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RIM BlackBerry Curve 8330 Review

Reviews icon RIM BlackBerry Curve 8330 Review

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8330 Review

Published on: 30 May, 2008 by PhoneArena Team

Keywords:
Verizon
Sprint
RIM
Alltel
QWERTY
Business

Review index:

Performance:

As a business device the Curve must perform well where it matters most, as a phone. It did not disappoint, displaying above average reception and excellent battery life. Callers said we sounded fairly clear, an 8/10 we were told, and on our end they sounded nearly perfect. The speakerphone also performed admirably, though at the highest volume it became slightly distorted. Battery life is rated at 260 minutes, but we were able to get 355 minutes before the Curve shut the wireless radio off. That’s nearly six hours of talk time, which is outstanding.

Conclusion:

The Curve 8330 is a good device, and for RIM diehards and business professionals it is the best BlackBerry to date. However, there are still significant shortcomings, mostly related to the UI, that make us shy away from recommending it to the average consumer . We feel RIM devices appeal to a limited audience, though to that audience they are invaluable. The Curve, however, sets out to defeat the consumer market and unfortunately falls short. The keyboard is excellent but the trackball frustrating. A complicated thing like email is dirt simple, but a dirt simple thing like changing the volume is complicated. While RIM hits the mark on many things, there are still too many simple shortcomings that cannot be overlooked.

Sprint does a much better job than Verizon at including applications that the everyday user will find useful, and we’d be much more comfortable recommending the Curve to a Sprint user. If you’re a business professional or a Verizon customer looking to upgrade your 8703 to a more media-friendly device the Curve is a no-brainer, but otherwise we’d suggest looking elsewhere.

Pros

Best email platform available
Keyboard is the best QWERTY we’ve used
Excellent battery life

Cons

UI just isn’t ready for prime-time
Trackball can be as frustrating as it is helpful
microSD slot very inconvenient

PA rating

Design 7
Display 7
Camera 5.5
Sound Quality 9
Battery 8.5
Connectivity 6.5
Multimedia 8.5
Organizer 10

Good

7.1

out of 10

How do we rate?

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Check prices

Model	Carrier	Price Today	Price after rebate
BlackBerry Curve 8330 Titanium		Free	Free	Buy
BlackBerry Curve 8330 Silver		Free	Free	Buy

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Comments icon User comments

User comments

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1.

Jealous_B @ 30 May, 2008 01:30:03 PM

I'm very confused how is it that when the Blackberry phones go CDMA and add things like GPS and 3G data theyget a worse rating than the original GSM versions. It has nothing to do with connectivity or sound quality. So why is it that this curve is worse than the original 8300. Even though it is the same design and software as the orginal. I mean your opinion is yours but based on user reviews i've seen thus far i was expecting at least an 8 from the site so a 6.5 really came out of nowhere.

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2.

JoeyStyles @ 30 May, 2008 01:41:31 PM

Good point, what is the beef with the 8330 comparing to the other phones form the 8300 series

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3.

the champ @ 30 May, 2008 04:50:56 PM

The Sprint Curve includes AIM, GTalk and Yahoo Messenger clients. The Verizon version has nothing, though third-party solutions are available at a cost. - - - this is not true, Verizon offer free download of their chat client that includes msn/yahoo/aim...simply by opening the browser(default home page) you can download facebook, VZnav, chat client, and a few other free apps form verizon. i much prefer the NON bloated Curve over the sprint model that I would have to uninstall all that junk I don't use because it is taking up space for things i would use. oh, and VZnav has voice prompts, as does sprints navigation, even though they said it does not...odd, but whatever.

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4.

anonymous @ 30 May, 2008 06:09:22 PM

from the review..."Interestingly, the VZW portal, however, gave us issues and either partially loaded or more often than not didn’t load at all."

if he/she couldnt load the vzw portal then they probably wouldnt have been able to find these applications. also, the review says the free gps apps dont use voice prompts, it doesnt say vznav cant. and vznav certainly isnt free

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5.

anonymous @ 31 May, 2008 11:24:58 PM

I like the fact that VZW's version included more memory ( internally )... although the internal memory is still skimpy. A micro SD card will take care of that. One other thing to note: Only the monthly subscription of VZ Nav is available on the Blackberries for Verizon. The daily option is currently not available.

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6.

Jealous_B @ 01 June, 2008 10:44:31 AM

I wanna say to the phonearena staff that I appreciate that they read the comments, and I hope that that helped influence the change of the score upwards. If even just a little bit.

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7.

Reviewer @ 01 June, 2008 11:52:16 AM

There was some confusion, as we actually wanted to score the Sprint and Verizon Curves differently. Also, #4 is correct, since my portal page never loaded properly I was (and still am) not able to see the downloadable IM application. The text has been changed accordingly, and the score bumped a bit. If we could assign two scores to the different ones the Verizon Curve would get a 7 and the Sprint Curve an 8.

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8.

JoeyStyles @ 01 June, 2008 03:04:37 PM

yeah it is great to see a proactive staff great job phone arena now next a web page for your cell phone that would be awesome

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9.

jamesvillan22 @ 02 June, 2008 03:14:07 PM

u people need to test this phone for both carriers VERIZON! and sucky sprint! stop been lazy and do the review on both of the phones! just cause is the same phone doesnt mean it will be the same experience! u people are getting horrible with the reviews!~ hire some people that know there wireless carriers and there devices gissssss! is like a 7 year old did this review! give me a break if u people are going to give mediocre reviews!~ maybe we all should just go to engadget!~mobile for ur specks and reviews! at least they review the device =-P

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anonymous @ 03 June, 2008 11:38:33 AM

did you actually read their review? it was done using both vzw and sprint, as evidenced by the CONSTANT mentions of both devices and where they differ as well as the pictures of both units. hell, the reviewer even posted in #7 clarifying some of the issues brought up in the comments, and gave a separate score for the two different versions. in fact, they blatantly say in the review to say that even though the hardware is the same the s/w makes it two different devices. its cool that you like your company, but dont get all up in arms when someone calls them out for offering an inferior product!

and thats not to mention the extra $30/month youre going to pay vzw to even begin to touch the services youll get with the sprint curve!

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11.

anonymous @ 08 July, 2008 02:11:53 PM

K, so why when AT&T and T-Mobile have the Curve2, Verizon Wireless and Sprint-Nextel have the Curve? They released it about a year after AT&T and T-Mobile did, so why can't they both replace it with the Curve2?

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12.

anonymous @ 07 October, 2008 10:59:11 AM

your micro SD card is lagging because you are using a cheap brand

I'm using Kingston with no lag time at all. Keep in mind there are speed raitings to SS memory.

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