BlackBerry Curve 8310 Phone, Red (AT&T)

More than just business October 12, 2007

Reviewer:  AreYouKidding? 

Like most tech-savvy professionals, I use and rely on a BlackBerry at work. In fact, I've been an addict for quite some time. I recently updated from an 8700 to this amazing phone. The email, calendar and address book are all what you expect and are accustomed to from BlackBerry. There are a ton of great improvements and I've outlined my likes and dislikes below.

Pros:

* The screen appears to be the same 320x240 screen that is found on the older 8700. It's outstanding and flat out huge. There are various levels of backlighting and there is a handy auto-DIM feature that adjusts the backlight according to room lighting conditions.
* The rollerball took a little getting used to, but after less than a day, I'm an expert. OK, not quite an expert, but I dialed in the sensitivity to suit my needs. I also turned off that annoying clicking sound. I guess that was supposed to simulate the audible "click" you would get from the old wheel.
* The keyboard is perfect. I was really scared about going to something new but the spacing and texture are dead-on. Typing is a breeze.
* Spell-Check; a warm welcome to something that has been missing for a LONG time. It's also super-easy to use. I get a prompt right before I send an email asking me to approve typos. Great job BlackBerry!
* The multimedia software is excellent; both on the device and on the desktop. You can watch movies, listen to MP3s and check out your photos on the handset. The Music software is not as good as what's on the Sony Walkman w580i phone, but it gets the job done. The Roxio-powered Media Manager software for the desktop offers super-easy drag and drop of MP3s and movies. It even converts files on the fly so they work with the Curve. This is one of the best additions to BlackBerry. The easy to use interface really turns this into a multimedia device.
* The camera is pretty good too. The LED flash is very bright and allows for a decent photo in low light. Full Screen view finder is a nice plus. There is even a little mirror on the back for self portraits.
* 3.5mm Stereo/Audio Jack is built-in. No adapter needed. Amen BlackBerry! Just plug my Shure buds in and I'm in audio bliss.
* Real GPS! This is awesome. I've just started to tinker with the TeleNav software. I don't like the fact there is a monthly fee, but the turn-by-turn directions rival standalone navigation systems I've used. It's awesome but pricey. I'll start hunting for alternative navigation software.

Cons:

* Doesn't record video
* No 3G or Wi-Fi
* Monthly fees associated with true turn-by-turn navigation software. The GPS does work great with BlackBerry Maps and Google Maps for location. Not quite the same as Telenav.
* Memory card is located under the battery. I find it very annoying that I have to power down the phone to remove and replace the card. Hey, at least it's MicroSD.
* It's a fingerprint magnet. Not iPod bad, but visible enough that I keep wiping down the body.
* No playlist support for the music software.

All in, this is the best BlackBerry I've ever owned. Highly recommended.

Great Phone and so much more February 10, 2008

Reviewer:  Peter Senna  (New York, New York) -

They don't call it a "CrackBerry" for nothing. I send and receive e-mails from both my personal and professional accounts, monitor bank account activity, check the weather, read the newspaper, organize my time with the calendar, wake up in the morning with the alarm clock, and listen to music (currently 3.6 gigabytes worth = 900 songs) without worry of missing a call, calendar event or e-mail. If you're listening to music on the earbuds when a call comes in, the music pauses while the phone rings. Press the button on cord and you answer the phone using the same earbuds; no need to remove the phone from the holster. When the call is done press the button again and the music resumes. What could be better? It's even got voice activated dialing that recognizes the names you put into your address book. Also watch for the new operating system 4.5 which is rumored to be released soon, which will allow you to record video and use a larger 8GB memory card, along with many other improvements (right now with the 4.2OS the phone will support a 4GB card). All in all a fantastic device...couldn't recommend it more; this phone's a winner. All flip phones are hereby obsolete.

Not for the new users of Blackberry March 5, 2008

Reviewer:  Dominic M. John "Dominic" 

Set the scene and then I can base the critism on my user profile. Note, this review is about the phone and not the service.

I get 200-250 e-mails a day and in 4-8 meetings a day. I am 35 years old. I spend 10-12 hrs a working day around a computer. I just used a small laptop for my organiser and e-mail. I have never used a PDA. Blackberry seems an obvious choice to make me more productive?

Why did I buy?
-Many people around me had PDAs either iPhone or Blackberry. I felt I was being left behind.
-Computing magazine review rated this phone the highest for e-mail
-I wanted easier access to my Outlook calendar and e-mail
-It's cool for my friends to see me with one?!

What's good about it?
It was easy to link to my Outlook exchange server and get e-mails. But the goodness stops there. It may be easy to put gas/petrol in the car but if the car is slow, incredibly difficult to steer and drive, what's the point of having easy filling?

What's bad?
-It crashes once a day.
-The keys are so rediculously small that writing text fast will not happen. You hit multiple and wrong keys. You often need the delete key and it is burried at the bottom under your thumb. Someone needs to think about usability!
-Usability is appauling!!! I expect to invest some time in learning new technology but the whole thing has been designed without a primary audience. I want a Blackberry to phone, see my calendar and read and answer short e-mails. I have an iPod for music.

You start the device and you have by default 20+ icons. I want 3!!! The first thing you need to work out is how to get rid of the usless items to make it quick to navigate to your primary use cases. (Blackberry, give me a set up wizard!)

When you want to dial a number you have to use the 9 '2' font keys on the screen. Doing this with one hand is painful. The numbers are also on the left hand side. Most of use will use our right thumb!

Then to chnage any settings most items are burried in very un-intuitive text on a 'left click' button. Further more, what you are after is often burried deep in the navigation. Read on for an example...

-The Noises!!!! The defaults drove me crazy!! 200 e-mails a day. I could have danced to the music the phone made. Every e-mail, every calendar invite the things buzzed beeped and chirped! It was killing the battery. I just needed to know if a phone call was coming in. The fun part was then turning the bleeps off! Read on for an example of crazy usability.

-Turning off beeps
I write this as an example of how bad it gets in places to do simple tasks
It took me about 15 minutes to find out how to do an obvious function.
1) Navigate to item 15 using the roller ball
2) Click using the roller- ball. This opens the drop down menu with 4 big items, normal, vibrate, Quiet and Loud. You would think you then use that 'left click' button to edit. Wrong.
3) Carefull observe there is a tiny indicator that you can scroll beyond these basic options- not obvious. Select at the very bottom 'Advanced' option. Click using the roller ball
4)Observe a new list of profiles which you just saw in just a smaller menu this time!!!
5)Navigate to the profil you wish to edit- say 'Loud'. Now click with the roller ball.
6)If you didn't realise, the 12 different items on this screen from 'Browser' to 'Tasks' are all individual functions on the balckberry with their annoying beep associations. Get this, you need to edit each one to set your desired noise. Here's how
7) Select the functionality you wish to change the noise on, say 'Messenger- New Message'. Who named it 'messenger'!!!
8) You now have a dialogue with 11 options per beep function!!! Change volumne, tune, number of beeps, LED, vibrartions and number etc
9) Click 'Out of Holster' using the roller ball, None, vibrate, Tone or vibrate plus tone.
10) Select an option by clicking with the roller ball.
11) Change any of the other 11 options per function by going to step 9)
12) Use the navigate back button to force a save. Save dialogue then pops up.
13) Select the save or discard button using roller ball.
14) Now go back to step 7 and repeat to 14 another 11 times for the other default beep and tune settings for the default 'Loud' profile!!!

...another 15 minutes later...

-The e-mail text you get back has lost all formatting so often you loose context and it is impossible to read.

-The synchronization software using default installs on XP was slowing my machine start-up by 2 minutes, locking all access to the machine! It was the first thing I uninstalled.

- I can go on but hopefully you guys get the drift and won't make the same mistake as me


Final conclusion
For new users I would wait until a decent user interface comes along that hooks up with Outlook and addresses primary needs. Also a user interface that tries to do core jobs well and not everything from navigating the internet on a 2 inch screen, playing games, GPS, music and so on. For BlackBerry, they need to clean up their usability, software performance and stability. If iPhone get easy sychronisation and backup with Outlook and Lotus Notes, Blackberry will die as soon as their contracts expire.

GREAT REVIEW AND SOME INFO! July 31, 2008

Reviewer:  Jeremy R. Higashiyama "BlackberryJer"  (Rancho Cucamunga, California) -

Like skeptical lawyer said... The only 2 * on this phone.... Be careful they will charge you... Anyways... Now onto the review... I have had enough time with it to figure things out and gotten used to my phone...

Pro's-
Keyboard is great.
Camera takes very good pictures for a camera phone.
User interface is easy.
and more....

Con's-
The ear volume is to quiet.
New internet is a little buggy I will tell you about that.
When you have an email it also goes into your inbox for text messages so when you go and try to delete all the text messages fast then you will most likely delete some of your emails in that inbox and then that deletes them from your email inbox.
Recieving ringtones using bluetooth.



Okay so when you get a blackberry the first thing you think of is business user phone ONLY... Well they arent just for business users. They are for anyone and everyone. By far this is the second best smartphone I have used (number one being Pocket pc). Anyways for this phone there is a whole bunch of features jam packed into a small package. I had upgraded mine for the new Operating Software for upgraded features. You can also do it just ask me about it and I can help you out. So here is the info...

Camera Feature- This camera is a 2 megapixel camera which puts out very decent pictures and the flash is very bright for just 1 LED light. For the upgraded software there is a video feature for the phone but there is a problem with the feature. If you don't have a memory card you wont be able to use the video feature because you get a message saying " To record a video, insert a formatted media card. Then there is digital zoom in the phone which works pretty good and unlike most digital zoom out there you don't to really worry about blurred pictures if u move during the time your taking the picture. I would give it 5 stars.

Browser- The browser is fast and easy to use... But for the upgraded version there is a cursor or arrow just like your computer so you can navigate around using the cursor. i would give this 4 and 1/2 stars

GPS- Now for the gps where I happen to live is a little glitchy. When I am in an area it says that I have no satelitte connection when I have had a connection there before which makes no sense and then I will go there another day and end up having it work fine... All in all i would give it 3 and a half stars.

Mp3/Video Player- I havent tried these yet but will be sure to have an update when I do try it. 0 stars

Keyboard- The keyboard on the phone is, as you know, a full qwerty keyboard, which helps alot and makes it very easy to message fast on. The keys look very small but are indeed very easy to easy to use. Also the trackball makes navigation very easy and fast. Also another thing I noticed is that if your a very fast texter like me, the phone actually can keep up. My old blackjack by samsung was to slow and I would be done with my message if it was long about 10 seconds after I was finished. So I will happily give it 5 stars.

Sound- The speaker for ringtones is very loud and one thing I didn't like is that it was actually a little to loud for mp3 ringtones. But then after the upgrade it got quiet but then I think it got to quiet so in all I give it 2 stars for being to quiet and 3 for being loud But then for being to loud.

Earpiece- There was a big problem I ran into and that was the earpiece. It is simply to quiet. If I am at the mall or somewhere sorta loud but not to loud I can barely hear the person on the other end and for that I have to give that idea 1 star.

Battery Life- For the battery it is very good if you don't use the messenger or internet or anything, but if you do use them use them like I do and I have to be then its not that great... If I stay logged into the blackberry messenger and hotmail messenger that I have downloaded then the battery cuts down ALOT it will only survive for about half a day but then if you dont use that stuff it will last like 2 to 3 days. 5 for not using the stuff and 2 for using the browser and stuff.

Customizable- The blackberry curve is a very customizable you can change the themes that change how the phone looks and there are alot out there on the internet. Some you have to pay for and others are free but there are alot of good free themes out there... Ask me for a website and I will tell you where to find them but there could be changes like being able to make it so you dont have to have icons on your desktop at all times which is something I would really appreciate. 3 and a half stars for not having the possibility of taking icons of your desktop but yet having the option to download themes.

Service- the phone gets great service where I live and thats up in the hills area. Though I am sure the higher I go I will end up losing service. But for where I am I do notice a difference in my old phone to this blackberry... 4 and a half stars.

Processor speed- Sure the processor is 312 Mhz but the problem is that it gets very laggy when you start adding to much stuff to the phone and open to much stuff without closing there properly... It works fine but when to much stuff is on it thats when it gets slow.


All in all I still will give it the 4 and a half stars but since I cant give it that I will just give it 5.. Blackberry has earned it... I would totally recommend this phone to people of all ages and not worry it just being for teenagers or just adults. I hope I gave enough information for you to get this phone or not to get the phone but I dont know... But just comment me to let me know what you think!

Can't live without it! June 17, 2008

Reviewer:  Busyperson 

I bought this phone back in December, and since that time, I have been nothing but pleased with it. I was used to carrying around a Palm Pilot in addition to my cell phone. I researched these type of phones extensively, and it came down to this phone and the Palm Treo. When I looked at these in person, I decided on the Blackberry because it was smaller. The guy I bought it from said that it was more like a cell phone with a built-in PDA, whereas the Palm Treo was more like a PDA with a built-in cell phone. I use all features of the Blackberry on a daily basis. I have 3 different email accounts routed to it, and receive close to 100 emails a day, many of which don't pertain to me. What I like is that if I am out of my office, I can either delete the messages from both my desktop and my handheld, or just from my handheld. It really has helped me manage my time, because I now don't have to read through so many emails when I return to my office. The keyboard isn't too bad, sometimes my small fingers do hit the wrong keys, so I can see how someone with large fingers might not like the keyboard. I don't text all that much, but do send about 15-20 texts/ responses to emails everyday from my handheld. This does take more time than what I am used to. Probably one of the few complaints I have about this phone. The other would be the cost of all the additional services- data plan, navigation, etc. However, I really do depend on this phone, and I highly recommend it. In fact, one of my friends recently traded in her Motorola Q for a Blackberry, and has been nothing but pleased. Not once in 7 months has it crashed on me.

I'm so spoiled now but be careful while driving!!! July 23, 2008

Reviewer:  R. Taylor Weber "portlandia911"  (Portland, Oregon) -

I've had such a good time already with this Blackberry. If this phone would last forever, it's the last one I'd buy. It's the first Blackberry I've ever owned and I have next to no complaints. Here is my more specific feedback, including some help with AT&T:

1. If you're tethered to your laptop through your Blackberry and the internet just seems to lock up, chances are the website either overloaded the system (ex. large streaming videos) or maybe you've even received a phone call at the same time but it couldn't get through. The phone does act as your modem for your internet to the laptop so I've experienced that you can't be online and receive calls at the same time. (See solution for this in my #2). I've even thought to change my voicemail to say something about, "There's a possibility I'm using the internet so please leave a voicemail otherwise I won't know you called...."

2. If your internet does get locked up on the laptop AND the Blackberry, keep your phone on, take the battery out for 10 seconds and then put it all back together. The phone will automatically power back on and you'll see an hour glass turning for a while on your screen. If it lasts quite a while (more than 2 minutes) be patient and give it a little more time. It will come back to normal and you'll see the desktop with all your icons soon. I find this needs to happen almost daily if I'm using the tethering feature to my laptop. I'd say this is one of my only complaints because it's like you're rebooting now and then and I didn't expect that would happen when I bought this. The recovery isn't TOO bad though so I'm living with it.

3. If you're trying to make a phone call while driving BE CAREFUL!!! I don't know about you but I don't have hardly any phone numbers memorized so you have to scroll and dig into the address book to get to your contact (if saved). Between small buttons on the keyboard in combination with having to give more attention to what you're scrolling through, it can be very dangerous. Make sure you're doing this as the car is stopped and even consider pulling over!!!

4. In reviews I read before buying this Blackberry there were people who were disgruntled about AT&T wireless. I don't know if they've changed their entire customer service crew but I'm here to tell you that I've now had over the past few months some of THE best customer service about five times in a row. This customer service overshadowed just about any industry's customer service and it was all sought out straight from the AT&T customer service phone line. You can reach them by dialing 611 on your phone.

5. I noticed the instruction pamphlet that comes with the phone is super simple for helping you explore things. If you have the time to explore throughout some of the folders on your desktop I think you'll find all kinds of applications that do seem logical in the folders they're in. But to get there, you do end up having to take some time that a lot of people just don't have. When I know something should have a feature on it I can't stop until I've found it. If you continue struggling to find what you're looking for you can call customer service or look into simple books like "Blackberry for Dummies". They might be able to expand on what the compact instruction pamphlet cannot.

6. I'm kind of bummed the snooze alarm for the alarm (clock icon) has a max 10 minute time frame. I would have thought they'd allow you to customize that time and they don't. I'll live...

7. If you've placed your SIM card from your previous phone into this Blackberry but you go to the address book (Rolodex icon) and you can't find your saved contacts, all you have to do is hit the blackberry button (just left of the roller ball) and it should have the option for "SIM Phone Book". You'll probably need to scroll down before you're going to find that on the pull down menu.

8. There was some feedback online I read saying that AT&T limits the amount of data you can transfer back and forth through internet usage on your blackberry. I don't know about all internet plans but the key word you want to look for when choosing one is "UNLIMITED DATA" to avoid overage and expensive bills. The one I chose has unlimited data and tethering to my laptop for $60/mo. But, don't forget to add on an additional plan for your text messages! Texts are not included with the internet plan. The text plan I chose was only $5.00/mo.

I truly feel spoiled with my new Blackberry Curve. Finally I feel like I've got quality, convenience and luxury all in the palm of my hand. That's been so nice. Mission accomplished.

I am now a crackberry addict!!! August 12, 2008

Reviewer:  Primetime 

This is my first blackberry and first smartphone. I simply love this phone. I can do anything I want on it, it is very loud compared to my old phone and I get my email whenever I need it.

I have added apps to do everything including rss feeds, facebook, and accessing my twitter account. I have added my own ringtones just by emailing them to the phone and they worked wonderfully.

The only cons are that the case grabs fingerprints like crazy.

If you have never used a BB before just go to crackberry.com and learn everything there is to learn.

Love my new blackberry! July 3, 2008

Reviewer:  P. Philbrick  (Charlottesville, VA) -

Before this i had a treo 700p from alltel. i have to admit, for the first couple of days i had a tough time with the blackberry-- the layout of the curve seemed less intuitive and i found myself missing the touch screen of the treo. however, after the initial learning curve and getting used to the roller ball, i love the blackberry and i'm not sure i could go back. for me the biggest advantage is that the blackberry is a about HALF (maybe a third) of the size/weight of the treo (which was like a brick in my pocket) and i love the fact that blackberry pushes my email through immediately. incoming sound quality is indistinguishable between the two phones. from all feedback that i've received, outgoing sound quality is significantly better on the blackberry.

amazon had it shipped out the day after i ordered and i was able to port my number after a ten minute phone call with at&t.

Durability March 26, 2008

Reviewer:  Angie "Chini's Girl"  (Camden, NJ) -

I've had my phone for 3 months now and the one thing i hate the most regarding it is the casing. I dropped it one time and have two cracks in it. They are not made well, and BlackBerry doesnt sell just the casing, that to me sucks! Why pay a deductible for the insurance for a crack, and then something major happens. The plastic is horrible!

I'm not sure... October 5, 2008

Reviewer:  Civet7 "Civet7"  (Chicago) -

Before I bought this phone I shopped around a lot, read reviews etc. I was going from a Motorola Razor to this, and before I got this phone I had no problems with my Razor. Ever since I got the Curve, my reception has been really horrible. My calls don't really drop, but many times in each conversation I have moments where the person sounds really garbled and I have to ask them to repeat themselves. I hadn't read anything about this in any reviews, but since I got it a few months ago I have been talking to some friends who just got theirs and they are complaining of the same thing. I have AT&T service, though I hadn't had this problem before the phone switch. I just wanted to warn people, since I hadn't seen an alert about this before. If you're just having conversations with friends it's something you can get used to, but if you are using it for business it might be a major hassle!