Balckberry Curve 800 -Review.!

About the phone -

Form Factor Candybar;

Performance -

The BlackBerry Curve runs on a 312MHz Intel XScale processor.As with most Berries, the Curve is responsive and performs most tasks with good speed. The BlackBerry 8300 has 32 megs of RAM (used like RAM in your computer) and 64MB of flash memory for storage. Before loading data and applications, the Curve has 21.8 megs of free storage. When you first setup the phone, it will ask you if you wish to delete languages other than English, and after doing so you will have 21.8 megs of free memory.

Operating Frequency and Reception quality -
Quadband - GSM 850, 900, 1800 , 1900;

The BlackBerry has EDGE for data but unfortunately no 3G.
Call quality is good and volume is loud by GSM standards.
The speakerphone is clear and loud. The Curve has good but
not stellar reception.

As such it is not recommended for areas with marginal coverage.

Connectivity -
HSCSD, WLAN, IRDA - No

GPRS, EDGE , BlueTooth , USB - Yes

Dimensions -

Height (mm) 107
Width (mm) 60
Depth (mm) 15.5
Weight (g) 111 g

Battery -
Standard battery, Li-Ion 1100 mAh
Standbytime (h) Up to 408 h
Talktime (m) Up to 4 h

The Curve has an 1100 mAh Lithium Ion battery that's user replaceable. It ships with RIM's standard world-friendly charger with fold-down prongs. As with most GSM BlackBerry phones, the Curve has excellent battery life (being EDGE-only helps). Push email generally greatly reduces battery life on competing smartphone platforms, but somehow RIM manages to give us phones that last 2 to 3 days on a charge. Claimed talk time is 5 hours. Standby is 22 days-- very long by smartphone standards.

Messaging -
SMS Yes
Email Yes
MMS Yes

Camera -
Camera Yes, 2MP,
1600 x 1200 pixels
Video recording Yes
LED flash and self portrait mirror

The Curve features a 2 megapixel camera with 5x digital zoom and a built-in flash along with a self-portrait mirror. The camera application offers three picture qualities and three still image resolutions (1600 x 1200, 1024 x 768, 640 x 480), and it uses the screen as the viewfinder. The photo quality isn’t the best you will see on a 2 megapixel camera, but photos have good amount of useful image data that can be corrected using Photoshop or RIM's photo editing tool on the desktop to yield a good image.

Display -
Color display, 65000 Colors
Display width (pixel) 320
Display height (pixel) 240
LCD Type Color
LCD Size (pixel) 320 x 240

Like the BlackBerry 8800 series of smartphones. the Curve has a QVGA (320 x 240) TFT display that’s very bright, colorful and crisp. It has a light sensor that adjusts to ambient lighting conditions, and you can turn this feature off -- though it works well except in near-dark rooms where the display sensor opted for too little backlight. The screen is capable of displaying 65k colors and is extremely bright at 100%; too bright! The screen is viewable outdoors, more so than Windows Mobile Professional (Pocket PC) and the Palm OS Treo PDA phones.

Memory -
64 MB flash memory with 21.8 megs available for storage and program installation.
Memory card not included
Supports microSD card slot

Multimedia -
Ringtones Polyphonic (32 channels), MP3
Polyphonic Yes

The Media Player application has been jazzed up with a skin compared to the 8800's dull media player. There are 4 icons for music, video, ringtone and photos viewing/listening. The music player has options for shuffle, genres, play by artist and play by album. The image viewer is fairly fast and you can use it to set any image as the home screen background. the ringtone manager at The media player plays MP3, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+ and WMA files. You can use the microSD card to store music and video. Sound is decent through the mono speaker and very good with the included 3.5mm stereo headset with inline mic.

Java & Games -
Games - Yes
Java - Yes
Voicedialing Yes

Misc. features -
Interface USB
Handsfree Yes
Vibrate Yes
Phonebook Capacity Yes, Photocall

Bundled Software -
BlackBerry push email client. BlackBerry IM client.
VoiceSignal voice dialing software,
BlackBerry Maps and TeleNav navigation software, media player for your MP3 pleasure and video playback.

PIM apps include address book, calendar, tasks and memo. Also Alarm, voice note, calculator, Password Keeper included. BrickBreaker game is bundled.

BlackBerry Desktop software for PC included for syncing and software installation.

Sales Package -
Stereo Headset
USB Cable
Travel Charger (lots of connector options)
Leather Pouch
Software CD & Manual

PROS AND CONS

The Internet Service keeps a constant eye on whatever POP3 accounts you ask it to and delivers emails it spots to your BlackBerry as it retrieves them. Of course how rapid this is will depend in part on the efficiency of the sender's, and your own, email server(s) and in part on network coverage. Either way, you can force a check for new messages whenever you want to.

Pros -

1. Good Screen
2. Browser supports both - WAP and HTML
3. PEARL trackball navigation,
4. QWERTY Keypad,
5. 3.5mm headset jack
6. Spellchecker
7. 2MP Camera,
8. Small Size makes it comfortable to hold for voice calls
9. Stylish,
10. Blackberry Maps Application included
11. Well Priced - Arnd Rs. 24.5k

Cons -

1. No Memory Card Provided,
2. Memory Card not hot-swappable,
3. No Protection for Camera lens and flash.
4. Absence of GPS Antenna
5. As SIM card slot is under the battery, and so unfortunately is the microSD card slot, so you'll have to power down the phone to insert or remove a memory card

New Technologies in Mobile Phone

MMS- MORE THAN JUST TALK

This is the age of Multimedia Messaging Service. MMS is in; a versatile feature that allows users to send colour pictures, photographs, voice clips, programs, videos and ofcourse text from their cell phones. The rates are a little higher as compared to SMS, but MMS opens up a whole new world of communication at your finger tips. All you need is an MMS-enabled phone and a subscription to a service provider that supports MMS. With MMS, you can, not only send your messages from one phone to another, but also from phone to email, and vice versa.

You can send, store and edit picture messages. There are a number of sites online that let you download pictures free of charge. Some MMS phones even come with an inbuilt camera, so a person can click pictures spontaneously and send them across to another MMS cell phone user. But with phones that do not have an in-built camera, these pictures have to be obtained from the Internet. The messages sent and received are either in text or graphics, once again depending on the phone model. With MMS, you can even download MP3 music, games and video clips on your phone! The following networks offer MMS: BPL (Mumbai) - MMS and GPRS only for post-paid users at Rs. 199 per month with 100 MMS free. If you exceed the 100 limit, MMS are charged at Rs. 3. Hutch- Rs. 99 per month. Prepaid users have to also pay Rs.50 as the initial activation charge. Messages can be downloaded from the Hutch site at Rs. 8 per MMS. Sending MMS is free. Airtel- Offers free MMS service. To activate, you need to send an sms to 222 from your MMS enabled phone. Spice (Bangalore) - Rs. 99 per month. 25 outgoing messages free, after which there will be charge of Rs.5 per MMS. Idea- Offers downloading of video messages from their site. Also allows sending and receiving pictures and music.

SMART PHONES- (PDA PHONES)

One step further are PDA-enabled phones, more commonly known as smart phones. These have a Digital Organiser, Excel, Word and Internet capabilities- all in one phone. Some even have an integrated camera and a MP3 player. These phones have large screens and allow you to write into it (after you learn the easy technique). They also have voice recognition capabilities. These features make the phone bulkier and costlier but then these gizmos sure do separate the men from the boys.

E-MOBILE...REDIFINING TECHNOLOGY

GPRS AND WAP GPRS and WAP let you enjoy a continuous wireless connection to data networks (Internet) and access favorite web sites, entertainment services and other web applications. With WAP, GPRS, you can go online on your cell phone. All you need is a GPRS/WAP enabled phone and activation from the service provider. Call up the Customer Care number and ask them to activate the service, afterwhich you need to download the GPRS settings as instructed and GPRS is activated.

Airtel charges Rs. 600 per month for GPRS and airtime. MMS, however is free. Reliance India charges Rs. 200 + usage charges Rs, 40 paise per minute, whereas Hutch charges Rs. 99 for GPRS + airtime. Using your cell phone as a modem: Alternatively, you can connect to the Internet using your cell phone as a modem. For this your cell phone should support HSCSD. If your phone supports HSCSD, you can connect to a laptop, desktop or a PDA, using infrared, data cable or Bluetooth and then dial your ISP connection. This method is useful if you want to check some urgent mails or access a site when on the go. The connectivity is slow and also is expensive as compared to a normal Internet connection using a modem. You pay the ISP for the Internet hours and the cell phone service provider for the airtime charges. With Internet connectivity, you can download a variety of groovy ringtones, logos, and graphics to jazz up your phone. If you are tired of the monophonic tones, polyphonic ringtones is the latest craze. All phones do not support poplyphonic ringtones, especially the old models. If your phone does, you can download a range of polyphonic ringtones from the Internet. What's more, you can even acquire information about current news, movies, stock markets, weather, forecasts, jokes etc. All this is just a click away from your phone and all for a nominal fee. Checking email, acquiring information about current news, movies, stock markets, weather etc. is just a click away from your mobile phone.

Games:

With the advent of GPRS and Java-enabled phones, gaming is no longer limited to basic games like Snake and Space Impact. The GSM as well as the CDMA subscriber base is growing at a good rate and with Reliance offering Java support on its CDMA phones, the basic cell phone has turned into a pocket-PC!

So, what do you need to play games on your cell phone?

1) Lots of in-built memory
2) GPRS or Java enabled phones and
3) Colour screen (optional)
How can you get games on your cell phones?

You can get games either from your cell phone service provider such as Hutch (Orange), BPL, Reliance by downloading them from the internet using WAP or GPRS or you could get them uploaded onto your cell phone at a manufacturer's showroom. (e.g Nokia)

HUTCH (ORANGE)

For downloading games using Hutch (Orange), it is necessary to have GPRS enabled on your cell phone. This can be activated through Hutch (Orange) by paying Rs. 99 if you are a postpaid user. Prepaid users can activate GPRS by paying Rs. 99 as activation fees + Rs.99 every month. Both pre-paid as well as post-paid users can download the games from the Hutch (Orange) site by paying Rs.20 per game for 20 rounds. For Rs. 50 you can play the game as many times you want, plus you get a free Photo Messaging facility. You need to check if Hutch supports gaming on your cell phone model though.
BPL

For downloading games using BPL website, you need to have either MMS or GPRS enabled on your phone. If not, you can go to a BPL showroom and get the games uploaded onto the phone. The charges are the same as that of Hutch, Rs. 20 per game for 20 rounds and Rs.50 for an unlimited usage, except that you'd have to shell in an extra Rs. 25 as service charges if you get the games uploaded at the showroom.

RELIANCE (CDMA)

Reliance Infocomm in India allows users to download games on their Java-enabled cell phones using their 'R-World service'. With R-World, you can access and download from a huge variety of Java games such as Arcade, Boards, Puzzles, Cards, Sports, Casino, etc free of charge till March 2004.

NOKIA

Nokia is offering its own games to the Nokia cell phone users through cell phone service providers such as Hutch (Orange), Airtel, BPL etc. As of now, only Hutch and Orange subscribers can access the WAP-based content, whereas the Airtel, RPG (Chennai) and BPL Mobile customers can access only the SMS-based content. You are charged Rs. 49.9 per games apart from the GPRS activation and rentals. You can download from a variety of games such as Pooltime, Crashn'burn, AlphaWing etc at www.nokia.co.in. This facility is available only on a few Nokia phones at present.