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| Home >> Handheld & PDA Reviews: BlackBerry Curve 8320 Smartphone Titanium (T-Mobile) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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User Submitted BlackBerry Curve 8320 Smartphone Titanium (T-Mobile) Reviews (cont...)Date: 2008-01-26 Awesome technology but a little early for the WiFi phone I researched many different quadband PDA phones before I finally bought the TMobile Curve (Blackberry 8320) I own my own business and must be in constant contact with email to keep things going. I have the Tmobile wireless router in my office for the UMA or what they call @home service. The short story is that everything you have read is true...the Blackberry 8320 is amazing but the flaw is in the UMA network (Tmobile's VOIP WiFi phone network) and the handoff between UMA and the Mobile network is anything but elegant. In fact it usually stumbles. Many times I have to reboot, the Blackberry to switch between the two. Other times, the UMA network is just plain down. The mobile phone network is fine. THe WiFi network and technology seems like they are still in beta. I suggest waiting to buy this device until Tmobile matures their UMA network. Along with this, Blackberry needs to update the firmware/software for toggling between the 2 networks (UMA and GPRS.) That said, I am extremely pleased with the interaction/integration with my Outlook and Curve. It is all handled wireless with the Blackberry Exchange Server (BES) I never have to synch my blackberry with my PC with a USB cable. I dont even have the desktop manager loaded. Dont need it. Amazing technology. Although the phone ring is adequately loud, and the call quality is very clear, and crisp, the actual call volume is still a little weak, hard to hear with the just the device in a loud environment, like outside or with the windows down in the car. With the bluetooth headset however it is perfectly loud and clear. I must say that Tmobile tech support is terrific. Yes it is true. They have given us Curve users our own tech support phone number. When I do call support, which is often in the beginning as it is a complex piece of equipment, I call, it rings once or twice and they pickup. I have never sat in a queue more than a minute. Awesome. But they know that they have some problems with the UMA GSM network toggling so they are on it. In summary, I am glad that I bought it. I will be giving it the acid test over the course of the next month while I am in South America. I can even use Skype on this device!! Date: 2008-01-20 Great Phone! I've had my Blackberry Curve since Dec. 27, and I absolutely love it. I can receive email from my work email, as well as, from my other 5 email accounts without having to worry about logging onto these separate accounts each day. I never manually check my email anymore. Plus once I wake up in the morning, I get the weather report and the morning news. It even has a feature to store all of your user name and password accounts. The phone can be locked by password so you never have to worry about anyone viewing your calendar, to do lists, etc. The camera has a sepia, and a black and white feature. I am glad I purchased this phone, it comes in handy when you need to respond quickly to a work related email. Date: 2008-01-19 Inferior to the iPhone and Treo... I'm on my third 8320 in a few months, so I've got a reasonable amount of experience to base this on. Let me also say that I REALLY wanted to like this phone. T-mobile doesn't sell Palm or iPhone, and Windows Mobile is a disaster, so I definitely wanted to embrace Blackberry. I should also say that like others, SOME of the problems I've had are network-related, but NOT all. This phone has many bugs. My first Curve was actually an 8310. I bought it so I wouldn't have to extend my T-mobile service. Got it unlocked. It was actually the best of the three. Problem was, it had the worst reception of any phone I've ever owned. Couldn't even get a signal in my home. (While I had relatively little problem with the Treo and other phones work fine in the house.) Well, it has wi-fi, right? Wrong. RIMM decided to only give wi-fi calling in the 8320. Conversely, they removed (!!!????) the excellent navigation in the 8310. So, I sold the unlocked Curve and ponied up to T-mobile (ugh) for another two years. I brought the 8320 home and it flat out never worked. It was a dud. It crashed constantly, froze, wouldn't connect, etc. When it WAS working, the reception as awful. Meaning, it had WORSE reception that other (non-curve) phones. I don't mean the service alone. (Though it's sketchy, too.) So, I returned Curve #2 as a total dud. I reluctantly got another. Curve #3. Well, it works... sort of. The reason I got it was the "seamless" call-switching from wi-fi. Well, seamless can be described as the following... -Hangs up when you move from room to room. -Failed call attempts, even when showing a signal. -Hangs up if you walk outside. -You must re-start to get it to undo itself from wi-fi mode half the time. -If you lose signal inside (which you will, as the antenna is horrible) ... you'll be forced to go through a series of restarts to try to re-establish it. Other problems... -Bluetooth dropouts. When you lose your signal (often) ... it terminates the bluetooth. (Why?) -Internet functions are mediocre at best. -Accidental calls. Probably the easiest phone I've ever had to accidentally dial someone. Yes, you can lock the keyboard up. That's not always convenient. -Intermittent speakerphone. When attempting to end a call, it'll sometimes send it to speakerphone instead...lock up for a few seconds, and then eventually hang up. -No real Mac support. You CAN use PocketMac to sync, but it's very limited. RIMM is a multi-billion dollar company and they can't pay a couple engineers to slap together a Mac interface? Palm seemed to have no problem. Now, I've focused mostly on the problems because I think they're serious enough that people should avoid the phone. Looks like I'm in the minority, so maybe I just got THREE bad ones. To be fair, I'll throw out some pros... -Feels great. Great size and perfect keyboard. -Mail functions are nice and smartly put together. -For the most part, easy to set up... though not as intuitive as a Palm, iPhone, etc. -Decent camera. -The GPS is fantastic! You can get free apps with voice-guided GPS that work great! Too bad it's not on the T-mobile model. -Fairly easy to navigate. MUCH, MUCH better than Windows Mobile, but not as good as Palm in regards to rapidly moving from place to place. -Trackball is cool, though it only moves up and down, not diagonally. So, it's not really a trackball. But, it's fast. -Media applications are better than Palm, nowhere near iPHone. I really wanted to like it, but have to say it was a real disappointment. The wi-fi calling option simply does not create a realistic... fluid answer for T-mobile's poor coverage and the phone itself makes the coverage WORSE. Too bad for T-mobile. As much as people rag on them, they DO offer the best prices and their customer service has always been excellent. Too bad they couldn't land a deal with Apple or Palm to give their users more options. Again, there seems to be mass euphoria over the Curve, so maybe I just expect to much. But, constant crashing and/or no reception makes any other features pretty irrelevant. If you're in a great coverage area, maybe it'll work for you... but I wouldn't recommend it. Date: 2008-01-14 Best combination of wifi and Cell Phone This phone is very flexible. It works under wifi or high speed EDGE cell phone signal. With Google maps it works almost like a GPS. Great for business and personal use. The track ball is the best navegation tool I have seen for a cell pnone. The camera was also more that I was expecting for this pype of phone. I will give it a 9.5/10 (antena signal not bad, but could be better) Date: 2008-01-13 A great tool that knows how to have fun. Wi-Fi, email, and a phone, oh my!! Yes, this is quite a step up from a regular cell phone. There will be no looking back once you can check your email, make calls, and keep in touch nearly anywhere, using any UMA wi-fi connection.
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