RIM BlackBerry Curve 8330 – A working warhorse
The RIM BlackBerry Curve 8330 is a great messaging device but lacks quality in other departments, so don’t look to it if you want a well-rounded device. It is thicker and heavier than its GSM counterpart owing to the 3G chip, but the extra heft in hand was barely noticeable. The Curve 8330 offers a lot of the much-loved features of a BlackBerry, including its tried and tested messaging platform, but the lack of little extras like wi-fi rankles when competing smartphones are quick to readily offer it up. The display is a standard 65k color TFT screen and a resolution of 320×240 pixels. It is equipped with a light sensor that adjusts the backlight depending on ambient light, which is a nice touch and the display is crisp and viewable, although a bit less so under direct sunlight.
Like most other BlackBerry’s, this has a trackball located right below the screen and the menu and back buttons have a concave shape and aren’t difficult to pres even if you have large fingers. A quick peek at the left side reveals a 3.5 mm headphone jack, a mini-USB port, the volume controller and two customizable keys in all, the second of which is on the right side. We couldn’t find the MicroSD slot at first before locating it behind the battery bay, so that’s a big negative in our books since it’s inaccessible while the phone is on.
On the rear is the ubiquitous camera and video recorder with flash and LED mirror, but the photos taken by the 2 megapixel lens showed weak colors and I wasn’t pleased with the results. The integrated GPS unit is a bit of a saving grace though as you can use the turn-by-turn text and voice directions to navigate through unknown places. The lack of wi-fi was a major letdown, but the presence of EV-DO makes up for that somewhat, with the promise of a strong web browsing experience in the offing. The phone is also a versatile multimedia performer, supporting MP3, WMA, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, and MIDI music files, and MPEG4, WMV, and H.263 video clips. The 64 MB of on-board memory will be quite inadequate, so splash some cash on a MicroSD card.
The Curve’s strength is its messaging functionality and it can sync with your company’s enterprise server or use BlackBerry internet service to access up to 10 personal or business email accounts using POP3 or IMAP4. And then there’s the BlackBerry Messenger, ably supported by Yahoo! and Google Talk messaging clients just so you can stay hyper-connected. The attachment viewer software can open Microsoft Office files, PDF’s and standard image formats among others. Editing documents on the fly is not a possibility, but third party applications solve that issue. All in all, the Curve 8330 is a solid performer with a reasonable set of features but wouldn’t recommend it over competing smartphones from Motorola, Samsung and HTC, to name a few that offer more value for money.
