*Why did I want this product?*
My last Blackberry, which was a trusted 8310 was perfect for me although a little basic and after a few years of having this phone I was getting board and wanting an upgrade. I knew I would be sticking with Blackberry even though there is an array of mobile phones on the market it really is hard to know what is right for you.

At the time I was looking for my new Blackberry I was underside whether to upgrade to another Curve or go for a Bold 9780, which is what my husband currently has. In the end and due to price I went for Blackberry Curve 3G 9300.

*What are the main features of 9300?*
Although I haven't had a major upgrade since my 8310 I am pleased to say this beauty has lots more features including:
* WI-FI, GPS, 3G
* 2.0MP camera and video record with playback
* Audio formats in MP3, AAC-LC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, AMR-NB, Flac, Ogg Vorbis and
* Video formats in MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV9
* Standby time: Up to 19 days
* Talk time: Up to 4.5 hours
* Music playback: Up to 29 hours
* Integrated hands free speakerphone
* M3 and T3 rating for hearing aids
* 256MB flash memory with expandable memory with microSD cards
* Bluetooth
* Modem RIM wireless connection and Tethered modem capability

*What did I get in my box?*
Opening the sleek black box with Blackberry written on the top the first thing you are to see is you're new device staring back at you in its protective covering, which is situated in a shiny black plastic holder. Removing the plastic holder leaves you with a white cardboard box that houses your Blackberry User Tools CD, 3.5mm port earphones, none UK charger changing adapter, which is perfect to use in other counties that just clips onto your UK charger adapter, also supplied, a Blackberry Curve Safety and Product Information and Start Here booklet, which come wrapped together in a paper Blackberry logo.

I am surprised to see the earphones actually look really good quality with the same design as the phone, black with chrome ear pieces. The earphones also come with a little button attached that allows you to change tracks with ease without touching your phone.

The Safety Booklet tells you all you need to know with electrical safety, battery and disposing, safe user guidelines, driving and walking, accessories, antenna care, storing etc. At first I thought this booklet was a waste of time but found it useful to read.

Start Here booklet I also found useful, especially if you're new to Blackberry. This pull out book tells you all you need to know about your phone, what each button does, inserting your SIM and battery, charging and more importantly how to set up your emails. What each status icon means, how to change ring tones, basically everything you need to know to get you on the move with your new device.

*What is the design like on 9300?*
I personally think all Blackberry's are nice sleek mobile phones that mean business. 9300 measures 4.29mm in height, 109mm in width, 60mm in depth and weighs a reasonable 104g, which is lighter than my previous model, which came in at 111g.

The Blackberry itself is black in colour with lovely chrome finish that breaks the black up that goes all around the edge. I feel this is a nice finishing touch to Curve, which feels high quality. The top sees Blackberry logo in silver with the screen underneath that takes up nearly half of the model.
To right hand corner sees a little circle that flashes red when you have an SMS, BBM, Email etc.
The full QWERTY keypad, which feels sturdy, this is below the screen with the exact same buttons as 8310. Above the keypad sees a row of buttons that have been integrated within each other including phone answer button, which is in green, home screen button, trackpad, back button and call end button, which is in red.
The top of the phone sees 3G's media controls; you can now mute, play the pervious or next track, play and pause with a touch of a button.
The right hand side sees your micro connection port to charge and transfer data across to your PC and the earphone socket above it. An integrated button below this allows you to lock your Blackberry within seconds.
Right hand sees two buttons at the top for volume control and the one below it is a direct access to the camera, but this can be changed to suit you.
The back of the phone sees a matte rubbery finish for easy grip with Blackberry logo in silver. A small hole, which is your camera with Curve written beside it neatly in the rubber.

*Setting up my Blackberry*
This was relatively easy due to having a Blackberry before hand but because my last SIM card wasn't 3G compatible I did have to order a new 3G SIM but was able to keep my old phone number and all I had to do is transfer everything over.

*Setting up my emails*
Setting up emails is easy once your connected with your service provider, mine is Orange and a provider I am finding to be really good.
On first set up you can use the Setup Wizard icon, which takes you to two options including: I want to create or add an email address or I want to use a work email. As my Blackberry is for personal use I used the first option. I can use this option for existing email accounts with email address such as Hotmail and Yahoo.

*Using emails*
Since this is my second Blackberry Orange have said emails may take up to 24 hours to come through due to setting up, personally I have found this to be a matter of hours and in my first case an hour, which I receive an SMS to say all is complete. As soon as I receive this message I start to receive emails straight away.

You can set up to ten different email addresses at the same time, which is think is fabulous especially if you're running your own business.

*Connecting to the Internet for free*
Who doesn't like to keep in contact with the world while out and about? Depending on your mobile provider and what extras you receive you can use you're built in Wi-Fi connection to view the internet for free. To set up Wi-Fi is very simple; the Home Screen has an icon called Manage Connections. Here you can scan for available networks; if you're in a free Wi-Fi connection or you can manually add a connection to use.
I have used this feature many of times and find it easy and a joy to use.

With a great feature of 3G, which can now be seen on many mobile handsets I find internet loading to be quick and painless even when on the move.

*Other features*
Blackberry Messenger is a light bulb idea for Blackberry and one I like and use often as I have friends and my husband and friends have a Blackberry so I can message them for free 24/7. All you need is their PIN code and you can message away to one another. All Blackberry users can use this feature to another Blackberry user for free, Blackberry also update their software regularly, which you can download for free with new features attached.

* SMS I find has dramatically changed since my older model, how I have the ability to view all pervious and sent messages from receiver and me in on easy SMS, I find this is perfect for reminding you of you're conversation without going back and forth between messages.

* Calendar, I use this feature so much and more so I can download all my activities from Outlook to my Blackberry calendar within seconds via the cable provided.
You can view your calendar in week, month or year and more importantly, which I think is a fantastic feature you can view all the calendars from your different email addresses in the Select Calendar. I have reminder alerts like all mobiles.
Adding a new appointment is easy with all the information you could ever need including if this appointment is new or re-occurring so you don't have to input it again. You can mark it as private and add notes for further reference.

* Address book is basically the same as my old device, upon entering the address book you can see all your contacts in any view you wish, personally I have mine on first and late name but you can have the opposite if you prefer or sort by company. You can filter your contacts to personal and business for easier finding.
With each contact you have the option to find their address via Google Maps if you have their address stored in your contact list, which I think, is a brilliant and unique feature. You have the ability to add a new contact with all the information you could ever need about them and even download their Facebook profile, which automatically updates a picture of them.

* Media allows you to view and listen to your downloaded music, watch videos you have recorded yourself, view pictures or downloaded pictures by you, view all available ring tones and how long they play for, voice notes allow you to record voice notes without writing them down when in a rush, your video camera and voice notes viewer.

* Maps allow you via GPS to view where you are right now and will follow you as you move.
* Clock allows you to have the time at your finger tips and to allow when charging as a screen saver.
* Blackberry App World, this is a perfect device that I have found very useful over the time I have had this phone. A world of apps at your finger tips.

* Applications folder is an interesting folder, here if you have downloaded Facebook or Twitter Application this is where it is sorted, along with your memo pad, tasks, calculator, word and excel to go, slideshow to go, files, which you can see all files sorted on your device, voice dialling, password keeper, saved messages, which can be emails or SMS messages.

* Games folder is where all games either pre-installed or downloaded can be moved into here but originally all downloaded files get stored into Downloads folder, which can be moved later.

Then you have your usual setup icons, sounds, password lock and turn phone off.

*Tell me about the screen and resolution*
The screen isn't massive, which some people may want but at 2.4-inch it's not the smallest of them all and provides me with all I want to view.
With a 320x240 pixel colour display, I am pleased to say it is clear, crisp, sharp quality. It is also a magnificent light sensing screen, which cleverly auto adjusts the screens brightness depending on the amount of light on the screen. This is a fantastic battery saving technique and all Blackberry's have.

Whether I have downloaded or looking at pre-loaded pictures I am amazed at the detail I can see, all colours are true with sharp detail with no blurring.
If you have taken a picture on your usual camera and downloaded it to Blackberry, although the picture has been automatically resized there is no loss in picture quality and looks just as good when placed as my wallpaper.

*What is call quality like?*
Call quality is brilliant, very clear and very precise without having to shout as you can't hear the recipient or they can't hear you. You have an adjustable volume button on the right hand side of the phone to suit to your volume needs. I have used loudspeaker a fair few times and again sound is very clear and sharp unlike other mobile phones I have used in the past while using loudspeaker.

*Tell me about the camera*
My Blackberry 9300 has 2MP, which I know it isn't the best camera in the world and there are other phones out there with a much better camera resolution but it is good for a quick snap you don't want to miss. On screen the picture is clear and precise although not the best when printed out but on a phone I can't grumble.
My only grumble with 9300 is there is no flash, which I miss terribly as I had this feature on 8310.

The camera does a good job at auto focusing on an object and focuses on the natural light surrounding it at the time. Zoom starts off at 1.0x and can quickly take you up to 50.x, which can then get a little speckle and you can see the outline of the object isn't as sharp.

Once a picture has been took you have the options to delete, save, set picture as or send the photo via email, SMS or MMS, upload to Facebook or send to someone in your BBM contact list.

*Tell me about video recording*
Once in camera mode you have the option to change to video mode with a touch of a button. Video recording is sharp and moves in real time with you with no stuttering in sight. You can zoom in and out the same as camera but again once zoomed all the way in the camera resolution is compromised, and I quickly realised you can't zoom in while recording!

*How easy is synchronising files from phone to PC and vice versa?*
Synchronising phone to PC is easy; installing the CD provided onto your computer is quick and painless, which connects via USB. You can copy across your email box(s), calendar and contacts. This doesn't take long to do, a little under or over 30 seconds depending how much you have updated on your computer before hand.

*What is the price and availability of 9300?*
I purchased my Blackberry from The Carphone Warehouse for £199.95 when it was released, since then this phone has come down to £149.95 and you have to purchase a £10 top up if using this phone as a Pay As You Go.
Colour options include silver or pink chrome.

If you want this phone on contact the cheapest deal is £13.50 per month, but there are other options available to suit your needs.

*What networks are available for Blackberry 9300?*
You have a good range of networks to choose from including Orange, O2, T-Mobile, Vodafone and 3.

*What is my overall opinion*
I am so glad this model now uses a trackpad instead of a trackball like my old model. I am finding the trackpad is very easy to use and navigation is a breeze.

I find the quality of this Blackberry very good and can with hold a lot of knocks, especially when in the hands of my excited daughter. Even though you don't receive a case with it I had one anyway with my previous phone, which fits it perfectly. Once the phone has slipped in t locks automatically when in its holder, which happens via a magnet hidden in the case, if you want this to happen you have to tell the handset to do this.

Charging the phone is quick and easy, a fully drained phone takes about 45 minutes, which I think is fantastic. A full battery can last me up to 5 days and more until it goes to red, which is one bar.

I don't like the fact 9300 doesn't come integrated with a camera flash but I have quickly learned to live without this feature.

With the buttons at the side I have never found myself pressing any of the buttons by accident, which I know has been a problem with some mobile phones.

A Blackberry is a phone that will be in my life for a long time to come.