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BlackBerry Curve 8330 Phone Red Sprint

Posted by Smartphone Review on January 21, 2010

BlackBerry Curve 8330 Phone Red Sprint

Adding a fashionable touch to Research in Motion’s formidable arsenal of telephonic, PIM, and media tools, the BlackBerry 8330 Curve for Sprint is also the smallest, lightest BlackBerry phone that includes a full QWERTY keyboard. This amalgam of the svelte BlackBerry Pearl and the more business-oriented 8800 combines RIM’s long-valued corporate email and messaging platform with a host of advanced multimedia features, including a 2-megapixel camera and stereo Bluetooth (for listening to music via wireless headphones). It also offers GPS navigation capabilities for accessing the optional Sprint Navigation turn-by-turn direction service.

Click for larger view.

Sprint Service Options
Supporting the EV-DO high-speed data standard, this phone enables you to download and stream high-quality video, straight onto your phone. Where coverage is available, EV-DO connectivity provides average download speeds ranging from 400 to 700 Kbps, with peak rates up to 2 Mbps. With Sprint TV, you can make your cell phone your always-on source for news, weather, sports and more. This comprehensive video service combines high-quality streaming audio and video from channels including the NFL Network, ABC, The Weather Channel, Fox Sports, E!, CNN, The Discovery Channel, and more.

The Sprint Music Store enables you to buy, download, and then jam out wherever you are with new songs or old favorites. Offering a growing selection of more than 1.6 million songs, the store provides you two copies of each song–one for the phone and another for the PC, as well as the ability to burn songs to a CD using Windows Media Player. Save your songs to a memory card with a capacity that’s right for you.

This GPS-enabled phone provides optional access to Sprint Navigation for driving directions on your mobile phone–by voice and onscreen. Along the way, turn-by-turn directions will be announced in a clear voice and displayed on your phone. For example, Sprint Navigation will say, “Go 1.2 miles and turn right on Elm Street.” As you approach the turn, you will hear, “Turn right on Elm Street.” Sprint Navigation also provides proactive traffic alerts with one click re-routing. And it’s easy to find restaurants, banks, cafes, hotels and more from over 10 million points of interest across the U.S.

The Curve’s full QWERTY keyboard and the innovative trackball navigation system (placed above the keyboard) makes accessing your data and writing email a breeze.

Staying Connected
With BlackBerry’s push email technology, your email will find you without having to initiate a connection. BlackBerry devices are designed to remain on and continuously connected to the wireless network, notifying you as new email arrives. In addition to the text, you can also receive and view attachments in a wide range of popular file formats, including Microsoft Office, Corel WordPerfect, and Adobe PDF.

Browse the web with the integrated, full-featured browser, which quickly and efficiently displays HTML pages as well as enables you to set up RSS feeds to stay connected to up-to-the-minute news and blog posts. And keep up with your contacts using a variety of instant message (IM) networks, including the integrated Blackberry Messenger as well as downloadable clients for Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, and Lotus Sametime.

For corporate users, the Curve delivers all the enterprise email and messaging capabilities you’ve come to expect. It’s supported on BlackBerry Internet Service, giving you access to up to 10 work or personal email accounts (including most popular ISP email accounts), as well as BlackBerry Enterprise Server, enabling advanced security and IT administration within IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise environments.

Phone Features
The Curve 8330 is fashioned with subtly curving corners and chrome highlights. Measuring 4.2 x 2.4 inches, the Curve is just as slim as the Pearl (0.63 inches) and weighs in at 4 ounces. It features a bright 2.5-inch color TFT screen that provides 65,000 colors and a 320 x 240-pixel resolution, and it includes a light-sensing feature that automatically adjusts backlighting for indoor, outdoor and dark environments. Like the BlackBerry 8800, the Curve includes a trackball navigation system located on the top of the QWERTY keypad, and it also features an integrated spell checker with a customizable dictionary to help maintain accuracy while on the go. It has 96 MB of internal ROM memory, and is expandable using MicroSD/MicroSDHC memory cards (up to 8 GB in size).

The 2-megapixel camera makes it easy to capture pictures to send via email or upload to your online photo collection.

You can snap vivid photos (though no video) using the 2-megapixel camera on the back of the Curve, which also features a 5x digital zoom, built-in flash, self-portrait mirror and full screen viewfinder. It can capture images in up to three picture quality and size resolutions that can be shared instantly by email, MMS or BlackBerry Messenger, or even uploaded to your Flickr account with the Yahoo! Go service. Photos can also be immediately set as a unique caller ID or Home Screen image. You can edit photos and create albums within the Curve using the PhotoSuite application. Pictures can be cropped, rotated and straightened, and flaws can be fixed by removing redeye or changing the brightness, contrast, and saturation levels.

Listen to your favorite music and watch downloaded videos using the included stereo headset, or use an optional wireless headphone thanks to the Curve’s support for the Bluetooth stereo audio profile (A2DP/AVRCP). The Curve is compatible with MP3 and WMA audio files, and dedicated volume controls are conveniently located on the side of the handset.

With the Voice-Activated Dialing (VAD) feature, you can initiate a call just by telling the Curve who to call from your contact list–either via the integrated speakerphone or using an optional Bluetooth wireless headset. Other advanced phone features include advanced sound technology that cancels out background noise and echo, dedicated volume and mute keys, and the ability to customize the Curve with polyphonic and MP3 ringtones.

The BlackBerry Maps application enables you to view maps and driving directions as well as email maps to other BlackBerry users and launch maps from your address book. It also includes a local search capability that allows users to find local businesses, such as banks, hotels and restaurants, within a short driving distance.

Vital Statistics
The BlackBerry Curve 8330 weighs 4 ounces and measures 4.2 x 2.4 x 0.63 inches. Its 1150 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 5.9 hours of talk time, and up to 264 hours (11 days) of digital standby time. It runs on the 800/1900 CDMA/EV-DO frequencies.

User Ratings and Reviews

2 Stars GOOD PHONE, POOR CALL QUALITY
I have been a Sprint customer since 2001. I have always felt they had great service and good coverage. For four years I have been using a Palm Treo (650 and then 700wx) and experienced the phone locking up on a regular basis requiring me to remove the battery. My colleagues were getting great results with Blackberry so I switched to the Blackberry Curve 8330 with Sprint. I immediately noticed a couple of negative features that have overshadowed the positives of this phone and Sprint.

The quality of voice calls is no where near as clear as the Treo. With the Treo I had people constantly tell me that I sounded like I was in the room with them speaking. I could also hear crystal clear on all my calls. The Blackberry has a muffled sound on voice calls both for incoming calls that I hear and how I sound going out. This has caused me to constantly ask people to repeat themselves in some cases two or three times.

The second major negative that became apparent immediately is that on the Sprint network, from my home office where I used to get great service from the Treo, my Blackberry could not get a good signal. For three months I have been dropping business calls daily from my home office simply by switching from a Treo to a Blackberry on Sprint. According to Sprint I am in a ‘Fair to Great’ service area but DAILY my calls are dropped because of the Blackberry.

I have had the phone tested to ensure it is working properly, I have had a free AirRave device sent for home office use, I have taken all the steps possible to stop dropping calls. Sprint finally has agreed to let me out of my contract with no penalty even though I did not ask for this. I just want a phone that will work without dropping calls. I have subsequently realized that all my colleagues who recommended the Blackberry are either with Verizon or AT&T.

The phone works excellent for everything that I needed it to do with the exception of voice calls. All the features in the world cannot compensate for the most basic function of performing great as a phone.

5 Stars Amazing Phone
I’ve had this phone for 4 months now and I believe I’ve had it long enough to write a review. First off, let me just say that I found a way not to pay for any web services because I don’t use them, so this review will not be for the internet, BBM, or applications (which may be why I have not had any problems).

The mp3 player is very easy to use, and it has an extremely useful search feature: when you just go into your music and you start typing, it will automatically search for you. I have also recently found that, if you hold the “volume up” button on the right side of the phone for about 3 seconds, it will go to the next song, and if you hold the “volume down”, it will go to the last song (once again, very useful). The speakers on the phone get a little blurry when at full volume, but then again, what phone doesn’t? It is also very convenient that the phone accepts normal 3.5mm headphones, so you can just plug your iPod headphones or any other standard headphones into the jack and listen to your music, and the same if you have headphones with a microphone.

The user interface is very nice and easy to use, and the best thing I have found about this phone is that it DOES NOT FREEZE. This is a HUGE deal for me since my last phone used to freeze practically every time I went to the mp3 player. However, on my Blackberry, I play Brickbreaker while having music play on the speakers and it works seamlessly (there is a little bit of a lag when the song changes, but it’s not too big of a deal).

The thing I like most about this phone is how text messaging shows up. It puts all of your conversations in one thread (similar to the iPhone) so that you don’t have to keep going between messages to find something you said to your friend, or vice versa.

It also has a decent camera with flash and zoom. The camera is not as clear as the iPhone’s camera, but I’m very satisfied with it because I take a lot of pictures at night when flash is absolutely necessary. I’m not sure why the review says it does not have a video camera, because the phone actually does have a decent video camera that I have used at least 10 times so far.

Also, battery life is AMAZING. As I said before, I play a lot of music and Brickbreaker on my Blackberry, but I only need to charge it every few days.

The keys are a bit small to type with sometimes, but I have adapted and I put up with it because the small keys are what lets the phone be so small.

I have also dropped this phone many times and it is still LIKE NEW. However, I would recommend buying a silicone case for it (you can find them for as low as $5) to protect it.

5 Stars I Am In Love!
I’ve been a T-mobile customer for over two years. I finally decided that it was time to let them go when my contract end & I promise I won’t look back. I was gonna get a Blackberry curve with them, but I thought about the horrible reception & service I would have to deal with for another year or two. So I went to Sprint & I haven’t regretted it. I’ve been a sidekick user that’s all I’ve owned so a blackberry is a major upgrade for me. I got my phone yesterday & I am in love with it! It has everything for a person who’s on the go, a business person, a college person (like myself). I love all their features & what Sprint has to offer. I feel if I would have purchased a curve from T-Mobile I wouldn’t have been as happy. I’m still playing around with it & getting adjusted to it. Even tho ill be paying more money being with Sprint I feel its worth it. You won’t regret buying this phone.

5 Stars Finally, a real “Smartphone”
I’ve had my Blackberry 8330 with Sprint for a couple of weeks now. With the many different units I have had over time, I have a good comparative baseline to note the Blackberry’s performance against. My prior phone was a Motorola Razr with AT&T. I loved the phone and the service I had. Concurrently with the Razr, I had numerous PDA’s, aka “Smartphones” which my workplace provided me. All these units had issues, quirks, and downright irritable tendencies. I still have one of these PDA’s; it’s a Verizon 6800 - one of the most aggravating PDA’s I have experienced to date. I have also had two Palm units and an IPAQ.

I got this unit as a replacement for my Razr as the plan I was on wasn’t conducive to texting/web. The switch from AT&T wasn’t easy as I had a long run with them as a carrier and would recommend their customer service. Sprint had a better data/phone plan so I went with them and got this jewel of a unit.

The Blackberry is lightweight, comfortable to hold and unbelievably easy to use. I love the QWERTY keyboard, there is no ‘lag time’ in typing words as I suffer with the Verizon unit. The screen is bright and easy to see even outdoors and with sunglasses(!). Not so with the Verizon - I have to take off the sunglasses, position the unit ‘just so’ in order to use the touchy (not in a good way) touch screen and also to read emails. The Verizon has a slide out keyboard which I thought would be a good thing - well, if it worked as it should.

I have downloaded a multitude of free apps from the numerous Blackberry websites. The unit comes with a decent amount of apps already built in. I now use OperaMini for the browser as I find it to be faster than the pre-installed one. It came preloaded with Blackberry Messenger, Yahoo, AIM and much more. I have email coming from three different accounts, each nicely in its own folder. Emails come quickly, I don’t have to synch all the time as I do with the Verizon unit (yes, even with the settings set to download on a timed basis).

The battery life is good. No complaints at all. I call, use the web all the time, download apps all the time and the battery holds up. The Verizon unit? It sucked wind within hours of unplugging from a full charge. I also spent hours with tech support for the Verizon unit both on the phone and in a store. But those are stories for another time.

The sound quality is great. I haven’t tried it my Bluetooth earphone as yet. Texting is a breeze. I haven’t lost the phone signal or had delayed emails anywhere I’ve gone yet. The PC software to synch and backup the software works like a charm. The unit is so easy to use right from the box. I may go and read the manual at some point and see what else it can do I haven’t discovered on my own.

There are a multitude of covers, accessories and software (free and fee) for this gadget. I can’t say enough about it. I am thrilled I bought it and I guess I am now officially a Crackberry member. I wish I got the real “Smartphone” sooner. As a techno-geek, I love this gadget. For non geeks out there, get it - you don’t have to be a techie to use or appreciate the work it does. I now have two phones in my purse, but only ONE that IS a SMARTPHONE.

Terrific product. Kudos RIM.

Update-there is a hefty user community out there. Help and a thorough knowledge-base is at your fingertips [...].

4 Stars Very nice phone
Loving my Blackberry Curve 8330. I’ve had a BB 8700g before and liked it very much but this phone blows it and my Palm Centro that I upgraded from right out of the water. I’m quite pleased with the BB Curve 8330. Not for nothing, Sprint’s Curve is the best one to have because it has far more features than any other cell phone carriers’ Curves. Sprint didn’t hold back featurewise. My friends are a bit jealous because of the amount of features my phone has compared to their Curves. Here’s the breakdown of what I like and dislike.

Pros:

- Beautiful ruby red color

- Very clear and vivid video and pictures

- Great call quality

- Nice, loud speakerphone

- MP3 sound quality is superb

- Has standard 3.5mm headphone jack which is great. No need to buy those special 2.5mm headphones.

- A USB port

- Snappy bluetooth pairing with my bluetooth headset when with many other phones it seemed like it took forever for the two devices to find each other

- Expandable to 16GB with 4.5 OS

- Speedy email retrieval

- Camera and video camera is pretty good especially outdoors but the indoor photos are not too shabby

- Decent battery life

- Trackball makes for easy navigating

- 96MB of internal ROM memory which is a nice amount of storage and I’m able to fit a lot of third party software with room to spare

- A lot of awesome features and apps that came with the phone plus plenty you can download

- Nice rendering of doc, pdf and ppt files

Honorable mention: The Sprint GPS TelNav(which I thought I didn’t need)on this phone rocks. It really can go toe to toe as far as navigation with my Garmin GPS plus it finds signals a lot quicker than my Garmin. I’ve used it while driving and while walking and it has been on point with fantastic accuracy.

Cons:

- Internet videos, particularly YouTube, displays very small and doesn’t take up the whole screen and there’s no way to make it full screen like I was able to with my Palm Centro

- Video camera does not shoot videos using the whole 320×240 screen. It only takes the videos at 240×176. Therefore the videos you shoot never take up the whole screen.

- The browser could be a bit faster

- Hangs and freezes on some websites

- Rebooting is way too slow

- Wish the camera had more features

- Voice dialing is bad and doesn’t register spoken names very well. Luckily I use another app to handle that.

All and all…this is a very nice phone.

Buy/More Info

BlackBerry Curve 8330 Phone Red Sprint

Posted by Smartphone Review on January 20, 2010

BlackBerry Curve 8330 Phone Red Sprint

Adding a fashionable touch to Research in Motion’s formidable arsenal of telephonic, PIM, and media tools, the BlackBerry 8330 Curve for Sprint is also the smallest, lightest BlackBerry phone that includes a full QWERTY keyboard. This amalgam of the svelte BlackBerry Pearl and the more business-oriented 8800 combines RIM’s long-valued corporate email and messaging platform with a host of advanced multimedia features, including a 2-megapixel camera and stereo Bluetooth (for listening to music via wireless headphones). It also offers GPS navigation capabilities for accessing the optional Sprint Navigation turn-by-turn direction service.

Click for larger view.

Sprint Service Options
Supporting the EV-DO high-speed data standard, this phone enables you to download and stream high-quality video, straight onto your phone. Where coverage is available, EV-DO connectivity provides average download speeds ranging from 400 to 700 Kbps, with peak rates up to 2 Mbps. With Sprint TV, you can make your cell phone your always-on source for news, weather, sports and more. This comprehensive video service combines high-quality streaming audio and video from channels including the NFL Network, ABC, The Weather Channel, Fox Sports, E!, CNN, The Discovery Channel, and more.

The Sprint Music Store enables you to buy, download, and then jam out wherever you are with new songs or old favorites. Offering a growing selection of more than 1.6 million songs, the store provides you two copies of each song–one for the phone and another for the PC, as well as the ability to burn songs to a CD using Windows Media Player. Save your songs to a memory card with a capacity that’s right for you.

This GPS-enabled phone provides optional access to Sprint Navigation for driving directions on your mobile phone–by voice and onscreen. Along the way, turn-by-turn directions will be announced in a clear voice and displayed on your phone. For example, Sprint Navigation will say, “Go 1.2 miles and turn right on Elm Street.” As you approach the turn, you will hear, “Turn right on Elm Street.” Sprint Navigation also provides proactive traffic alerts with one click re-routing. And it’s easy to find restaurants, banks, cafes, hotels and more from over 10 million points of interest across the U.S.

The Curve’s full QWERTY keyboard and the innovative trackball navigation system (placed above the keyboard) makes accessing your data and writing email a breeze.

Staying Connected
With BlackBerry’s push email technology, your email will find you without having to initiate a connection. BlackBerry devices are designed to remain on and continuously connected to the wireless network, notifying you as new email arrives. In addition to the text, you can also receive and view attachments in a wide range of popular file formats, including Microsoft Office, Corel WordPerfect, and Adobe PDF.

Browse the web with the integrated, full-featured browser, which quickly and efficiently displays HTML pages as well as enables you to set up RSS feeds to stay connected to up-to-the-minute news and blog posts. And keep up with your contacts using a variety of instant message (IM) networks, including the integrated Blackberry Messenger as well as downloadable clients for Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, and Lotus Sametime.

For corporate users, the Curve delivers all the enterprise email and messaging capabilities you’ve come to expect. It’s supported on BlackBerry Internet Service, giving you access to up to 10 work or personal email accounts (including most popular ISP email accounts), as well as BlackBerry Enterprise Server, enabling advanced security and IT administration within IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise environments.

Phone Features
The Curve 8330 is fashioned with subtly curving corners and chrome highlights. Measuring 4.2 x 2.4 inches, the Curve is just as slim as the Pearl (0.63 inches) and weighs in at 4 ounces. It features a bright 2.5-inch color TFT screen that provides 65,000 colors and a 320 x 240-pixel resolution, and it includes a light-sensing feature that automatically adjusts backlighting for indoor, outdoor and dark environments. Like the BlackBerry 8800, the Curve includes a trackball navigation system located on the top of the QWERTY keypad, and it also features an integrated spell checker with a customizable dictionary to help maintain accuracy while on the go. It has 96 MB of internal ROM memory, and is expandable using MicroSD/MicroSDHC memory cards (up to 8 GB in size).

The 2-megapixel camera makes it easy to capture pictures to send via email or upload to your online photo collection.

You can snap vivid photos (though no video) using the 2-megapixel camera on the back of the Curve, which also features a 5x digital zoom, built-in flash, self-portrait mirror and full screen viewfinder. It can capture images in up to three picture quality and size resolutions that can be shared instantly by email, MMS or BlackBerry Messenger, or even uploaded to your Flickr account with the Yahoo! Go service. Photos can also be immediately set as a unique caller ID or Home Screen image. You can edit photos and create albums within the Curve using the PhotoSuite application. Pictures can be cropped, rotated and straightened, and flaws can be fixed by removing redeye or changing the brightness, contrast, and saturation levels.

Listen to your favorite music and watch downloaded videos using the included stereo headset, or use an optional wireless headphone thanks to the Curve’s support for the Bluetooth stereo audio profile (A2DP/AVRCP). The Curve is compatible with MP3 and WMA audio files, and dedicated volume controls are conveniently located on the side of the handset.

With the Voice-Activated Dialing (VAD) feature, you can initiate a call just by telling the Curve who to call from your contact list–either via the integrated speakerphone or using an optional Bluetooth wireless headset. Other advanced phone features include advanced sound technology that cancels out background noise and echo, dedicated volume and mute keys, and the ability to customize the Curve with polyphonic and MP3 ringtones.

The BlackBerry Maps application enables you to view maps and driving directions as well as email maps to other BlackBerry users and launch maps from your address book. It also includes a local search capability that allows users to find local businesses, such as banks, hotels and restaurants, within a short driving distance.

Vital Statistics
The BlackBerry Curve 8330 weighs 4 ounces and measures 4.2 x 2.4 x 0.63 inches. Its 1150 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 5.9 hours of talk time, and up to 264 hours (11 days) of digital standby time. It runs on the 800/1900 CDMA/EV-DO frequencies.

User Ratings and Reviews

2 Stars GOOD PHONE, POOR CALL QUALITY
I have been a Sprint customer since 2001. I have always felt they had great service and good coverage. For four years I have been using a Palm Treo (650 and then 700wx) and experienced the phone locking up on a regular basis requiring me to remove the battery. My colleagues were getting great results with Blackberry so I switched to the Blackberry Curve 8330 with Sprint. I immediately noticed a couple of negative features that have overshadowed the positives of this phone and Sprint.

The quality of voice calls is no where near as clear as the Treo. With the Treo I had people constantly tell me that I sounded like I was in the room with them speaking. I could also hear crystal clear on all my calls. The Blackberry has a muffled sound on voice calls both for incoming calls that I hear and how I sound going out. This has caused me to constantly ask people to repeat themselves in some cases two or three times.

The second major negative that became apparent immediately is that on the Sprint network, from my home office where I used to get great service from the Treo, my Blackberry could not get a good signal. For three months I have been dropping business calls daily from my home office simply by switching from a Treo to a Blackberry on Sprint. According to Sprint I am in a ‘Fair to Great’ service area but DAILY my calls are dropped because of the Blackberry.

I have had the phone tested to ensure it is working properly, I have had a free AirRave device sent for home office use, I have taken all the steps possible to stop dropping calls. Sprint finally has agreed to let me out of my contract with no penalty even though I did not ask for this. I just want a phone that will work without dropping calls. I have subsequently realized that all my colleagues who recommended the Blackberry are either with Verizon or AT&T.

The phone works excellent for everything that I needed it to do with the exception of voice calls. All the features in the world cannot compensate for the most basic function of performing great as a phone.

5 Stars Amazing Phone
I’ve had this phone for 4 months now and I believe I’ve had it long enough to write a review. First off, let me just say that I found a way not to pay for any web services because I don’t use them, so this review will not be for the internet, BBM, or applications (which may be why I have not had any problems).

The mp3 player is very easy to use, and it has an extremely useful search feature: when you just go into your music and you start typing, it will automatically search for you. I have also recently found that, if you hold the “volume up” button on the right side of the phone for about 3 seconds, it will go to the next song, and if you hold the “volume down”, it will go to the last song (once again, very useful). The speakers on the phone get a little blurry when at full volume, but then again, what phone doesn’t? It is also very convenient that the phone accepts normal 3.5mm headphones, so you can just plug your iPod headphones or any other standard headphones into the jack and listen to your music, and the same if you have headphones with a microphone.

The user interface is very nice and easy to use, and the best thing I have found about this phone is that it DOES NOT FREEZE. This is a HUGE deal for me since my last phone used to freeze practically every time I went to the mp3 player. However, on my Blackberry, I play Brickbreaker while having music play on the speakers and it works seamlessly (there is a little bit of a lag when the song changes, but it’s not too big of a deal).

The thing I like most about this phone is how text messaging shows up. It puts all of your conversations in one thread (similar to the iPhone) so that you don’t have to keep going between messages to find something you said to your friend, or vice versa.

It also has a decent camera with flash and zoom. The camera is not as clear as the iPhone’s camera, but I’m very satisfied with it because I take a lot of pictures at night when flash is absolutely necessary. I’m not sure why the review says it does not have a video camera, because the phone actually does have a decent video camera that I have used at least 10 times so far.

Also, battery life is AMAZING. As I said before, I play a lot of music and Brickbreaker on my Blackberry, but I only need to charge it every few days.

The keys are a bit small to type with sometimes, but I have adapted and I put up with it because the small keys are what lets the phone be so small.

I have also dropped this phone many times and it is still LIKE NEW. However, I would recommend buying a silicone case for it (you can find them for as low as $5) to protect it.

5 Stars I Am In Love!
I’ve been a T-mobile customer for over two years. I finally decided that it was time to let them go when my contract end & I promise I won’t look back. I was gonna get a Blackberry curve with them, but I thought about the horrible reception & service I would have to deal with for another year or two. So I went to Sprint & I haven’t regretted it. I’ve been a sidekick user that’s all I’ve owned so a blackberry is a major upgrade for me. I got my phone yesterday & I am in love with it! It has everything for a person who’s on the go, a business person, a college person (like myself). I love all their features & what Sprint has to offer. I feel if I would have purchased a curve from T-Mobile I wouldn’t have been as happy. I’m still playing around with it & getting adjusted to it. Even tho ill be paying more money being with Sprint I feel its worth it. You won’t regret buying this phone.

4 Stars Very nice phone
Loving my Blackberry Curve 8330. I’ve had a BB 8700g before and liked it very much but this phone blows it and my Palm Centro that I upgraded from right out of the water. I’m quite pleased with the BB Curve 8330. Not for nothing, Sprint’s Curve is the best one to have because it has far more features than any other cell phone carriers’ Curves. Sprint didn’t hold back featurewise. My friends are a bit jealous because of the amount of features my phone has compared to their Curves. Here’s the breakdown of what I like and dislike.

Pros:

- Beautiful ruby red color

- Very clear and vivid video and pictures

- Great call quality

- Nice, loud speakerphone

- MP3 sound quality is superb

- Has standard 3.5mm headphone jack which is great. No need to buy those special 2.5mm headphones.

- A USB port

- Snappy bluetooth pairing with my bluetooth headset when with many other phones it seemed like it took forever for the two devices to find each other

- Expandable to 16GB with 4.5 OS

- Speedy email retrieval

- Camera and video camera is pretty good especially outdoors but the indoor photos are not too shabby

- Decent battery life

- Trackball makes for easy navigating

- 96MB of internal ROM memory which is a nice amount of storage and I’m able to fit a lot of third party software with room to spare

- A lot of awesome features and apps that came with the phone plus plenty you can download

- Nice rendering of doc, pdf and ppt files

Honorable mention: The Sprint GPS TelNav(which I thought I didn’t need)on this phone rocks. It really can go toe to toe as far as navigation with my Garmin GPS plus it finds signals a lot quicker than my Garmin. I’ve used it while driving and while walking and it has been on point with fantastic accuracy.

Cons:

- Internet videos, particularly YouTube, displays very small and doesn’t take up the whole screen and there’s no way to make it full screen like I was able to with my Palm Centro

- Video camera does not shoot videos using the whole 320×240 screen. It only takes the videos at 240×176. Therefore the videos you shoot never take up the whole screen.

- The browser could be a bit faster

- Hangs and freezes on some websites

- Rebooting is way too slow

- Wish the camera had more features

- Voice dialing is bad and doesn’t register spoken names very well. Luckily I use another app to handle that.

All and all…this is a very nice phone.

5 Stars Finally, a real “Smartphone”
I’ve had my Blackberry 8330 with Sprint for a couple of weeks now. With the many different units I have had over time, I have a good comparative baseline to note the Blackberry’s performance against. My prior phone was a Motorola Razr with AT&T. I loved the phone and the service I had. Concurrently with the Razr, I had numerous PDA’s, aka “Smartphones” which my workplace provided me. All these units had issues, quirks, and downright irritable tendencies. I still have one of these PDA’s; it’s a Verizon 6800 - one of the most aggravating PDA’s I have experienced to date. I have also had two Palm units and an IPAQ.

I got this unit as a replacement for my Razr as the plan I was on wasn’t conducive to texting/web. The switch from AT&T wasn’t easy as I had a long run with them as a carrier and would recommend their customer service. Sprint had a better data/phone plan so I went with them and got this jewel of a unit.

The Blackberry is lightweight, comfortable to hold and unbelievably easy to use. I love the QWERTY keyboard, there is no ‘lag time’ in typing words as I suffer with the Verizon unit. The screen is bright and easy to see even outdoors and with sunglasses(!). Not so with the Verizon - I have to take off the sunglasses, position the unit ‘just so’ in order to use the touchy (not in a good way) touch screen and also to read emails. The Verizon has a slide out keyboard which I thought would be a good thing - well, if it worked as it should.

I have downloaded a multitude of free apps from the numerous Blackberry websites. The unit comes with a decent amount of apps already built in. I now use OperaMini for the browser as I find it to be faster than the pre-installed one. It came preloaded with Blackberry Messenger, Yahoo, AIM and much more. I have email coming from three different accounts, each nicely in its own folder. Emails come quickly, I don’t have to synch all the time as I do with the Verizon unit (yes, even with the settings set to download on a timed basis).

The battery life is good. No complaints at all. I call, use the web all the time, download apps all the time and the battery holds up. The Verizon unit? It sucked wind within hours of unplugging from a full charge. I also spent hours with tech support for the Verizon unit both on the phone and in a store. But those are stories for another time.

The sound quality is great. I haven’t tried it my Bluetooth earphone as yet. Texting is a breeze. I haven’t lost the phone signal or had delayed emails anywhere I’ve gone yet. The PC software to synch and backup the software works like a charm. The unit is so easy to use right from the box. I may go and read the manual at some point and see what else it can do I haven’t discovered on my own.

There are a multitude of covers, accessories and software (free and fee) for this gadget. I can’t say enough about it. I am thrilled I bought it and I guess I am now officially a Crackberry member. I wish I got the real “Smartphone” sooner. As a techno-geek, I love this gadget. For non geeks out there, get it - you don’t have to be a techie to use or appreciate the work it does. I now have two phones in my purse, but only ONE that IS a SMARTPHONE.

Terrific product. Kudos RIM.

Update-there is a hefty user community out there. Help and a thorough knowledge-base is at your fingertips [...].

Buy/More Info

BlackBerry Curve 8330 Phone Red Sprint

Posted by Smartphone Review on January 12, 2010

BlackBerry Curve 8330 Phone Red Sprint

Adding a fashionable touch to Research in Motion’s formidable arsenal of telephonic, PIM, and media tools, the BlackBerry 8330 Curve for Sprint is also the smallest, lightest BlackBerry phone that includes a full QWERTY keyboard. This amalgam of the svelte BlackBerry Pearl and the more business-oriented 8800 combines RIM’s long-valued corporate email and messaging platform with a host of advanced multimedia features, including a 2-megapixel camera and stereo Bluetooth (for listening to music via wireless headphones). It also offers GPS navigation capabilities for accessing the optional Sprint Navigation turn-by-turn direction service.

Click for larger view.

Sprint Service Options
Supporting the EV-DO high-speed data standard, this phone enables you to download and stream high-quality video, straight onto your phone. Where coverage is available, EV-DO connectivity provides average download speeds ranging from 400 to 700 Kbps, with peak rates up to 2 Mbps. With Sprint TV, you can make your cell phone your always-on source for news, weather, sports and more. This comprehensive video service combines high-quality streaming audio and video from channels including the NFL Network, ABC, The Weather Channel, Fox Sports, E!, CNN, The Discovery Channel, and more.

The Sprint Music Store enables you to buy, download, and then jam out wherever you are with new songs or old favorites. Offering a growing selection of more than 1.6 million songs, the store provides you two copies of each song–one for the phone and another for the PC, as well as the ability to burn songs to a CD using Windows Media Player. Save your songs to a memory card with a capacity that’s right for you.

This GPS-enabled phone provides optional access to Sprint Navigation for driving directions on your mobile phone–by voice and onscreen. Along the way, turn-by-turn directions will be announced in a clear voice and displayed on your phone. For example, Sprint Navigation will say, “Go 1.2 miles and turn right on Elm Street.” As you approach the turn, you will hear, “Turn right on Elm Street.” Sprint Navigation also provides proactive traffic alerts with one click re-routing. And it’s easy to find restaurants, banks, cafes, hotels and more from over 10 million points of interest across the U.S.

The Curve’s full QWERTY keyboard and the innovative trackball navigation system (placed above the keyboard) makes accessing your data and writing email a breeze.

Staying Connected
With BlackBerry’s push email technology, your email will find you without having to initiate a connection. BlackBerry devices are designed to remain on and continuously connected to the wireless network, notifying you as new email arrives. In addition to the text, you can also receive and view attachments in a wide range of popular file formats, including Microsoft Office, Corel WordPerfect, and Adobe PDF.

Browse the web with the integrated, full-featured browser, which quickly and efficiently displays HTML pages as well as enables you to set up RSS feeds to stay connected to up-to-the-minute news and blog posts. And keep up with your contacts using a variety of instant message (IM) networks, including the integrated Blackberry Messenger as well as downloadable clients for Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, and Lotus Sametime.

For corporate users, the Curve delivers all the enterprise email and messaging capabilities you’ve come to expect. It’s supported on BlackBerry Internet Service, giving you access to up to 10 work or personal email accounts (including most popular ISP email accounts), as well as BlackBerry Enterprise Server, enabling advanced security and IT administration within IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise environments.

Phone Features
The Curve 8330 is fashioned with subtly curving corners and chrome highlights. Measuring 4.2 x 2.4 inches, the Curve is just as slim as the Pearl (0.63 inches) and weighs in at 4 ounces. It features a bright 2.5-inch color TFT screen that provides 65,000 colors and a 320 x 240-pixel resolution, and it includes a light-sensing feature that automatically adjusts backlighting for indoor, outdoor and dark environments. Like the BlackBerry 8800, the Curve includes a trackball navigation system located on the top of the QWERTY keypad, and it also features an integrated spell checker with a customizable dictionary to help maintain accuracy while on the go. It has 96 MB of internal ROM memory, and is expandable using MicroSD/MicroSDHC memory cards (up to 8 GB in size).

The 2-megapixel camera makes it easy to capture pictures to send via email or upload to your online photo collection.

You can snap vivid photos (though no video) using the 2-megapixel camera on the back of the Curve, which also features a 5x digital zoom, built-in flash, self-portrait mirror and full screen viewfinder. It can capture images in up to three picture quality and size resolutions that can be shared instantly by email, MMS or BlackBerry Messenger, or even uploaded to your Flickr account with the Yahoo! Go service. Photos can also be immediately set as a unique caller ID or Home Screen image. You can edit photos and create albums within the Curve using the PhotoSuite application. Pictures can be cropped, rotated and straightened, and flaws can be fixed by removing redeye or changing the brightness, contrast, and saturation levels.

Listen to your favorite music and watch downloaded videos using the included stereo headset, or use an optional wireless headphone thanks to the Curve’s support for the Bluetooth stereo audio profile (A2DP/AVRCP). The Curve is compatible with MP3 and WMA audio files, and dedicated volume controls are conveniently located on the side of the handset.

With the Voice-Activated Dialing (VAD) feature, you can initiate a call just by telling the Curve who to call from your contact list–either via the integrated speakerphone or using an optional Bluetooth wireless headset. Other advanced phone features include advanced sound technology that cancels out background noise and echo, dedicated volume and mute keys, and the ability to customize the Curve with polyphonic and MP3 ringtones.

The BlackBerry Maps application enables you to view maps and driving directions as well as email maps to other BlackBerry users and launch maps from your address book. It also includes a local search capability that allows users to find local businesses, such as banks, hotels and restaurants, within a short driving distance.

Vital Statistics
The BlackBerry Curve 8330 weighs 4 ounces and measures 4.2 x 2.4 x 0.63 inches. Its 1150 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 5.9 hours of talk time, and up to 264 hours (11 days) of digital standby time. It runs on the 800/1900 CDMA/EV-DO frequencies.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars I Am In Love!
I’ve been a T-mobile customer for over two years. I finally decided that it was time to let them go when my contract end & I promise I won’t look back. I was gonna get a Blackberry curve with them, but I thought about the horrible reception & service I would have to deal with for another year or two. So I went to Sprint & I haven’t regretted it. I’ve been a sidekick user that’s all I’ve owned so a blackberry is a major upgrade for me. I got my phone yesterday & I am in love with it! It has everything for a person who’s on the go, a business person, a college person (like myself). I love all their features & what Sprint has to offer. I feel if I would have purchased a curve from T-Mobile I wouldn’t have been as happy. I’m still playing around with it & getting adjusted to it. Even tho ill be paying more money being with Sprint I feel its worth it. You won’t regret buying this phone.

2 Stars GOOD PHONE, POOR CALL QUALITY
I have been a Sprint customer since 2001. I have always felt they had great service and good coverage. For four years I have been using a Palm Treo (650 and then 700wx) and experienced the phone locking up on a regular basis requiring me to remove the battery. My colleagues were getting great results with Blackberry so I switched to the Blackberry Curve 8330 with Sprint. I immediately noticed a couple of negative features that have overshadowed the positives of this phone and Sprint.

The quality of voice calls is no where near as clear as the Treo. With the Treo I had people constantly tell me that I sounded like I was in the room with them speaking. I could also hear crystal clear on all my calls. The Blackberry has a muffled sound on voice calls both for incoming calls that I hear and how I sound going out. This has caused me to constantly ask people to repeat themselves in some cases two or three times.

The second major negative that became apparent immediately is that on the Sprint network, from my home office where I used to get great service from the Treo, my Blackberry could not get a good signal. For three months I have been dropping business calls daily from my home office simply by switching from a Treo to a Blackberry on Sprint. According to Sprint I am in a ‘Fair to Great’ service area but DAILY my calls are dropped because of the Blackberry.

I have had the phone tested to ensure it is working properly, I have had a free AirRave device sent for home office use, I have taken all the steps possible to stop dropping calls. Sprint finally has agreed to let me out of my contract with no penalty even though I did not ask for this. I just want a phone that will work without dropping calls. I have subsequently realized that all my colleagues who recommended the Blackberry are either with Verizon or AT&T.

The phone works excellent for everything that I needed it to do with the exception of voice calls. All the features in the world cannot compensate for the most basic function of performing great as a phone.

4 Stars Very nice phone
Loving my Blackberry Curve 8330. I’ve had a BB 8700g before and liked it very much but this phone blows it and my Palm Centro that I upgraded from right out of the water. I’m quite pleased with the BB Curve 8330. Not for nothing, Sprint’s Curve is the best one to have because it has far more features than any other cell phone carriers’ Curves. Sprint didn’t hold back featurewise. My friends are a bit jealous because of the amount of features my phone has compared to their Curves. Here’s the breakdown of what I like and dislike.

Pros:

- Beautiful ruby red color

- Very clear and vivid video and pictures

- Great call quality

- Nice, loud speakerphone

- MP3 sound quality is superb

- Has standard 3.5mm headphone jack which is great. No need to buy those special 2.5mm headphones.

- A USB port

- Snappy bluetooth pairing with my bluetooth headset when with many other phones it seemed like it took forever for the two devices to find each other

- Expandable to 16GB with 4.5 OS

- Speedy email retrieval

- Camera and video camera is pretty good especially outdoors but the indoor photos are not too shabby

- Decent battery life

- Trackball makes for easy navigating

- 96MB of internal ROM memory which is a nice amount of storage and I’m able to fit a lot of third party software with room to spare

- A lot of awesome features and apps that came with the phone plus plenty you can download

- Nice rendering of doc, pdf and ppt files

Honorable mention: The Sprint GPS TelNav(which I thought I didn’t need)on this phone rocks. It really can go toe to toe as far as navigation with my Garmin GPS plus it finds signals a lot quicker than my Garmin. I’ve used it while driving and while walking and it has been on point with fantastic accuracy.

Cons:

- Internet videos, particularly YouTube, displays very small and doesn’t take up the whole screen and there’s no way to make it full screen like I was able to with my Palm Centro

- Video camera does not shoot videos using the whole 320×240 screen. It only takes the videos at 240×176. Therefore the videos you shoot never take up the whole screen.

- The browser could be a bit faster

- Hangs and freezes on some websites

- Rebooting is way too slow

- Wish the camera had more features

- Voice dialing is bad and doesn’t register spoken names very well. Luckily I use another app to handle that.

All and all…this is a very nice phone.

5 Stars Amazing Phone
I’ve had this phone for 4 months now and I believe I’ve had it long enough to write a review. First off, let me just say that I found a way not to pay for any web services because I don’t use them, so this review will not be for the internet, BBM, or applications (which may be why I have not had any problems).

The mp3 player is very easy to use, and it has an extremely useful search feature: when you just go into your music and you start typing, it will automatically search for you. I have also recently found that, if you hold the “volume up” button on the right side of the phone for about 3 seconds, it will go to the next song, and if you hold the “volume down”, it will go to the last song (once again, very useful). The speakers on the phone get a little blurry when at full volume, but then again, what phone doesn’t? It is also very convenient that the phone accepts normal 3.5mm headphones, so you can just plug your iPod headphones or any other standard headphones into the jack and listen to your music, and the same if you have headphones with a microphone.

The user interface is very nice and easy to use, and the best thing I have found about this phone is that it DOES NOT FREEZE. This is a HUGE deal for me since my last phone used to freeze practically every time I went to the mp3 player. However, on my Blackberry, I play Brickbreaker while having music play on the speakers and it works seamlessly (there is a little bit of a lag when the song changes, but it’s not too big of a deal).

The thing I like most about this phone is how text messaging shows up. It puts all of your conversations in one thread (similar to the iPhone) so that you don’t have to keep going between messages to find something you said to your friend, or vice versa.

It also has a decent camera with flash and zoom. The camera is not as clear as the iPhone’s camera, but I’m very satisfied with it because I take a lot of pictures at night when flash is absolutely necessary. I’m not sure why the review says it does not have a video camera, because the phone actually does have a decent video camera that I have used at least 10 times so far.

Also, battery life is AMAZING. As I said before, I play a lot of music and Brickbreaker on my Blackberry, but I only need to charge it every few days.

The keys are a bit small to type with sometimes, but I have adapted and I put up with it because the small keys are what lets the phone be so small.

I have also dropped this phone many times and it is still LIKE NEW. However, I would recommend buying a silicone case for it (you can find them for as low as $5) to protect it.

5 Stars Finally, a real “Smartphone”
I’ve had my Blackberry 8330 with Sprint for a couple of weeks now. With the many different units I have had over time, I have a good comparative baseline to note the Blackberry’s performance against. My prior phone was a Motorola Razr with AT&T. I loved the phone and the service I had. Concurrently with the Razr, I had numerous PDA’s, aka “Smartphones” which my workplace provided me. All these units had issues, quirks, and downright irritable tendencies. I still have one of these PDA’s; it’s a Verizon 6800 - one of the most aggravating PDA’s I have experienced to date. I have also had two Palm units and an IPAQ.

I got this unit as a replacement for my Razr as the plan I was on wasn’t conducive to texting/web. The switch from AT&T wasn’t easy as I had a long run with them as a carrier and would recommend their customer service. Sprint had a better data/phone plan so I went with them and got this jewel of a unit.

The Blackberry is lightweight, comfortable to hold and unbelievably easy to use. I love the QWERTY keyboard, there is no ‘lag time’ in typing words as I suffer with the Verizon unit. The screen is bright and easy to see even outdoors and with sunglasses(!). Not so with the Verizon - I have to take off the sunglasses, position the unit ‘just so’ in order to use the touchy (not in a good way) touch screen and also to read emails. The Verizon has a slide out keyboard which I thought would be a good thing - well, if it worked as it should.

I have downloaded a multitude of free apps from the numerous Blackberry websites. The unit comes with a decent amount of apps already built in. I now use OperaMini for the browser as I find it to be faster than the pre-installed one. It came preloaded with Blackberry Messenger, Yahoo, AIM and much more. I have email coming from three different accounts, each nicely in its own folder. Emails come quickly, I don’t have to synch all the time as I do with the Verizon unit (yes, even with the settings set to download on a timed basis).

The battery life is good. No complaints at all. I call, use the web all the time, download apps all the time and the battery holds up. The Verizon unit? It sucked wind within hours of unplugging from a full charge. I also spent hours with tech support for the Verizon unit both on the phone and in a store. But those are stories for another time.

The sound quality is great. I haven’t tried it my Bluetooth earphone as yet. Texting is a breeze. I haven’t lost the phone signal or had delayed emails anywhere I’ve gone yet. The PC software to synch and backup the software works like a charm. The unit is so easy to use right from the box. I may go and read the manual at some point and see what else it can do I haven’t discovered on my own.

There are a multitude of covers, accessories and software (free and fee) for this gadget. I can’t say enough about it. I am thrilled I bought it and I guess I am now officially a Crackberry member. I wish I got the real “Smartphone” sooner. As a techno-geek, I love this gadget. For non geeks out there, get it - you don’t have to be a techie to use or appreciate the work it does. I now have two phones in my purse, but only ONE that IS a SMARTPHONE.

Terrific product. Kudos RIM.

Update-there is a hefty user community out there. Help and a thorough knowledge-base is at your fingertips [...].

Buy/More Info

BlackBerry Curve 8330 Phone Red Sprint

Posted by Smartphone Review on January 10, 2010

BlackBerry Curve 8330 Phone Red Sprint

Adding a fashionable touch to Research in Motion’s formidable arsenal of telephonic, PIM, and media tools, the BlackBerry 8330 Curve for Sprint is also the smallest, lightest BlackBerry phone that includes a full QWERTY keyboard. This amalgam of the svelte BlackBerry Pearl and the more business-oriented 8800 combines RIM’s long-valued corporate email and messaging platform with a host of advanced multimedia features, including a 2-megapixel camera and stereo Bluetooth (for listening to music via wireless headphones). It also offers GPS navigation capabilities for accessing the optional Sprint Navigation turn-by-turn direction service.

Click for larger view.

Sprint Service Options
Supporting the EV-DO high-speed data standard, this phone enables you to download and stream high-quality video, straight onto your phone. Where coverage is available, EV-DO connectivity provides average download speeds ranging from 400 to 700 Kbps, with peak rates up to 2 Mbps. With Sprint TV, you can make your cell phone your always-on source for news, weather, sports and more. This comprehensive video service combines high-quality streaming audio and video from channels including the NFL Network, ABC, The Weather Channel, Fox Sports, E!, CNN, The Discovery Channel, and more.

The Sprint Music Store enables you to buy, download, and then jam out wherever you are with new songs or old favorites. Offering a growing selection of more than 1.6 million songs, the store provides you two copies of each song–one for the phone and another for the PC, as well as the ability to burn songs to a CD using Windows Media Player. Save your songs to a memory card with a capacity that’s right for you.

This GPS-enabled phone provides optional access to Sprint Navigation for driving directions on your mobile phone–by voice and onscreen. Along the way, turn-by-turn directions will be announced in a clear voice and displayed on your phone. For example, Sprint Navigation will say, “Go 1.2 miles and turn right on Elm Street.” As you approach the turn, you will hear, “Turn right on Elm Street.” Sprint Navigation also provides proactive traffic alerts with one click re-routing. And it’s easy to find restaurants, banks, cafes, hotels and more from over 10 million points of interest across the U.S.

The Curve’s full QWERTY keyboard and the innovative trackball navigation system (placed above the keyboard) makes accessing your data and writing email a breeze.

Staying Connected
With BlackBerry’s push email technology, your email will find you without having to initiate a connection. BlackBerry devices are designed to remain on and continuously connected to the wireless network, notifying you as new email arrives. In addition to the text, you can also receive and view attachments in a wide range of popular file formats, including Microsoft Office, Corel WordPerfect, and Adobe PDF.

Browse the web with the integrated, full-featured browser, which quickly and efficiently displays HTML pages as well as enables you to set up RSS feeds to stay connected to up-to-the-minute news and blog posts. And keep up with your contacts using a variety of instant message (IM) networks, including the integrated Blackberry Messenger as well as downloadable clients for Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, and Lotus Sametime.

For corporate users, the Curve delivers all the enterprise email and messaging capabilities you’ve come to expect. It’s supported on BlackBerry Internet Service, giving you access to up to 10 work or personal email accounts (including most popular ISP email accounts), as well as BlackBerry Enterprise Server, enabling advanced security and IT administration within IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise environments.

Phone Features
The Curve 8330 is fashioned with subtly curving corners and chrome highlights. Measuring 4.2 x 2.4 inches, the Curve is just as slim as the Pearl (0.63 inches) and weighs in at 4 ounces. It features a bright 2.5-inch color TFT screen that provides 65,000 colors and a 320 x 240-pixel resolution, and it includes a light-sensing feature that automatically adjusts backlighting for indoor, outdoor and dark environments. Like the BlackBerry 8800, the Curve includes a trackball navigation system located on the top of the QWERTY keypad, and it also features an integrated spell checker with a customizable dictionary to help maintain accuracy while on the go. It has 96 MB of internal ROM memory, and is expandable using MicroSD/MicroSDHC memory cards (up to 8 GB in size).

The 2-megapixel camera makes it easy to capture pictures to send via email or upload to your online photo collection.

You can snap vivid photos (though no video) using the 2-megapixel camera on the back of the Curve, which also features a 5x digital zoom, built-in flash, self-portrait mirror and full screen viewfinder. It can capture images in up to three picture quality and size resolutions that can be shared instantly by email, MMS or BlackBerry Messenger, or even uploaded to your Flickr account with the Yahoo! Go service. Photos can also be immediately set as a unique caller ID or Home Screen image. You can edit photos and create albums within the Curve using the PhotoSuite application. Pictures can be cropped, rotated and straightened, and flaws can be fixed by removing redeye or changing the brightness, contrast, and saturation levels.

Listen to your favorite music and watch downloaded videos using the included stereo headset, or use an optional wireless headphone thanks to the Curve’s support for the Bluetooth stereo audio profile (A2DP/AVRCP). The Curve is compatible with MP3 and WMA audio files, and dedicated volume controls are conveniently located on the side of the handset.

With the Voice-Activated Dialing (VAD) feature, you can initiate a call just by telling the Curve who to call from your contact list–either via the integrated speakerphone or using an optional Bluetooth wireless headset. Other advanced phone features include advanced sound technology that cancels out background noise and echo, dedicated volume and mute keys, and the ability to customize the Curve with polyphonic and MP3 ringtones.

The BlackBerry Maps application enables you to view maps and driving directions as well as email maps to other BlackBerry users and launch maps from your address book. It also includes a local search capability that allows users to find local businesses, such as banks, hotels and restaurants, within a short driving distance.

Vital Statistics
The BlackBerry Curve 8330 weighs 4 ounces and measures 4.2 x 2.4 x 0.63 inches. Its 1150 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 5.9 hours of talk time, and up to 264 hours (11 days) of digital standby time. It runs on the 800/1900 CDMA/EV-DO frequencies.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Finally, a real “Smartphone”
I’ve had my Blackberry 8330 with Sprint for a couple of weeks now. With the many different units I have had over time, I have a good comparative baseline to note the Blackberry’s performance against. My prior phone was a Motorola Razr with AT&T. I loved the phone and the service I had. Concurrently with the Razr, I had numerous PDA’s, aka “Smartphones” which my workplace provided me. All these units had issues, quirks, and downright irritable tendencies. I still have one of these PDA’s; it’s a Verizon 6800 - one of the most aggravating PDA’s I have experienced to date. I have also had two Palm units and an IPAQ.

I got this unit as a replacement for my Razr as the plan I was on wasn’t conducive to texting/web. The switch from AT&T wasn’t easy as I had a long run with them as a carrier and would recommend their customer service. Sprint had a better data/phone plan so I went with them and got this jewel of a unit.

The Blackberry is lightweight, comfortable to hold and unbelievably easy to use. I love the QWERTY keyboard, there is no ‘lag time’ in typing words as I suffer with the Verizon unit. The screen is bright and easy to see even outdoors and with sunglasses(!). Not so with the Verizon - I have to take off the sunglasses, position the unit ‘just so’ in order to use the touchy (not in a good way) touch screen and also to read emails. The Verizon has a slide out keyboard which I thought would be a good thing - well, if it worked as it should.

I have downloaded a multitude of free apps from the numerous Blackberry websites. The unit comes with a decent amount of apps already built in. I now use OperaMini for the browser as I find it to be faster than the pre-installed one. It came preloaded with Blackberry Messenger, Yahoo, AIM and much more. I have email coming from three different accounts, each nicely in its own folder. Emails come quickly, I don’t have to synch all the time as I do with the Verizon unit (yes, even with the settings set to download on a timed basis).

The battery life is good. No complaints at all. I call, use the web all the time, download apps all the time and the battery holds up. The Verizon unit? It sucked wind within hours of unplugging from a full charge. I also spent hours with tech support for the Verizon unit both on the phone and in a store. But those are stories for another time.

The sound quality is great. I haven’t tried it my Bluetooth earphone as yet. Texting is a breeze. I haven’t lost the phone signal or had delayed emails anywhere I’ve gone yet. The PC software to synch and backup the software works like a charm. The unit is so easy to use right from the box. I may go and read the manual at some point and see what else it can do I haven’t discovered on my own.

There are a multitude of covers, accessories and software (free and fee) for this gadget. I can’t say enough about it. I am thrilled I bought it and I guess I am now officially a Crackberry member. I wish I got the real “Smartphone” sooner. As a techno-geek, I love this gadget. For non geeks out there, get it - you don’t have to be a techie to use or appreciate the work it does. I now have two phones in my purse, but only ONE that IS a SMARTPHONE.

Terrific product. Kudos RIM.

Update-there is a hefty user community out there. Help and a thorough knowledge-base is at your fingertips [...].

5 Stars I Am In Love!
I’ve been a T-mobile customer for over two years. I finally decided that it was time to let them go when my contract end & I promise I won’t look back. I was gonna get a Blackberry curve with them, but I thought about the horrible reception & service I would have to deal with for another year or two. So I went to Sprint & I haven’t regretted it. I’ve been a sidekick user that’s all I’ve owned so a blackberry is a major upgrade for me. I got my phone yesterday & I am in love with it! It has everything for a person who’s on the go, a business person, a college person (like myself). I love all their features & what Sprint has to offer. I feel if I would have purchased a curve from T-Mobile I wouldn’t have been as happy. I’m still playing around with it & getting adjusted to it. Even tho ill be paying more money being with Sprint I feel its worth it. You won’t regret buying this phone.

5 Stars Amazing Phone
I’ve had this phone for 4 months now and I believe I’ve had it long enough to write a review. First off, let me just say that I found a way not to pay for any web services because I don’t use them, so this review will not be for the internet, BBM, or applications (which may be why I have not had any problems).

The mp3 player is very easy to use, and it has an extremely useful search feature: when you just go into your music and you start typing, it will automatically search for you. I have also recently found that, if you hold the “volume up” button on the right side of the phone for about 3 seconds, it will go to the next song, and if you hold the “volume down”, it will go to the last song (once again, very useful). The speakers on the phone get a little blurry when at full volume, but then again, what phone doesn’t? It is also very convenient that the phone accepts normal 3.5mm headphones, so you can just plug your iPod headphones or any other standard headphones into the jack and listen to your music, and the same if you have headphones with a microphone.

The user interface is very nice and easy to use, and the best thing I have found about this phone is that it DOES NOT FREEZE. This is a HUGE deal for me since my last phone used to freeze practically every time I went to the mp3 player. However, on my Blackberry, I play Brickbreaker while having music play on the speakers and it works seamlessly (there is a little bit of a lag when the song changes, but it’s not too big of a deal).

The thing I like most about this phone is how text messaging shows up. It puts all of your conversations in one thread (similar to the iPhone) so that you don’t have to keep going between messages to find something you said to your friend, or vice versa.

It also has a decent camera with flash and zoom. The camera is not as clear as the iPhone’s camera, but I’m very satisfied with it because I take a lot of pictures at night when flash is absolutely necessary. I’m not sure why the review says it does not have a video camera, because the phone actually does have a decent video camera that I have used at least 10 times so far.

Also, battery life is AMAZING. As I said before, I play a lot of music and Brickbreaker on my Blackberry, but I only need to charge it every few days.

The keys are a bit small to type with sometimes, but I have adapted and I put up with it because the small keys are what lets the phone be so small.

I have also dropped this phone many times and it is still LIKE NEW. However, I would recommend buying a silicone case for it (you can find them for as low as $5) to protect it.

4 Stars Very nice phone
Loving my Blackberry Curve 8330. I’ve had a BB 8700g before and liked it very much but this phone blows it and my Palm Centro that I upgraded from right out of the water. I’m quite pleased with the BB Curve 8330. Not for nothing, Sprint’s Curve is the best one to have because it has far more features than any other cell phone carriers’ Curves. Sprint didn’t hold back featurewise. My friends are a bit jealous because of the amount of features my phone has compared to their Curves. Here’s the breakdown of what I like and dislike.

Pros:

- Beautiful ruby red color

- Very clear and vivid video and pictures

- Great call quality

- Nice, loud speakerphone

- MP3 sound quality is superb

- Has standard 3.5mm headphone jack which is great. No need to buy those special 2.5mm headphones.

- A USB port

- Snappy bluetooth pairing with my bluetooth headset when with many other phones it seemed like it took forever for the two devices to find each other

- Expandable to 16GB with 4.5 OS

- Speedy email retrieval

- Camera and video camera is pretty good especially outdoors but the indoor photos are not too shabby

- Decent battery life

- Trackball makes for easy navigating

- 96MB of internal ROM memory which is a nice amount of storage and I’m able to fit a lot of third party software with room to spare

- A lot of awesome features and apps that came with the phone plus plenty you can download

- Nice rendering of doc, pdf and ppt files

Honorable mention: The Sprint GPS TelNav(which I thought I didn’t need)on this phone rocks. It really can go toe to toe as far as navigation with my Garmin GPS plus it finds signals a lot quicker than my Garmin. I’ve used it while driving and while walking and it has been on point with fantastic accuracy.

Cons:

- Internet videos, particularly YouTube, displays very small and doesn’t take up the whole screen and there’s no way to make it full screen like I was able to with my Palm Centro

- Video camera does not shoot videos using the whole 320×240 screen. It only takes the videos at 240×176. Therefore the videos you shoot never take up the whole screen.

- The browser could be a bit faster

- Hangs and freezes on some websites

- Rebooting is way too slow

- Wish the camera had more features

- Voice dialing is bad and doesn’t register spoken names very well. Luckily I use another app to handle that.

All and all…this is a very nice phone.

2 Stars GOOD PHONE, POOR CALL QUALITY
I have been a Sprint customer since 2001. I have always felt they had great service and good coverage. For four years I have been using a Palm Treo (650 and then 700wx) and experienced the phone locking up on a regular basis requiring me to remove the battery. My colleagues were getting great results with Blackberry so I switched to the Blackberry Curve 8330 with Sprint. I immediately noticed a couple of negative features that have overshadowed the positives of this phone and Sprint.

The quality of voice calls is no where near as clear as the Treo. With the Treo I had people constantly tell me that I sounded like I was in the room with them speaking. I could also hear crystal clear on all my calls. The Blackberry has a muffled sound on voice calls both for incoming calls that I hear and how I sound going out. This has caused me to constantly ask people to repeat themselves in some cases two or three times.

The second major negative that became apparent immediately is that on the Sprint network, from my home office where I used to get great service from the Treo, my Blackberry could not get a good signal. For three months I have been dropping business calls daily from my home office simply by switching from a Treo to a Blackberry on Sprint. According to Sprint I am in a ‘Fair to Great’ service area but DAILY my calls are dropped because of the Blackberry.

I have had the phone tested to ensure it is working properly, I have had a free AirRave device sent for home office use, I have taken all the steps possible to stop dropping calls. Sprint finally has agreed to let me out of my contract with no penalty even though I did not ask for this. I just want a phone that will work without dropping calls. I have subsequently realized that all my colleagues who recommended the Blackberry are either with Verizon or AT&T.

The phone works excellent for everything that I needed it to do with the exception of voice calls. All the features in the world cannot compensate for the most basic function of performing great as a phone.

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