BlackBerry Curve 8900 Phone, Titanium (T-Mobile)

Ex Iphone user, and I love this phone! April 2, 2009

Reviewer:  Ryan  (Los Angeles, CA) -

My first Amazon review. Let me say this. I've owned a couple of Blackberrys in the past, and although I enjoyed them I am a mac user which means I could never fully enjoy all the features like the music player.

When the Iphone came along I bought it as soon as I could (Leaving Tmoble to do so), and I loved it. Still do actually. I don't understand how many people say things like "the iphone sucks". Really? What does it take to please some people? Some flaws, sure, but finally there was a phone that not only was designed FOR mac users, but also raised the bar for all the other companies. Many of the coolest features on other phones are a response to the iphone.

With ATT my phone bills went up on average 40%, and the customer care was horrible. They suffered a bit from the "you're on contract so what you gonna do" syndrome. That coupled with the fact that as a Mac User there weren't a ton of smart phone options, so I was stuck.

Then I found the Curve 8900!
With all the New Blackberry's there is finally some real competition, which is a good thing for Mac users. It finally seems like other companies realized that MAC people are some of the largest and most loyal consumers of electronics, and it doesn't take much to make us feel included. I couldn't use the CD that came with the phone on my computer, but I just hopped on the web and did some downloads and now I can use all the features on my Macbook, including itunes syncing and photos. Which is great because the camera is awesome. The only thing is you need the newest OS on your mac to use the software from the website, but if you don't have that you can also download Pocketmac, which works pretty well.

I find the browser works great, and if you don't like it you can download another if you want. Opera mini is pretty good too. I just like being able to choose for myself, which is something I couldn't do on the Iphone. The Iphone is still probably the best web surfing phone on the market in my opinion, but the Curve is still great! I mean there comes a point when you may as well just crack the Laptop if you are going to do hardcore surfing. That being said, I still go to all the same websites and it is just as fast as my iphone was. The smaller screen means WAY better battery life. I still charge it every day, but this phone has made it two days on pretty heavy use, and you can actually change the battery if you needed to which is a real plus.

Expandable memory is a huge plus! I've got 16 Gb in mine now.

Blackberry just launched there own App store, that is much like the one found on the iphone, so now I have all the same things I had before on my iphone like Pandora, and Shazam.

Going back to Tmobile was an easy choice too. My wife is with them, and the customer care has been great. And the plan they have me and my wife on is cheep! I actually unlocked my iphone and gave it to her and now she is running it on Tmobile much cheaper, and because I had the 2g Iphone I actually think the data is faster on Tmobile. Also the Curve switches to make calls over WiFi (on certain plans) saving you minutes. That feature is so seamless you wont notice the switch.

Yeah, yeah. Some people say things like, 3g is a must for me. But let me say this. Lots of people are whiners who don't know what they are talking about. The Curve has a fast processor, and great WiFi capability, and it is super fast. Call quality is great.

It's also less fragile then the iphone. Touch screens are glass and I actually smashed my first iphone by dropping it from two feet. YIKES!

The Curve also feels more professional to me. I can do Word documents on it, and although I can still play games and surf the web, I do less of the time wasting I did on the Iphone. You know what I mean? The usless surfing like "Hey, whats the tempurature in Australia?

All up I am very happy with the switch. If I had to pick a con, I'd say that the locking on the phone is a bit of a pain. It can become unlocked in your pocket, but that was solved by putting a password on my phone. I just hate picking cons because these phones are so great now a days!

I also loved the Iphone, but the price and AT&T was getting to me! A little competition keeps them all working harder to for us the consumer.

My first BlackBerry and I love it...sometimes... February 11, 2009

Reviewer:  Cleo  (New York City) -

[I purchased the 8900 directly from T-Mobile (TMo) and not Amazon]
[Updated March 2, 2009]

I was able to purchase this phone about a week before its official release. I was excited that I could get my hands on a piece of equipment before it was available to the general public. I had high expectations on this product due to all of the hype surrounding its United States release. I believe the phone was already available in Europe and Canada since late last year. It is known as the Javelin outside of the US. In addition to the 8900, I was also purchased the 8320. I guess I can give a preliminary comparison of the two, although the 8320 is not primarily used by me. It was given to someone else as a gift. But I have played around with it for a bit. Before going into the details, I have to say that the phone call quality is good. But that all depends on your coverage area with T-Mobile. You can check your coverage here:[...] . It's been a month and I haven't had a drop call yet. With Sprint/Nextel, drop calls were the norm.

Pros:
1. Noticeably smaller and slimmer than any of the current BlackBerrys (BB). It is lighter than the 8320 but I didn't feel a big difference
2. The screen is super sharp and detailed. It sports a 480x360 (4:3) screen. I believe the BB Bold and iPhone is 480x320. Even though the screen is much smaller than its competitors, its bright and very detailed. It includes a one minute video clip of a John Mayer concert to show off its display qualities.
3. The processor is noticeably quicker than the 8320. With the 8320, you have to wait a second or two longer for just browsing the phone's numerous menus and applications.
4. The numbers are highlighted in red and not that flashy black/white style found in other BBs. I believe the not-yet-released AT&T 8900 will have that keyboard.
5. Great photo camera (see Cons section for comments on video quality). It even has auto-focus. If you press the camera button halfway, you can see the camera focusing on the subject, just like a regular point & shoot digital camera. The very bright LED flash is an added bonus. You could use it as a small flashlight, if needed.
6. Has both Wi-Fi and GPS. The TMo 8320 only has Wi-Fi.
7. Improved home screen and icons. The 8320 looks a bit cartoonish. Of course, you can change the "theme" and icons. But most users won't bother or even know how to do that.
8. Comes with BB Maps. It's pretty good. It's even better than my Garmin nuvi 660 because the 660 fails to display the name of the street that you're driving on when you're not in navigation mode.
9. The micro SDHC card is no longer located beneath the battery as in the 8320. So, you can remove the card without having to remove the battery.

Cons:
1. Too many browers. The BB is a bit confusing in terms of the number of different internet browsers installed on the unit. It has a different browser depending on which internet service you're using. For example, if you're using normal EDGE internet service, it's called Internet Browser. If you want to use Wi-Fi, you have to switch to Hotspot Browser.
2. Even though BB and Amazon describes the 8900 as being compatible with DivX and Xvid (video codecs), not a single Divx or Xvid file has worked on the 8900. I think Research in Motion (RIM) allows very early versions of those codecs to work, none of which is used by the mass public these days. Hopefully, RIM will fix the 8900 with future firmware updates.
3. The shift key is smaller than the 8320. I don't know why they made it smaller. There's empty room on the keyboard to accomodate a larger shift key.
4.Keys are not as raised as in the 8320. The 8320 is slightly easier to type with.
5.Video recording is weak. You would think that since the phone has a great camera, it would take better video footage. Not the case. The highest resolution is 240x180. That's right: 240x180. That's preposterous. At least it has video recording. The much acclaimed iPhone doesn't.
6.Wi-Fi browsing is not as fast I'd like. It's still far slower than using a laptop computer over Wi-Fi. Probably has to do with the fact that the phone is a phone first then laptop/camera/video recorder second.
7.There's no setting available to have the phone vibrate and ring at the same time. You can only alternate the vibrate and ring. Very strange.
8. Battery life is below average compared to the 8320 and other non-smart phones. This is due to the faster processor over the 8320, more detailed and vivid screen, and a multitude of applications running in the background. Many smartphones suffer from this battery issue as well. Remember to put the phone into standby by either inserting it into the supplied OEM holster (a magnet in the holster activates standby) or press the mute button for about 1 second). There is some speculation circulating on the internet about the supplied OEM holster draining the battery when the 8900 is inserted, even though it is supposed to conserve the battery by initiating standby mode.

I'll update this review as I'm still learning the ins and outs of this new great phone!!!! [Updated March 2, 2009]

Just Ok... too hard to text on for me. March 18, 2009

Reviewer:  Todd W. Van Lom "javajams"  (Portland, OR) -

BlackBerry users are without a doubt a loyal crowd. I had heard from numerous people that this was the phone to get because of it's email capability and fast processing speed. So when the new 8900 came out, I jumped on it right away. At first, I enjoyed it. However, I think I was just more excited by the stunning screen and the fact that I had now joined the loyal BB fold than anything else.

My main grip about this unit is the tiny key pad for texting. I'm not a freak of nature, but I do have fairly large hands. For me, this unit was just WAY to difficult to text on. I was told to use my finger nails by a TMobile salesperson. I'm a guy... I don't have nails.

My other complaint is the image size for web page viewing. You have the option to use a magnifying glass to 'zoom' in while on the web, but it takes awhile and you have to use it just about every time. Just so you know, I'm in my early 40's but scored 20/20 on my last vision exam about a year ago. I don't think my eyes have gone that quickly. And as long as we're on the topic of web browsing, I'm just not a fan of the abbreviated page views. I prefer full web browsing features like I would get on my laptop and/or iPhone.

Finally, no 3G and most of the downloadable applications are fee based. I don't get why TMobile would exclude this phone from accessing their new 3G network.

Pros: Quick email access, high-definition display, very decent audio/media playback, you can upgrade to 16gb of storage, it's a BB.

Since I'm a TMobile customer, I traded my BB 8900 in for the G1 and I love it. Much easier for me to type/text on and I have full web page browsing on the 3G network.

The best blackberry so far February 17, 2009

Reviewer:  Sam Stone "SStone"  (Sacramento,CA USA) -

I just bought this phone from Amazon. A great deal which is cheaper than buying from the T-Mobile site.

The best features of this phone are :

1) Making phone calls over WIFI for free once you add the $9.99 unlimited hot spot calling to your plan.

2) Very slim and sleek compared to previous Blackberry phones

3) Gorgeous display screen

4) You can even switch off the wireless portion and use it strictly on Wifi for voice calls and Internet/Email access (however bear in mind if you are on WIFI only and you are using an Internet application like Flycast any voice call will end up going to voice mail.

5) I have not used previous Blackberry's for listening to Music but with this one the sound is great and you can download some great applications for Blackberry like Flycast and Slacker Mobile to listen to Music. I hooked it up to my Ipod docking station and it sounds great.

6) Battery life is good as with prior Blackberries. It lasts three days if I don't play any music and use it strictly for voice and email.

7) The keyboard is easy to type on and feels solid.

Best Blackberry for Corporate Users March 4, 2009

Reviewer:  Canadian in Cali  (San Francisco, California) -

I have had this phone for 3 weeks now and absolutely love it. I constantly have to send emails for work and this is as close as a phone can get to being perfect for email.

Before I go to the pros and cons, I would say that this review is based on someone who uses the corporate side of the smartphone first, and browsing second. Nothing is better than an iPhone for browsing, but nothing beats a QWERTY pad for typing.

Pros
- Screen is great, a great improvement over the original Curve. If you send a lot of emails this makes a huge difference
- I don't really care for the screen to be widescreen, it's not a TV and I would rather have a bigger screen for emails then the wider one on the Bold
- It's barely bigger than the Pearl, which has half the keys
- It's nicer looking than the Bold, which is clunky and has that ugly leatherette on the back
- WiFi is great. If you're in an office with WiFi you won't miss 3G and not having 3G isn't that much of an issue since I don't really need to stream Youtube when I am walking around
- The battery life is better than my old Pearl, especially since I upgraded the firmware. Also for those who have issues with the battery life, it also depends on what apps you have in the background. The older BBs don't have the memory and processor to run things like IM in the background and all of these drain battery
- The keypad is great. It's as close to using a PC as you can get, which is amazing given the size of the pad. I love it
- The phone's camera is actually pretty good given it's not a proper-sized camera. It can actually take decent night photos with some light, which is not the case of many phones. The flash is actually pretty strong for a such a small device and can double as a little flashlight


Cons
- The big one is no 3G, though I honestly think this is overhyped. Half the people with 3G iPhones have to turn it off to save battery and if you use the phone for work, calling, or IM 3G doesn't make a difference. Yes you can get data and voice at the same time, but you can do this on WiFi and generally you wouldn't be on a phone call and sending an email at the same time. Still having 3G would have been better, as I would rather pay a bit more and turn it off then not have the option
- The browser is much better than prior iterations but Browsing has never been a BB forte. I use Opera Mobile, which is much better, but it's still not even close to using the UI of an iPhone

I admittedly cannot live without my BB and this phone is not helping with that. Nonetheless as smartphones go I think this thing is as good as it gets for corporate use, though 3G should have been put in.

This is a great BB, IMO, the best one RIM has ever made.

Best Blackberry Ever February 11, 2009

Reviewer:  Robert T. Olson  (SLC, UT) -

I have owned this for about 2 weeks now. Some how i was lucky enough to have it shipped early and it has been the best phone I have ever had. Those familiar with the blackberries know that this phone has been anxiously awaited on for a long time and those who don't better ask somebody. The wait has been worth it and now the new Curve is gracing our hands. It really is amazing to hold in your hand. It's like when you first held the original curve, but even better! (if you can imagine that) Also the screen on it is the sharpest screen i've seen on a hand held. It's like Super HD if that's even such a thing. You can also make calls or browse on the Wi-Fi network and once you install Google Maps you have a great map system (since the phone includes GPS) The keyboard is very nice and easy to get used to. It's also not as loud as the old curve. The Chrome accents are very sharp on the edges and the phone is very sexy. The battery life is alright but i'm on it all day every day hence the Crack in Crackberry. Once you do a software update it lasts a lot longer. The web browser is a true web browser. People are complaining about no 3G and what not but it's not a big deal for me. It's fast enough. Plus you can have your face book and twitter apps right on the phone and it comes with about 5 great games right out of the box.

Overall i would highly recommend this phone to anybody who wants to send and receive e-mail (which is full html) every day and who just wants a nice phone. The media functions are very nice on it as well. Movies that wouldn't play on my old Curve play very nicely on this one. The camera has auto focus and take very nice sharp pictures as well. Better than any other pictures i have ever taken with my cell phone. I have an 8 gb memory card in it (i bought off of amazon) and you really will be blown away by the pictures this takes. So sharp and crisp.

I'm sure the storm and iphone are great but i need a keyboad. Sorry. No touch screens for me. I type off e-mails all day and with a little practice you'll be clicking off full page e-mails in no time.

Buyer Beware! April 23, 2009

Reviewer:  Christopher Heuner "Irate Customer"  (NJ) -

Last year I purchased two Blackberry phones with T-mobile service as a birthday gift for my twin teenagers. I opted to listen to the sales rep. and buy insurance for $6/phone/month which he said covered a replacement phone. Inevitably with normal teenager texting use, one of the phones broke and the trackball fell out. For a moment I had piece of mind knowing I had insurance and called T-mobile. They quickly pawned me off to 'Asurian' who informed me of a $130 deductable. What a ripoff! $144/year and I pay a deductable! Nothing is mentioned like this when you buy the phone! Beware. Also T-mobile coverage is pretty terrible. Go with Verizon or AT&T. Do not get insurance through Asurian though!!!!!

Do not buy this phone April 23, 2009

Reviewer:  booth  (MA) -

I bought a new 8900 from TMobile about a month ago. It worked fine until about three days ago but now the trackball (cursor) will not go up, only down. I called TMobile and they will not replace my phone with a new one, only a used one. If this is how you get treated after a month....

Of the 43 phones I've burned through in 3 years: May 9, 2009

Reviewer:  J. Medina "Game Nerd"  (Colorado) -

Hey all, I want to make a few things clear before I get too deep into my review. There's been a lot of myths about BlackBerry that quite simply aren't true. First and foremost, this phone is NOT just a business phone, it can be optimized and customized to whatever you'd like. As of the past 3 days, I haven't needed to use my computer for anything except writing this review. Like I said in the title, I've been through 43 different phones on 4 different networks in 3 years. I've seen everything from the BB Pearl to the iPhone to the Samsung Instinct. As someone that has had a lot of different phones, both low end and high end, I feel like I've seen quite a bit of good things and bad things on all phones. My review is unbiased, as all reviews should be.


The Pros:
-WiFi and WiFi calling is simply awesome. This is a must because I don't get any cell phone reception at my house. I had a G1 and although it had WiFi, it would not connect to my router and it didn't feature WiFi calling.

-Screen is beautiful. Don't let the size fool you, it IS smaller than an iPhone screen, but the fact is this screen is the closest you will find to true HD on a cell phone. Although HD currently doesn't exist on cell phones in the US, this phone has a very clear screen that just glows.

-Camera is AMAZING. For a cell phone camera, this thing blows my mind, it takes better pictures than my old digital camera of the same resolution. It's a 3.2 Megapixel, but I swear it's much MUCH better than that. I took a picture of a pair of shoes, and I could see the grains in the leather, I could see the finest details. Best camera I've EVER seen on a phone.

-Call quality is superb. With T Mobiles service, the reception area isn't as broad as I'd like, but even with the spotty areas of service, I haven't dropped a call yet. Great job with the quality, and shouldn't this be the most important detail of all?

-Applications: No, it doesn't have an app store nearly as immense as the iPhone, but rest assured, the BlackBerry faithful have found ways to make apps for all your favorite stuff. The phone ships with a complete mobile office suite. It comes with a word processor, spreadsheet reader, and all the other goods that you would want with a business phone. It's nice having that XLS reader/editor, because I can easily track and update the rosters on all my favorite teams from anywhere.

-Battery Life: WOW! That's all I can say, from the get go, you're going to notice the battery is quite a big larger than other cell phone batteries. Like most people know, when you're in the atmosphere of smartphones, a bigger battery almost instantly means better battery life, and this phone is no different. Thanks to the updated processor (which is incredible), the phone optimizes the phones different processes to make the battery life better. On the information above, it tells you that you can get 5.5 hours talk time, I got 7 hours of talk time on one battery charge. Most normal cell phones don't even get that.


One other thing a lot people are asking about is tethering, and while T Mobile doesn't technically offer it, there is an application called TetherBerry that will let you use the BlackBerry for tethering.




Overall: I know I've said a million different things up there, but the bottom line is this:

This phone can be anything you want it to be, whether it's a social networking tool, or a business tool. This phone does anything you want it to. It's the whole package, and I think I'm done seeing other phones, I'm ready to settle down with this one.

Good improvement over prior Curve models February 23, 2009

Reviewer:  Wayne Schulz "mas90 accounting software guru"  (Glastonbury, CT USA) -

Updated OS, 3.2 mp camera, restyled case.

Those the three main upgrades in store for anyone who previously owned a Curve. While the 8900 is a nice upgrade for sure - RIM still suffers from build issues in the Curve model line. The battery door on mine (and I've read elsewhere that others have this too) is loose and has "give" to it when I type (yes, you can solve this by sticking a business card between the battery and door).

I've been using the 8900 for a couple weeks now. I also have a BlackBerry Bold (which I prefer for the larger screen and different keypad which I find easier to use).

If you have small hands - the 8900 is a nice phone. It's size will fit in your palm just right and not be difficult to hold.

In practice I find the control keys (send, end, escape, menu) that are between the screen and the keyboard are difficult (perhaps uncomfortable is a better word) to press. If you don't press in the right spot - there's very little give and after a while continued use hurts your finger.

The smaller keyboard on the 8900 is less comfortable for me. I'm using a BlackBerry Bold whose keyboard I prefer because the keys are less pointed on the Bold. This will be a matter of preference - so you should try the 8900 keyboard yourself prior to making a final decision.

In testing the OS on the 8900 is fairly stable. I've owned T-Mobile UMA equipped BlackBerry's before and they all seem to have some tendency to sporadically lock up on incoming calls when on UMA (which is voice and data sent over Wi-Fi). The lock ups don't happen frequently (maybe once a week at most) - but they're annoying.

RIM's latest OS (4.6) has a major lag time when re-booting. I haven't run a stopwatch against my devices but both the Bold and the 8900 easily run 5 minutes to reboot. Hopefully enough people will complain and RIM will fix this. Earlier models of the BlackBerry had this same reboot lag but I do not remember it being this lengthy.

Overall here's my BlackBerry 8900 PRO / CON list:

PROS:

- Uses a much improved BlackBerry OS 4.6.x
- Vastly improved camera of 3.2 mp
- T-Mobile UMA allows calls via Wi-Fi when out of native T-Mobile coverage
- T-Mobile UMA allows data, sms, mms via Wi-Fi
- Re-designed form factor for those needing a smaller phone

CONS:

- Battery cover has give when pressed during normal use
- Lacks 3G capabilities
- T-Mobile cellular coverage in Northeast (and I believe elsewhere) is the worst of all carriers
- Sporadic lock ups while on UMA
- Smaller screen and keyboard may be too small for some (especially screen)
- Inserting micro-SD card requires removing battery cover (though not battery)

Is this a good phone to buy?

In a word - Yes. I think for the price Amazon offers it (after rebate) you have a hard time finding a better bargain. Given all the pros and cons I think you should zero in on the T-Mobile coverage first and be sure that you'll be adequately covered in your home usage area.

Also, first time BlackBerry buyers should be aware that there's a mandatory BlackBerry data plan required to use this phone. I've read lots (LOTS) of messages on discussion boards about people trying to get around this and while it seems that some do skirt the data requirement (and be aware that if you buy through Amazon you are required to keep data on your line for a period of time or you can be assessed a penalty) - most find that there's no good way around a BB plan.