Rim BlackBerry Curve 8520 Smartphone
- Screen Size (Diagonal): 2.64 inch
- Installed Memory: 256 MB
- Operating System: BlackBerry OS
- Connectivity: Bluetooth, WiFi
- Performance: Quad Band
- Design: Mobile
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Internet junkies will love it
Pros
Guaranteed to make you love it :-)
Cons
Letters on keys hard to see, needs brighter backlighting of keys
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
I would recommend this phone to anyone who needs Internet contact on the go.
I got this as a Christmas present yesterday. Although I'm a bit of a techie, I essentially keep a cell phone only for emergency calls, and making the odd call when I'm on the road.
I have to admit being impressed by the functionality of the unit. Someone was there who had an older Blackberry and showed me how to set navigate through some of the basic settings. I love being able to surf the net and, for me at least, it was pretty intuitive once you realized that the Blackberry button brought up all the menus, and pressing the "track pad" in the center did the selecting. I love the "track pad" because I generally dislike trackballs. I love the fact that I can connect to other blackberry users, plus the fact that you can use Google talk, MSN, and yahoo, or other messengers.
My only fault so far is the lack of Skype, although there is a program called iSkoot which allows you to use Skype, but it might cost you an overseas call depending on where you are when you use Skype.
I was advised to ensure that the battery was completely dead before re-charging, so I did my best to "kill" it, but it lasted longer than I thought - about 12 hours with two bars on the battery. I finally put it to charge at about 7 am this morning.
My main fault with this phone is the difficulty in seeing the letters printed on the keys - I have the silver one, and the letters are light in colour, whereas the numbers are darker. You really need good light when you try to use it for the first time. The backlighting of the keys is not as bright as it could be - the blackberry my friend had yesterday was lots brighter. However, once you get accustomed to the keys (QWERTY) keyboard, its much easier to use.
The phone I got came with a 2 gb micro SD card. There were a few music videos on the phone and image quality was excellent. I tried out the camera and video camera, the pictures were decent, and the video was acceptable - a bit grainy, but it could be because it was dark.
There are some "bumps" on the side of the phone, which since I hadn't read the manual, I discovered by trial and error that they were "shortcuts" to, for example, the camera.
I haven't explored all the features yet, but it can also work as an mp3 player.
UPDATE
Kept seeing references to standby mode and discovered that you use the top play/mute button. If you press it once it goes into media, but if you keep holding it down it goes into standby.
That said, I am not impressed by the battery life at all. The first time I charged it I got about 1.5 days with it on all the time, its supposed to give 17 days in Standby. The second time I charged it I had it on about 8 hours, then put it in standby and it lasted about 2 days. My Nokia can easily go longer than this without being put in standby at all.
Navigating with the track pad is easier than using a mouse, very nice, very responsive, in fact you may overshoot what you meant to select.
Reading e-mail is remarkably easy, and it is quite clear, considering the difference in size between a regular monitor and this phone.
There is a voice dialing system that I tried out, but I don't know if I would use it regularly since it brought back unpleasant memories of trying to train voice recognition programs :-( although it didn't seem to have problems recognizing numbers like 9.
I tried recording a meeting I had but it tripped out after the first few seconds, not sure why. You need special software to convert from BB audio file to mp3 but you can find that free on the Internet.
Downloads
I downloaded Google maps and the unit works almost like a GPS, but it is not very accurate, if you know the area it gives a rough idea of where you are - this works outside of the US as well.
I installed Kindle for BB and its been fantastic, reading is quite a good experience, and the BB is light! You use the track pad to change pages. I estimate that you see about 1/4 of a regular paperback novel on screen. It seems to auto update so that when you go to your desktop or laptop where you have Kindle, it opens the book to where you left off. Books download relatively quickly, I downloaded a file about 1,000 kb in under 5 minutes.
I also installed Mobipocket for BB, but while this is as good as Kindle, I think I really prefer the Kindle for BB experience.
Facebook is also available.
Apps
Word works well - I started reading some over 100 page documents on the BB, of course, I didn't read all 100 pages, but I was able to get work done while waiting at the doctor's office. Haven't got any Excel or Powerpoint files to test those out yet.
I have to admit being impressed by the functionality of the unit. Someone was there who had an older Blackberry and showed me how to set navigate through some of the basic settings. I love being able to surf the net and, for me at least, it was pretty intuitive once you realized that the Blackberry button brought up all the menus, and pressing the "track pad" in the center did the selecting. I love the "track pad" because I generally dislike trackballs. I love the fact that I can connect to other blackberry users, plus the fact that you can use Google talk, MSN, and yahoo, or other messengers.
My only fault so far is the lack of Skype, although there is a program called iSkoot which allows you to use Skype, but it might cost you an overseas call depending on where you are when you use Skype.
I was advised to ensure that the battery was completely dead before re-charging, so I did my best to "kill" it, but it lasted longer than I thought - about 12 hours with two bars on the battery. I finally put it to charge at about 7 am this morning.
My main fault with this phone is the difficulty in seeing the letters printed on the keys - I have the silver one, and the letters are light in colour, whereas the numbers are darker. You really need good light when you try to use it for the first time. The backlighting of the keys is not as bright as it could be - the blackberry my friend had yesterday was lots brighter. However, once you get accustomed to the keys (QWERTY) keyboard, its much easier to use.
The phone I got came with a 2 gb micro SD card. There were a few music videos on the phone and image quality was excellent. I tried out the camera and video camera, the pictures were decent, and the video was acceptable - a bit grainy, but it could be because it was dark.
There are some "bumps" on the side of the phone, which since I hadn't read the manual, I discovered by trial and error that they were "shortcuts" to, for example, the camera.
I haven't explored all the features yet, but it can also work as an mp3 player.
UPDATE
Kept seeing references to standby mode and discovered that you use the top play/mute button. If you press it once it goes into media, but if you keep holding it down it goes into standby.
That said, I am not impressed by the battery life at all. The first time I charged it I got about 1.5 days with it on all the time, its supposed to give 17 days in Standby. The second time I charged it I had it on about 8 hours, then put it in standby and it lasted about 2 days. My Nokia can easily go longer than this without being put in standby at all.
Navigating with the track pad is easier than using a mouse, very nice, very responsive, in fact you may overshoot what you meant to select.
Reading e-mail is remarkably easy, and it is quite clear, considering the difference in size between a regular monitor and this phone.
There is a voice dialing system that I tried out, but I don't know if I would use it regularly since it brought back unpleasant memories of trying to train voice recognition programs :-( although it didn't seem to have problems recognizing numbers like 9.
I tried recording a meeting I had but it tripped out after the first few seconds, not sure why. You need special software to convert from BB audio file to mp3 but you can find that free on the Internet.
Downloads
I downloaded Google maps and the unit works almost like a GPS, but it is not very accurate, if you know the area it gives a rough idea of where you are - this works outside of the US as well.
I installed Kindle for BB and its been fantastic, reading is quite a good experience, and the BB is light! You use the track pad to change pages. I estimate that you see about 1/4 of a regular paperback novel on screen. It seems to auto update so that when you go to your desktop or laptop where you have Kindle, it opens the book to where you left off. Books download relatively quickly, I downloaded a file about 1,000 kb in under 5 minutes.
I also installed Mobipocket for BB, but while this is as good as Kindle, I think I really prefer the Kindle for BB experience.
Facebook is also available.
Apps
Word works well - I started reading some over 100 page documents on the BB, of course, I didn't read all 100 pages, but I was able to get work done while waiting at the doctor's office. Haven't got any Excel or Powerpoint files to test those out yet.
