BlackBerry Curve 3G 9300 Sim Free Smartphone

It was more or less a case of "Is this it?" the first time I held my BlackBerry. It is unusually light and comfortable for a device that packs so many great features, and all for a relative fraction of the supposed daddy of mobile communication, the iPhone. Prior to receiving this BlackBerry 9300, I did indeed own Apples flagship device and decided not to re-new my contract purely for cost purposes. But as a rather brisk summary, my own personal experiences would suggest that I made the right choice switching to the BlackBerry and thus saving a huge amount of money in the process.

The only reason I wish to compare this device to the iPhone is because both are, arguably, in the spotlight of smartphones today. Both enable the user to text, to make phone calls, browse the web on 3G/Wi-Fi, listen to music, record video, take photos and more... All relatively standard functions in this product category.

As for the standalone cost of these two products, you'll be saving more than half your budget by settling for this 9300. My consensus with the iPhone is that you're paying more premium simply for the brand, although as far quality goes, I would agree that Apple's phone is genuinely well crafted.

Are their any more reasons why the BlackBerry 9300 is cheaper? From the spec's side, it would seem so. This phone has 'only' a 2-megapixel camera that doesn't compare to well with the iPhones, but as far as results go, it depends entirely on your proposed application. Uploading photo's to FaceBook? No problem - the quality is absolutely fine. Viewing on a computer? Sure. Printing off? Probably not, but then again, things such as the lighting of the environment greatly affect camera performance. I'm not entirely bothered. The camera is there as a novelty, and a way of quickly sending fun snaps to friends and family quite seamlessly by email or text, all through this device.

Then of course we may consider the user interface. Apples iPhone most likely has a more expensive touch screen/component ratio than the 9300, which is completely understandable. My stance here is that the two devices, quite simply, offer different ways of engaging with the software and neither are better or worse. Both have drawbacks and positives. As brief examples, browsing web pages on the BlackBerry can be tiresome due to its reliance on the centre scroll-button, whereas the iPhone allows the user to use many fingers to seamless interact with large pages on a large screen. Switch the balance around however, and I have found that the BlackBerry's messaging system is far more organised and accessible than that of the iPhone, for you can access emails, texts and BBM all through one folder, or through separate applications if you wish.

These are only two examples, but it proves that you're never going to be entirely satisfied with whatever product you buy; you therefore have to review what features benefit you yourself, and to this end, the BlackBerry is ideal for me. I'll therefore outline some of my favorite features:

+ The status indicator that blinks when the battery is low, or if you have a message/status update. Excellent for when your phone is on silent at work or somewhere quiet!

+ Battery life is decidedly better than the iPhone. Admittedly, I can still only get around 2 and a half days out of normal use (Wi-Fi off, 3G on, Sleep Mode at night), but the iPhone would rarely give me two full days without a charge.

+ Comes boxed with a nice Introduction leaflet, software disc, some headphones, a U.K "and" European wall-plug adapter (excellent for holidays) and USB cable.

+ If you have a Mac, you can download the 'Blackberry Desktop Software' application that allows you to sync your device with Address Book, iCal and more. Absolutely spot on, and far, far more options that iTunes! You can even transfer standard data/files.

+ The breadth of options for assigning 'alert' features for various Profiles (such as General, Silent etc) and more.

+ BlackBerry's official 'skins' for their Curve smartphones are far cheaper than the iPhones. You can get packs for two fifteen quid, as opposed to Apple's 'Bumpers' which are over twenty quid for just one.

+ 'BBM' (BlackBerry Messenger) is a piece of software akin to 'MSN' (Windows Messenger) that allows BlackBerry users to, for free, connect to each other via exchanging a Pin Code and basically text each other for free. Since it works through a data stream, the messages are sent/received instantly and its far more engaging than simply texting. I can't believe how often I now hear "BBM me later!"

+ Edit DOC, XLS and PPT on the go. Sure, its not as intuitive as being sat at a computer, but the effort is greatly respected. To do this on the iPhone, you'd need to pay for each of the Apps which support these documents; Pages, Numbers and Keynote.

+ The most obvious one: If you're considering this phone as a 'Pay Monthly'/contract option, you get far better deals than the iPhone, as previously mentioned. This includes almost twice as much Data, Texts and Call time.

However, the most prominent drawbacks are as follows:

- The 'BlackBerry App World' is, I hate to say it, awful. It has little over a few thousand Apps, and whilst this isn't the issue itself, I found the download speeds, installation times, compatibility and quality of these Apps no where near the standard of the iPhone. An un-expected loss, I have to say.

- The boot-up time of this device is longer than my old Windows XP computer. The chap in the shop said all BlackBerry's take forever to start up, so it must be a feature of the hardware (perhaps the CPU doesn't match the iPhones?). To get round this, you cannot actually turn the phone off 'entirely', per se. By telling the phone to Power Down, you merely take it into something akin to a 'sleep mode' that puts the device onto the lowest power settings with almost all functions turned off. Pressing the power button again brings the phone back to life within about 2 seconds. The upside is that you can save power when you go to bed or when you don't intend on communicating with the living world, but the downside is that if you don't want to use the device for an extended period, you have to actually remove the battery.

- Build quality is acceptable, but add on a bit extra to you budget for a funky 'Skin'. Dropping this phone or handling it daily without a Skin could, I imagine, reduce its cosmetic life very, very quickly. Even the screen, when pressed, is just made of flimsy plastic.

- No weather App built into the software. This was something I used on a daily basis with the iPhone, and not even BlackBerry's App store can offer a descent equivalent.

- A "scroll bar" isn't present when you move up and down a list of items (i.e Texts or emails), so its difficult to judge how long the list is.

Other good points that, whilst are of little use to me, are noteworthy:

+ Has a standard 3.5mm headphone jack.

+ Built in games of various kind.

+ Lots of lovely ringtones and alert sounds. Am I sad for thinking thats an interesting job, producing them? OK I'll grab my coat...

+ Additional Bluetooth connectivity.

To try and sum up, I can only suggest that the reader, whilst taking my personal points into consideration, just have a feel of the phone and maybe compare it to Apple's device or other models. Using this keyboard on such a small scale and adjusting to the more organised/clear user interface is not something that will happen over night. Heck, it took me a good week to get used to the keys on this smartphone and type properly without errors, but if you can see the benefits then this is a excellent value option. The BlackBerry 9300 offers everything you could wish for, and all with little interest in premium pricing.

The Blackberry Curve 3G 9300 is the new entry level blackberry taking the place of the extremely popular 8520, therefore the two phones are very similar but the 9300 improves and modernises a lot that was missing from the original 8520.

The new upgrades added are mainly

-GPS

-Blackberry OS 6 Ready

-Slightly better screen

-Better battery life

-3G network capability

The phone comes in a very nice box with a decent size memory card and headphones, upon holding the phone it feel mainly sturdy but there are areas of the phone that feel more budget materials. Having had the phone a while now it does seem to be fairly strong but I do feel an unlucky drop would crack the front screen quite easily, there are extremely cheap quality cases on amazon to solve this though I'm talking a few pounds and your BB will easily be protected from most drops. One last thing on the ascetics the phone is a very beautiful device but it attracts finger prints like a beast.

As a first time BB user I have to say I was amazed by the business style feature set of this phone it seems that everything has been crafted to help you efficiently do pretty much anything you could want a phone to do. As a communication device everything seems orderly and right where you need it to be, not to mention the great qwerty keyboard will have you typing extremely fast txt messages in minutes faster than any touch device, with barely any learning curve that can come with some touch screen devices. Phone calls are easy to hear and find my phone has a good antenna and bars when others sometimes cant seem to get signal even on the same network, it also works very well on conference call mode.

The 9300 isn't just a phone its got media features that are simple and very effective, no need to deal with any software like itunes, so it's incredibly fast for putting music, videos, files etc on your phone, just drag and drop and you're good to go. The sound and video quality are great and the battery life handles these features very well, it can certainly go the distance if you're a music buff.

Another part of the phone is internet, of which works fairly well and will covered the majority of your needs its certainly is not for a heavy mobile internet user as there are much better internet phones in terms of screen size and navigation but the 9300 certainly works, it just depends on how much your mobile internet experience quality matters to you . You can download apps from the blackberry apps store but I will say this is the phones biggest short fall it is nothing when compared with android or the apple appstore, the basic features that most people use apps for are covered but nothing special, if your an apps kinda person this and BB in general is not for you.

One last point to make is if you've used a smart phone before you'll notice how crap current battery life technology, the 9300 lasts very well for a smart phone making it a good phone for work or heavy communicators. Which honestly is a massive pro, every other smart phone I've used or asked people about seems to last only a day tops this thing will go 2 or 3 easily and I expect it will improve even more when BB OS 6 comes.

The main reason this phone loses points for me is poor apps store and its still quite expensive, you are paying a 100£ really for just the extras over the 8520 which is I was willing to do for the sake of my purchases longevity but I feel most would have a valid argument in not and sticking with the 8520.

Overall this is a great phone, if you're looking to get a blackberry and want the cheapest up to date option this is the blackberry for you, great for communication, media and a good all round phone.

I bought the Blackberry Curve 9300 3G as I read good things about this type of smart phone and also wanted to quickly un-do the mistake I made in getting a Samsung Jet touch screen (which was defo not great for fast txting) also I didnt want to jump on the iPhone fashion accessory scene (again touch screen just don't agree with me).

Everything about this phone is ace and I don't have one bad thing to say about it. I'm able to keep on top of my emails on a regular basis, the sms text/chat style is great so I no longer have to go through different txts to find out last conversation, instead it's all there under the one chat style per person you have texted.

I'm able to set up different ringtones for different messages such as facebook, emails, sms etc so I'm aware of what type of message I'm getting before I even check the phone.

The internet is fast and reliable, the wifi works great when using websites such as youtube.

The music player is loud and great, which btw has now replaced my Sony MP3 player (which was on it's way out anyway).

Lastly the battery life is great too for a smart phone especially even after the fact that I just about can't put the phone down everyday, I'm surprised it even lasts as long as it does. One thing I would say is that I turn off the 3G if I don't need it and it makes all the difference.

Basically, I love this phone and I would defo get a Blackberry again.