This is long overdue! I moved a few posts from my personal blog over here and was reading them as I went. In one I mentioned that I was getting a Curve and that I would review it shortly, oops. I’ve now had the Curve for just over 9 months so this won’t contain any “new shiny” syndrome and should be fairly objective. There are several sub-models in the Curve family now so check the chart for the specs on the one you’re interested in.

The Device

The Curve has carved out a niche somewhere between the Pearl and the “business” model blackberries (8700, 8800, etc.) both in size and in features. The unit is 4.2″ x 2.4″ x 0.6″ and has nice curved edges which fit nicely in the hand. It is 3.9oz which is nice and light but doesn’t feel cheap and plastic-y. The screen is 320 x 240, supports 65k colours (16-bit), and is very bright. Screen size is the same as the 8700 and 8800 and just a little bigger than the Pearl. Newer blackberries are now slightly larger but there is a great deal of competition out there from Apple and HTC, RIM is falling behind. The MicroSD slot is still inside under the battery which is an issue I noted on the Pearl. The extra memory is still absolutely essential as the internal device memory is paltry. The Curve finally has a standard 3.5mm headphone jack so no more 2.5mm to 3.5mm converters to hookup your favourite headphones. It also works with standard headsets and has bluetooth for those wireless ones. I’ve always found the Blackberries underpowered and this device is no different, actually it is worse. There are frequent lags throughout which make navigation and use feel disconnected. I was especially frustrated with BrickBreaker which was somewhat fun on the Pearl but is now almost unplayable due to lag.

The Battery

As always the battery is user changeable so those who are extra heavy users can always have a fresh battery ready to swap in unlike a lot of phones. The battery life is quite good and lasts a long time with infrequent use and a decent amount under heavy use. The official specs say 4 hours talk 17 days standby but I usually get 2 or more days with my average to light use. Blackberry devices have always had decent battery life though so this should be no surprise.

The Keyboard and Trackball

The full keyboard is nice and compact but unfortunately doesn’t feel very good compared to the Pearl or 8800 keyboards. The distinct keys are hard plastic and you will notice the keyboard plate shifting when pressed which takes away from the feel of quality. Those with big fingers would be better served with the 8800 which has a much better keyboard. The trackball is the same as on the other devices with no refinements as far as I can tell. I have one major gripe with it which is probably only noticeable to a developer. The trackball does not handle diagonal motion properly it has a huge tendency to straight lines on the X and Y axes. It feels like the X and Y motion sensors can’t operate at the same time. Overall the devices input mechanisms could be greatly improved.

The Camera

This time around the camera has been improved slightly and is 2MP with a LED flash bulb. Picture quality looks OK on the device screen but bringing them to the computer is a mistake any shot without perfect outdoor lighting is extremely grainy and washed out. The sorry state of phone cameras on most devices is a bit depressing, why is it so hard when camera technology is so cheap? The Nokia N95 did a really good job.

The Browser

There are very few phones currently on the market that provide a decent web browsing experience. Obviously Apple offering is one, some larger screen internet devices, but not much else. The Curve (and almost every other Blackberry) has a terrible web browser so be forewarned. It does a terrible job rendering pages that are even moderately beyond the standard of the 90s which is shameful. You essentially must download Opera Mini right away and use it instead. Unfortunately due to limitations within the Blackberry OS even Opera Mini doesn’t provide the best experience but it is markedly better. On another note, does anybody actually know what the WAP browser is for?

The Meat

Blackberry has created a business model around enterprise push email service. Their bread and butter is the business clients who want to carry their Outlook environment with them on the road. Blackberries synchronize with Outlook extremely well and when hooked up to BIS or BES do over the air sync, you never have to do a desktop sync ever again. If you have Microsoft Exchange and BES you are really in for a treat as mail functionality on the device is stepped up another notch to include the ability to manager folders of email. Synchronization includes Mail, Calendar, Address Book, Tasks, and Notes which is amazing useful for those that can’t afford to be “away” from the office. Blackberry OS even has the ability to open various Microsoft Office documents for viewing so you don’t need to go to a PC to review the budget numbers. The Curve is no different in offering all of these features and I haven’t noticed anything different between it and the 8800.

Voice dialing is still intact along with most of the positive and negative remarks from my Pearl review. You still must have a MicroSD card to play music due to the paltry internal memory.

The Google

For sure you will want to check out Google services for Blackberry. Google Mobile provides GMail, Maps, Reader, News, Picaza and more through downloadable applications. I’ve found all of these tools to be very useful and fairly well developed. GMail is missing labels, Maps can be slow, etc but overall they are great products. The Curve 8310 with GPS works really well with Google Maps and has helped me out quite a few times.

The Conclusion

Plenty of people have complained about the keyboard on the Pearl, if you are one than this device is probably a nice happy medium between the Pearl and the 8800. The keyboard is pretty good but as I mentioned feels a little cheap and plastic-y. Software is mostly the same along with media capabilities. The larger screen is the only other real plus now that the Pearl product line mirrors the Curves. I have a really high standard when it comes to smart phones and this simply doesn’t meet all of my criteria for a perfect device however that being said I recently tested the Apple offering and switched back to the Curve. Those able to take one step up should opt for the Blackberry Bold but the Curve isn’t a bad product either.