- Jul 15, 2003
- 80,287
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- 136
http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=1890
Alright, its been almost a year now and I've gone through plenty of phones. I hope you guys appreciate it.
First I had a Nokia 6301 from T-mobile. Overall it was very nice, especially with the UMA calls, but it drained batteries like a kid sucking down soda pop and I got rid of it. Then I moved on to the Moto i580 at Sprint. Same problem. Nice phone, weak battery. Never found an hi-cap battery so I turned that one in. Also had an LG Vu from AT&T and that was OK but not great. Went to Verizon and got a UT starcom Blitz, then an Env2 and finally a Voyager. Its a nice phone but the damn thing freezes and resets all the time. As old as it is now, LG has no plans to fix this issue. Recently started looking at phones again this summer and finally went ahead and got the Nokia E71x.
Just did a review on it and overall I was pleased but not ecstatic. It should have been able to do more considering the price and its supposed to be a powerful smartphone. Should have been much easier to use considering its a Nokia.
Turned that back into AT&T and got myself a BB curve 8900. I've been in love with these things ever since I got my mom a Curve 8320 for work. She's a paralegal and they give her all the old crappy BB's the lawyers dont want anymore. She had a 7000 something for years and always complained about it. They go through T-mobile for their BlackBerry units and service. The paralegals are not allowed voice communications except for 911 calls, and since its T-mobile and older phones, they only get 1X data. I decided she needed something smaller and more powerful and the Curve looked like the answer. I got it off Newegg and spent one whole day setting it up and playing with it. Was impressed by damn near everything. The screen, the UI, the features, the ease of use in setting it all up. Once she got her work SIM in it she was able to make UMA calls as well.
Having played with it and loved it so much, I thought I should look into getting one for myself.
There, now you are all caught up and I can start the review.
= ] THE REVIEW [ =
http://picasaweb.google.com/shortylickens/Curve_8900#
(I'll let you go through the photos on your own, as opposed to posting each one individually throughout the review.)
- Build quality and design -
Very nice, though not quite as sturdy or neat as the Nokia E71x. It has a fairly solid feel even though its relatively light. About the same size as the old Curve, but much nicer and sleeker. Back has a good quality plastic brushed plate. Wont attract fingerprints and doesnt add to the weight. Camera has no self portrait mirror but it does have a flash. Latch is solidly built.
Front is attractive with silver edge (fingerprint friendly finish) simple design. Its slightly longer than a credit card and shorter than a dollar. Wider than either. Because of the low weight it will sit in a shirt pocket comfortably. This thing is about the same thickness as a Voyger and much thicker than the Nokia E71x. Screen is big and beautiful and frankly my camera skills could not possibly show off how great it really is. You will need to stop by a cell phone store and see a working model yourself. When you move the cursor around the screen you get a pleasant animation that does not distract you from work.
Keypad is decent, much better than most Nokia E series phones. But as you can see from the pics, its not quite as good as my LG Voyager when opened. Also, not having dedicated number buttons is a pain in the ass. Overall I like the Voyager's keypad better, and I have small fingers too.
Trackball is remarkably easy to use and I wonder why more phones dont incorporate it. Having a dedicated menu button is nice too, its like right-clicking in Windows. No matter where you are you can always access more options by hitting the menu button. In fact you should get used to hitting it because often the on-screen functions will be minimal and they expect you to use the menu for doing many things. There are customizeable buttons on each side of the unit and it seems you can assign anything you want to them, even launch 3rd party apps I think.
For those of you who dont know, newer BB's come with a neat little carrying case. When you slip the phone inside it automatically kills the screen to save power and the locks the keypad to prevent unwanted presses. I dont know if third-party cases do this or not. Also, the standby and keypad lock buttons are the only things on the top of the unit and are very easy to press when you want, and difficult to press accidentally. This bad boy has a full size headphone jack.
- Interface and apps -
The pretty screen and colorful menus make using this phone a pleasure. As with most BB's, the important tasks are always on the home screen. This phone allows you to show 6 items on the bottom row of the home screen, but you can download themes that let you show more stuff at once. Also, anything you want from the lower menus can be pushed up here. The default is AT&T's crummy web browser, the Messages screen (which conveniently consolidates all texts and emails) the full-featured address book, the calander, and AT&T's GPS navigator.
One thing I noticed is they dont allow as much menu and home screen customization as T-mobile. T-mobile has 3 different options for the home screen that aren't related to which theme you have active. You can have a handful of icons, a buttload of icons, or a nifty Today screen that shows upcoming appointments and unopened messages. I think AT&T tries to hard to customize their phones when they should just go with Blackberry's choices. Switching between phone profiles was easy, as was customizing them. Deep in the phones menu system there is a shortcut to allow a special nighttime mode as well, and you can customize how that works too. Pretty thoughtful for folks who like to recieve important things at all hours of the day, but dont wanna be bothered with unimportant stuff while sleeping.
Opening up the menu lets you see almost everything at once, which is a bit nicer than Nokia's S60 UI. On those you often have to dig through menu's and folders to find stuff. Though Blackberry's do have the problem of hiding settings and options deep in submenu's. Everything in a BB menu can be moved down or into custom folders if you want, so if you only wanna see your favorite programs at the top, you can do that. You can also pull up apps from other folders. I put the Opera icon on the very top so I see it on the home screen and first thing on the menu screen.
Media was easy to access all from one place, but they put the media player behind the AT&T media store, which really only leads to a web page asking you to buy more crap. The wallpapers included with the phone are gorgeous and probably more than you will ever need. Again my camera cant show just how great the screen is, so you will have to assume its even better in person. You only have a choice of two basic themes with the phone, but plenty of free ones can be found online and you can always pick a custom wallpaper. There is also a demo video to show the powerful video processing of the phone. The music player was pretty functional though not as nice as a proper media player.
SMS and MMS messages are found in a seperate program from the text messages. If you like to use these things you will want to move them up to the top of the menu.
You can set up as many email accounts as you like but they each get their own icon on the menu. I found the Nokia's system of having them all in a Messages page much easier. Also, they showed the entire Inbox and not just what had been recieved since you set up the account on the phone, though I suppose there is a way to change that.
But the big screen shows off everything nicely and the menu button makes it easy to reply or whatever else you wanna do. Setting up emails was a snap.
The default web browser isnt that great and using 3rd party stuff is sometimes a pain. Setting up a wifi connection was easy but the phone has a nasty habit of disabling it or not using it when it is connected. I suspect this is deliberate to save battery life, but it also means having to constantly check to make sure the phone is actually using Wifi when it should be. Often I felt the web browsing was slow and then I discovered the phone was choosing to not use wifi. Also, whenever you try to use an app that didnt come with the phone, the stupid thing constantly asks if you are sure you want to use it and are you sure you want it to have access to your device and the network and wifi and such. Many times you can "Always Allow" but not every time. It gets irritating after a while. I found the Opera browser to be pretty good on mobile sites and regular sites. Zipping back and forth through web pages was quick and easy. I tend to use Reuters Mobile for my news and that looked good with both text and photos.
The camera is OK. Personally I think cell cameras should only be used for small contact portraits and nothing else. Dont expect to take the next cover of Time with it. Bluetooth setup was easy and I believe this sucker has stereo capability for music, but I was unable to test this. Given the nature of this phone I dont think it should be used during your morning jog, though.
Call quality was very good.
The AT&T Navigator is alright but its only a demo version and you have to pay 10 bucks a month for the full program. With Verizon if you have an unlimited data plan you can use the GPS navigation for free. There is also a Yellow Pages app which is pretty easy to use and doubles as a GPS navigation system as well. Overall I found the AT&T program better for getting around and the Yellow Pages better for finding cool stuff in my neighborhood. It also costs money after the trial is up. There is a mobile Wikipedia app which seems to be free though its not as good as using the full site on a normal computer. Of course, I think Wikipedia has poor quality information anyway, but many folks seem to like it. Again the stupid phone always asks if I want to allow it to access the internet. I think the app is completely free.
The My-cast weather app costs money but appears to be very functional. I'd rather just use Opera to access free mobile weather sites.
The mobile banking app seems to be full-featured but does not have my Navy Federal as an option. It did have USAA though, as well as many other popular banks. It seems to require a special activation code but I think its free to all AT&T users or at least all Blackberry users.
There is a basic memo pad, to-do list, calculator alarm. Also a video capture program, but I'd recommend a big memory card before using that.
The Office apps were decent and look great on this big screen. But they are also demo's and require purchase to make new documents. I can see why people would want Word and Excel but I think Powerpoints on a handheld device arent terribly useful. Still, the option is there, if you wanna spend the money.
There were links to quite a few games in the Games folder, but you have to download them all individually and I think they were all demos. Given the price of the phone and service it wouldnt kill BB or AT&T to offer us one or two free games like some solitares, but I guess they would rather we pay for all of them. Again it seemed like the phone always wanted to use the cellular network instead of the wifi when downloading and running games.
As with all smartphones there are tons of free apps (including games) all over the web, and we have quite a few people here on Anandtech who can tell you about the best ones. This phone did not come with any social apps like twitter or facebook or anything. I suspect they exist but seeing as how this is a business phone AT&T chose to not include them.
Overall I think this is a supurb phone for business users who dont mind AT&T gimping the features and making 3rd party apps difficult to use. Most casual folks would do better with something else. They keypad is nice but there are some better ones out there. The screen is phenominal and should make any business user happy. I believe there is a camera-free model available for folks who cant take a camera to work. I wont be keeping this but thats just because it doesnt suit my personal needs very well and I dont like paying extra for the special Blackberry data plan. I still think my moms unlocked Curve 8320 was better because it had more functionality in the home screen and didnt have issues with 3rd party programs. Also the default web-browser was better and with a T-mobile SIM it allowed UMA calling. Also it would try to use Wifi as much as possible for data, whereas the locked 8900 seemed to want to ignore it as much as possible.
Perhaps the unlocked or T-mobile version of this phone is better, but I wont be paying the money to find out.
Any questions, PLEASE ASK! I am returning it on Sat. and wont be able to provide any info after that.
Alright, its been almost a year now and I've gone through plenty of phones. I hope you guys appreciate it.
First I had a Nokia 6301 from T-mobile. Overall it was very nice, especially with the UMA calls, but it drained batteries like a kid sucking down soda pop and I got rid of it. Then I moved on to the Moto i580 at Sprint. Same problem. Nice phone, weak battery. Never found an hi-cap battery so I turned that one in. Also had an LG Vu from AT&T and that was OK but not great. Went to Verizon and got a UT starcom Blitz, then an Env2 and finally a Voyager. Its a nice phone but the damn thing freezes and resets all the time. As old as it is now, LG has no plans to fix this issue. Recently started looking at phones again this summer and finally went ahead and got the Nokia E71x.
Just did a review on it and overall I was pleased but not ecstatic. It should have been able to do more considering the price and its supposed to be a powerful smartphone. Should have been much easier to use considering its a Nokia.
Turned that back into AT&T and got myself a BB curve 8900. I've been in love with these things ever since I got my mom a Curve 8320 for work. She's a paralegal and they give her all the old crappy BB's the lawyers dont want anymore. She had a 7000 something for years and always complained about it. They go through T-mobile for their BlackBerry units and service. The paralegals are not allowed voice communications except for 911 calls, and since its T-mobile and older phones, they only get 1X data. I decided she needed something smaller and more powerful and the Curve looked like the answer. I got it off Newegg and spent one whole day setting it up and playing with it. Was impressed by damn near everything. The screen, the UI, the features, the ease of use in setting it all up. Once she got her work SIM in it she was able to make UMA calls as well.
Having played with it and loved it so much, I thought I should look into getting one for myself.
There, now you are all caught up and I can start the review.
= ] THE REVIEW [ =
http://picasaweb.google.com/shortylickens/Curve_8900#
(I'll let you go through the photos on your own, as opposed to posting each one individually throughout the review.)
- Build quality and design -
Very nice, though not quite as sturdy or neat as the Nokia E71x. It has a fairly solid feel even though its relatively light. About the same size as the old Curve, but much nicer and sleeker. Back has a good quality plastic brushed plate. Wont attract fingerprints and doesnt add to the weight. Camera has no self portrait mirror but it does have a flash. Latch is solidly built.
Front is attractive with silver edge (fingerprint friendly finish) simple design. Its slightly longer than a credit card and shorter than a dollar. Wider than either. Because of the low weight it will sit in a shirt pocket comfortably. This thing is about the same thickness as a Voyger and much thicker than the Nokia E71x. Screen is big and beautiful and frankly my camera skills could not possibly show off how great it really is. You will need to stop by a cell phone store and see a working model yourself. When you move the cursor around the screen you get a pleasant animation that does not distract you from work.
Keypad is decent, much better than most Nokia E series phones. But as you can see from the pics, its not quite as good as my LG Voyager when opened. Also, not having dedicated number buttons is a pain in the ass. Overall I like the Voyager's keypad better, and I have small fingers too.
Trackball is remarkably easy to use and I wonder why more phones dont incorporate it. Having a dedicated menu button is nice too, its like right-clicking in Windows. No matter where you are you can always access more options by hitting the menu button. In fact you should get used to hitting it because often the on-screen functions will be minimal and they expect you to use the menu for doing many things. There are customizeable buttons on each side of the unit and it seems you can assign anything you want to them, even launch 3rd party apps I think.
For those of you who dont know, newer BB's come with a neat little carrying case. When you slip the phone inside it automatically kills the screen to save power and the locks the keypad to prevent unwanted presses. I dont know if third-party cases do this or not. Also, the standby and keypad lock buttons are the only things on the top of the unit and are very easy to press when you want, and difficult to press accidentally. This bad boy has a full size headphone jack.
- Interface and apps -
The pretty screen and colorful menus make using this phone a pleasure. As with most BB's, the important tasks are always on the home screen. This phone allows you to show 6 items on the bottom row of the home screen, but you can download themes that let you show more stuff at once. Also, anything you want from the lower menus can be pushed up here. The default is AT&T's crummy web browser, the Messages screen (which conveniently consolidates all texts and emails) the full-featured address book, the calander, and AT&T's GPS navigator.
One thing I noticed is they dont allow as much menu and home screen customization as T-mobile. T-mobile has 3 different options for the home screen that aren't related to which theme you have active. You can have a handful of icons, a buttload of icons, or a nifty Today screen that shows upcoming appointments and unopened messages. I think AT&T tries to hard to customize their phones when they should just go with Blackberry's choices. Switching between phone profiles was easy, as was customizing them. Deep in the phones menu system there is a shortcut to allow a special nighttime mode as well, and you can customize how that works too. Pretty thoughtful for folks who like to recieve important things at all hours of the day, but dont wanna be bothered with unimportant stuff while sleeping.
Opening up the menu lets you see almost everything at once, which is a bit nicer than Nokia's S60 UI. On those you often have to dig through menu's and folders to find stuff. Though Blackberry's do have the problem of hiding settings and options deep in submenu's. Everything in a BB menu can be moved down or into custom folders if you want, so if you only wanna see your favorite programs at the top, you can do that. You can also pull up apps from other folders. I put the Opera icon on the very top so I see it on the home screen and first thing on the menu screen.
Media was easy to access all from one place, but they put the media player behind the AT&T media store, which really only leads to a web page asking you to buy more crap. The wallpapers included with the phone are gorgeous and probably more than you will ever need. Again my camera cant show just how great the screen is, so you will have to assume its even better in person. You only have a choice of two basic themes with the phone, but plenty of free ones can be found online and you can always pick a custom wallpaper. There is also a demo video to show the powerful video processing of the phone. The music player was pretty functional though not as nice as a proper media player.
SMS and MMS messages are found in a seperate program from the text messages. If you like to use these things you will want to move them up to the top of the menu.
You can set up as many email accounts as you like but they each get their own icon on the menu. I found the Nokia's system of having them all in a Messages page much easier. Also, they showed the entire Inbox and not just what had been recieved since you set up the account on the phone, though I suppose there is a way to change that.
But the big screen shows off everything nicely and the menu button makes it easy to reply or whatever else you wanna do. Setting up emails was a snap.
The default web browser isnt that great and using 3rd party stuff is sometimes a pain. Setting up a wifi connection was easy but the phone has a nasty habit of disabling it or not using it when it is connected. I suspect this is deliberate to save battery life, but it also means having to constantly check to make sure the phone is actually using Wifi when it should be. Often I felt the web browsing was slow and then I discovered the phone was choosing to not use wifi. Also, whenever you try to use an app that didnt come with the phone, the stupid thing constantly asks if you are sure you want to use it and are you sure you want it to have access to your device and the network and wifi and such. Many times you can "Always Allow" but not every time. It gets irritating after a while. I found the Opera browser to be pretty good on mobile sites and regular sites. Zipping back and forth through web pages was quick and easy. I tend to use Reuters Mobile for my news and that looked good with both text and photos.
The camera is OK. Personally I think cell cameras should only be used for small contact portraits and nothing else. Dont expect to take the next cover of Time with it. Bluetooth setup was easy and I believe this sucker has stereo capability for music, but I was unable to test this. Given the nature of this phone I dont think it should be used during your morning jog, though.
Call quality was very good.
The AT&T Navigator is alright but its only a demo version and you have to pay 10 bucks a month for the full program. With Verizon if you have an unlimited data plan you can use the GPS navigation for free. There is also a Yellow Pages app which is pretty easy to use and doubles as a GPS navigation system as well. Overall I found the AT&T program better for getting around and the Yellow Pages better for finding cool stuff in my neighborhood. It also costs money after the trial is up. There is a mobile Wikipedia app which seems to be free though its not as good as using the full site on a normal computer. Of course, I think Wikipedia has poor quality information anyway, but many folks seem to like it. Again the stupid phone always asks if I want to allow it to access the internet. I think the app is completely free.
The My-cast weather app costs money but appears to be very functional. I'd rather just use Opera to access free mobile weather sites.
The mobile banking app seems to be full-featured but does not have my Navy Federal as an option. It did have USAA though, as well as many other popular banks. It seems to require a special activation code but I think its free to all AT&T users or at least all Blackberry users.
There is a basic memo pad, to-do list, calculator alarm. Also a video capture program, but I'd recommend a big memory card before using that.
The Office apps were decent and look great on this big screen. But they are also demo's and require purchase to make new documents. I can see why people would want Word and Excel but I think Powerpoints on a handheld device arent terribly useful. Still, the option is there, if you wanna spend the money.
There were links to quite a few games in the Games folder, but you have to download them all individually and I think they were all demos. Given the price of the phone and service it wouldnt kill BB or AT&T to offer us one or two free games like some solitares, but I guess they would rather we pay for all of them. Again it seemed like the phone always wanted to use the cellular network instead of the wifi when downloading and running games.
As with all smartphones there are tons of free apps (including games) all over the web, and we have quite a few people here on Anandtech who can tell you about the best ones. This phone did not come with any social apps like twitter or facebook or anything. I suspect they exist but seeing as how this is a business phone AT&T chose to not include them.
Overall I think this is a supurb phone for business users who dont mind AT&T gimping the features and making 3rd party apps difficult to use. Most casual folks would do better with something else. They keypad is nice but there are some better ones out there. The screen is phenominal and should make any business user happy. I believe there is a camera-free model available for folks who cant take a camera to work. I wont be keeping this but thats just because it doesnt suit my personal needs very well and I dont like paying extra for the special Blackberry data plan. I still think my moms unlocked Curve 8320 was better because it had more functionality in the home screen and didnt have issues with 3rd party programs. Also the default web-browser was better and with a T-mobile SIM it allowed UMA calling. Also it would try to use Wifi as much as possible for data, whereas the locked 8900 seemed to want to ignore it as much as possible.
Perhaps the unlocked or T-mobile version of this phone is better, but I wont be paying the money to find out.
Any questions, PLEASE ASK! I am returning it on Sat. and wont be able to provide any info after that.
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