BlackBerry Curve 8310
Average Ratings
Not at all impressed.
I don't know what everyone's thinking, but in no way is this the "best phone ever." I've had my Blackberry for about nine months now, and I can honestly say I'm ready to get rid of it.
The very first thing I noticed was that though the trackball works well, it gets dirty in a short amount of time and there is no way to clean it. My once clear trackball is now brown and very unattractive.
Also, about a month after I had my phone, I woke up one morning and all of my messages and calls had been deleted. ALL of them. When I took it to an AT$T store, they told me this happens often if you don't take your battery out occasionally and let the phone reboot. That should NOT be a condition with having the phone.
Talk time is terrible. If all you do is text and mess around on the phone, battery life is great. But talking on the phone KILLS the battery.
Rebooting can take forever. And since you have to do it often to keep your messages/calls intact, it gets annoying. Fast.
The buttons are loud. They make an obnoxious clicking sound that makes me want to forget texting altogether.
The paint comes off easily and the back of the phone scratches up in no time.
The camera has a good flash, but the quality is terrible. Random lines show up when you upload the pictures onto your computer.
The phone comes with a folder for videos, but no video recorder. Wait, what? Yeah.
If you want to hold a few things on this phone, you HAVE to get a memory card. Absolutely no memory comes with it. A couple of pictures and ringtones, MAYBE.
I wouldn't recommend this phone to anyone. Ebay it up.
Great Inside Crap on the Outside
I think the title says it all. This phone functions exactly the way a blackberry should. Anyone experienced with a blackberry will know what I mean.
Pros:
Nice Interface (OS4.2)
Bright Screen
Responsive Keyboard.
Packed with Features (GPS, microSD, & 2MP camera)
Holster Sensor
Cons:
CHEAP Housing
Slow Lock on GPS
No loop for a lanyard or wrist strap
Screen is Easy to Scratch
Back Door can come off easily
Ear phone jack is poorly positioned
Rubberized coating peals easily
Trackball gunks up really easy.
Bottomline. This is a solid compact smartphone, but you need to invest in a shell case which defeats the purpose of the compact size in my opinion. Go with a 88xx series or look into a different model.
A review from someone who knows what there talking about.
First off let me make it clear I sell cell phones for living. I sell Sprint, Verizon, CricKet and T-Mobile. That being said I have seen the comments about how the curve restarts its self and or powers off on its own. Mine did the same thing for about a week when I first got the phone. When the phone is first powers on its set up takes longer than most phones, email,your country ect..ATT and the other carriers no this happens theres nothing you can do to fix it. Now from what info I've seen when the phone powers off its because the processor detected a problem and is fixing it. I know that sounds dumb but its info I didnt either.
Here are some of my pros and cons for the curve 8310.
Pros.
I love the display on the phone.
The keyboard is very easy to use(compare it to a BlackJack2 or a Palm cenrto)
The e-mail works great.
The trackball makes everything easy to get to.
The way the phone feels in mu hand.
Cons.
No video camera.
I cant get videos to play from youtube.
Other than that I love the phone. You can go to blackberry.com and download all kinds of applications some free some at a BIG discount. Or depending on your carrier you could get free apps on your carrirers website. And last I dont use opra mini but it is a great app for blackberrys.
Buggy at best
I have been using a Pearl 8100 for the better part of a year now. I felt it was time to upgrade to a Curve as my pearl was starting to show some signs of its age.
I went into my local Rogers dealer and upgraded to the silver Curve 8310. I fell in love with the look and feel of the phone instantly. Took it home and set up all my contacts, alerts, etc and was happily on my way. A few days later i started noticing an annoying habit the phone had developed. The handset shuts down randomly on its own, then when you try to turn it on it won't respond. You have to remove the battery and then put it back in, then the phone would fire up. A few hours later it would do it again.
I returned the phone and was given another new curve. Shortly there after the new Curve began exhibiting the same glitches as the previous one.
I took the phone back again, they said it was the battery and replaced the battery. no luck same problem.
I took the phone back again and they offered me another curve, I said forget it and told them I'd go back to my pearl, which is a little worse for wear but at least it works and stays on!
Since then I've done some searching on the web and much to my surprise I'm not the only one with this problem. Yet why is it no one knows why this happens and / or how to fix it?
Overall I loved the look and feel of the phone, the keypad was great to type on and screen was wonderful. But the phone was not dependable at all, I can't have a handset that turns it self off at random.
I'd recommend the 81XX or 88XX series but skip the Curve 83XX series, don't be sucked in by its great looks.
Or just wait for the Bold or Thunder.
Outstanding
Great phone. My first Berry since I sold my iPhone. Great RF, sound quality, and speaker volume. I love all the things you can do with this phone following the advice of the guys on crackberry.com.
Pros:Full QWERTY keyboard, good RF, good earpiece and ringer volume, lightweight, battery life, built in help topics, faster EDGE than in iPhone, 3rd party apps.
Cons: OS not that user friendly, have to check crackberry.com for help.
Amazing
This phone is simply the best. Ive had it for about a week and a half and nothing is wrong with it. I don't care what anyone says the battery life is amazing for a smartphone. if you constantly are on the internet e-mailing or whatever your battery life will run down but i can go 2 days without charging mine. just charge it every other night.
Pros:
excellent call quality
crisp, clean screen
speakerphone is loud and clear
you can go a year without deleting your texts
expandable memory up to 4 gig
gps is awesome(you have to subscribe of course)
Cons: not to many
keyboard is small but it just takes getting used too
battery life could be better but overall is pretty good.
those are the only cons i can think of..
if ur thinking aboutgetting a new smartphone or PDA this is the phone to go with
Not all that...
My first smart-phone, and maybe I've been over-marketed to, but after 6 weeks of use, I'm no Crackberry (though the site is a great source of info).
What really peeved me from the beginning - no Voice Memo, and PhoneScoop should change this on their Info tab for the Curve. The definition of Voice Memo is record and save voice notes. The Curve only lets you attach voice notes to MMS messages; it does NOT have a traditional Voice Memo feature, period. It will in the 4.5 OS due out in Sept 2008, but it doesn't now. Bad on ATT, PhoneScoop and RIMM for advertising it as such.
Pro's -
- Good reception
- Half way decent camera
Con's -
- Half way decent camera (that's right, same as above)
- Bad battery life that using stand-by doesn't seem to improve
- Not a great camera
- No 3G - slow browsing
- trackball sensitivity varies and it's easy to over/under shoot your target.
- Horrible voice recognition for dialing, e.g., I say Call Bill. Phone says, did you say call Linda, call Kevin, call John. Um, they don't even sound close, and I did the adaptation exercise too.
It was fun, but it was not for me......
I have now owned the Curve2 for about 4 Months, and today is my last day with this device. Parting is not such sweet sorrow. Although, I enjoyed blackberry's email service and the larger screen, I was not too convinced that the crackberry lifestyle is for me.
Cons
- No Video Recording
- Camera is pretty terrible for 2MP. I have owned 2 MP camera phones and got the pictures developed, not on the curve.
- No 3G
- Limited to Blackberry software
- Small Keys
- No FM radio included
- Batt. Life
Pros
- EMAIL IS Excellent
- SMS TEXT holds complete conversation.
- Calendar & Daily Planner
- Software for home PC is great
- Accessories in the box is a plus!
- Great sound through the headphones
Even for Business, I am not sure why or how Blackberry has taken over the world. I see the email benifits and it stops there. As a Sony and Nokia supporter, owning this device has re-affirmed my belief that the Sony and Nokia High end phones are still the best in the World.
Thank's Blackberry for letting me shop, blog and use the net via Opera Mini, That was my only major benifit.
Goodbye Blackberry 8310
Hello Sony Ericsson K850 !!!!!
decent, just not for me
when the time came for me to upgrade my phone, i researched every single phone they had for weeks, bc my cell is an extension of me and if im gonna be stuck with sumthin for 2 yrs i better love it. i kept the bberry for 5 days and it was too complicated for me. now im 18 so im on top of all things tech but this was my first smartphone and it was just a bad impression.
Cons:
-TRACKBALL! wow i never thought i could hate something as much as i hated that trackball. the sensetivity was never the same, and unlike a phone with a traditional d-pad, you cant tell how many spaces up or over you went when using your phone without looking, say in class or whatever.
-You have to take the battery out to get at the sim card or your sd card, and rebooting takes at least 4-5 min
-for basically a computer in your pocket, the durn thing wont take a video?!
-the light sensing/auto adjusting is cool at first, but pretty sensitive...is changes the brightness about every 5 sec.
-not a good first smartphone; it takes me ab 5 min of playing with a new phone before i can use it without even looking, but a phone with a qwerty keyboard and so many menus is pretty hard to get used to coming from a standard phone.
-Requires a unlimited data plan ($30 minimum). not a flaw with the phone really, but c'mon at&t! they know no one will want unlimited everything but with only 200 txt! this basically forces you to cough up an extra 10 a month on top of that for unlimited txt, and even then at $40 a month some things are still off limits, such as GPS and xm radio, which require separate subscription. and even $40 a month doesnt include minutes, but you probably knew that.
Pros:
-Holds god knows how many texts. i kept the thing for 5 days and i sent and received at least 400-500txts and never had to clean them out
-2.0 mp camera with flast (no video tho!)
-programmable side keys
-EXTREMELY loud speaker
-Lighter than i expected.
BlackBerry Curve
Blackberry curve is the best phone out there made by blackberry as of yet. as far as those who are having those software issues like erasing info off blackberry, you just need a software update. I did mine about two weeks ago and that problem has ended.
For those trying to get software added, there are many free programs that blackberry offers and google blackberry as well.
Now as far as the speaker not being loud enough, there is a program called flipside. not only does it enhance your speaker volume, but it sorts your music into categories based on albums, and song titles. But the best thing about this program is it allows you to hear your music via your bluetooth headset.
Also those who don't like the fact you cant use video, well keep looking online or give me an email I found the program that allows mine to take video, and it gives me a good 3 to five hours of video footage.
I love this phone. I am a phone guru I cant keep a phone more than one month cause I'm always looking for the faster, better, bigger deal, but four times I have went back to using the blackberry curve. I guess thats why it is the number one selling phone amongst all carriers.
