So I got a blackberry Curve 8900 about three weeks ago. I would like to share some of my thoughts on the device with the world wide interwebs.
Summary:
Overall I am pretty pleased with the device. It is great for making calls and pounding out text messages, instant messages, and email. The keyboard feels very good and I make very little mistakes when typing on it.
Something I find important is the ability for the speaker phone to be loud enough to wake me up in the morning when the alarm goes off, which this phone is certainly capable of provided you use a loud enough music file for the alarm.
I also like it when the phones vibrate function is strong enough that you can use it exclusively to be silently notified of calls and messages. The 8900’s vibrate function is accepatbly strong but you can still miss notifications if your pockets are loose!
My main issues with the phone are the horrible default web browser and the inability to set another app as the default web browser. Blackberry’s web browser pales in comparison to the Safari browser of the iPhone and the web browser used by Google’s Android operating system. Its very slow and has a hard time rendering pages to look correct. There is a third party browser called Opera Mini that works much better but there is no option to set this as the default web browsing application which is very unfortunate.
Another issue I have is the lack of useful and high quality apps for the phone. There are some out there, such as the instant messaging apps, but don’t expect quality nearly as good as the iPhone or even Androis OS.
Pros:
- Great screen
- Great battery life
- Good keyboard, fast to type on
- Good speaker volume and decent vibrate
Cons:
- App quality and selection is very poor
- Blackberry web browser is horrible compared to Safari and Android
- No 3G data speed
- Lack of customization for the interface
Conclusion:
The phone is great for making calls and communicating via txts & emails. If this is all you do then this phone would probably be great for you, however if you are looking for a jack of all trades mobile device I would suggest looking elsewhere.
Research In Motion Blackberry Curve 8900 on the Rogers wireless network in Canada.
