Blackberry Curve - changed my life. (Blackberry Curve 8900)

Member Name: agewills

Product:	Blackberry Curve 8900
Date:	12/09/09 (151 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Feature packed, easy to use, nice big screen, good for everything .

Disadvantages: Makes you lazy, short battery life .

Im a bit behind the times, what with the Blackberry storm, the Iphone 3g and all the other new phones out at the moment, but i recently got my hands on a Blackberry Curve, for free via vodafone. I have a to say, i love it. I was worried it might be a bit poncy or "business man"-like, but it isn't really. I mean, it could be, but that's not the way i use it. I use it for the simple things in life, listening to music, making phone calls, sending texts, taking pictures, all the stuff i used to do with my old phone (before it broke :().

The blackberry is a blessing and a curse in disguise as a sexy little black thing. I chose it because im a massive geek and i love having a QWERTY keyboard. I'm too old and boring to be quick enough to use a normal phone keypad to type text messages. Perhaps grumpy would be a better term. Anyway, i knew i was going to be using my new phone to surf the web, so a keyboard is a better option. There aren't many phones with keyboards out there, so the choice is limited. However, i had heard of blackberry's awesome reputation so i chose this and i am glad i did.
Adding to my phone my details of two of my personal email addresses, i am now fortunate enough to be updated on my emails without even having to find a computer to check them. They arrive like text messages and you can choose the alert that comes with them. A little light in the top corner lights up and flashes red to alert you to new emails, texts or incoming calls, but the blackberry is so easily and majorly customizeable that you can set it up so you can easily tell the difference between the three. For example I have set mine to only vibrate for emails, to vibrate and give a tone for texts and to vibrate and play a song when ringing. Other neat little features are abundant. It comes with a little pouch to keep its large screen scratch free and key the keys from damage (Or accidental pressing). One setting allows you to program the phone so if it rings, pulling it out of the pouch will automatically answer the call! You can also set different alerts for in and out of the pouch.

Music wise, the phone has a good little speaker and a standard headphone jack. The sound quality is pretty good, my only gripes are there are no easy "skip track" buttons on the phone itself, without messing with the roller ball and the mute button is on top of it, so i often find if im putting it in my pocket (or just moving about too vigorously) the sound is muted when i didnt want it to be. But that's a minor point. Video and music play back is first class. Album covers are displayed, like on most modern MP3 players and its works well. The battery does run out quicker however.
The little light on the front, which as ive mentioned before flashes red when you have email or texts, lights up blue when you are connected to another device via blue tooth (i have my phone setup to link to my car CD player for hands free goodness) and Orange when the battery is low (which is quite often).


Internet browsing, though slow, is relatively good and the QWERTY makes it a joy.
The camera with it is pretty good, but only 3.2mp, nothing amazing in this day and age. However the screen is nice and large and there is no worries from a shaking hand (as i have had with other phones). I have recently discovered the joy of being able to e-mail pictures from it, which saves the hassle of connecting the phone to a pc to download them, if you only wanted to do one, on the fly. A very handy thing indeed.
One upside also, another simple thing is the power on and off time. Its nearly instant. Which is fabulous.
There are so many features its almost impossible to list them all, google maps, facebook applications, music downloads, and a handful of free games (including the amazing "Word Mole" which im totally hooked on) and many more.
All in all, its a cracking phone which i'd recommend to anyone.

Summary: The smart phone for the modern human

Processing/Quality:
Reliability:
Ease of use:
Installation:
Noise:
Battery life: