RIM BlackBerry Curve 9370 Review

Introduction:

Late to the Ball is the BlackBerry Curve 9370, as it arrives from Verizon several months after the Curve 9350 and Curve 9360. We’re not sure why, as there really are no changes to the device, but better late than never, right? The BlackBerry Curve 9370 is a modest update to the Curve 9330, which we reviewed back in 2010, but at this point we would have preferred seeing the Curve 9380 instead. At its current price of $100 with 2-year Verizon contract, it’s got plenty of competition for other smartphones, some of which are 4G LTE enabled.

Included in the retail package is the BlackBerry Curve 9370, 1000 mAh battery, wall charger with detachable microUSB cable, pre-installed 2GB microSD memory card, and user guides.

Design:

If you’re a fan of the BlackBerry Curve 9330, then chances are you’ll like the more streamlined design of the Curve 9370. It’s quite thin, coming in at 0.43” thick, and lightweight at 3.49 oz, which makes it quite comfortable to hold. Even though the Curve 9370 is made out of plastic, it feels reasonably durable for daily use, and we appreciate the textured soft-touch coating on the back, which provides for a nice grip.



You can compare the RIM BlackBerry Curve 9370 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The TFT LCD display is slightly larger at 2.44” (compared to 2.4” on the Curve 9330), but the real improvement comes to the resolution, as it’s now 480x360, instead of 320x240. This allows for text to be sharper and images to be clearer. Furthermore, colors look more true-to-life, since the display now supports 16 million colors instead of just 65K.

Faithful to its siblings, we find the optical trackpad and BlackBerry buttons located below the display. The hard plastic keys feel very similar to the Curve 9330, but perhaps a bit smaller this time around. For the most part, we felt at home typing on them, but the keypad can be cramped at times as we found ourselves pressing two keys at once on more than one occasion. This keyboard is a far cry from the Bold, which is the standard in the BlackBerry line-up.

On its sides we find a microUSB port for charging and PC connectivity, 3.5mm headset jack, stiff feeling lock button, right convenience key, and volume rocker. Meanwhile, there’s a 5-megapixel camera on the rear along with its LED flash. Finally, pulling off the plastic rear cover provides us access to its SIM card slot, tiny 1000 mAh battery, and microSD card slot.

Interface and Functionality:

It might not be a 1GHz processor under the hood, but for an entry level handset, we’re accepting of its single-core 800MHz processor with 512MB of RAM. Even with that, the BlackBerry Curve 9370 is able to emulate the tight responsiveness of other recent BlackBerry smartphones. Specifically, it’s adequate enough to handle tasks such as opening programs, navigating across the homescreen, and even web browsing very smoothly.

With the Curve 9370 running BlackBerry OS 7, there’s not a whole lot of learning required for those who are well versed in the operations of OS 6. Granted that it is functional and organized, but the entire experience is now feeling antiquated versus competing smartphones. Even more, the user experience tends to feel more tedious than its touchscreen enabled siblings since we’re spending more time trying to navigate with the trackpad. Certainly, we’re left with a lot to desire with the OS 7 experience, such as having a deeper level of personalization, but we’re grateful to see it running smoothly with its performance.


In addition to the standard RIM apps, you also have some social media ones like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, as well as messaging apps such as Google Talk, Windows Live and Yahoo! Messenger. Verizon include their apps for VZ Navigator, VZW Tones, V Cast Videos and Song ID. Productivity users will enjoy that the handset is preloaded with Documents To Go, which quickly allows us to create and edit Microsoft Office files.

As with any BlackBerry, the Curve 9370 makes its mark with strong messaging, email and calendar options, especially when paired with a BlackBerry Enterprise Server. There is nothing new to say about these services other than they are just as good as always have been.


Camera:

Even though having a 5MP camera is nice, we’re a bit upset that it does not support autofocus. Not only that, but we found the image quality to be lacking, as colors are washed-out and some pictures appear to have a bluish hue. Indoor shots are filled with an abundance of graininess and digital noise, which masks any fine details, though the LED flash is potent enough to light up the shot, but at times it can over-expose the image.

Sticking with good old-fashion VGA resolution video recording, there’s not a lot going on with it since there are subtle amounts of pixilation that can be seen. Obviously, it’s not HD quality like on the competition, but at least we’re given a smooth 30 frames-per-second capture and clear audio recording.

RIM BlackBerry Curve 9370 Sample Video:



Multimedia:

There also isn’t anything new with the music and video player. It was able to handle H.264 and MPEG-4 video formats, but could only play them at a maximum resolution of 640x480. We can’t imagine too many people watching full-length movies on the tiny 2.44” display, so this isn’t a big hit against the device.



Internet:

Even though Verizon has been touting their 4G LTE network for the past year, the BlackBerry Curve 9370 still only makes use of their 3G EVDO Rev. A data network, though Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n is supported. The web browser worked just fine and was able to load up complex web pages without a problem, though we didn’t like having to use the trackpad for scrolling around the page, and found the zoom to be pain to use. Not only that, but the small display discourages prolonged internet use.


Being a global-roaming phone, the Curve 9370 supports dual-band CDMA and EVDO 800/1900 MHz networks and quad-band EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz networks with the included Vodafone SIM card. Naturally, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR is supported, as well as NFC.

Performance:

Unfortunately, call quality is below par on the Curve 9370 as voices on our end were flat and dull sounding, while people that we talked to said it sounded hollow, choppy, and “like a cell phone” on their end. Despite this, the device was able to maintain a connection and did not drop any calls or data connections while in use in the South FL area.

The included 1000 mAh battery is only rated at 5.5 hours of talk time on a full charge, and under mixed usage we were able to get about 8 hours before requiring a charge.

Conclusion:

We would have been more interested with the BlackBerry Curve 9370 if it came out last summer, but with it being released months after the Curve 9350 and 9360, it is really outdated. Not only that, but we believe the $100 on-contract price is asking  more than it should be. If you currently own the Curve 9330 and want to stick to BlackBerry, it might be worth the upgrade to the 9370, but for new customers, it doesn’t offer anything exciting over the competition.

Software on tested device:
BlackBerry OS 7.0 Bundle 1971 (v7.0.0.374)

RIM BlackBerry Curve 9370 Video Review: