the outside delivering outstanding performance that has been witnessed ever, this is exactly the Bold from RIM that users have been waiting for.

Design/Form Factor & Build

When you hold the Bold 9900, it would be seconds before it dawns on you that it isn’t really feather-light at a 130g. Measuring 115 x 66 x 10.5 mm, it easily slides into any pocket without much fuss, which is also the 9900’s vital selling ingredient – being the slimmest BlackBerry ever, claims RIM. But the design at the rear that protrudes a little would make you think otherwise, making it look little hefty. It looks more like a smaller version of the 9780, but is a tad sleek, with a trackpad taking the place of a trackball. While there is a brushed metallic border surrounding the high-gloss screen, the rear comes in a blend of glass and matte plastic, which doesn’t really act as a cover but is a door that can be easily flipped to house your SIM and memory cards. Unfortunately, it isn’t hot-swappable!

The Blackberry Bold 9900 handset is fairly magnanimous when it comes to memory with default storage of 8GB that can be extended to 32GB. You will see 4 buttons towards the right of the 9900, three of which are clustered with the top and bottom serving as Up/Down for volume and the middle serves as a pause button for media, a neat touch that saves you the hassle of messing with the screen.

The camera has a shortcut button that can be changed, as always, to do another task on the 9900, as per your wish. But then the second convenience key toward the left has been excluded in the handset, which is kind of disappointing. Well, that’s about it on the left hand side, with a couple of ports that has been reserved for a micro USB charging and syncing port together with a slot of 3.5mm for the headphones.

What is really amazing about the headphone jack is, even as it gives a weird look to the rear contour of the handset, it really helps with resting your fingers against the gadget as you use the 9900.

Getting to the top, you get to see the lock button that has been aesthetically located right in the middle such that your fingers hit it seamlessly and doesn’t really require any effort. Bravo RIM! It is such minor neat touches that go a long way in attracting users.

Coming to the front, you are welcomed by an amazingly sharp touchscreen with 640 x 480 pixels and is 2.8 inches wide, easily the best with the ‘Retina’ branding, something that is a real feast to the eyes with icons floating over the wallpaper. Whites look white with nice and bold text, particularly blacks looking brilliant on white background. The Capacitive touchscreen is only too eager to respond to your commands with the trackpad proving to be extremely handy, particularly while surfing.

There are no controls or ports towards the bottom of the handset with the mouthpiece being located right inside the keyboard

A 5Mp camera lens together with a LED flash prove to the main attraction on the rear with a loudspeaker grill housed under the hood of the battery cover. The single convenience key in the Bold has been set to serve the camera by default with Portrait being the default orientation. Well, matter of time before you assign it a different duty. There is shutter key housed low towards the side, which makes no real sense. Again, as it is fixed focus camera, there wouldn’t be a necessity for the half press button. Hence either the trackpad or just the keyboard’s enter key would be just fine.

Beyond doubts, the gadget has the best QWERTY keypad that you might find and is relatively easy to type on the phone as against a desktop keyboard, giving you a seamless ride right be it causal texting or lengthy mails.

Finally, getting to the usual BlackBerry suspects below the screen would be the Call, Menu, Back and Terminate keys which might trick you into thinking that they are touch sensitive. While they certainly look they are, but in reality aren’t.

So for a SIM-free model of the 9900, you must be forking out something roughly around £500 depending on the online retailer. This places it on the top-end BlackBerry range, that doesn’t really surprise us, as this is where the Bold has been since its induction in the BlackBerry family. Again, contract prices are no cheaper and might prove to be a bit of a struggle at roughly £30-£35 a month, if you are looking at a two-year plan.

In terms of competition, BlackBerry has always been that rich kid looking desperately to blend in with the cool kids, but has a tough time shaking off its tag. Nevertheless, RIM has been ruling sectors like security and e-mail for quite sometime now. Exactly the reason why we never see the Men in Black carry anything other than a Berry. Then again, true to the saying that nothing lasts forever, so does the above strategy, as we witness a change in this trend with the unveiling of the Curve range. The BBM messaging app is a fast growing tool among teens with the desperation to possess a BlackBerry growing by the day – thanks to the ever growing social media sector.

So, to windup, despite the Berry wishing to be a cool kid, it is any day going to have that classy-ness tagged to it, which is not a bad thing. Guess RIMs significant competition would pretty much be their own Bold 9770/9780 as there are no other business-oriented communicators at the moment to command the market, the way they do.

User Interface

The best selling point about the Bold 9900 Smartphone would be pretty much similar to what the Torch flaunted of the year before, that it was the first device to run the new OS6. So to speak, the 9900 runs the even better OS7 with lot more on offer. Aesthetically, looks like the OS 7 takes its cues from the PlayBook. Well, there is no longer the conventional blue-white grid adorning the Homescreen anymore (which we saw in the OS5 and got carried on the OS6 too to a decent extent). Now the icons that the OS7 boasts look to be individual and actually looks to be more of a mixed bag reminding us of the busy app draw of the OS4 in the good old days. But then, we fail to see some kind of clarity of icons here giving it a clumsy look. Yeah! We do realize that this opinion is going to leave all BlackBerry patrons a little upset, but guess first impressions really do matter!

That aside, despite some tweaks it doesn’t really feel that avant-grade and by any stretch of imagination fails to give the impression of a brand new OS. It rather looks to be an update to the OS6 and doesn’t really do any justice to acquiring a new number.

As always, there are abundant app drawers on offer like the Recent, Favourites, Downloaded, so on and so forth that can be swiped through, together with the new option of managing what you wish to see via the Menu. It would prove to be extremely useful for those who find the drawers as distracting and pointless. Again, RIM has chosen to slash down one row off from the Homescreen, which means you no longer have two row icons on the Homescreen and will have to manage with just one. Again, search can happen anywhere within the phone, as before, similar to smart dialing only that it searches beyond the phonebook. While unveiling the OS7 RIM claimed that it would be more rapid and easy to use, and rapid it is, no doubt, but then it is a mystery if it’s owing to the 1.2GHz processor ticking inside or the tweaks that the OS underwent or probably both. Well, one thing is for sure compared to the ageing 9780, the 9900 blazes along leaving the older sibling gasping for breath while it attempts to keep pace.

Again, an original press release promised a search option that is voice-activated, both in your content as well as the web, but alas looks like it did not make the final cut or could be a pending update. We are still waiting on that RIM.

Wrapping up, #7 looks to be the last OS upgrade before the switch over to QNX. Though it brings with it barely any features (of course the HD video and NFC are significant ones) it would be worth mentioning here that its high-end requirement wouldn’t allow its older siblings to run the OS7.  Well there is a trackpad and there is a touchscreen too with the former helping with precise and sharp navigation, as almost everything that you see is clickable and works just fine. Again, you are better off accessing minor elements like the Homescreen Profile and Search icons via the trackpad than the touchscreen. Bottom line, the Bold 9900 succeeds in keeping existing and new users happy with the touchscreen and trackpad blending well in their own natural way.

Chipset/Performance/Processor

The whole line-up of newly announced BlackBerry Smartphones (the above-mentioned 5 models), which includes the Bold 9900 have the MSM 8655 Qualcomm Scorpion processor ticking under the hood clocking a 1.2GHz on the Snapdragon chipset. Also onboard is the Adreno 205 Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) that powers the Berry’s hardware-accelerated graphics. A processing power or 1.2GHz would mean double the pace of the last generation BlackBerry Bolds. Together with enhancing the speed it is good to know that this upgrade of hardware platform also addresses many other nagging issues that has been around for a while now including the HD recording, support for 3D graphics (that the GSM BlackBerrys are devoid of till date), to name a few. With endless high-speed processors and even dual-core gadgets on offer in the Smartphone arena, at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter what kind of processor is ticking beneath a BlackBerry OS (be it a 1GHz/2GHz/1.4GHz), what really matters is the kind of experience it manages to deliver. And that it does – we mean the 1.2GHz on the BlackBerry OS is literal dope and trust us it would be sometime before you get used to the receptive touchscreen and general promptness of the phone. Do not surprised if you really can’t cope up to it in the first few days of use because basic tasks like opening and closing of apps takes place within a blink of the eye and you might barely experience any slowdowns or hitches. There might very very few instances when you might encounter the hourglass, like installing an App from the App world or with loading specific pages, but otherwise you will be amazed at its expeditiousness.

Using the Keyboard/Typing Experience

Looks like the original Bold 9000 just lost its long-held title of being the Best Keyboard Ever to the new Bold 9900. Honestly, we never thought that there would be anything at all that can beat the easiness of handling the keyboard like the 9000, but looks like RIM has proved us wrong. The 9900’s keyboard is essentially 5% wide in comparison to the 9000’s keyboard with thoroughly enhanced keystrokes. It only takes feather strokes to do a key press yet with extremely prompt rebound. There is an explicit click sound and action that gives out a fabulous rhythm while typing, which is truly magical. Do not be surprise if you get absolutely blown away by the 9900’s ease and speed of typing. After a point in time, it would dawn on you that the keyboard doesn’t really exhaust you despite pounding away some REALLY lengthy emails and by the end of the day it doesn’t really feel like your fingers have put in some effort. Long story short, if you are someone that spends a great deal of time on a daily basis texting, tweeting, doing mails, BBMs etc., you might want to do yourself a big favor and try the 9900’s keyboard – your fingers will be grateful to you.

Contacts/Telephony/Messaging

So getting to the contacts section of the 9900, well if you are looking some kind of innovation here, well it is an unfortunate NO. RIM is pretty much happy the way it has designed the contacts section and decides to stick by it, and it is pretty much the same what we witnessed in the OS 6. We definitely are not whining here because there is nothing really wrong with the current offering here. RIMs contact handling has always been excellent and it still is, albeit looks monotonous cosmetically.  For starters, importing your contacts on the handset is a cakewalk, thanks to the synch software/BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server) this happens in seconds and we are highly thankful to RIM for improvising this over years. Contacts take the form of thumbnails, regardless of you having a picture of your contact. If there are pictures for all your contacts, great, else you might want to be ready to stare at an untidy phonebook with missing images in between the contact list. Any bit of info can be keyed in within a particular contact’s field, even their dog’s birthday, if you wish to. Calling a contact is also relatively easy – just typing a name from the Homescreen kicks in the smart dialing or the same is possible even via the contact app. In fact, it is the Bold’s smart dialing feature that gives it some extra brownie points; Isn’t that indeed the most preferred way of locating contacts. Just select the suggested name with the trackpad or tap directly on it to initiate a call. You can also add shortcuts to the Homescreen. Then there are the usual options of Hold/Add participant while in a call. Voice dial also is onboard via the Universal Voice Search.

Call quality-wise, as expected from the Berry lineup of phones, it is a solid performer, loud and clear on both handset and speaker modes. There is also an option to increase the bass. The Bold 9900 Touchscreen Phone doesn’t have any issues holding onto a signal, something very obvious and that is expected by default. No dropped calls or reception issues either.

Well, do not be in a hurry to take everything for granted, as you might be disappointed to know that regardless of being a 3G gadet, the 9900 doesn’t support video calling. Looks like RIM doesn’t really attach much importance to FaceTime. Also there isn’t much of integration happening with social networking either as both Twitter and Facebook are two separate entities. While we understand BlackBerry to be a business handset, but having built an OS that is supposed to attach importance for social networking, this looks to be a weird omission. While you are allowed to input Twitter/Facebook info to contacts, you might have to do this manually via the app as it is devoid of automatic and simple integration of other OS.

Last but not least coming to the Messaging part of the 9900, it is equipped to handle all sorts of messages like MMS, SMS, there is support for email right out of the box with couple of preinstalled IM apps. Then again, you need to have a BIS account if you are looking at using emails on the 9900. While we do endorse the pros that is tagged to the BlackBerry Internet Service, we would have appreciated if users were given a choice, like we will offer the security while you can choose your internet plan, something like that. Also let us not forget the fact that not every carrier world over offers BIS, that minimizes the reach of the 9900. Despite all this, if you manage to obtain a subscription, you might want to check out the neatly organized and customizable client that has earned its place over years now. Entering recipients for messages or mails is relatively convenient and rapid. All you need to do is just begin keying in and watch smart dial take over, providing you the suggestion list. Also you can resize photos to be attached in an email and can also be filtered and flagged by Colour, Request and Status. Additionally, you can Create, Edit or Delete folders on the phone itself. While the Message Editors look alike for all kinds of messages, it is fairly easy to use with a nice interface. There are two counters at the top – one indicating the remaining characters and the other which indicates into how parts your message gets broken down prior to being sent. The same gets transformed into a data counter in case of emails or MMS. The phone performs the given task – texting- with great ease and is complemented by the expedient QWERTY keyboard. We would have loved to see some visual gimmicks, but then what matters at the end of the day is getting your job done, isn’t it?

Touchscreen on the 9900

It has finally dawned on RIM to incorporate a touchscreen to the traditional form factor of BlackBerry! Ultimately, it is here and it is smooth, prompt, and does really add to the general usability of the phone. Together with the touch functionality, the display seems to have gotten few nice tweaks by way of physical colour, size and resolution in comparison to its older Bold siblings. The 9900’s 2.8-inch diagonal 24-bit display has the VGA for 287ppi running at 640 x 480 pixels proves to be far better than the Bold 9780 that had a 2.44-inch display delivering half VGA running at 480 x 360 pixels. The display also looks to be real neat with vivid and crisp colours and a bright display even at a default setting of 70%. Well, the good news here is RIM claims the display to be made of extra hardened glass, meaning no plastic here.

Memory

RIM ships the BlackBerry Bold 9900 with 768MB of RAM with an extra 8GB onboard memory for storage of media. Also there is an expansion slot supporting up to 32GB microSD cards (but then inclusion of a microSD card is carrier dependent). The RAM storage is up from 512MB to 768MB on the newer version of the BlackBerry handsets, but unfortunately this increase in storage capacity doesn’t seem to be applicable to the additional Application Storage as the free space for the same out of the box looks to be 230MB, which is comparatively less than the Bold 9780. Well, RIM seems to have a valid explanation for this drop in memory. Apparently, the additional RAM goes into powering the capabilities of Hi-Res displays and Liquid Graphics found on the BlackBerry 7 devices. Also the amount of the Free App space retained on the handset depends on the amount of preloaded languages on the phone, user data and applications in memory. Users are allowed to manage/delete their apps in the Application Management Screen as and when needed deleting unwanted language packs. Additionally, there seems to be many apps that utilize both the Media card as well as the on-device phone memory in storing part of their apps. This goes true for the bigger, graphic-intensive apps like the Jurassic 2 and the 3D Roller Coaster Rush.

Hmm, fair enough huh? So would this tiny drop in App Storage Memory prove to be a big deal? Well, with just a RAM of 512MB in the BB6 handsets, you generally don’t run out of memory that easily, so we guess this shouldn’t be that big a deal for a majority of BB patrons. Then again, it sure does be of some disappointment from a value proposition perspective, because majority of the users would have built castles in the air as soon as they see a whopping jump of 768MB of RAM waiting to be taken advantage of that is an additional memory of 200+ megs. Sorry guys, that is not gonna happen here!

The 5Mp Snapper

Frankly, the camera on the 9900 doesn’t look to be RIMs strong selling point owing to its very average quality. It is the same old 5Mp camera that we saw in the older sibling Bold 9780. We wouldn’t really categorise it as messy, but then it is neither adventurous, given the fact that there are other handsets out there with the relatively same specs. At least there is an LED light that is a saving grace particularly with dim lighting. There is nothing changed about the camera app, but for the missing option for Autofocus. We would like to assume the reason for this is because it has turned automatic. Again, we generally expect that the touchscreen would prompt the tap-to-focus functionality, but that was missing too. It would be nice to get some answers for the above misses. The snapper modes on offer includes Sports, Face detection, Party and Landscape. It looks to be manageable as a phone’s camera, but you might want to think twice before taking it as your only camera on a holiday. It is very unfortunate to note that RIM managed to pack an average 5Mp camera with a last season’s software ticking inside in their so-called flagship model of theirs.

Music Player

The Music Player icons have been refreshed alright, but that is all RIM has managed to do. With a fairly traditional styling, majority of the functionality looks to be the same from the OS5. Tracks get searched pretty fast with automatic sorting by Genre, Artist or Album together with support for Custom playlists. There is Album art, Single Track Repeat Option together with Equalizer Presets on the feature list. Obviously, you can minimize the player in the backdrop and then get back to it via the Main Menu or Task Manager. Yet another thing worth mentioning here would the placement of a central button that is sandwiched between volume controls, which is neat in working as a Play/Pause button, despite the screen being locked. Not many Androids offer this kind of a glorious lockscreen nor do they allow for easy media access without getting back to the music player app.

Video Player

If watching videos are your priority, then it is kind of hard to overlook the 9900, as it does an amazing job, so it is a big tick on your wish list. Well, the styling might not be really that impressive, but functionality-wise, it is all here. Again, there are the conventional controls for playback upon tapping or hitting the screen with a dedicated button for zoom and fit. The video player supports formats like XviD, DivX, WMV, H.264/MPEG-4 with a resolution of 720p. With the overall performance being more than decent, guess users would really have nothing much to whine about here.

NFC

The NFC Antenna is cleverly placed on the battery door. … Nice Move RIM!

This BlackBerry Bold 9900 would be the first among the Berry lineup of phones to support Near Field Communication (NFC), a short-range wireless technology, 4 cm or if anything less that helps communication between two gadgets and has an initiator and a target. This technology also supposedly allows you to use your handset to pay for your purchases, by just rubbing them against a sensor. While the other manufacturers have only been talking about it claiming it to be the future, RIM steals the show and takes the credit of being the first ones to introduce it in the Smartphone arena. Especially on a gadget like the Bold 9900, it could mean a lot more like pairing accessories, getting the device closer to complete actions such as downloading apps or making wireless payments too. With RIM being extremely committed to the NFC you might get to see a lot of progress here over the years and might end up using it for more and more actions. The above image makes it clear as to how RIM have managed to build the NFC right onto the battery door of the 9900. The NFC can be turned on from the homescreen by just dragging the Manage Connections menu down. All said and done, since it is still not much in use, we are not really sure what good would it do aside from flaunting it to your friends? But beware, you might cut a sorry figure when your friends challenge you to show what it is actually capable of.

Connectivity – GPS/Bluetooth/WiFi/Other Sensors

In terms of connectivity, you have the usual suspects onboard the 9900 HSUPA, HSDPA 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth,

W-iFi: There is Wi-Fi connectivity onboard the Bold 9900 in the form of Dual-Band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/n at 5 GHz and 802.11 b/g/n at 2.4 GHz and includes Wi-Fi hotspot too.

Bluetooth: These days Bluetooth is definitely not something that we can get excited about, as we expect it by default in any of the current “Smart” phones, but Kudos to Blackberry 7 for making it rock solid and solving any issues with pairing it to the car. Its utility doesn’t just stop with calls and also doubles up in streaming music wirelessly to your car stereo, which sure does seem impressive.

microUSB port: The conventional microUSB port that comes in handy for charging doubles up for data connections too. Having been connected, you data can be synced with the BDS (BlackBerry Desktop Software) that allows for synching of your collection of iTunes together with saving for files with DRM.

Other Sensors: There are a few other sensors onboard the Bold 9900 adding to the capabilities of the phone that includes a magnetometer acting as a digital compass, an accelerometer that helps with device orientation together with a proximity sensor, which turns the touchscreen display off while you are using the handset.

Maps/APPS/Web Browser

Nothing groundbreaking here, as expected, the Bold 9900 is shipped with a GPS receiver onboard together with A-GPS support. You have the BlackBerry Maps installed for navigational purposes. Before you can heave a sigh of relief, hold that though right there! Yeah, sadly all of the above works only with the BIP (BlackBerry Internet Plan) activated. So if you are wondering what comes for free then you just get directions as a part of the navigation option. If you are game for the above, and require directions then key in the address that you are looking for straight from your phonebook or better yet save your favourite spots so that there is no hassle of typing it each time. BlackBerry Maps also permits you to send people your location via mail or SMS and that concludes this decent, yet not so amazing app.  Or if you want to save yourself from all this hassle just download Google Maps and get it over with. Because the good news is if you manage to install a decent mapping software, the 9900 manages to get a GPS fix real quick. But of course, nothing in comparison to the Galaxy S2, that has been matchless to date. Despite being indoors, the 9900 is supposedly smart enough in guessing where you are in 10 seconds flat or even less.

Apps – Speaking of apps in the Bold 9900, we get to see a couple of newbies like the Smart Tags programme that looks to be related to the NFC technology onboard which tracks most of the tags read by your phone utilizing the new tech. Then there is this BlackBerry Protect that helps with security of your data and especially security being RIMs greatest plus point, it doesn’t really surprise us to see it cashing on it.

Also present are the standard Calculator, Tasks, Password Keeper together with a premium variety of Documents To Go that has been catering to the corporate crowd for a while now.

Now there is something that we would like to see RIM update namely the games section that has the World Mole and BrickBreaker. While the former has been around for only sometime now, the latter has been around for quite long. It is high time RIM thought about a new set of games, as there are no hard and fast rules that say the corporate crowd cannot have a time-out every now and then.  Thankfully, there is the App World that comes to your rescue though it cannot really be compared to the Android Market or Apple’s App Store.

But the fact still remains that the Apps are, in our opinion, ridiculously overpriced with the only saving grace being the improvement in choice. Additionally, there are also third-parties like Handmark offering BlackBerry downloads for quite sometime now and still continue doing so.

The web browser in the 9900 works like a real charm, but is devoid of Flash support. Despite the petit display, it looks to be the best that we have come across off late and does an excellent job in serving you diligently. It is fairly prompt, fast and supports text selection, multi-touch zoom, mouse cursor, text reflow and the likes. If you choose to use the trackpad, there is a virtual mouse cursor together with scrolling and automatic panning as you reach the bottom of the screen. There is support for multiple tabs and toggling between them also looks to be a real cakewalk, all you have to do is tap on the tab key that you can find at the top right corner of the screen. Now what can be told of the Page Rendering, it is amazingly perfect and displays every page that can literally be compared to a desktop browser. Getting to Text Reflow, it is yet another thing that waits obediently for your taps. But for the tiny display and missing Flash support, the 9900 makes user experience in terms of browsing a fairly memorable one.

Accessorizing Your BlackBerry Bold 9900

With the all new design of the Bold 9900, we are sure that you are going to be busy accessorizing your handset particularly with those fancy new cases and battery chargers hitting the market. (Guess you should do just fine with that microSD card of yours and we assume that most of the microSD chargers should work just fine). RIM have decided to give a makeover to the Bold’ Charging Pod too from the boring old silver design to a stand-like black finish, akin to the BlackBerry PlayBook. We think that the BlackBerry Playbook is perhaps the best accessory for the 9900. There is whole host of accessories to choose from for your Bold like Leather Holsters, Extra Battery Chargers, MicroUSB Travel Chargers, Case for Playbook, Soft shells, Waterproof Cases and Arm Packs and Charging Cradles to name a few.

The BlackBerry Playbook certainly looks to be the best accessory of the lot!

Battery life

In terms of Battery Life the BlackBerry lineup of phones have always been literal workhorses, but it left us kind of disturbed when we learned RIM had decided to downscale the 1500mAh battery that clocked beneath the older versions of Bold to a 1230mAh JM-1 ticking under the hood of the Bold 9900. We somehow believe in the strategy that bigger the battery, better the life. RIM quotes up to 6 h and 30 mins of talktime or 307 hours of stand-by from the 1230 mAh Li-Po battery. It supposedly is believed to last roughly for 2 days with heavy usage, by heavy we mean continuously being hooked to the 3G and Wi-Fi networks, minimal shoot of stills and videos, a little bit of browsing together with some music and video playback and about 30 minutes of talking on the phone. The downsizing of the new Bold’s battery looks to be more of a compromise ingredient to help the handset get the thinnest device ever status.

Again, the 9900’s faster process and Hi-Res display got us worried on the performance of the battery life, but then RIM claims that it was no way going to interfere with the longevity of the battery life and was targeted at a full day’s use. Despite shrinking the battery size RIM knows exactly how to hit their target and yet continue gaining in on their power management. The 9900 typically gets you through the day with a wee bit of juice left behind even for the gadget-lust kind of usage and with average usage the indicator is well above 50% come nighttime at the end of an 18-hour day; fairly decent huh? In which case guess average users don’t really have to worry about a daily charge. On the contrary, heavy users could land more than often in the low battery arena than they would ideally prefer to, but for the most part guess would mange to pull through a day. Now for a hardcore phone addict, no battery would really suffice.

Pros

• Enhanced Web browser
• NFC support is real cool (though we are yet to figure out ways to use it more effectively)
• Blazing 1.2GHz Processor
• Best ever Keyboard
• A welcome change to wide-body design
• Awesome build quality
• Lavish usage of materials
• Finally, we see HD recording
• Touchscreen enhances the usability of the iconic form-factor of BlackBerry

Cons

• Downsizing of battery in comparison to its older Bold siblings
• Camera lacks autofocus
• Less usable memory despite sizable RAM

Verdict

Well, this part of the review has always been the hardest, so here goes! One must have found the review to be a mixed bag with a lot of whining and praising, all at the same time. The Bold 9900 sure does have its own flip sides, but it is kind of hard to write it off completely, because areas where it excels, it excels extremely well. Only that Research In Motion seems to have thoroughly forgotten about certain aspects. Probably they were under the impression that by taking care of few features the rest would solve on its own. That said, it definitely has some core compelling features like the QWERTY keyboard, premium looks, unmatched security and sleek size. Even as the inclusion of a touchscreen sure does make a huge difference, there is nothing revolutionary that drives this phone into the competitive arena owing to the following glitches. The camera performance places it behind its rivals, the loopholes in the app offering is hard to ignore, and neither is it a multimedia timewaster that can be compared to the latest offerings from HTC or Samsung. On the flip side, it is THE BEST in what it has been offering all these years – Communication, where it really excels, but isn’t really interested in making any progress in the adjoining areas. Apart from the corporate users and die-hard BB fans having security and unchallenged mailing capabilities as their priority and also those would like to brag about possessing the thinnest BlackBerry ever, we don’t really think the rest of crowd would get attracted to this phone, as there is lot more on offer at a much competitive pricing in the Smartphone arena.

Blackberry Bold 9900 – Phone Specification Details

‘Playbook’ sounds something like a thing used in some sporting event, and this is the most recent and unique rival to the iPad 2. This is RIM’s latest attempt at consumer relevance; a tablet that runs in its core, one of the most hardcore and industry friendly operating systems that are known to mankind. Yes, the OS is the QNX and the hardware is nothing but the Blackberry Playbook. Of course, it is going to be enterprise friendly, remember it is a blackberry after all, and it is definitely out there to conquer the tablet world, following the footsteps of the company’s phones, that has over the years, filled the pockets of the corporate executives and has managed to create lots of BBM addicts around the world.

Overview:

Now, we will give you a brief idea on what the Blackberry Playbook device actually offers. In a gist, it is quite a serious tablet, when compared to its main rival offerings from Google and Apple. It is definitely a stark exit from the more iPad resembling Motorla Xoom. That said, it does have a few games, but most of the highlight features will prove to be boring for the usual consumers. For instance, it is great at PowerPoint presentations, and has the required security features to save the dismal sales figures of the last quarter from falling into the wrong hands. While the feature is not too interesting, it sure is useful. PlayBook gets additional cool points for being swift and agile on a dual core 1GHz processor.

In addition to this, there is the seven inch 1200 x 600 pixels resolution display, a 3MP camera on the fascia and a 5MP rear camera, a typical gyroscope, GPS Sensors and accelerometer that makes this tablet extra cool. Intriguing or flat boring, it is RIM’s 7”, Flash featuring, as well as 3G lacking tablet with quite a sophisticated exterior. Other features such as multitasking, file storage capability, support for HDMI connection for 1080p videos playback along with a slicker interface make it a very interesting variant. The bad news is that, the entire experience is not that great to pose any real threats to iPad 2, Xoom, and has almost got it wrong when compared to Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Design:

Good-looks, Durable, Sturdy:

The Blackberry Playbook is black, with angular edges and dark styling. Only the chrome logo of the brand name ‘Blackberry’ adds some flare, which is subtly embossed below the display on the front. It sports a cool metal chassis, which is slightly rubberised, the edges square off and there is no flex whatsoever. Its small form factor along with dark colouring makes the tablets far less obvious than its rivals, which makes a part of its under-stated charm.

As we just mentioned, the Blackberry Playbook Tablet is developed to be enterprise friendly, and this means, at dimensions of 130 x194 mm (H x W), the tablet is small enough to be held with one arm and slipped into a laptop bag’s side pouch, and carry it around all day to all site meetings and stuff. The perfect tablet size has been a hot debate, but having a slightly smaller form factor makes it perfectly portable. The small display does the movies look less than thrilling, and not much space left for the more complex apps. Like most of the other leading apps, the PlayBook too feels much bulkier than its actual weight of 425 grams. The main reason might be because of its solid design construction, feeling quite rigid as well as durable; something like, you can simply drop and not create a scratch. It is easy to grip and looks incredibly luminous and bright.

Display:

It is worth mentioning that the Blackberry PlayBook has got a remarkably bright and clear Screen. There is no doubt in the fact that the WSVGA display has marvel of a resolution of 1200 x 600 pixels, rivaling the tablet giant Apple iPad 2. Some of the apt words describing the Blackberry Playbook are, ‘bright’, ‘clear’, ‘responsive’ and ‘colourful’. It also has some excellent viewing angles. When compared side by side with the Xoom and iPad 2, the PlayBook’s display is much clearer, complements to its smaller size and higher resolution. The small screen also means that there is not too much of a room for full tablet apps. For instance, if at all the playbook supported say, a flight tracking app, then the 7” display will be a bit cramped if you are looking to get some flight information on one side and a map view on the right.

Touch-Sensitive Bezel:

The bezel around the display is quite good, it looks almost like a picture frame. Most of you may not be aware that it is also touch sensitive, you can swipe up from bottom of the bezel and it minimized an app for you; this action will actually raise the app icons and placed the window above them. Just swipe from left to right, and you will be able to see open apps and get to move between them and when you swipe from the top bezel down to witness the settings for each os the apps. But, note that some apps do not have any settings whatsoever. Taking a closer look, we found a stereo speaker grills that had been cut into either side of the glass.

Buttons and Slots:

Apart from the Micro USB port (more about which we will say more), there is micro HDMI, as well as a proprietary three prong charging connector. Otherwise, there is the standard power button, volume up and down and also play and pause buttons. It should also be mentioned here that these buttons are extremely small and very hard to spot. In fact, the power button is so tiny that you have to look at it, tilt you finger and press in the right way. In addition to this, it is placed right at the centre top of the tablet, exactly where you fingers likely do not go more often. As much crazy as this sounds, it makes the worst part of the hardware; it is hugely frustrating, and though you will be able to turn on the display by swiping from bezel to bezel, there is no other way than the power button to disable it.

Interface:

Trying to say that QNX Operating System of PlayBook is a revolution might be an over-statement. It is more like an iteration, to be more specific, iteration of the Palm webOS with some feathers taken out of the Windows 7, with a dash of iPad 2. For instances, gestures like you have to swipe to insert apps in a Window is like that in Palm OS. Similar to the iPad and Xoom, the Playbook has employed quite a smart interface paradigm that is gesture based as well as logical. For instance, just swipe to move around the screen, press the app icons to start them, pinch out to zoom in and pinch in to zoom-in. Similar to iPad, you will be able to press and hold down on an app icon to move it, and click over a tiny trash icon to delete it. Swiping works quite well and the QNX interface is very responsive. Overall, if you had previously used an Apple touch-sensitive gadget then you will feel right at home with the Playbook; the QNX is highly usable and easy to learn too.

It is very much evident that RIM was aiming for something really high while designing this Operating System, as it seems to be highly intelligent. The multitasking feature (more about which we will see soon), cannot be recommended enough. It is great to be recording a video and swipe towards left and play games, and then just swipe back to find out that the video is still recording. While the PlayBook does not have support for copy and paste, the interface for this actually pretty simple. Just give an elongated press on an email ID or text portion until the copy-paste window comes up. Then, all that has to be done is, copy the particular selection and paste. We found that this works better than iPad.

Having said that, we have something to grudge too; for starters, the interface tends to take into consideration a great deal of information behalf of the user. You may even end up wondering if the app has any settings at all. One of the other major usability issues we had with the PlayBook is that, it does not have a Home Button. So, you will have to swipe to see the app list and also, the apps that are currently running in a window. As a necessity for the design, it works fine, but the iPad users who had decided to make a switch-over will definitely miss the Home button.

Features:

The insides:

Texas Instrument’s dual core 1GHz processor and the 1GB RAM offers some real muscle to the playbook. With these very capable hardware inside, the tablet runs most of the apps swift and smooth. Processor is a dual core TI OMAP that has been used to the fullest by the QNX OS. This OS is definitely an efficient and bullet-proof OS powering the entire thing. Being backed up by 1GB RAM as well as storage capacities of 16GB, 32GB and 64 GB, it turns out to be a speed monster and the Graphics are handled by a PowerVR design.

Easy sharing:

While the Blackberry playbook does not have support for external storage, it does sport a micro USB port, which can be used to connect the tablet to you system. Once that is done, just configure the tablet so that it is capable of sharing files via WiFi, which means you get to copy files to and from the tablet without the need to connect. The process of configuring this option turned out to be extremely simple. Just enable the WiFi sharing, install the Blackberry device manager driver and open the Network section that can be found in My Computer, or the SMB on a Mac.

Blackberry Bridge:

The Blackberry Bridge proves to be the home of one of the most confusing usability flaws. Basically, what this feature does is that, the Playbook will be able to connect to your Blackberry phone via Bluetooth from about 200 feet away. Once the connection is made, you will be able to view the contacts, check mails and even open tasks and notes. The reasoning for this is quite sound, as this simply means that it is just one less device to manage in IT. All your mail and contacts are quite secure because, in fact, they are not placed in the PlayBook at all. However, the consumers will still be able to use the browser for email, and RIM has thoughtfully placed icons that have links to these services.

The main issue here is that, not everybody has a Blackberry, or just that you may not take one with you. This will also prove to be quite confusing for the novice users, and we also have the question if it is secure at all. As soon as connect to your phone and open a mail, the email can be copied and saved locally. The Bridge also seems to be quite sluggish, while every other app opened, almost just then and there, the email client takes about three to five seconds every time, irrespective of number of other apps running.

Apps:

Though the Blackberry playbook lacks any of the third party apps that flood the other Android and Apple tablets, this one does show some real promising signs.

Basic apps:

The available selection of apps on the Playbook includes a music player, a Kobo e-book app that enables purchase and reading of eBooks, Bing Maps that does not do any turn-by-turn navigation, a clock, a YouTube, a weather app, an app for taking voice notes, Adobe PDF Reader, the game Need for Speed and also links to the webmail services such as Facebook, Twitter and Hotmail shortcuts.

Office friendly:

RIM has included viewers for PowerPoint, Excel and Word files in Playbook Tablet. Unfortunately, you will not be able to edit the docs, but you do get to open and play slideshows. As far as the productivity apps are concerned, they are integrated into the Blackberry Bridge System. This means, when you get a mail with attached word document, it can be opened from the mail itself.

Third-party Apps:

As we mentioned just now, the availability of third party apps on the Playbook is pathetic. You do not even get Skype client, or none of the common apps like the ones for checking flight status, no official or Twitter apps, there is no sign of anything from Google at all and there are some occasional games and business apps. However, it is also to be noted that there does exist some minor exceptions. The Adobe Connect App’s job is to connect to a web conferencing portal in order to collaborate on docs and video chat too. On testing, the app was not able to connect to our account, though we were able to achieve this from a system.

Games:

As far as games are concerned, there are a couple of good options like the ‘Bubble Birds’ which is a puzzle game like Tetris, and there is Tetris itself. Need for Speed looked quite smooth, and surprisingly, the controls for steering are extremely reliable.

The so-called App World on Blackberry is not exactly a great deal of success. Though there are a few apps available, they are of poor quality. If the PlayBook is looking for success, it will definitely need more apps.

Blackberry Desktop Manager:

The Blackberry Desktop Manager works well with the Playbook that allows you to make backups of your device. The backups include application data, settings and media. You will also be able to sync over music, pictures and videos from your system. We are pretty sure that once the core apps hit the market, you will be able to back them up too. An appreciable thing here is that, you get to continually use the PlayBook while the files are on the way of syncing.

Multitasking:

The Playbook has powerful multi-tasking capabilities, that is, where you will be able to run a video in one window and play games in another window, while both of the apps are running at the same time; the Blackberry playbook is first of its kind mainstream tablet. Just like the Motorola Xoom, the dual-core processor is capable of handling more than one task and hands over the processing to open apps. We were able to have a game running and at the same time, shoot a HD video using a Camera App. You will be able to change in-between two apps or view both of them at the same time. When you choose to watch HD videos together with some other app, then the audio keeps playing, but on the video part, there is just a blank screen. Multitasking provided on the Playbook is not a gimmick for swiping open apps; because, as and when an app loads, you will be able to close it, or just start an app, go back to home screen, commence another app, and then go back to the first app. Overall, it has a robust next generation tablet feel.

Browsing:

Some of the premature reports about the playbook claimed that it is crash prone and had issues with basic browsing, particularly with multiple tabs open. However, we hardly had any real issues with the latest OS version 1.0.1.1710, which is a mandatory update. Even with about six websites, with an email client open, and it hardly had any sort of slowdown.

The combo interface of Apple, Palm and Android interface might cause some confusion. For instance, in the browser, you can swipe down to find tabs, and when one is added, there will be buttons for new pages, similar to iPad and Palm, but again, you will be able to see open tabs like on the Android 3.0 gadgets.

The browser has support for Adobe Flash and, it did work well on a number of sites we tested it on. however, there were a few issues with sites that block access from tablets, like Hulu. And, the more Flash intensive sites such as Games Radar were a little but slow in loading, but eventually got up and running.

Multimedia Support:

The media support offered on the Blackberry PlayBook, is quite unpredictable. You will find a music store offered by 7 Digital, which did have all the albums we searched for, and that included the latest release ‘Kings of Leon’.

The Playbook has support for most of the common video formats such as WMV, H.264 and MPEG4. However, you will not find anything called Video store, and that is where Samsung’s Galaxy Tab takes over PlayBook. However, Playbook did make up for this, as it allows you add videos over WiFi that you have downloaded over web.

Since the Playbook is also equipped with a HDMI-out port, when connected using a micro-HDMI cable, the tablet mirrors on the big screen. You can just swipe through the apps, play some games and just show off your HD movies. Unlike its rival, Xoom, the movie playback when connected through HDMI was quite smooth, and it did not pause or stutter.

Camera:

When shown first in CES, the Playbook seemed to be having some really powerful front and rear cameras. However, the results of the final product were mixed. The videos shot using the Playbook tablet was a little blurry and not so colourful. The photos taken using the rear camera were much sharper and vibrant, but iPad 2 seemed better. The colours were lack lustre and washed out pictures were common. The smaller size of the playbook makes it simple to take quick photos and it will help with the common blurred image that is caused as a result of larger tablets moving too easily while taking photos. In the lowly lit conditions, the tablet created some undue noise that might be because of the lens that works well only is the brightly lit rooms and outside conditions too.

Blackberry Playbook’s camera cannot be relied any more than the other tablets. The camera interface is just simple enough and provides some basic options like image stabilisation, shooting mode for 16:9 aspect ratio and also a sport setting for the action shots.

Audio Quality:

The quality of the speaker is pretty good. While playing a sample HD video, we found the video to be quite rich in audio, and it was distinct too. However, when we played a few numbers from the album that we bought online, the speakers tended to sound a little muffled. But, when we connected to the device using a headphone, that solved the issue, and the audio sounded much better.

Battery:

The battery life of the Blackberry Playbook is not anything amazing. On continuous playback of videos and music, the device managed to last only for six hours. However, with everyday use such as occasional checking of mails and web browsing, the Playbook lasts for nine hours on a single charge.

Value:

At around £300 for a 16GB model, the Blackberry playbook costs about the same as an entry level 16GB Apple iPad 2.

Blackberry Playbook was officially announced last September, and the long awaited tablet went on sale on 19th April in US, but is expected to hit the shelves in UK only in June.

Verdict:

We have become big features of its multitasking features, and if the bridging feature is further expanded, the Playbook can also turn out to be as revolutionary as the iPad. Just the thought of bridging to your CRM data or accounting app, everything without even adding another security layer is exciting. We really hope RIM does some talking with its developers, to whom it is given a free Playbook if they created an app for it, and just take out the device from being this ‘niche’ tablet. If, in the next few months, RIM manages to achieve this and bring in apps such as Skype and Facebook, Playbook has some real big hope. Overall, as far as the Playbook is concerned, we have to only wait and see.

RIM Blackberry Playbook Tablet – Technical Specification Table

Design:

Differs from the classics:

A classic RIM BlackBerry possesses a landscape display with a QWERTY keyboard beneath it, just like the BlackBerry Bold 9700. But instead of sticking with this landscape look for the new Touchscreen 9800 Torch, RIM has opted to go for a tall and slim structure. The keyboard slides out of the screen in the vertical way, making the phone narrower than it has to be. This kind of set-up also makes the phone feel top-heavy when it is slide open. In fact, the Torch feels quite bulky weighing about 161g and poking out 15mm thick.

The Touchscreen:

Though the BlackBerry 9800 Smartphone has employed an improved touchscreen, in many ways it proves to be a faint reminder of the Palm Pre and in a lot of ways even the BlackBerry Storm 2 that have the bulky heft and 3.2” screen size in common. However this touchscreen is highly responsive, which is a surprise, especially after the disaster in form of Storm and considering that it has exactly the same pixel resolution of 480 x 360 pixels or 188 pixels per inch. Thankfully, the Torch does not have the large click panel that is used to make selections. RIM seems to have made the right decision with that, to make sure that the screen has a tactile response to the finger clicks, but the implementation seems to be poor and ended up not working.  When scrolling through lists of status updates, for example, the phone occasionally became confused about whether we were tapping or scrolling. It is not a deal-breaker, because the phone’s still very usable, but the Torch is not as slick as some of its competitors. Torch has ditched all the unwanted stuff and encourages the basic finger clicks, pinch in and out and a smooth glide over the screen; all of which, works remarkably well without any hiccups. RIM has done a good job of revamping its BlackBerry software to take advantage of the touchscreen, and it has made almost everything poke-able and prod-able.

Controls:

If you are not too pleased with the touchscreen, you do have the physical controls to control most stuff. There is the optical trackpad, keyboard shortcuts, and menus and back keys. As time flies by, you will surely figure out a rhythm to move around the Torch in a way that works for you.

The Keyboard:

All the BlackBerry users are aware of the fact that all of the recent phones from RIM have had excellent QWERTY keyboards; the Curve for instance, has an incredible keyboard. It is the raised keys, spacing and the overall excellent size, designing of these keyboards that draw the business crowd who do not really give anything about the augmented reality apps and games; they just ask “does it do good email”. Unfortunately, the Torch 9800 seems to have a few issues with messaging and the main trouble is with the smaller sized QWERTY keyboard. It seems to feel a bit truncated, though it is exactly the same shape as that of the Curve. RIM had to end up making a smaller keyboard just as to fit the slider under the screen. Though it might just be a fraction of the centimetre, it will still seem to be too much to handle while typing. It is just OK to use, but not as good as the one on BlackBerry 9700. It also has a lip around it, so it hinders your thumbs while typing, and they do not seem to possess a firm response as you might like.

BlackBerry Torch 9800 Interface:

Menus:

The menus on the BlackBerry Torch 9800 Touch Screen Phone offer you with smorgasbord of choices, like for everything on the device. You will find ten different ways to do stuff, everything from typing a word to sending a mail. You might find this interface exhaustive or exhausting; it all depends on how your mind works. Though both iPhone and the Torch are touch-screen phones, we can say the Torch as an antithesis of the iPhone, which can seem excessively simple, with its unchanging home screen of icons, single home button, and large, almost childlike, user interface buttons.  Whereas, with the Torch, on the home screen alone, you have a sliding menu that goes up and down, revealing icons related to the phone’s features. It also runs side to side, to reveal sub-groups of your favourite and most-used apps. There’s a notification area that slides open with a touch to show your various emails and Facebook updates. Tap the speaker icon to set the phone to one of seven sound modes, from silent to tooting like a one-man band. Tap the connection icon on the other side of the screen to control Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and alarms. The number of options provided by the home screen is almost overwhelming.

Universal Search:

Be aware that this is not one of those phones that are easy to master. Our curious minds of exploration often left us confused, as we were presented with long menus of choices. It is totally an information firehose, which could be real fun if you hate being mollycoddled by childish user interfaces, or could be overwhelming, especially if you have never used a BlackBerry before. A new feature on the Torch that will help you with this information overload is known as Universal Search. Just start typing in the word and it will bring up search results from your Apps, Contacts and Messages. It also gives you an option to dial the text as number or search for it on YouTube or Google.

BlackBerry OS6:

The heart of any smartphone is its mobile OS platform that makes it quite easy to download new apps and get more out of it. The BlackBerry Torch 9800  is one of the first phones to be using the BlackBerry 6 OS. This operating system has a slick icon centric approach that is not that different from the OS 5 that uses the same kind of colourful outlined app icons, but it does have a few new tweaks that do enhance the user experience quite a deal. One of such enhancements is that, similar to the HTC Sense interface, you will be able to flick to right or left to reveal the additional home screens and Apps and in the Torch you will find a handful of the screens such as the Frequent, Downloads, Media, Favourite and All. Like the Apple iPhone, you are allowed to move the icons around each of the home screens, but we found it’s functioning to be a bit awkward. The way it can be moved is the usual way of click, hold, touch on Move and transfer the app to the place you want to, but we found that the probability that you might press on the wrong area and not even move the icon is very high.

Social Networking on BlackBerry:

Another enhancement to the BlackBerry OS6 that is just another “me too” has to do with its Social Networking capabilities.  Palm was the one to start all of the fuss by aggregating the feeds into a single list, but Android managed to literally aggregate the idea on most of its recent models like the Evo and Incredible. On the Torch 9800, you will be able to see the status updates on Twitter, Facebook and most of the other sites in the app known as Social Feeds. RIM has also provided with an easy way to view them in separate columns or as a combined one. The issue here is that, this is exactly not real aggregation and it is just an app that shows you the feed updates and there is simply no way that you could create a new contact from Facebook and these feeds are not shown elsewhere, like in one of the home screens. There also no pop up messages from Twitter or Facebook friends. That is a bad effort from RIM as, even the low end Kin smartphones do an excellent job in making Social Networking a part of using the phone on a day to day basis and not just a desperate app. However, it is not all bad as the Torch 9800 does provide you with a way to upload the images you take on the phone directly to Facebook and even manages to resize them for you on the go.

Features:

Processor and Memory:

The biggest trouble that BlackBerry Torch 9800 faces is that, it has a sluggish processor, running at just 600MHz. It also includes 512MB of memory built-in, along with a 4GB microSD memory card, which can be upped to 32GB.

Apps:

As far as the App selection is concerned, RIM has stuck to the BlackBerry productivity mantra. The third party apps available will not get any innovation awards; though they are functional and handy, they cannot be said to be anywhere near amazing.

Enterprise tools:

Let alone the Apps, one area where a BlackBerry cannot be beaten is its enterprise tools which includes the BlackBerry server. These servers aids businesses keeping track of the smartphone as an asset and even control some of the features on the device, like when you will be able to make calls. This kind of an infrastructure is not available for Android phone and iPhone smartphones; that is, at least not as a first party option.

Camera:

Camera is another feature that BlackBerry Torch has borrowed from Storm, apart from the design. BlackBerry Torch 9800 sports a 5 mega pixel camera that captures some crisp and colourful still pictures. You can also get your hands on the scene settings to adjust the camera to fit to a specific scenario like low light landscape or the close-up portrait shots that seems to adjust accurately to the skin tones. You will also find several options to play slideshows, setting images as wall paper, getting to the properties of image and even sending the image via email or just uploading it to Facebook. The device even allows you to attach the GPS coordinates. The only issue with this is that, the phone tends to take up to a minute to acquire the GPS data. However, this is not an issue to worry about as, once you have a lock, the torch does an excellent job of using that GPS data. For instance, when an image is sent through email, the phone will automatically add the name of the city to each image. As soon as the images are off-loaded, they can be opened in Apps like Google Maps to see when you had taken the photos.

Video:

Video camera mode is also available in Torch 9800 Smartphone, which seems to work well when it comes to basic video recording, but lacks any of the advanced features such as the white balance setting. The output too is only available in 3GP formats, which works only with phones with a smaller storage, but loses very less in quality. Though the video camera is capable of recording only VGA quality, that cannot be used as too much of a negative aspect as a lot of phones that do have HD video recording and playback do not actually offer any premium footage for that matter.

Messaging:

Messaging is hampered a little by the un-tacky physical keyboard. However, you do have the option of on-screen keyboard, if you feel too lazy to open the physical keyboard. The onscreen keyboard has no issues and we were able to type out some accurate messages. The predictive texts will come in quite handy if at all you make any mistakes. We also loved the built-in spell checker and cursor which makes selecting parts of text easy. You have the option of portrait and landscape Qwerty keyboards, a 12-key alphanumeric keyboard, and the SureType option, which offers two letters per key.

As we had mentioned earlier, the BlackBerry Torch has quite a sluggish processor and so, when you open attachments, there are obvious delays and the phone spins a few circles before opening a PDF or word file. However, finally they do manage to open and the 9800 does support a lot of formats, but the wait is just annoying. The slow processing power also gives the Torch a hard time multitasking, for instance when you want to copy a portion of a text or switch to another app. At times, there are even pauses that last for two full seconds or more as Torch is processing the request. The worst part here is that, the Torch even prompts you to click OK for deleting a message, which again results in a pause that lasts much longer. This kind of stuff up seriously harms the messaging experience as you may never know when the device might just end up hanging. On some of the other faster android phones such as the HTC Desire, you will be able to open the attachments faster and get your work done faster. With BlackBerry Messenger, you can IM other BlackBerry users for free, anywhere in the world.

Email:

BlackBerry devices are the masters of mobile email, but you do need a BlackBerry contract to take advantage of their powers. Push email means that you will be able to get your messages right away, without having to wait for the phone to check the server, although most smart phones have caught up to BlackBerry in offering this feature. We found that adding new email accounts to the Torch 9800 was easier than ever, and we were impressed by how it handled our Google Apps account without any fuss or advanced set-up required. The email program even handles functions specific to Google, such as the ability to archive a message rather than delete it.

Torch WebKit Browser:

We are sure that by now, you must have wondered at least once why the BlackBerry 9800 has been named as “Torch”. Well, it gets its name from the webkit browser which was designed by Torch, a company acquired by RIM. The webkit proves to be one of the highlights of the device. The browser has received a major overhaul, which is good news, especially since BlackBerry’s older browser was our least favourite way to surf on a mobile phone. The new browser is a big improvement, and it does a good job of rendering Web pages accurately. Surprisingly, even with such a slow processor, the browser works fast and fine, with hardly any slowdowns and pauses. On this browser, it is easy to flick through the sites, pinch and spread to get a better view of text and graphics and the finger clicks on the links. This browser sports a simple URL field with a feature to quickly make bookmarks, add the page to home screen, send URL, view history and lots more. You will also find an icon for viewing the open pages. Apart from this most of the screen’s real estate has been reserved for the site. On testing, the browser was able to open the sites quickly and format them properly sans any glitches. Like most of the other cursed smartphones in UK, the Torch also has its Flash support limited to simple Flash Lite pages.

Organising Apps:

There is no phone in the current market to challenge the productivity and organising apps that is available on the RIM BlackBerry Torch 9800. They are just so typical for this platform. There is a colourful calendar, a selection of office reading applications and the usual alarm clock including the similar set of offerings. The Torch 9800 is one of the first hansdsets from RIM to come with the BlackBerry App World in box, which offers instant access to the portal. The portal, which already offered access to a wealth of apps, has since been upgraded to BlackBerry App World 2.0, hence offering a much better and sleeker experience. Though it is nowhere near what the App Stores of the Android phones offer, but it still has a decent amount of fairly useful apps.

Multimedia:

When it comes to multimedia, the Android phones and iphones have such a huge advantage over BlackBerry phones, that it is almost embarrassing. There is no such thing as an “easy way” to add videos and movies to the Torch or add music using PC or Mac tool and what a pity, no support for services like Amazon for purchasing songs. Having said that, all is not that bad with the Torch, watching video was pretty decent and though the HVGA screen might be a bit of low resolution compared to the high faulting WVGA of the HTC Desire or the Retina Display of the iPhone 4, but it is quite adequate for some occasional movie fun.

Connectivity:

Like most of the recent smartphones, the Torch 9800 too has a decent set of connectivity options. It sports Bluetooth including the latest audio standards for Bluetooth Stereo, WiFi and the Carrier signal. The WiFi seems to work just fine, with a steady connection even over 802.11n and at Public hotspot. The call signal quality is pretty smooth and there were no dropouts during calls or when checking mail over a 3G connection and never encountered any signal loss issues. There was only a minor glitch when the BlackBerry 9800 was tested with a system and though the phone works fine while swapping of data, the profiles did not work properly and is not able to transfer the files from the device. However, when the Torch is connected to the system via USB, data transfer is just perfect.

Performance:

Camera Performance:

The camera handles continuous focus well and hence, does not lock just the subject and focus. Even after getting a good focus, if the camera is moved for a minute, it will still continue to focus. This resulted in very few images that turned out to be blurred in a way that they do on most of the other smartphones. But the flash on the Torch seems to be a little underpowered , so you need to be close to the subject to make it work properly. Differing light levels are handled well by the Torch’s camera; however, the brighter surfaces seem to steal the focus. The larger scenes are handled well, with most detail being captured. Though the background is a bit soft, Torch’s landscape shots are decent, with some good detail. Unfortunately, the slow processor is a trouble maker with the camera too; there were a few pauses when viewing images.

Call Quality:

A smartphone cannot be successful just with all its frills or Apps, Music and Games, it should also have a strong calling functionality. And, RIM BlackBerry has managed to strike a good balance in this regard. Torch is reasonably a good phone and to begin with, you will find the dialler on the 3.2” screen to be quite large. If that is not for you, just slide out the keyboard and you can dial quicker with the number key; we feel that the softkeys work better. As we had mentioned earlier, there is no way to pull any of the facebook contacts to the dial pad or the contacts list and on the same note, there was no way to add contacts easily from the web. Having said that, on a better note, the contacts can be easily searched up, all you have to do is, just start typing a name in the search field. You will also be able to add a wealth of information to your contacts including birthdays and anniversaries. And the best thing is that, you will also be able add custom fields to the contacts. The call quality is excellent and picked up voice well. The volume controls that are slightly raised will allow you to crank up the volume of the call higher than most smartphones.

Battery Life:

Moving on to the battery life, the BlackBerry Torch 9800 Slider Phone offers about five hours of talk time on one charge and about eighteen days standby before it gets power hungry again. This is about what the specifications from RIM claims. This battery life is much longer than some of the recent Android phones such as the Desire. The high battery life makes the Torch a more useful phone; no matter how stunning the HD displays on the other phones maybe, they simply become pointless if the phone dies.

Warranty:

RIM offers BlackBerry Torch one year warranty for parts and labour.

Verdict:

If you already own a BlackBerry, you might not want the Torch or, even if you do not you might not want it, even though it is the best BlackBerry ever. The most unfortunate fact about this slider phone is that, it is not particularly suited for the diehard BlackBerry fans as the QWERTY keyboard proved to be too cramped and processor too was very small to keep up with the finger clicking productivity apps that the phone relies on. Disappointingly, the chunky design and low-resolution display prevents the Torch 9800 from unseating the best of smartphone rivals. Though the latest version of the BlackBerry OS is easy to use than its previous version, with the BlackBerry 6 OS, RIM seems to have merely borrowed a few ideas from HTC Sense. At 600MHz, the Torch is just too slow to be taken seriously against much faster models running at 1GHz. All is not grey with the Torch, there are plenty of business apps and you can deploy an enterprise server to track the devices as a business asset. The camera works quite well and has serviceable scene selectors, and the touchscreen works smoothly.

For a phone that is supposed to be the poster child of the new BlackBerry 6 OS, we hoped for a lot more. Nevertheless, if you need an email powerhouse, your company insists on the security of a BlackBerry, or you love the feeling of total information awareness, the Torch has plenty of pluses. You will be able to get the Torch for free on a £35-a-month contract or for around £480 unlocked and SIM-free.

BlackBerry Torch 9800 Smartphone – Technical Specification Table

Design:

A smart Smartphone:

The Curve 8520 feels more like a stripped down version of the BlackBerry Curve 8900, leaving the jazzy chrome trim for a rubbery edge. You will be able to feel the fact that it is a less expensive phone, but it still feels solid and sturdy, and the rubber edge should come in as a rescue for those with sweaty fingers hang on to the device. The 8520 will have instant familiarity for anybody who has used one of BlackBerry’s Curve handsets, except for one new addition, about which we will see shortly.

Spoiled for choice:

The Curve 8520 Smartphone comes in a range of different colours, which just highlights the fun loving attitude of the phone. The colours include Purple, white and as always, the good old Black. If you are one of those Uni students, we do not recommend the black version as it might get stolen in no time. We just cannot stress this enough as the black version is really an appealing one, and the purple version might keep the preying hands off, as it just looks like baby puke. The handset itself measures 109mm in height, 60mm in width and 13.9mm in depth, and weighs in at 106g; the lightest BlackBerry yet.

Display:

The displays on recent BlackBerry phones have been quite stunning, and if you are a regular visitor of our site, you must have noticed that we could not praise enough of them. And, fortunately the screen of 8520 did not disappoint us either, despite having a lower resolution than the 8900′s 320 x 240 pixels, compared to 480 x 360 pixels. However, at 2.46in it is relatively small by today’s smartphone standards, so it feels a tad cramped when you are using the web browser. The transmissive screen is also nice and bright making videos and pictures look surprisingly vivid.

Welcome track-pad:

The major difference between the 8520 and the other BlackBerry bush devices is its new optical track-pad, which has replaced the company’s iconic, mini trackball, or ‘pearl’ as RIM liked to call it. This is a change that we know you will love. Said that, it really needs to deliver the goods. We had been fairly disappointed with optical touch-pads on devices like the HP iPAQ Voice Messenger, but thankfully the one employed on the 8520 is in a totally different league. The track-pad is very much similar to a mouse pad on a laptop with a flat surface that responds to your touch, but, we have to also mention that it seems to be insanely sensitivity to make up for its teeny-mini size. Like the Pearl, you can press down on the track-pad to select an item.

It is a pleasure to use as it is both accurate and responsive and really we really did not miss the old style track ball at all. You can also adjust its horizontal and vertical sensitivity to customise the speed at which it zips around icons on the screen. And, since it does not stick out from the body and get gunged up with dirt and crud, it makes the device easier to be popped into a pocket. So, it does not come in as a surprise that RIM has announced that the track-pad will be the one employed for navigation on many of the new BlackBerry models, mainly because it has no moving parts and so is less prone to dust and dirt. And we are glad to see this innovation making its debut on a cheaper phone.

The Qwerty:

As you can imagine, real strength of the Blackberry Curve 8520 Smartphone lies in its Qwerty keyboard and messaging features, making it a dream smartphone for social networkers. The 35-key backlit QWERTY keyboard is excellent as ever. The keys are a little small, but as they are slightly raised they are quite easy to hit with your fingers and thumbs so tapping out emails will never be an issue.

Buttons and Ports:

As we had mentioned earlier, the track-pad does not stick out from the case like the old trackball, the manufacturer has now designed the four main buttons under the display such that they sit completely flush with the screen giving the handset a much sleeker look than previous Curve models. RIM has also made a few changes in some of the other controls. For instance, the lock and mute buttons have been bid goodbye at the top of the screen to be replaced by a row of three rubberised media transport controls including two track skip keys and a play/pause button. The traditional side mounted buttons have also now been ‘weatherised’, hence they are not as exposed to the elements as they used to be. A microUSB port allows media content to be synchronised using BlackBerry Media Sync.

We appreciate the 8520′s standard 3.5mm headphone jack, but it’s placement on the side of the phone is quite awkward, rather than at the top. When you have a pair of headphones plugged in, the connector will be jutted out to the side, giving you a hard time sliding the Blackberry into a pocket or bag. Since, the port is a standard 3.5mm one, if you do not like the supplied headset you can swap it for your own cans, although you will lose the hands-free functionality.  MediaSync, which lets you sync your Blackberry to iTunes, is included in the box.

Blackberry Curve 8520 UI:

Most phones have similar user interfaces with no major differenced to help with intuitiveness for its consumers, but since the BlackBerry evolved along its own branch of the phone family tree, it can take some getting used to if you are new to the Blackberry family. We found that the User Interface of the 8520 was generally easy to navigate, although we have a few quibbles. For instance, the default menu icons are hard to make out, and some people may find that they have just too many options to deal with.

The BlackBerry UI is also starting to feel rather out dated when compared to the jazzy interfaces that are flaunted by the popular bad guys like the HTC Hero. For instance, the address book is a boring list of names unembellished by any styling or added functionality. There are a few fun features too in there, just open a contact and you will be able to view their Facebook profile picture and you will also able to download apps that jazz up your contact list, home screen and other areas. Neatly arrayed beside the App World icon are the email, phone lock, media manager, web browser and instant messaging icons. Any of these can be switched for other applications if you prefer, while pressing the BlackBerry hardware button just below the screen brings up a list of installed programs and features. You can move items, archive them in a folder, hide or delete them all using the BlackBerry button. When you are using an application this button acts as a context sensitive menu, so while the camera is in use it will let you switch to video camera mode, adjust camera white balance, image size or add effects.

Features:

Memory and Processor on Curve 8520:

Behind the battery cover you will also find a microSD card slot, and fortunately you do not have to remove the battery to switch cards. A 2GB microSD card and 256MB of on-board memory provide a great start for slapping a good number of tunes and photos onto the phone. Memory cards of up to 16GB to be accepted; and once they become available, 32GB microSDHC cards will be usable with the device. We found the handset responded quickly to our inputs, with a 512MHz processor moving things along nicely and with little lag.

Connectivity:

Connectivity is also a bit of a mixed bag. The absence of support for 3G will put the brakes on your browsing while you are out and about, but it is not that you cannot surf at all as it is still possible, especially for data light tasks like sending tweets. Fortunately, this blackberry phone does have WiFi connectivity, which fastens things up when you are on a wireless network. And, there is also Bluetooth for use with car kits or stereo headsets. EDGE does make an appearance, although that is not much faster than GPRS.

Browsing:

Despite the small screen and lack of 3G support, the usual everyday surfing experience the net on the browser is pretty decent as it feels responsive and is easy to navigate using the onscreen cursor via the optical trackpad. It seems to be better than on a typical phone with a small screen and sans any track-pad, but not that good when compared to the one on a Webmeister like the iPhone. A big advantage here is that you can directly enter a web address and go straight to the site in question. This is far more straightforward than on many devices, which attempt to reroute you to their own portals. Web pages look clear and accurate, but you will be irritated to having to zoom in to click on smaller links. For some pages, that added a couple of clicks where none were necessary. It also does a pretty good job of rendering sites, although it does muck up the formatting every now and again on some of those complex pages. For the ultimate test we browsed to YouTube.com, at which point we were prompted to switch to WAP for media streaming.

BlackBerry App World:

Blackberry has also gone up against the competition with its own app store, easily accessed by the 8520. Since the BlackBerry App World is on-board, finding and installation of apps is as easy as baking a ready to bake cake. The BlackBerry App World link is of course preinstalled and features prominently on the uncluttered main screen. RIM says it now has more than 2,000 approved apps and these can be easily searched through by type, price, reviews rating and so on. Installed apps and their status are listed. A decent variety is on offer, from the more frivolous games and shopping apps to more handy travel and news information. There are several amazing apps available, although they are pricier than in competitors’ app stores, with a minimum price of about $3 (£1.80).

You might ask us “Why the heck are you quoting US dollar prices for?” Excellent query! The App World displays prices in dollars until you have logged into your UK PayPal account for the first time, and the prices in sterling are based on the US prices, and so, they will fluctuate with the exchange rate. So, a PayPal account is a must. Although this does help you keep better track of what extras you are spending rather than putting it on your bill at the end of the month, it makes the process more drawn out, having to enter your details every time rather than just a quick click solution.

Social Networking:

You will fall in love with the solidly built applications for sites like Facebook and Twitter, along with the instant messaging app, and you can download extras for Facebook and Myspace for free via the BlackBerry App Store. They combine with a full Qwerty keyboard, which makes long messages to be typed easily and accurately, making it a social butterfly’s fantasy phone.

Messaging and Email:

As with all BlackBerry devices the 8520′s messaging features are top class. Its instant messages support is excellent with ICQ, Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger all present and correct. You are allowed to set up as many as ten email accounts, and, since the smartphone supports ‘push’ mail, you will be able get messages as they arrive, rather than waiting for your inbox to update itself.

Calls:

Since the Curve 8520 Mobile Phone is quad band compatible, you will be able to use it in most countries around the world. And, as with most of the BlackBerry’s we had tested previously its call quality is simply mind blowing. The ear piece is quite nice and loud, the mic is not over directional and even the speakerphone function works quite well, boosted by the beefier speaker RIM has used for this model. Dialling does not seem to be as straightforward as on other phones, mainly because the number keys are mixed in with the letters. On the purple model, you will find them hard to read.

Camera:

The camera, on the other hand, is a bit disappointing, especially for a device that’s primarily aimed at consumers. The videos are very watchable and photos look good in the 8520’s display, although you will not get any spectacular pictures out of the 8520′s 2 megapixel camera with 5x zoom. The camera does not have any flash, but it does shoot video. We were pleased to find that photos could be taken in a matter of seconds, with virtually no load time and you get options to save it, send it as email or MMS or to Send To Facebook, MySpace or Flickr. Zooming is now noticeably faster and smoother.

Music:

Listening to music on the 8520 is a pleasant experience. Windows Media Player and Apple iTunes libraries can also be imported and there is an effective on-device search function that makes it fast to find a track, album, video clip or image you want. The ability to rename media items as you save them or on the device, as well as to add captions to media files you send as MMS messages is another boon. Video format support covers MPEG4, H.263, H.264, and WMV3, as well as DivX and XviD, along with support for MP3, AAC, AAC+ and WMA music files.

You will find three dedicated music keys on the top to control the good times. We are glad to know that the music plays on while you are doing other things just like the iPhone, but we would have loved to see some information on the home screen about what is being played. In fact, the home screen as a whole seems like a waste of real estate, since the default setting only includes six shortcuts along the bottom of the screen. Certainly this is not a phone you would buy for the camera or music capabilities but these features do at least increase the appeal.

No GPS:

Unfortunately, there is no GPS support offered, however you can always use Google Maps, which triangulates your position using mobile phone towers. It does not seem to be as accurate as GPS, though.

Budget Blackberry:

As we had mentioned earlier, the Blackberry Curve 8520 is targeting mainstream users rather than those who would traditionally buy a smartphone. This is reflected in it is price too as you can get the 8520 from free on a £25 per-month contract. It is also available for about £200 SIM-free. This certainly is pretty cheap by smartphone standards and so, at this price, it is likely to attract more Blackberry virgins.

Battery:

Charging is via mini USB but actually, you do not have to do this too often. One of the traditional strengths of BlackBerry devices is their long battery life and here the Curve 8520 is no different. Battery life claims stand at 17 days standby and 4.5 hours talk time. From a full charge you will get around three days of heavy usage out of it for emailing, phone calls and a bit of web browsing, which is very very impressive.

Warranty:

The BlackBerry Curve 8520 comes with 1 year warranty for parts and labour.

Verdict:

RIM’s BlackBerry Curve 8520 is a solid, reasonably priced introduction into the world of the CrackBerry, and this will give a larger part of the community a chance to find out what the addiction is all about. The BlackBerry Curve 8520 is certainly a little light on features, with 3G and GPS the most serious omissions, but the phone still manages to rise above these limitations. The excellent social networking and messaging apps, long battery life, combined with a Qwerty keyboard, make the 8520 a worthy option for social networking addicts, although they will surely feel the absence of 3G connectivity on board. It is a great choice for those who want more than a standard mobile, but have not got the cash to go the iPhone or HTC Hero route. And, as always, it is suitable for messaging moguls as it is for business people who want to combine their work phone with a personal device.

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Blackberry Curve 8520 Smartphone – Technical Specification Table

Design:

A typical blackberry:

Design wise, the BlackBerry Curve 3G  9300 Smartphone looks no different than just another BlackBerry handset. It sports a full QWERTY keyboard that sits below a 2.4″ display, with the 2 megapixel camera on the rear. There is nothing much new to see on the BlackBerry Curve 3G. The famous physical Qwerty keyboard sits in a very sensible looking chassis with curvy corners in textured back. The chrome effect border panel houses the 480 x 360 pixels resolution LCD screen and a series of flush buttons alongside the optical track pad. The top panel features the Curve 3G’s media controls including play or pause, skip forwards and skip back. Sporting  BlackBerry’s distinctive QWERTY keyboard and optical track pad, the Curve 3G 9300 has the same mould of its predecessor Curve handsets like the BlackBerry Curve 8900, as well as posing as the younger sibling of the popular BlackBerry Bold 9700.

The keyboard:

The BlackBerry Curve 9300 3G’s physical QWERTY keyboard is good, but it is not the best. Although its raised buttons are preferable to the flat slide out keyboards found on the phones like the Motorola Milestone and Samsung Genio Slide, it is more spacious than the slider on the new BlackBerry 9800 and the Curve 3G lacks the sharply angled keys of the BlackBerry Bold 9700 and is a little easier to fudge. We found you have to be quite careful to hit the right keys, although in time this will become easier as you get accustomed to it. Automatic text correction are generally intuitive, saving you the frustration garnered by the iPhone, for instance, which militantly corrects intentional mistakes and does not allow for context when correcting punctuation. Potty mouths will be glad to hear you can swear away to your heart’s content on the BlackBerry Curve 3G.

The Optical Trackpad:

The optical track pad gives you more freedom to move the cursor around the web page than a D pad would, although it did tend to be overly responsive, making selecting a little link a real hassle. It also comes in handy when you want to select text to copy and paste on the BlackBerry Curve 3G, as you can grab massive chunks of text in one quick swipe.

Connectivity:

It is often a little easier on the headphone connection if it is located on the top or bottom of the handset; particularly if you will be storing the handset in a pocket. You might think, given the location of the media playback controls on the top pane of the BlackBerry Curve 3G, this might have been a sensible place for the headphone jack too. Since it is a 3.5mm connector, you will have the freedom to use a wide range of headphones.

Moving on to the name game of connectivity, the BlackBerry Curve 9300 phone offers Wi-Fi and GPS along with 3G network that RIM has included for namesake.

User Interface:

If you had used the BlackBerry OS 5 handset previously, then you will be right at home on the BlackBerry Curve 3G’s interface. The home screen icons can be customised to be made entirely of your most uses apps, functions and web shortcuts. Additionally, the entire main menu is easy to organise into folders. This user interface shares numerous similarities to Windows desktop PC software. Though, the menu is made up of rows of icons, there are webs of text based menus to navigate through within the applications. They are made up of options to adjust settings, carry out functions and kill applications. These menus can be intimidating for those who are new to the whole BlackBerry experience, as it can be quite confusing to be faced with an endless list of options when all you want to do is, for instance, write a new text message.

Ease of use:

Because of these menu webs, it is not as easy an interface to get to grips with as those of iOS devices like the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3G, but there are comparisons to be drawn with the Android handsets like the HTC Wildfire. The good news is that, the level of customisation is lower, but the basic principle of easy access to your favourite applications is the same. And, it is worth noting that the OS will be updated in the near future, so you will be able to have a greater home screen customisation to fiddle with. While the multiple home screens will give you more space, you will be able to assign widgets as opposed to the app launching shortcuts.

Calling:

Many of the standard functions of the Curve 9300 phone are extremely easy to launch. To make a call you can either hit the call button, or simply start typing a number or name of a contact from the home screen, and then it is just a case of selecting the one you are after and hitting ‘Call’ or the BlackBerry button to bring up the menu of options including SMS, MMS and email. Yet another handy option for the time strapped super caller is to assign speed-dial keys. With a full QWERTY keyboard at your disposal, you have over twenty six buttons to play with, although A, Q and W are already assigned to the other essential handset functions  like lock keys, change profile to vibrate and call voicemail respectively.

Messaging difficulty:

The only thing that seems to be overly complicated on most BlackBerry handsets, though, is when you have launch a new email or SMS message. Instead of just going into your inbox and being presented with an obvious option to compose a new message, you have to launch the internal menu by hitting the BlackBerry button, then scroll down through the list of options until you find an option reading ‘Compose SMS’. This just seems like a couple of steps too many, especially for such a straightforward task. We should note that you could also launch an SMS to a specific contact from within the address book although this might not come as naturally to anyone making the leap from a 90’s phone to a smart one.

Features:

BlackBerry App World:

By offering 3G connectivity as well as Wi-Fi, the handset promises fast internet browsing while apps and themes can be easily downloaded from the BlackBerry App World. You will be able to launch the BlackBerry App World, from within the phone’s menu or by finding it in the browser. This gives you access to hundreds of downloadable apps. You will also be able to find BlackBerry themes, which can be customised with the BlackBerry Curve 3G even further. You can also purchase themes from designers or build your own, using different fonts, background images, ringtones and the ilk. For social butterflies, there are solid Facebook and Twitter apps on the Curve 3G, with a decent choice of more from the BlackBerry App World store. BlackBerry apps tend to be more expensive than similar apps on the iPhone or on Android platforms, but there are plenty of free ones too, and they tend to be reliable, however, and there are a lot of rubbish apps too. Downloading applications and themes is very straightforward. Once you have found an app you like the look of, just simply select it in the App World and hit download. You would be wise to do so over Wi-Fi rather than relying on the 3G network, which can be a little slow and unreliable, particularly when downloading large files.

On-board Apps:

The RIM BlackBerry Curve 3G Smartphone does come well-stocked with on-board apps though. Along with the traditional calendar, notebook, clock and calculator apps, you will be able to get going with Windows Live Messenger straight away. There is also a suite of office-based apps – Word To Go for reading and editing word processed documents, Sheet To Go for spreadsheets and Slide To Go which, unsurprisingly deals in slideshows. If you are sentimental about your text messages, then you may appreciate a handy little app called ”Saved Messages” to which you can, save messages that matter to you separately from your inbox. Of course, you will also get an array of BlackBerry games on board the BlackBerry Curve 3G. From the illustrious BrickBreaker to the frustrating WordMole, they will keep you busy on the commute if you forget your book.

The phonebook:

The phone book is a very serious affair. Although you can assign photos to contacts, these don’t show up in the phonebook’s list view, so it’s very text-heavy. We are not able to find an easy way to sync our Facebook contacts with our BlackBerry contacts, which is a little remiss in this day and age; particularly for a youth orientated handset. To compensate it, you will approximately have thousand contact options when setting up new contacts, from nicknames, job titles and home and work addresses, to birthdays and even relevant web pages. As you can imagine, this might be information overkill for the casual user, but if you are syncing the handset with your Outlook account, then much of this data may be automatically saved by the BlackBerry Curve 3G. Grouping contacts into relevant groups is an easy enough job too, one of which can be your favourite contacts if you like. However, it does not make them any easier to access, but if you regularly email or text the same group of people, it could save you a bit of fiddling about. There is no need to enter the contact book at all if you do not fancy it.

Camera:

The camera on the BlackBerry Curve 3G is poor. The two megapixel camera has nothing special about it, and even lacks the flash and auto focus functions that are found on the higher-spec BlackBerry Bold 9700. When you launch the camera app, the only options that you are offered onscreen are to zoom in or out, and take the picture. In order to fiddle around with the limited options, you have to click the BlackBerry button and enter another of those text heavy menus. Here, you will be able to play around with the white balance, picture size and its quality, as well as opt for monochrome or sepia options if you are feeling a bit old school. It is really nice to have the sepia and monochrome options, we suppose, but they do smack of being token options, and almost highlight the limited amount of features the camera offers. To zoom in and out, just roll a finger across the optical track pad.

If you decide to take a snap in a landscape position, then you can use the shutter button on the side of the handset, but if you are after a portrait shot then click the optical trackpad. Unless you are really quite firm with the button, you will find yourself zooming when you already had the shot nicely framed up; this is a real annoyance on several occasions. It is not rocket science to know that the zoomed in images lose a lot of quality. This camera is not too bad at handling colours. While the camera struggles with the close-up shots it handles long shots much better. The images are not massively crisp, either, which is no more than we would expect from a 2-megapixel camera. It is suffice to say, this is not the ideal handset for shutterbugs. The BlackBerry Curve 3G does not do too badly handling a lot of light. As you might expect, it seeps into the whole image, but the dark areas do retain a suitable amount of contrast. It is also worth noting that the 2 megapixel camera lacks the flash, and so, the low-light photography is very much miss and not a whole lot of hit.

Video recording:

Similar to the still camera mode, video recording on the BlackBerry Curve 3G 9300 offers the most basic customisation. The only options provided are between two sizes including normal or a smaller MMS size, and colour effects like normal, black and white or sepia. One of the features we did appreciate, however, is its ability to pause recording then continue. Rather than leaving us with a bunch of little video files needing editing together on a PC. Like the still camera, the video camera’s ability to handle bright colours is not bad, but you do still get that unreal gloss over objects like flowers. Differentiating between similar colours is a bit of a struggle for the BlackBerry Curve 3G. It is a shame that you cannot zoom while filming. You have to decide on your zoom before hitting record, otherwise you will be forced to manually move closer to your subject. Mailing of the videos works fine as long as the file size is not too big, and any video clip over about 30 seconds will need to be transferred by USB instead.

The browser:

The browser on BlackBerry OS 5, which will be running on the BlackBerry Curve 3G at launch, is notoriously rubbish. It is quite slow to open the web pages, even slower to render images, only offers one tab at a time and is generally a bit of a pest to use. Even though the screen puts in a valiant effort to display as much of the webpage as possible on non mobile sites, it ends up offering you a birds’ eye view. By which we mean a view of a load of coloured blobs on a screen. You really have to make good use of the zoom function in order to see smaller images and read any text. Zooming in to get a better view of text tends to be quite smooth, although we were often left with extremely jaggedy pixellated images after a zoom-in. In fact, some websites rendered very pixellated, and even dedicated mobile sites suffer this same fate. Sharing of links is quite easy, and you are given an option for this in the browser’s menu. RIM has also given you the option to send the link in an email, via SMS, MMS or BlackBerry Messenger. The other standard feature is the inclusion of bookmarks, and you can sort these by named folders to keep things tidy.

Messaging:

Moving on to the all important messaging, the Curve 3G has its bases covered. As you might from any handset in the BlackBerry family, the Curve 3G features enviable email capabilities and BlackBerry Messenger for instant messaging other BlackBerry users for next to nothing. All the messaging options including the traditional SMS, MMS and email is very easy to set up, having it integrated into the handset at every opportunity. You also have the option to set the default option for each contact to be email rather than calling, if you wish to do so. We do not have to remind you that the BlackBerry handsets have always excelled at email. Setting up a webmail account is as easy as inputting your address and password. The options include Gmail, Yahoo and Windows Live addresses. As and when you set up your email addresses, you will be able to opt to have your contacts for each synced with your address book. As with most of the other BlackBerry handsets, including the Bold 9700, you have the option for your SMS and MMS messages to be routed to a universal inbox that also receives emails from each of your accounts. This makes it easy to check all your accounts at once, although it can be a little annoying if you are not sure which account has received which messages.

Some of the other killer messaging functions in the Curve 3G are the ones that all other BlackBerry handsets offer, including the BlackBerry Messenger or, as the kids call it, BBM. This is a real boon, especially for the cash strapped user; you will be able to save your text messaging pennies for the friend who do not own a Blackberry and BBM other BlackBerry users for no charge if you are on a BlackBerry plan. If you have plans of moving to the BlackBerry Curve 3G from another BlackBerry handset using the same SIM, the Curve 3G will set up your existing account and disable the one on the old handset.

Backup:

Gone are the days when you will not be able to use BlackBerry Desktop Manager with Apple Mac computers, now you can quite happily back-up, restore and sync your BlackBerry Curve 3G, even if you are completely without any PC. The software is pretty straightforward to use, much easier than the complicated, non-intuitive efforts from the likes of LG and Samsung. You can pick what playlists to sync to your BlackBerry Curve 3G in an iTunes-like interface likewise with calendar events, contacts, notes and tasks. Creating a backup file is just a process of two clicks, and if you are in the secret service or just a bit paranoid, then you can encrypt your essential data from within the Manager. It is really disappointing that the Desktop Manager does not include a quick and easy way to import your images and videos, though, and there is no overview of your applications already stored on the handset.

Music playback:

BlackBerry OS 5 is not known for its brilliance in the media arena. While the BlackBerry Curve 3G does display track information and album artwork, the music player is very basic. It does offer you the option to shuffle or continuously play albums, artists and tracks, however. The other notable features in the field of multimedia are the ability to either build your own playlists or command the BlackBerry Curve 3G to create an automatic playlist featuring artists of your choosing. There is no FM radio available, so have to make sure you have plenty of music tracks to listen to. The music quality is average even through the high quality Sennheiser in-ear headphones; but be happy that it is at least than the BlackBerry Curve 3G’s built-in speaker, which is tinny and awful. You can also control the media player by using the buttons on the top of the handset. This controls both the audio and video players.The audio files are supported include MP3, AMR-NB, AAC-LC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, Flac, Ogg Vorbis.

Video playback:

The Video playback is not particularly brilliant quality on that 320 x 240 pixel screen, but the video player is quite nippy, and it skips happily between clips. If you do not have much stored on the handset, you can visit YouTube within the mobile browser; we would recommend sticking to the Wi-Fi to do this. The video formats supported on the BlackBerry Curve 9300 3G Phone include MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV9. The image gallery displays all your photos in a pleasing thumbnail layout, but viewing them on such a small, low-quality screen is not exactly satisfying. Uploading images to Facebook and other social networking apps is very simple, there is an option in the internal menu for that. However, there is no such option for sending videos to social networks though. You have to share them via the traditional way of email or Bluetooth. It is true that this is not the best handset for anyone looking to video blog on the go. If that is the case, we would point you in the direction of the iPhone 4 for its front-facing camera, or the Sony Ericsson Vivaz which records in HD and makes sharing videos super easy.

Maps:

The native Google Maps app on board the BlackBerry Curve 3G is not the worst we have seen. A recent update has vastly improved matters. Getting directions between locations has suddenly become much easier; it is just a matter of simply filling in clearly marked boxes with your destination and locations. Although the maps are accurate and much easier to use  after the all important update, the maps could still be a little slow to load when you are out and about and relying on the 3G network. The compass, however, is brilliant; it is quick, accurate and easy to navigate by. It is just as well that Google Maps come pre-loaded, given the monstrousness of BlackBerry’s own native maps app, which is clunky, confusing, slow and generally makes life difficult for the user.

Performance:

Call quality:

The sound quality is quite impressive with the BlackBerry Curve 9300 Smartphone. The voices are quite clear and easily audible to both parties. The handsets of mid and lower price range suffers a lot on sound quality ; the Nokia X6, for example, is atrocious, and even high end handsets like the iPhone 4, as we know, can suffer on mobile-to-mobile calls. So it is great to see that RIM has not skimped on the BlackBerry Curve 3G. The reason for the good sound quality might have been down to great reception. The 3G reception has full bars most of the time.

Connectivity:

Using the 3G in areas of good reception is a breeze. When the signal is full, downloading is a quick and easy matter, browsing the web was not too painful, social networking apps updated quickly and emails were in and out of our inboxes like hipsters to a Starbucks. Too bad, that as soon as signal drops a notch, the handset becomes a little unstable; it becomes very frustrating and unreliable. Luckily the Wi-Fi fares much better, there are no problems maintaining a signal, and web based services are notably quicker. The Bluetooth connection is also fine, and the BlackBerry Curve 3G does offer A2DP connectivity, so you should be able to use wireless headphones with no problems.

Battery:

The Blackberry Curve 9300 3G Phone lasts two full days on one full battery charge, and it gets very touch-and-go towards the end of day two. It is just about in line with what RIM has stated for the handset’s battery life; it offers 4.5 hours of talk time, 29 hours of music playback or 19 days of standby time. Speaking physically, the battery is tiny, which no doubt helps the BlackBerry Curve 3G retain its low weight.

Box contents:

The box and accessories are pure RIM. A charger with UK/EU adaptors, stereo headset, data cable and a user guide.

Warranty:

The BlackBerry Curve 3G 9300 comes with 1 year warranty for parts and labour.

Verdict:

Like its fellow Curve handsets, the BlackBerry Curve 3G is one of RIM’s highly capable handsets aimed at a more youthful, fun-loving consumer than the traditional business customer. It is quite similar to the rest of the Curve range, including the BlackBerry Curve 8500 with which it shares its external media controls. The design is slightly updated, though, and the 3G connectivity gives it an edge. The BlackBerry OS 6 update, on its way to the handset in the coming months, will set it apart from older models like the rest of the BlackBerry Curve range. You can find the Curve 3G online for free on a £20-a-month, 24-month contract. You can also pick it up for around £280 SIM-free.

The BlackBerry Curve 3G 9300 is quite a decent smart phone. Its new QWERTY keyboard is likable, though it is not as good as the Bold 7000. Without any questions, the messaging and email tools of this BlackBerry are top notch. The call quality and reception is just top notch. With the BlackBerry OS 6 upgrade imminent, the interface can only get better, and we are looking forward to advanced media features, meaning we can take full advantage of the physical media buttons atop the Curve 3G. On the other hand, the screen has a comparatively low resolution is one of the ways that RIM is able to keep the cost of the handset down, but for media fanatics it just will not cut it. The 2 megapixel camera is woefully restrictive. Similarly, the clunkiness of the menu system and the onboard browser will frustrate until you can upgrade the software. For a mid range handset, the BlackBerry Curve 3G stands up well. If you are after an email machine with occasional web browsing and a spot of media playback, then it will suit you down to the ground without costing you a fortune and with BlackBerry OS 6 just around the corner, things can only get better.

You can check Cheap, Best Blackberry Deals in our exclusive Deals Section for Blackberry Smartphones.

BlackBerry Curve 3G 9300 Smartphone – Technical Specification Table

If we were playing the game of word association, it would not be rocket science to determine that the word Blackberry will be closely followed by the words QWERTY and business. It has been like that since RIM had entered the market, rarely erring from the QWERTY keyboard, the functional design mode; except for the Storm range, that has not really changed the game. This is the stereotype that RIM has finally broken with the latest consumer friendly Pearl 3G 9105. To be crisp, it is a lean, mean email machine of Blackberry family.

Design:

A Slim and Sleek Blackberry!

The Blackberry Pearl 3G 9105 is really ‘models of this era’ like slim. For the sake of comparison, let us say that the Blackberry Bold 9000 will easily swallow it up whole and still have a lot of room for an old fashioned stodgy dessert. Or, if you want the specifics, that will be (H x W x D) 108 x 50 x 13.3 mm and weighs just 93 grams, so this is the rare Blackberry that will slip into any pocket or bag with ease. This model is not short of style or clever design touches either. The device sits comfortably in hands, thanks to its slightly curved profile.

Tiny miny display:

The Pearl 3G 9105 has a rather small 2.2″ display of resolution 360 x 400 pixels. As you can see, it is not the greatest in terms of space, especially in this era of mammoth touchscreens, but it is not necessarily a hindrance. It all depends on how you are using the phone; you will see more on this point as we go.

Track Pad:

The trackpad has a flat surface and responds to your touch like a trackpad on a laptop. Its insane sensitivity makes up for its tiny size. It also makes the phone easier to pop into a pocket, since it does not stick out from the body and get gunged up with dirt and crud.

Ports and Connectivity:

The 3G 9105 smartphone has a flush keyboard just below the on/off buttons, menu controls and optical trackpad. There are the shortcut buttons on the side as raised lumps for quick access to the voice controls and camera functions. Also housed on the side is the mini USB slot and headphone connector, while the top hosts direct controls for the media player, blending into the design so much that you just might miss them if you were not forewarned. On the downside, there is no quick access to the microSD card slot; that involves flipping the back off and squeezing it in above the battery. With the flimsy construction of the rear, it is just something that you will not want to be doing often, or in hurry. You will find the camera of this Blackberry at the side of the Pearl logo on the rear.

User Interface:

The BlackBerry user interface is starting to look rather dated. It also takes some getting used to if you have never used a BlackBerry before, because it is packed with thousands of options. But, once you have had some practice, it is easy to navigate around, especially with the very responsive optical trackpad that has replaced the traditional BlackBerry trackball. With the Blackberry OS 5.0 employed, the interface of the Pearl 3G is pretty much everything that you can expect from a Blackberry of you have used one before, with just a bit more of added speed. If you were not a Blackberry consumer, let us explain.

Menu System:

The Pearl 3G 9105 Phone from RIM has an icon driven menu system that can be accessed using the optional trackpad. You will be able to quickly flick through the icons on the screen, and select the one that you are looking for. This is a method that has stood the test of time, and with the new trackpad, it is much improved from the temperamental ball. Around 20 icons will fit onto the Home screen without the need to scroll the page, but if scrolling is good with you, you can have as many as you require. Moving icons is quite simple, just click the Menu button for a range of options to move, delete or hide icons. For instance, if you download anything new online or from BlackBerry App World, icons for the app will appear in your ‘Downloads’ folder. Just move the new icon to the homepage via a selection from the Menu key and you can access it easily. Likewise, if you get tired of something or just do not need it, you have the options of moving it off the Homescreen, hiding it or deleting it.

Zen:

When the Pearl 3G is switched on, by default, offers access to your most used functions, and this feature is known as the Zen. The defaults include mail, SMS, contacts, Blackberry Messenger and Facebook. Of course, you also get the option to replace them; all that you have to do is, just hit the Menu button again and swap it around in your options. There are different profiles already preset, but you can spend time tinkering with the different tones for an individual fit. It might take you some time too; the Pearl 3G is packed with sounds and ringtones, with the option of using your own music too. If we have anything to complain about Blackberry’s interface, it is just that it lacks quick access via the screen to the media functions. The top controls on the case are fine once you are in, but getting in is a real pain. And, this is just not the issue with this Blackberry Pearl, it is a wider Blackberry issue. Perhaps, because for RIM, media has always been down the priority list for business devices; but, for the non-business devices like the Pearl 3G, it should have been better.

Speedy:

As we had mentioned earlier, this is a time served interface and is against some of the more whizzy 3D efforts in the market, we accept that the Blackberry OS looks a bit tired and dated. But, what it lacks in style, it makes up for in functionality. Just within minutes of booting it up, you will be flying around the menu like pro. Setting up the Pearl is quite simple; as with most devices of today, pretty much everything is wizard driven, from getting the WiFi connected to creating new email accounts. It is all a matter of following simple steps.

Features:

Does the small package mean fewer features? Forget it. This Blackberry Pearl 9105 3G Network supported Phone model almost creaks with features including GPS, a 3.2 megapixel camera with auto-focus and video recording, a well featured media player and an optical trackpad too. The Pearl 3G has a lot in common with its bulkier sibling the Blackberry Bold 9700, that runs on Blackberry OS 5.0 and the same 642Mhz processor, which is again notably quicker. Of course, 3G is the most welcome addition along with a much faster browsing experience and finally, yes, finally it supports the most wanted WiFi. The model also supports multitasking, social networking for the likes of Facebook and Twitter as standard and, what is a Blackberry without its all-powerful Blackberry email and messaging. Overall, this Pearl 3G is RIM’s special kid just without the QWERTY, replaced by RIM’s SureType technology for inputting your text.

Blackberry App World:

All that is just the tip of the iceberg; the Blackberry App world has been growing very steadily over the past year. And, though it is not up there with Apple’s App Store, it offers a good range of apps and utilities, which in turn makes your Pearl 3G that little bit more flexible. So, if you have got your handset and want to grab some extra apps, including the ones that we have discussed in the review, Blackberry App World is the place where you have to land. This hanset based store mixes free and premium apps all that are available to browse and download with reviews from users. As we just mentioned, this store is not the biggest or the best app store around, but it certainly does the given job well, enabling you to customise your phone for next to nothing if you do clever shopping. We recommend you to check it out as soon as you have got your handset charged up.

Contacts:

Coming to adding contacts, the Pearl 3G has it all and more. It uses the same contacts system as your average business friendly Blackberry; you might be a little bit daunted while adding a friend. After all, does your best mate really have six phone numbers, two fax numbers, a pager, two emails, a company and a job title? Of course not! Just stick in a name, number and email, just those details will show on the completed page. But if your friends ever do take over the world, there’s room to expand the entry. Google Sync has not been included as default, however, if you happen to be a Google user, you can always download the application. It will copy all of your friends and contacts into your BlackBerry contacts, keeping it updated as they change, and hence, save your fingers several weeks of typing duty.

Overall, when it comes to organising your contacts, this Blackberry 9105 is as good as any other blackberry. But, when it comes to call quality on this particular model, it could have been better.

Messaging:

SMS and MMS messaging on the Pearl 3G 9105 mobile phone is just straightforward. Though it lacks the iconic QWERTY keyboard, text messaging is easy enough on the minimal keypad. All that you have to do is, select your contact, type the message, add the smilies that we all fancy, and then just send it away. There are features available for checking the spelling if you are feeling pedantic and you can also see any messages that are sent or received in the email like SMS folder. Sending MMS is just as easy; take a photo, select a contact, select the size or quality you wish to send and it goes. What more can you ask?

Email:

Well, after all it is the Blackberry. If it does not do the email well, there is simply no hope for it. setting up an email account is just a breeze. Whether it is a webmail account or something PC-based, just head to the email wizard, enter your account details and the Pearl 3G will set it up and, when available, work with your inbox to push emails to your handset when they arrive, so you are free to view, delete, forward or reply as the mood takes you. Delete from your phone and it goes from your inbox elsewhere too. It is the reason why businessmen love a BlackBerry and if you lead a busy life, it should help you too. You can add as many email accounts as you like to the phone, which you can oversee from one message inbox or from each individual address folder. Indeed, if you do use multiple boxes, you can add different tones for each account, just like you can with people in your contacts directory.

SureType Technology:

The only issue that the Blackberry 3G had was the SureType technology. Most BlackBerry devices have a QWERTY keyboard, so banging out a long email is not much different to using a laptop. It is just smaller. With the Pearl 3G, the keyboard is more like a traditional phone to fit the profile of the handset, but it also means a different way of text input. SureType is a form of predictive text, constantly second guessing your word choice, as well as spell checking as you go. Like predictive text, it is both helpful and frustrating at the same time. Once you get the hang of it, you should be able to fire out emails at a fair rate of speed, but if you have not used it before, be prepared for some very frustrating days and emails taking longer than writing and posting a letter, especially if they are beyond a couple of lines of text. It might make you regret buying the handset, but stick with it the fact that it learns from your more commonly typed words really does add speed in the medium term.

Messaging:

One of the highlight selling features of the Blackberry is its messenger, but if it works for you totally depends on the number of friends you have with the same make of device. It is quite simple to use, just enter the email address of your other buddy with the Blackberry and, once they approve of you, there you are, instant messaging. Just type in a message to your contact or multiple group contacts like you would with any other messaging app, with BB Messenger informing you when the message lands. It is great if you have BlackBerry-based friends. If not, prepare to gaze at an empty screen. This is also where the BlackBerry App World comes in to play. Other messaging tools are also available to download, including Google Talk, so if you are the first to go down the BlackBerry route, you will not be all alone. And who knows? Your mates might be impressed enough with your handset to buy one too.

Browsing in Pearl 3G 9105:

The standard blackberry browser has never been everybody’s cup of tea, all too often having issues with rendering pages and in many cases, taking too much time to download content. RIM might just have started to deal with the problem, prior to actually bringing out a WebKit based browser. As you can see, we have tested and a number of Blackberry devices and they always had some pages that the device just does not like. Surprisingly, this time there were no websites in this list and all of our temperamental pages and some other reliable content passed out with flying colours. However, there are a couple of disadvantages too: first of all, the small screen of the Pearl 3G makes the zoom function on the browser your best friend when it comes to web content. It will zoom in on the detail, but when you have got a busy or text-heavy page, constantly having to zoom is a real pain. Secondly, that speedy loading is possible only when you have got a 3G or Wi-Fi connection. When you lose that, the page load times increase significantly. What took seconds suddenly takes minutes. We will look more at the connectivity of the Pearl 3G later on.

Social Networking:

The Blackberry range has always had some very decent apps for all of the main social networks. There are two included in the Pearl 9105 which are standard; there is no MySpace, but in 2010, are you really surprised? The Twitter app had recently gone official in the RIM Blackberry, and we also have to admit that it works like a dream, that integrates so well with the wider Blackberry messaging system. If you are Twitter freak, you must know well what you might expect: a box for your message, a screen to view your messages of those you follow, complete with avatars and a row of icons for everything from replies to people search. If someone sends you a direct message, it drops in your main inbox just like a mail; a nice touch. Overall, it is a well thought out app that is just a breeze to use on the Pearl 3G 9105.

The good old Facebook is also represented in the Pearl 3G and is a very decent app to be kept updated. Just log in and you will be greeted by your latest news feeds, along with options with comment or like an update, upload an image, send message or even write on a wall; it has pretty much everything you might expect. It is true that the app looks a little bit basic and a bit cramped on the small screen, but if you manage to deal with it or simply do not mind, this Facebook App in offer is more than adequate.

GPS:

GPS on a smart phone is always a welcome addition and the Blackberry Maps that has been included in the Pearl 3G 9105 is reasonable for finding your way around the city. It picks up a satellite in just seconds, pinpointing our location and also panning around the area. Please do keep in mind that it is just a basic mapping included and do not expect your in-car unit to give the boot and replace it with this one. That said, if you happen to be lost in a city, it will offer you a helping hand. The good news here is that, Google maps is available as a free download for the Blackberry. However, we insist again that it is not going to replace your car sat nav, but it does offer much more detail, and it should possibly one of your first downloads. Apart from that, geo tagging and location finding in apps is a welcome bonus with the GPS on board.

Camera:

Come on! We are in 2010 and a 3.2 megapixel camera is not much to shout about. However, this camera also offers up auto-focus, flash, 2.5x digital zoom and video recording, and this is more than adequate for the job and it is incredibly easy to use. The camera works well with some of the other tools on the handset, and also seems to be offering plenty of options for photo quality and effects, size and geo-tagging of the snaps. With the shortcut buttons available on the side of the handset, it makes it very easy to capture that exciting moment quickly and easily. Sharing the pictures has been made quite simple with apps for some of the major photo sites too the option to email or MMS your snaps, as well as transfer to social networks, all at various sizes and image qualities, dependent on your needs. Just a click of a button brings up a thumbnail gallery too. Shame the camera is not a little better in terms of pixels, but in terms of use, it is hard to fault.

Tools:

As a business handset, the Pearl 3G 9105 has a raft of productivity tools, some of which you might occasionally use like MemoPad, Tasks, Calculator and Password Keeper and there are others that you will seldom, especially with the display so small, like Word To Go, Sheet To Go and Slide-show To Go. The latter set of features are more like just tasters; you can open a Microsoft friendly document with them, but you will not be able to create one without buying the complete package. Yes, it kind of spoils the good name it created with the non-demo games package. There are Voice notes included too, so you will be able to record your ideas on the go. Said that, the playback is very decent too and you can use your voice notes as quirky ring tones too. We liked the alarm app too, as it was more than decent with a clock that fills the screen and offering a loud alarm to get you out of the bed.

Games in 9105 3G:

One feature that all of us secretly look forward in a handset are games; they are always available in handsets and Pearl 3G is no exception. In this set we have a mix of arcade, strategy and cards, including Brickbreaker, Word mole, Trooper Typing, Texas Hold ‘Em King 2, Sodoku and Klondike. Everything is a bit basic, but they are a good mix of games, and above all, they are all full games and not demos; we love that.

Applications:

As you would expect from a device that keeps business on the move, the calendar application included in the Blackberry Pearl 3G is quite an impressive tool. You can break down your tasks in days, weeks or months, view your wider schedule or agenda, organise appointments, set alarms for those appointments when due or in advance, schedule conference calls, invite people to meetings, change time zones. You have got all this in the device and more. Even better, you will be able to sync it up with external tools like Google Calendar, should you and your friends be reliant on that. The entire program is built for the busy businessman, so if you are buying the Pearl 3G as a ‘social’ phone, you can be sure it has all bases covered.

Media player:

As we had mentioned earlier, the media player on the RIM Blackberry 3G 9105 is not bad at all; but accessing it is a bit slow and inconvenient. We are not trying to say that it is dead slow, but it is just not instantly accessible as it should be. After a few clicks, and once you start listening to the music, you will realise that it is not bad at all. You will be able to transfer the music via drag and drop or RIM’s own software through PC or Mac and, if tagged, you should be able to drop nicely into the searchable interface and any album art provided will show it too. And, do not forget, those top controls we had mentioned earlier is very useful when you are out and about.

Performance:

Call Quality:

Coming to the call quality, we found the voice calls to be on the quieter side and there was bit of background noise, a slight hiss. Still, we did not experience any complete drops in the network during calls. The Pearl 3G is a mid- to high-end handset and for the money you will be paying, it should be better in terms of making and taking calls. It is slightly frustrating, because everything else in that area is as good as, if not better, than expected. Ring-tones, for example, are loud and there is a number to choose from (with the option of adding your own too) and the ability to assign tones to various contacts is always a nice touch.

Connectivity:

Connectivity wise, the Pearl 3G struggles with 3G reception and to make sure that the problem was not ours; we tested some other models in the same area and found that it was apparently the issue of the model. This is not promising; though what we did is not a scientific test, we worry us slightly. This is something to perhaps check out at your local phone dealer if you are considering a purchase. The WiFi reception was excellent though. It was extremely simple to set up and the Pearl 3G was happy to hop on to the wireless connectivity as and when required. The entire factors put together makes browsing and downloading a much more pleasurable experience. The 9105 also comes with Bluetooth connectivity, which enables you to pair up with a notebook or any other Bluetooth enabled device without any issues, accepting the files quickly and without any issues. Else, if you want to go wired, there is also the mini USB to USB cable to transfer data and media or to just update the operating system.

Camera Performance of Pearl 3G 9105:

The outdoor shots are more than acceptable, capturing most details that you would not have expected out of the mobile camera. The indoors snap is not quite so sharp, even on a very bright day. However, the image is clear and there is no blurring and the colours are reasonably vibrant. As ever, effects will be able to hide a multitude of sins and, when Sephia filter is used, it does increase the quality of the indoor snap. Video is surprisingly good; impressing us in both fields of visual and audio expectations. Again, it can never be a substitute for a dedicated video camera, but for producing web clips, it is hard to complain.

Video Quality:

Video playback tends to suffer from the small screen. If you like the idea of squinting at a 2.2-inch screen for entertainment, it might be for you. It is also good for checking those mini movies you have just shot, but we prefer our video on a larger screen. Videos have a decent amount of clarity, but this is one area where the small and compact nature of the phone really falls down. Let us be honest, you will be on a one-way trip to eye strain if you spend your day watching Hollywood blockbusters on the Pearl’s screen. Good for a short funny a mate has sent you or, indeed, checking out your own clips. For anything more, it really struggles.

Audio Quality:

For its size, the Pearl 3G has a very decent pair of speakers. At full volume, the sound is just beyond what you can expect along with a good deal of clarity; there is no breakup or distortion even at very high volume. Same is the case of the headphones that are more substantial than your average mobile earphones and, for us, offering up a fuller sound than much of the competition too.

Battery Life:

Battery life is one of the major features of any mobile; they can either be a selling point or a turn off. Fortunately, with the Pearl 3G, it has turned out to be a positive, with RIM promising about up to five hours of talk time and 18 days of standby. When compared to the Blackberry Bold 9000 that is literally light years ahead of the game. The claims are very promising and in our tests, after a full charge, we made calls with the Pearl 3G, browsed a few sites, played music and did some instant messaging. We did everything that a person with the Pearl 3G will do and we are happy to conclude that the battery performs really strong.

Warranty:

RIM offers Blackberry Pearl 3G 9105 one year warranty for parts and labour.

Verdict:

RIM has packed just about every high end Blackberry feature except QWERTY into this small and stylish device called as the Pearl 3G 9105. It offers just about every mobile essential and more, with almost everything functions as it should. And if SureType works for you, this is a very small and convenient way of keeping up with your email correspondence. Call quality is below what we would expect, network coverage was very disappointing for long periods and to be honest, the familiar look of the BlackBerry interface is perhaps an indication that the interface is just a little too long in the tooth. The BlackBerry Pearl 3G is a good quality smartphone that should serve you well, but with just a couple too many issues to make it a highly-recommended one.

An apt alternate to the Pearl 3G will be the Bold 9700, which is pretty much the same, but with a much bigger profile and a full QWERTY keyboard. If you want to check out some of the other smartphones that is not a Blackberry, the Palm Pre Plus has just hit the markets or, if you are looking for one of those revolutionary Androids and touchscreen appeal, we recommend the highly rated HTC Desire or HTC Legend. Of course, there is thing called iPhone, but if you fancy one of those, we recommend the 3GS and not 4.

RIM Blackberry Pearl 3G 9105 – Technical Specification Table

Last Year when Research In Motion (RIM) launched the original BlackBerry Storm, it was their first handset to feature a touch screen (a clickable one at that). Theoretically, it had everything to be successful and was dubbed as the iPhone killer. But it became clear that this attempt fell short: An aging OS, lack of Wi-Fi and the utter failure of the SureType technology (yes, the one that made the screen even more cumbersome to use) .The bugs and other software issues that riddled the BlackBerry Storm were solved thanks to subsequent updates. But the damage was done.  Neither did it ‘kill’ the iPhone nor was able to please BlackBerry fans.

A year later, RIM decided to fix it by redoing the screen and introducing newer Piezo technology to prevent those accidental clicks. It does address most of those things we criticised about the earlier Storm. It is faster, more stable and more accurate while typing. Wi-Fi connectivity is present and the on-board memory has been doubled. In all, this certainly is an improvement over its predecessor. However, it still lags in the areas of Web browsing and faces stiff competition from Samsung Omnia and Motorola Droid. But more importantly will it manage to wash away the bad memories and gain back support from BlackBerry lovers, read the review to find out.

Design:

Resemblance:

When you first hold the Storm 2, you would mistake it for the earlier model. Visually, there is not much of a difference. The overall feel of the device is very much the same. Apart from the slightly sleeker design and the newer navigation buttons, it is identical to its predecessor.  That is a good thing, because the device feels well built. But what caught our attention is the weight of the device. The Storm2 9950 has dimensions of 112.5 x 62 x 13.9 mm and weighs 5 grams more than the predecessor Storm. Although by sheer dimensions it does not seem so, the Storm 2 is noticeably bulkier than many keyboards-less phones. Not the kind of phone you can carry in a tight jeans pocket. The battery door latch mechanism, similar to the one found on the 8520 is welcome. The speaker has moved from the back of the bottom, thus making it easier while you lay down the device.

Controls:

The physical controls are easy to reach and there are handy shortcuts for silent mode and volume. It is wide enough to avoid that cramped feeling one associates with touch screen keyboards. The keys are made of rubber instead of silver (another thing taken cue from the 8520). The largest design difference one would notice is the functional keys present below the screen.  The original Storm had four physical buttons each separated. This time, all these are incorporated right into the screen. The Piezo electric effect is working as we had no problems whatsoever this time. RIM has managed to combine Piezo and capacitive technology in a way that the screen responds only when touched with bare skin.  The BlackBerry storm 2 9550 has an upside when it comes to expansion as it has a removable battery and a microSDHC slot.

Display and the new SurePress technology:

The display, measuring at 3.25 inches with a half VGA (360 x 480) resolution is simply gorgeous. The touch screen also features a built in accelerometer and a proximity sensor that turns off the touch screen when on a phone call to prevent accidental mispresses. But did not the early Storm have the same dimensions? Yes.  The changes made here are pretty subtle; Subtle enough not to be noticeable.  While RIM still calls the touch screen technology of the Storm2 as SurePress, its implementation is entirely different from that of the Storm. The newer SurePress technology makes it easier to click and with multiple input sensors, typing is even more accurate. The screen actually gives an impulse that simulates the feel of a click. Thus, the Storm 9550 does a better job of replicating the feel of an actual keyboard.

Keyboard:

The full QWERTY Keyboard can be used in both portrait and landscape mode and the phone offer auto-correction. And also, the display does not move like it did earlier. The Piezo electric system works far more efficiently as it requires less conscious effort to use. It also allows for key rollover and faster typing. If you would want to capitalize a letter, all you need to do is press the Shift button while typing.  In a regular message, we had to manually type only a few words, which in a way, is better than the original.  While it does take time to get used to actually pushing down to invoke most actions, this necessity involves slowing down of every task on the phone. Typing is relatively slow as one still cannot truly move to the next key before the screen is back into position. This slowdown is a hindrance; it ruins the main advantage of a touch screen being intuitive.  One is always left guessing the phone’s response to one’s behaviour.  While this new technology sets BlackBerry apart, it would take some time to get used to it.

Interface:

An x.0 release indicates reworking of a program in a major way.  It signals a major shift in how things work.  The same can be held true about the new BlackBerry OS 5.0 in a few areas. Inertial (momentum based, that is) scrolling and threaded text messaging are finally supported. These were much necessary additions in a business centric phone such as the BlackBerry.  Auto-correction is also included. It does not work as well as Apple’s or HTC’s but is still an appreciative effort.  The Blackberry 9550 also supports multi touch gestures for copy and pasting by placing a finger at one end to cut/copy and the other at another end to paste. The menu animations are slick and the scrolling smooth. There was little time lag making it the zippiest interface ever.

Features:

Connectivity and Data:

The Storm 9550 is a global device having partners in Europe. The phone is CDMA focused but also supports GSM and EDGE.  The Storm2 also supports Wi-Fi which is welcome. But Wi-Fi does not help much; it only provides a more reliable connection and saves images on 3G fees.  Surfing over Wi-Fi is not really quick as the browser loads all the data and images before displaying unlike the iPhone or HTC Hero where one can start reading and scrolling before the page loads. It also supports Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR and the HSP, HSF, BAP, SPP, A2DP/AVCRP and DUN profiles.

Camera:

Recording video and Photography on the 9550 have remained virtually unchanged. The 3.2 mega pixel camera performed better than the original one. Photos taken by it looked sharp even on a 20 inch desktop monitor and that justifies the one second taken for the auto focus to kick in before the shutter is pressed. The level of detail was impressive even in indoor lighting. But occasionally, the images had some graining to them. One would have to wait for about 3 seconds to take another shot and that is a tolerable wait. The interface has been reworked slightly and the entire image is displayed on screen unlike the Storm when the bottom was cut off with some controls. There are BlackBerry applications that allow you to upload these pictures to Facebook, Flickr or other services.

Video clip footage looked good when played back to full screen on PC. Moving objects looked a bit blurry, but the overall 480 x 352 resolution footage was good enough.

BlackBerry App World:

BlackBerry App World gives users access to over four thousand applications for their phone. While they are more than enough, it is little when compared to over 10000 apps for the Android market and 85000 for the iPhone App store.  There are apps for Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Docs to Go and even Brick Breaker. These apps need to be downloaded on first use and then they are available as shortcuts on the phone. The American Service Provider Verizon has applications such as VZ Navigator, City ID and Visual Voicemail pre- installed. All of these apps have a monthly fee if the user installs them.  Eerily, one needs to have a PayPal account to buy the premium apps.  The best part of the BlackBerry apps is how well they are integrated into the rest of the phone. For example, after downloading the Facebook app, there is an option to upload photos to your profile from the picture library.

GPS:

The Blackberry Storm2 9550 Smartphone is preloaded with the VZ Navigator that was able to create a route between London and Edinburgh in about 15 seconds. We liked the way it showed traffic along the way. Not only can the app perform local searches, but do them also along the way.  The turn to turn directions were loud and there was a significant difference in volume between the instructions and the specific street and locality names.

Messaging:

There have been upgrades in the SMS application; the most notable of those is the threaded text messaging.  So, it becomes easier to follow a conversation that was not conducted through e-mail. A greater sense of control is provided. You can set notifications to repeat for each type of message (SMS, email etc.) for individual contacts. There are more smileys too. The Storm2 9550 features all forms of messaging such as SMS, MMS, and personal email over BIS and BES, IM clients such as GoogleTalk and AIM. They have certainly made better to use thanks to the better keyboard.

Web Browser:

The Web Browser has been reworked to give faster loading times. The earlier Storm took about 50 seconds to load the site of the New York Times while the Storm2 took just 20 seconds. While it was decent enough in the earlier releases, the newer one is better at rendering sites that use AJAX. Even refinements in the touch screen benefits web browsing. Despite more RAM and a fast processor, some tasks feel slow. You still cannot use pinch gestures for zooming as on other phones neither can you open new tabs while browsing. While the overall surfing experience is good, it would be better if RIM integrates a WebKit based browser.

Multimedia:

Multimedia is a segment where the 9550 excels. It has its own media player that has now been broken up and is now visualized as a folder with each component as an independent application. There is 2GB built in memory and a 16GB micro SDHC slot for all its music, pictures and video.  The media player supports MP3, WMA, WMA ProPlus, AAC, AAC+ and eAAC+ formats. One can buy tunes online using V Cast Music with Rhapsody.  A cheaper alternative is transferring tracks from a PC. While downloading songs over Wi-Fi is slow, transferring non DRM tunes from a PC to the Storm2 with the BlackBerry Media Sync program is easy.  It is faster to scroll through photos on the Storm2 than its predecessor. The video looks great and the interface is clean. The storm 2 9550 phone supports MPEG4 and WMV video files for playback.

Software:

There is nothing new here. Like always, things are simple and straightforward. It has the capacity to store virtually unlimited amount of contacts and with each contact being able to hold 3 email addresses, 2 work phone numbers, 2 home numbers, a mobile, pager, fax and a BlackBerry PIN number. You can store home and work address as well as birthday dates. These contacts have user definable contacts and each entry can have a custom picture and a ringer.  Lives up to the expectations of a true Business phone, doesn’t it? Like its earlier version, the home screen contact search is missing. While the keyboard is accessible in the full menu, you cannot search the contacts by name or number.  Voice dialling is excellent and is handled by pre-programming the left soft key.

The Calendar is another robust feature. It can be managed either on the phone or a PC. Using the BlackBerry Enterprise Server you can remotely manage and sync it wirelessly.  You can also create appointments and options such as reminder and recurrence are present as well. One can also mark appointments private for extra security. Basic PIM tasks such as Memo Pad and Tasks along with a simple calculator are also available.

Performance:

Call Quality:

We tested the dual mode (CDMA and GSM) RIM BlackBerry Storm and the call quality was good. The audio and voice quality had minimal background noise.  Neither did we experience any dropped calls nor had a problem using an automated voice system. However our callers reported that the voice sounded distorted and activating speakerphone made our voice sound muffed. On the contrary, speakerphone calls sounded clear and loud.  Pairing up using Bluetooth was easy.

The 9550 uses the same processor as the Storm but with increased memory and better software, the phone felt better to use.  The accelerometer was able to change as soon as we rotated the phone. We had no problems whatsoever using applications as we did not encounter any of the performance issues that plagued the Storm.

Battery Life:

Because the Blackberry Storm 9550 is a world phone, the band that is being used affects battery life. We recommend charging once a day as moderate usage will drain most of its charge.  With light to moderate usage, you would likely charge it every other day.  While Talk time is 5 and half hours, it can last 11 days without usage. So, the battery life is pretty decent.

Package:

At first glance, the box that the Storm 9550 comes is of the same design as the earlier Storm, only slightly smaller. They are identical except for the picture of the phone and technical details. The box feels heavier thanks to the additional weight of the Storm 2. Well, whoever cares about the package, what is inside it matters.

What’s in the Box?

The Storm2 ships along with a 16 GB microSD memory card, rechargeable battery, microUSB international charger, USB cable, wired 3.5mm stereo headset, pre installed SIM card, quick reference guide, documentation kit and a global support kit.

Warranty:

There is a warranty of one year provided for the BlackBerry Storm 9550 from the date of purchase.

Verdict:

Despite the similar design and software, the RIM BlackBerry 9550 is not a really bad phone. In fact the phone easily can win the most improved award in the smart phone category.  Many improvements have been incorporated and all the previous problems (lack of Wi-Fi, unnatural scrolling and the screen mechanism) have been solved. The new touch screen is a pleasure to use than its predecessor. The phone is great when it comes to taking calls and viewing email. The increased onboard memory and the new OS make the phone snappier to use.  However, the web browser is poor compared to the one on iPhone and HTC Hero. RIM also has to do a lot of catching up in the application store segment. But the main thing that worries us is how the phone would perform in the market. Most improvements in the phone are to cover up all the faults of Storm2. Mean while, competitors of RIM such as Apple and Android have had superior upgrades, thus outpacing the BlackBerry. Do not get us wrong. The BlackBerry Storm is a great phone that appeals to BlackBerry lovers looking for a touch screen phone. If you want a solid keyboard, Palm Pre, Apple iPhone and HTC Hero are some feasible options.

BlackBerry Storm 9550 Mobile Phone – Technical Specification Table

RIM has also made sure that the absence of its track ball does not affect its fans by including a typical rubberised buttons along with an optional track pad. While the Curve 8250 is facing fierce competition from its rivals, it seems to have made a wise move by incorporating optical track pad. The 8250 has a lot of elements that depart from traditional Blackberrys just beyond the trackpad. Load of features like updated look for the call and end-call keys, a new hidden convenience keys, dedicated set of media keys across the top of the device and a small LED indicator, all compliment each other to position the Curve 8250 to reach itself to the younger market that the Blackberrys have failed to capture.

Design:

Familiar design:

The Blackberry Curve 8250 Smartphone would look instantly familiar to anybody who has used any Curve handset, except for the new addition of the optional track pad which has replaced the company’s iconic mini trackball or Pearl as RIM would like to call it. This smarty has a superior material quality emphasised by its curvy features and hence displays a much sleeker look. While the front fascia of the phone features the usual snazzy finish the rear panel comes in with a smooth finish. The trackpad that was embedded as a replacement for the trackball seems to have increased the reliability of the Curve. Although the design of this model is very similar to that of its predecessors, it measures as (H x W x D) 109 x 60 x 13.9 and weighs just 106 grams.

Touchpad blessing:

As soon as we used the trackpad, we felt that it is an improvement over the ball and have not looked back since. We have been fairly not impressed with the touchpads on PDAs like the HP iPAQ Voice Messenger, but thankfully the one on the 8250 is in a totally different league. The touchpad has been a pleasure to use as it seems to be both accurate and responsive and we really did not miss the old style trackball at all.

The pad has employed similar gestures as the pearl and feels just like the one that you would use on a laptop. Just click on the pad to make a selection, the same way you would do with the trackball. You will also be able to adjust its horizontal and vertical sensitivity to customise the speed at which it zips around the icons on the screen. A disappointment is that the pad does not come with a backlight and is just solid. An improvement that we would be expecting in the future Blackberrys is the ability to scroll by just resting the finger on the edge of the pad; which would offer the ultimate accuracy, ease of use and functionality. We would say that there is very little to criticise the trackpad except for the fact that you have to get used to its speed. RIM representatives have indicated that this new trackpad is likely to be included across all the new curve devices, mainly because of the fact that it has no moving parts and so is less prone to dust and dirt.

Convenience keys:

Yet another departure from the RIM Blackberry Curve 8250 apart from the trackball is the design of convenience keys on the side. RIM has included a rubber strip that wraps around the perimeter of the entire device that encompasses the keys on the sides, which makes the side keys of the 8250 look as though they are protruding from beneath the rubber. Though the chrome trim is missed, it seems to work for the phone. Both the bulging keys and lack of chrome makes the Curve look less delicate and more rugged than the other BlackBerry Phones in the market.

Multimedia keys:

As we had mentioned earlier, three media keys have been included on the top of the device which includes Play/ Pause/ Mute, Next and Previous. These buttons work in conjunction with the music player to aid you through the navigation of music which is a very welcome addition that plays well to the younger market. This version of Curve also features an expandable microSD slot with 1 GB car preloaded. The last physical makeover is that of the Talk, Options, Return and End/Power that makes them look a bit more hipper. As the new trackpad does not stick out from the case like the old one, the four main buttons under the display sit completely flush that gives the handset a much sleeker look than the previous Curve models. The keys are all part of the same top level that the screen is and do not look like individual ones, though they act so. The rear of the phone also sports some of the same rubber that surrounds the perimeter of the phone along with a black plastic piece across most of the back. This plastic is curved quite a bit, which beckons the user in order to spin the phone in a circle which will bring about some irreparable marks from all of spinning.

Small display:

The Curve 8250 sports a 2.64” Thin Film Transistor display of 320 x 240 pixels. The screen supports 65K colours and Quarter Video Graphics Array. All these features have made sure that the display is vivid and colourful. Another thing that we have to admit is that, though 8250’s screen is an upgrade from the original Curve, it does not seem to hold a candle to competitors from its own parents like the Curve 8900, Tour or Bold.

Keyboard:

The Curve 8250 has retained the QWERTY keyboard of the original Curve. If you were just hoping for an escape from the plastic spaced out keys and trade up to a keyboard like that of the 8900 or the Tour, then you are out of luck. The keys may be small, but as they are slightly raised they’re easy to hit with your fingers and thumbs so tapping out emails is not a problem. Overall, the QWERTY keyboard is much easier and reliable without being cramped.

Annoying LED:

One thing that everybody will agree to be annoying in the previous Blackberrys is its blue light that keeps flashing that is very distracting while driving at nights. The good news here is that RIM has solved this issue with the inclusion of a smaller LED indicator which is just about the size of the tip of the pencil.

Features:

Connectivity:

RIM has sensibly included a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, so if you do not like the supplied headset, you can always swap it for one of your owns but the downside is that, you will lose the hands-free functionality. Though the addition of the standard headphone jack is very welcome, RIM has annoyingly placed it on the left edge of the phone rather than on the top which means that the lead tends to snag when you take the handset in and out of your pocket.

Connectivity too is a kind of mixed bag. If you are just thinking to hop on to any of the great 3G deals, then just be prepared to be disappointed. On the one hand you get Wi-Fi for fast web browsing at home or when you’re within range of a hotspot, plus Bluetooth for use with car kits or stereo headsets. However, there is no GPS and this is yet another BlackBerry that does not support 3G at a time when it is really difficult to find a smartphone from any other manufacturer that does not feature 3G support. That said, the lack of 3G is not really all that noticeable when you are just using the device for email due to BlackBerry’s clever compression technology. However, it is different story with the web browser as when you are away from a Wi-Fi signal and working over the mobile EDGE network it can be pretty slow to load pages in the browser.

Operating System in Curve 8250:

The default OS of the Blackberry 8250 is OS 4.6.1.259. The basic suite of Blackberry Software includes apps like web browser, address book, calendar and Push e-mail. Like most of the recent RIM models, it also sports audio and video software along with an Office Suite called the DataViz Documents To Go.

Browsing and messaging:

Despite the small display and lack of 3G support, the browser seems to be pretty decent as it is very responsive and easy to navigate using the onscreen cursor through the optical trackpad. Rendering sites is pretty good, but it mucks up the formatting every now and then on complex pages. The messaging features of the 8250 are simply top class. One thing that we found to be consistent throughout its hardware and software design its intensions to appeal to the younger market. This is very much evident by the red and white asterisks that litter notifications section in order to inform the user about the new messages and notifications. This very much resembles the iPhone that makes use of the same colour schemes to indicate few notifications. All these indications clutter up the home screen especially that of the status bar on the top. A great news for those social networking freaks is that, Facebook and MySpace is built-in by default and also offers a slew of IM clients like AIM, Gtalk, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo and Blackberry messenger. Last but not the least you will also be delighted to find the Blackberry Maps in the device.

Other than few of the cosmetic updates of notifications, very less of the OS has departed from the other Blackberrys. In certain applications, the phone seemed to hang a bit more than we would expect it to, which was very surprising given that the phone uses 512MHZ processor, which seems like it would be quite plenty.

VOIP:

One of our favourites that T-mobile offers is UMA or as T-Mobile likes to call, HotSpot@Home. This feature offers native VOIP service where WiFi is available. One of the biggest uses of UMA is that, if you are in an area that does not offer a good T-mobile coverage you will be able to jump on WiFi and instantly have crystal clear conversations. When we first tried this feature with the Blackberry Pearl Flip, we encountered some issues in switching between the UMA and EDGE. We found that the switch was much more seamless with this Blackberry and a few times, we also noticed that a call would start in UMA and end in EDGE without dropping at all.

Camera:

There are several styling cues throughout the whole device that it is certainly after that market share that might be interested in iPhone and inclusion of camera seems to be one of them. RIM has equipped Curve 8250 with 2 mega pixel Camera of resolution 1600 x 1200 pixels and also supports Quarter Video Graphics Array with primary lens that is essential for capturing video. Unfortunately, RIM has lowered their game in this area to be on par with iPhone. Though the camera takes decent pictures, it does not have flash like in the iPhone, which is found in almost every other Blackberry camera. The round iPhone-esque lens has been more exposed and subject to dust than the other Blackberry devices. We would have loved to see a decent 3.2 mega pixel auto focus camera that is found in most of the recent phones. Photos taken outdoors in good light look decent, but as the camera lacks a flash or autofocus it really struggles indoors leaving you with dark and noisy photos. The camera can also be used to take videos at a resolution of 320 x 240, but the results look a tad jerky. Video format support covers MPEG4, H.263, H.264, and WMV3. Fun factor has been added to the application with the Photocall feature that enables the user to tag photos to the contacts.

Quad-band compatible:

As the Blackberry Curve 8250 is quad band compatible and hence you can use it in most countries around the world and as with the Blackberrys we have tested in the past, the 8250 too has an excellent call quality. The ear piece offered is loud and clear, the mic is not over directional and even the speakerphone works great that is boosted by the beefier speaker the RIM has used for this model.

Battery life:

One thing that has always been a strength of all the Blackberrys is their long battery life and the Curve 8250 is no different. With a single charge, you will get three full days with some mailing, phone calls and a little bit of browsing. Very impressive!

Verdict:

As we have indicated throughout the review, Blackberry Curve 8250 has several elements that position it to a younger market segment, which is very evident with the rubber outlay around the phone, updated call and end keys and multimedia keys. Though these small changes are notable, they cannot be said as the standout features of the phone. We should admit the optical trackpad is a big step forward for the Blackberrys. The trackpad has made it much easier to use the device and more importantly has made it look sturdy and sleek than the other models with track ball. The shortcomings with the lags in applications and lack of flash have been very well made up by the pad. 8250 is certainly a little light on features, with 3G and GPS the most serious omissions, but the phone still manages to rise above these limitations. It is the combination of its excellent email features, long battery life and easy to use interface that make it so likeable.

If you are looking to upgrade to a T-mobile Blackberry we would normally suggest Blackberry Curve 8900, but with the inclusion of trackpad on the 8250, we would ask you to think twice. The 8250 is just perfect for those who need just more than a standard mobile, but do not have the kind of money to go for an iPhone or the HTC Hero.

Check other Blackberry Curve Smartphones in our website.

Blackberry Curve 8250 Phone – Technical Specification Table

Verizon has launched 2 more firmware updates and we believe this has greatly improved the performance of the device by resolving the bugs and improving general performance. These firmware updates make it a stable device that should please the owners.  Is the device that good even in a closer introspect? Scroll down to find out.

Design:

Simply Stunning:
The Storm looks stunning. The moment you lay your eyes on it, you would realize that a lot of time has gone into designing the phone. It has not strayed far from the usual business phone design but unlike the previous Blackberries the 9530 has a different build quality. It sports a Black casing with silver accent and has a trapezoidal shape with rounded edges.  At 2.4 inches wide by 0.5 inches deep and 44.4 inches tall, it feels a bit wide when you hold it in your hand. It weighs about 5.6 ounces and that is about the average weight of phones in its category. So, the Storm is a well constructed phone with a nice solid feel and a soft touch finish to provide grip. It does not creak or rattle or budge or deform and still feels like a solid business phone.

Simple Layout:
Not only is the casing hard, but the buttons are sturdy as well.  The silver bezel around the phone makes it look gorgeous. The bands are probably made of plastic and not metal and trace the outline of the phone whereas the rest of the surface is glossy black plastic.  The screen dominates the front of the phone and it has four buttons on the bottom:  Phone, Menu, Back and End/Power buttons. It also lacks a trackball navigator and hence allows for easier one handed operation.  On the left side of the device is a convenience key and a micro USB port. RIM has preferred this over the more common mini USB slot for a lower profile of the newer variation. On the right is present another convenience key, a volume rocker and the 3.5 mm headphone jack.  On the back of the casing, you will find the solid aluminum brushed piece with the camera and flash on the plate. The top of the phone has a single LED on the right and the mute keys incorporated on either side.  When compared to the previous models, the hardware and components used in the phone seem superior and this shows its class.

Huge Screen:
The design was awe-inspiring for sure, but the display was altogether another story.  The Touch screen was a reason for it to be in the news, but so is its 3.25 inch VGA display which shows amazing sharpness and brightness. Let the big screen not fool you in to thinking that you have got a 16:9 screen as the phone plays only 4:3. Capable of showing 65000 colours at a resolution of 480 x 360 pixel resolution, it did not impress as much as the BlackBerry Bold did.  Nevertheless, it is still beautiful. One has the ability to adjust fonts, sizes, type and backlighting. There is an accelerometer available which allows one to change the orientation of the screen from landscape to portrait when the phone is tilted from horizontal to a vertical position. Oh, the screen was durable as well and resisted tendencies to get scratched.

Touch Screen:
This was perhaps the place where most of the attention was focused on. Unlike the iPhone and Instinct, the Storm does not just boast of a capacitive touch display, but the screen is also clickable as well. It uses a technology called SurePress which allows you to click the screen down like a mouse button. The main reason to provide this is to hover without selecting or moving an onscreen element and that we have a tendency to click down while navigating or typing on most devices.  That is, when you push the screen down, it would be like pressing down a tactile button.

Virtual Keyboard:
The BlackBerry Storm 9530 features a soft keyboard which can be used not only in portrait mode but also in landscape mode as well. Initially there was only a SureType keyboard available, but with the new upgrades one has the option of a fully fledged QWERTY keyboard. It is not automatic though, you will have to enable it by pressing the BlackBerry Menu and selecting the Enable Full Keyboard option.  The Screen is fairly sensitive and hence, a single simple touch over the item would highlight the item and then you press down to register the action. With all this, we kept forgetting that we could use tapping to do an action.  But here, we realised that having a tactile keyboard would have been better.  Typing long messages was not really easy on the Storm and it gets worse if you have big thumbs.

Minor Niggles:
Yes, the BlackBerry looks great, but we did notice some minor faults we wish would have not been that noticeable. Backlight was leaking through the sides of the phone and this killed the continuity of the design.  When the screen was pressed down and held, it slid down.  Not really huge problems and can be looked over.

Features:

Blackberry OS 4.7:
The OS used on the Phone is similar to the one used in the earlier BlackBerrys notably the Bold. But the reason we are discussing about the UI here is because unlike the previous models this BlackBerry lacks a trackball. Though there is no paradigm shift in the approach, rather the company has added the touch and multi touch functionality to replace the trackball approach. Unlike the iPhone, the Storm’s UI is not customized for touch navigation. Things that the iPhone is good at such as flickering through lists, moving around in a webpage are uncomfortable to do on the Storm. Though the screen seems sensitive enough, the finger cannot be entirely trusted to take control of the device.

No QWERTY:
BlackBerrys are the ultimate phone when it comes to email and messaging.  RIM partly attributes its success to the inclusion of QWERTY keyboards on their phones. You might believe that the inclusion of the clickable touch screen would make things easier. However, we disagree. We were constantly frustrated by the laggy movement and found it difficult to type long messages on the phone. RIM also provides a T9 dictionary which was not able to correct minor errors. All this makes you wish for a QWERTY keypad.

Implementation of the other functions:
Copying and Pasting, a norm on the RIM phones has fully represented here with multi touch functionality. If you want to copy/ paste text, select the beginning and end of a text with 2 fingers and a menu pops up. Too zoom into pages, one can double tap and to back out you will have to use the negative magnifying glass. The technology is great, but we believe that it has a long way to go before it can compete with the iPhone for virtual keyboard domination. If speed is not a concern for you, then the phone is manageable.

Browser:
One area where the Storm seems to be good at is the Web browser. If you have used the Bold’s Web browser, you would know that load times were painful and using it was torturous. In short, totally unusable. The Storm has a better implementation of the browser than its predecessors. Page loading times were fast and navigation was snappier. The scrolling was tolerable and zooming is faster. Highly admirable, but the Mobile Safari and the G1’s web kit based “ Chrome light”  have more advanced features such as multiple tabs.

Messaging and e-mail:
Messaging and email has always been RIM’s stronghold. There are not many changes in this segment, except for a couple of visual effects. The use of screen real estate and selection of fonts seems to be a bit outdated when compared to the iPhone. Reading email was still inconsistent and we found account management simpler. People who were looking for Gmail integration would be disappointed.

Software:
The 4.7 is not a huge improvement over the 4.6 but there are a couple of improvements that were worthy of mention. The Home screen is like a typical BlackBerry experience. There are 2 levels of application screens: The initial home screen allows you to house 8 applications icons of your choice. The second level is a deeper level that displays all your folders and icons. BlackBerry fans used to a real keyboard will be feeling lost here. It also fails to recognise longer presses, shortcuts or find as you type searches on typical RIM devices. There are a couple of tweaks in the OS, the cross fades and swipes of pages are some of them.

Third Party Software:
The Storm 9530 Touch Screen Mobile Phone hardly has any third party software and can be termed nonexistent. The representatives from the company have assured that they have plans to launch their version of the app store. There is a broad selection of applications such as the “To Go” suite that allows viewing and editing of PowerPoint, Excel and Word documents. For more advanced options, one has to buy the premium version.

GPRS:
Verizon VZ Navigator Software provided with the RIM BlackBerry Storm 9530 is not really great to use. The navigator gives spoken turn by turn directions and even incorporates traffic into the narration. Though it worked well, it is not really worth shelling out extra cash for it. There are a lot of options such as movie times, traffic and local search included in it. It was able to garner excellent results in terms of signal reception and tracking.  But, the software was sluggish and abysmally slow.  Alternatives such as Google Maps offer walking directions and transit directions as well.

Other Applications:
The BlackBerry Storm 9530 Smartphone features Visual Voice mail which displays who left you a voice mail and how long the message is. Though it takes about 10 seconds longer than the normal voice mail, it is worth the wait. One can compose a new text/MMS, call back the caller, reply to the caller via SMS or erase a message as well under the Visual Voicemail menu.

Media Player:
The Storm’s inbuilt media player is capable of playing several audio and video formats such as WMA, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, and MIDI music files, and MPEG4, WMV, DivX4, XviD (partial support), and H.263 video clips. There is a search function, playlist function, shuffle and repeat and there is also a full screen mode for video playback. The software CD included Roxio Easy Media Creator which allows you to create MP3s from CDs and add audio tags. The Storm also works with the Media Sync application which means you can load your iTunes library.

Not Compatible with Mac:
The Storm 9530 is not capable of syncing with a Mac. But for Mac users who happen to use BlackBerry’s there is software called PocketMac provided which does a decent job of loading contacts, calendars and etc. Sadly, the software needs an update badly and does not seem to sync data with the Storm. So, you will have shell out extra for Missing Sync to get your Storm synced with your Mac. Considering that the phone is aimed at the iPhone’s market share, it is outrageous that the phone lacks syncing software.

Camera:
The Camera happens to be one of the strong points in the Storm. When selected, the screen serves as the view finder and resting your finger on the camera button displays a white box, which on further pushing turns green and takes your snap. The resolution of the 3.2 megapixel camera was fantastic. The only problem we found was with the shutter speed. It took a great deal of time for the camera to kick in. Things in bright daylight were good, but with the flash, it was hard to get good results. All we expect is faster times to take a snap.

The Camera menus are logically laid out and are user friendly. On the screen are present the approximate number of pictures that can be still taken, zoom level, flash mode and status and the status of location aware pictures. After one takes a picture, there is the photo displayed with several options such as caller ID or the send option. The picture can be uploaded to your Facebook, Flickr, messengers etc.

Video Recording:
The Video camera also has fairly good quality and clear sound. It allows capturing of 320 x 240 with a bit of heavy artifacting. The 8GB memory card provided allows you to store ample amount of video on the phone. There is the option of video light present that allows you to shoot in dim light and can double as a torch light as well.

Accessories Provided:
The RIM BlackBerry Storm 9530 is provided with a healthy set of accessories: A Travel charger with various adapters, a USB Cable, an 8 GB microSD card, a wired headset, a software CD, some reference material and a SIM card if it is under the Verizon Wireless package.

Performance:

Good Call Quality:
The Call quality of the BlackBerry Storm 9530 using the Wireless service was good. There was no noticeable background noise or voice distortion. Neither did we experience any sort of dropped calls during our tests.  The speakerphone did not fare as well as the call quality. There was choppy call quality on both sides and there was a tendency for the words to get cut off. There was also noticeable voice distortion on both ends. Though we were able to carry on full conversations, we did have trouble in catching what the other person said at the first go.

Media Performance:
The music playback through the phone was good and the volume was loud too. The built in headphone jack would allow for an even better sound quality. Though the video performance was good, it was not as quite as astounding as the BlackBerry Bold.  The playback was smooth in spite of more pixilation.  The Web browsing was pleasantly fast thanks to the EV DO Rev network.  The GPS capabilities were great, but the software was a bit sluggish.

Thank the New firmware update:
Verizon’s new update the version 4.7.0.113 was a huge booster to the Storm’s performance.  The software upgrade was downloaded using the desktop manager and the process went smoothly. The biggest improvement noticed was in the accelerometer. The screen orientation was faster and so were response times. Launching applications were better thanks to the response times.

Better BlackBerry:
Thanks to the firmware updates, the BlackBerry Storm 9530 Smartphone with GPS receiver is even more polished. The browser and camera were faster. We did not notice any sort of crashes or freezes. The problem of the phone freezing during income calls or a blank screen while on a call was fixed.

Battery Life:
The Battery of the Storm 9530 is a 1400mAh lithium ion battery with a rated talk time of 5 and half hours and up to 15 days of standby time. When we did our full battery drain test, the phone lasted 7 whole hours. With the original OS and moderate usage, the phone lasted a solid 2 days. The newer firmware version (that is the Updated OS) reduced battery drain. Even on using the phone for at good 36 hours, there is still 50 percent charge on it. The .75 update also solves the previous problem of not being able to the phone while being charged. The phone however tended to get a bit warm where the battery is available.

Warranty:

There is a warranty of one year provided on the BlackBerry Storm 9530 from the date of manufacture.

Verdict:

RIM and Verizon have been desperately trying to push the Storm ahead and make it a threat to the iPhone’s dominance. There has been a lot of commercials, leaks, press releases and special events to celebrate the arrival of the Storm. The Storm has a great stylish design, is designed and backed by RIM, has a great camera and is a worthy competitor to the iPhone.  However, here is the hitch; the Storm 9530 is not really as fluid or enjoyable as the iPhone. The considerable lagginess in software and the lack of a decent typing option will turn off several users. But the lack of Wi-Fi is a serious issue and we guess the future version of the Storm will incorporate it. On Paper, the BlackBerry Storm seems as an ideal competitor to the iPhone. Sadly, in Practice, it has some serious glares. Verizon’s firmware updates will solve a major number of them. However, till then let us hope RIM comes up with something better.

Check other Latest Blackberry Reviews in our website.

BlackBerry Storm 9530 Mobile Phone – Technical Specification Table

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