Treo Gal's Final Curve Thoughts

Jennifer Chappell · 11/11/2007, 05:14 PM

This is an official Round Robin contest thread

This week I've been using the BlackBerry Curve 8310. Having hardly any experience with a BlackBerry device, I really didn't know what to expect of the Curve. When I think of BlackBerry, I think of email, corporations and of Washington DC. My brother-in-law traveled to DC on business recently, and he said that just about everyone he saw was using a BB device. He told me that many people working for the Government use them. I also think of people texting on them a lot because I'd read so much about BlackBerry users having "BlackBerry Thumb". And I think of the show Survivor because Shane Powers, a former contestant, missed his BlackBerry so much while away from home that he carved one out of wood and pretended that he was calling family and friends and texting them. And I think of "addiction" of course because BlackBerry users talk about being addicted to the device. And of course CrackBerry.com is a great site name for that reason.LOL!

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Dieter Bohn · 11/11/2007, 05:54 PM

Charlie! I can has BlackBerry?

Antoine of MMM · 11/11/2007, 06:07 PM

Nice review. So would you say that the Curve is a good midpoint between the iPhoneand Treo 680 in terms of features, form, and ability? Seems like that would be the case given your positive impressions of it.

SuperCrackBerry · 11/11/2007, 10:12 PM

How did the BB's radio compare? Did you get noticeably better or worse connections with it? Of course, if it was on a different carrier than your Treo it's not a valid comparison.

Jennifer Chappell · 11/12/2007, 12:47 AM

Quote:

Nice review. So would you say that the Curve is a good midpoint between the iPhoneand Treo 680 in terms of features, form, and ability? Seems like that would be the case given your positive impressions of it.

Thanks Antoine! Yes, I'd say that the Curve is a very good midpoint device. Both the Curve and the 680 have similar web browsers but you can get Opera Mini on both for improvement. I found there to be more 3rd party software for the Treo. I do prefer a touchscreen but I could get used to the trackball and Menu button.

Quote:

How did the BB's radio compare? Did you get noticeably better or worse connections with it? Of course, if it was on a different carrier than your Treo it's not a valid comparison.

Hi SuperCrackBerry! AT&T was the carrier for both phones. I found both the phone experience to be pretty much the same. Sometimes it depended on who I was talking to. For example, when my husband would call me from his Treo from a certain area, the connection was bad with the 680 and the Curve. I had mentioned a similar incidence in my iPhone impressions. I've come to believe now that the bad connection is on my husband's end. I think it's when he's traveling on a certain section of the interstate when the connection gets fuzzy. The BB's radio sounded as good as my Treo's and I was very satisfied with my overall experience with the Curve.

gadgetluva · 11/12/2007, 12:48 PM

Well I just ordered a curve for a friend, but I'll definitely play with it before handing it over...

B-model · 11/12/2007, 01:18 PM

yep ... gonna have to borow my friends as well .. .would like to play w/ Roxio (sp?)

Bla1ze · 11/12/2007, 01:21 PM

Wow jenn, great review it seems as though you having the blackberry and Kevin having the Treo turned out really great, except for Kevin's issues of course with it being unlocked (or lack of, shall we say), all around it seems as though between the Blackberry -Treo level a BB user could use a treo just fine and vice versa, thats what I'm getting from the reviews anyways..theirs not really much more I can say on your excursion into the BlackBerry, no way I can point out which may have made it better, cause well, you enjoyed it anyways, Glad to hear the Crackberry Community was so helpful to you, hopefully it won't be the last we see of you

sbono13 · 11/12/2007, 04:55 PM

How does the Curve handle multimedia? I know you said that transferring music was pretty straightforward, but do you get album art? Can you navigate a big music collection (sort by artist, type artist name to skip to it, playlist support, etc). I don't really expect it to be iphone-like, but is it better than PalmOS's PocketTunes/Kinoma/TCPMP combo? I mean, PalmOS's multimedia options are a mess for the uninitiated, IMO, but they get the job done if you are the patient type.

jko · 11/13/2007, 01:21 AM

I purchased the Treo 750 about nine months ago, and I have to admit I'm not all that pleased. Maybe its the WM5 software, maybe its having to re-pair my bluetooth headset (plus reboot) daily... or one of the many other reasons.

Anyways, I'm glad to hear that the Curve is a decent machine (especially for emai), and I'm seriously looking into getting one now

jbonnot03 · 11/13/2007, 08:10 AM

Does the curve use the same type of media app as the pearl? The pearl doesn't have a way to make playlists, it just stores all your music in the media app and you have to scroll through it. Everytime you open it, you start at the first song on the list.

Jennifer Chappell · 11/13/2007, 03:32 PM

I didn't have much time to mess with the music part. I did download some Marc Anthony songs and listen to them right before I had to get ready to pack the Curve and ship it to Dieter.

The media player supports MP3, AAC, WAV, WMA audio and MPEG4, H.263 and WMV video formats. The music player displays some track information like title, artist, and album art, and you can create playlists plus shuffle and repeat songs.

Doc31 · 11/13/2007, 04:26 PM

Good review but something about BB just doesn't appeal to me.....

Spainiac · 11/13/2007, 04:51 PM

Sounds like a great device. If it ever comes to Sprint, I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the review.

sbono13 · 11/14/2007, 12:53 AM

I wish the Curve had GPS, like some of the other BB's. Google Maps with GPS support is incredibly useful... One of those things that you can become dependent on very quickly.

morgansparrot · 11/14/2007, 01:39 PM

Greatly enjoyed reading this review. I'm really tempted to try a Curve now!

I've used my unlocked Treo 680 for a year now and I'm generally quite happy with it. One thing that struck me is that you missed the Treo touch screen and that the Curve did not feel as good in your hands while calling.

While the touch screen can get you to the function you want quicker than using the arrow keys, I find that during calls with my Treo pressed against my ear some of the menus will be activated. Usually it's the Bluetooth menu that goes on but sometimes I get a beeping window asking if I want to dial another call.

This is a minor annoyance of the touch screen that happens mostly in noisy settings when I press the phone hard against my deformed ears. I guess they don't call me dumbo for nothing...

jbonnot03 · 11/14/2007, 02:42 PM

I had the same problem with the touch screen. I was hanging up and putting people on hold. There is a setting to disable touch screen on a call in Preferences-->Keyguard.

morgansparrot · 11/14/2007, 03:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbonnot03

I had the same problem with the touch screen. I was hanging up and putting people on hold. There is a setting to disable touch screen on a call in Preferences-->Keyguard.

Thanks jbonnot03!! I found the option to disable the touch screen during a call on the Treo 680 in the Preferences-->Keyguard menu just as you describe.

And I thought they were calling me dumbo because of my ears...

Thunder God · 11/14/2007, 08:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sbono13

I wish the Curve had GPS, like some of the other BB's. Google Maps with GPS support is incredibly useful... One of those things that you can become dependent on very quickly.

i beleive the curve from att does have built in gps

Bla1ze · 11/16/2007, 12:42 AM

Yes, the 8310 Curve from at&t has built in GPS