RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900 Review

Messaging:

Like any BlackBerry, the Curve supports a whole slew of messaging options. Standards like SMS and MMS are onboard, as is support for multiple email accounts and BlackBerry PIN messaging.  Other preloaded IM clients are AIM, GTalk, ICQ, Windows Live and Yahoo Messenger allowing you to keep in touch with virtually anyone.

Email setup on the BlackBerry is about as perfect as it gets, we simply put in our email and password and that was it. Even with our uncommon work email we didn’t have to enter any server information. The push email arrived nearly instantaneously in our testing. With the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) the user can have up to 10 email addresses on one device.

After our Storm debacle we were quite happy to get back to a real BlackBerry keyboard.  We were again reminded of why BlackBerries will continue to remain the standard for mobile email and messaging.


Connectivity and Data:

The Curve is a quad-band GSM device which unfortunately features only EDGE data.  It somewhat makes up for the 3G omission with Wi-Fi, but those not near a hotspot will be left in 2G purgatory.  Unlike the original Curve, where GPS and Wi-Fi were mutually exclusive, the 8900 packs both into one device which means we probably won’t be seeing an 8910 and 8920, though a 3G 8930 for Sprint and Verizon is expected in the first half of this year.  The 8900 has Bluetooth 2.0 and supports the HSP, HFP 1.5, DUN, SAP, PBA, A2DP, AVRC profiles.

The browser appears to be the same reworked browser first found on the Bold.  It looks similar to the BlackBerry browser of old, but has some improvements that lead to a better experience.  For starters, the standard mouse curser has been replaced with an eyeglass and a simple press of the trackball zooms in.  Rendering is better as well, and speed has increased though isn’t what we’d call fast, even over Wi-Fi.


BlackBerry Desktop Manager handles desktop sync as always.  It is used to manage calendar, tasks, contacts and email synchronization with your desktop.  You can also use the data cable to load media onto the memory card, and Media Sync will allow for iTunes syncing of non-DRM files, like we’ve seen with other recent BlackBerries.