[BallHawk3]

Yup. Dunno what I was thinking. Was waiting for the price today but I just went out and dropped $300 today on the Curve.

Well, I was super excited fo the Curve, and I was patient. Really I have no clue why I went out and bought it today. I must not be right in the head after I crashed my motorcycle at the track yesterday.

Anyway my thoughts.

Wow, I just spend $300 randomly. LOL. So I was super excited, after getting it, I immediately installed my best skins ever that I ordered a week ago. I really really need to get better at putting it on. Couldn't wait the 24 hours so I took a blow dryer to make sure everything was completely dry. Waited like 2 hours and pop my sim card in and old 8700g battery and was ready to restore! Now the backup and restore option took a while (lots of stuff) but the first time my device crashed. I believe it was a JVM Error 533. That got me really paranoid. So reset the device and tried it again.

After everything was uploaded went in, updated my webclient, made sure all my emails were working and set everything to the way I liked it.

Now time for the real fun. Messed around with wifi (didn't even bother to read instructions). Wow. Really need, and its super smooth. This can really come in handy. WIFI and UMA works great! Sad part, too bad i'm never going to use it, so pretty much WIFI will always remain off for me. The "new" blackberry browser is took some getting used to in the confusion. I was to asume that there would be a t-zone browers, and internet broswer and now a wifi broswer, but its just wifi and t-zone which kinda confused me. I messed with the settings and now can't access the mobile.blackberry.com website anymore *shrugs*

The keyboard took a little to get used to. I caught myself looking down at the keys and at first I was hitting the wrong keys but adjusted to that quick. Now typing is fine. I guess i really liked the extra size of the 8700g. Hard to tell which I like better, the curve is smaller and the keys are more raised, but the 8700g keys are more flat and its large, easier to hold so its kinda a trade off. I don't the shift keys on each end of the keyboard look the same now. I miss num and cap, but I should be good as long as I never look down.

I adjusted to the trackball pretty quick, prob only cause I delt with alot of 8830e when I owned a sprint/nextel store. It's nice and makes sense. I did catch myself hitting the right side of the phone as if I was looking for escape key (lol). But honestly, it seems that navigation is slower for me. I missed the quickly tap trackwheel to pop up menu, or hold down trackwheel to select. I was blazing fast with that, everything in the thumbs. Guess I liked not having to move my thumb just to bring up a menu.

The media features are neat. Although I realized, I went without a camera for quite some time, I prob will never use it. For a 2.0 megapixel camera, its kinda......crappy. Having a memory card is really nice! I actually like that a lot and messed with that for a while. First thought that came to my mind, this would be great for a music player, then I realized, I don't even listen to music.

Oh, AOL INSTANT MESSENGER! FINALLY. I missed being signed on 24/7. Used to on all my phones. Ever since I got my 8700g, wasn't able to. But this is prob the thing I am excited the most about! WOO HOO.

The device is georgous, much more up to date looking than my 8700g. The device also feels more "solid." My 8700g was kinda clunky, the batter door squeaked, actually the whole housing did and it felt kinda "hollow." 8320 is definately an improvement. I did however notice a lot of bugs. Some of my mail folders wouldn't show a red x when I got new emails, while others, would still display the red x even after reading all the emails. I got kinda annoying having to keep pulling the battery. This OS does operately awefully slow. I will admit, it actually operates a little bit slower than my 8700g when I updated it to 4.2. And I dunno if this is a bug or something wrong with my phone or the reception but I obviously spent a lot of time looking at it. I've noticed in my house i would keep loosing reception, but when it reconnects it connects awefully fast (blackberrys never connect this fast!). Sometimes, my phone was displaying SOS when I was chatting on yahoo messenger, which still showed it was connected. So I decieded to make some phone calls, phone NEVER dropped a call. Strange, doesn't do it when i'm on the phone (remember WIFI is OFF). Not to sure if something is wrong with the reception of the phone or if it is a bug.

There are always two things I am completely paranoid of when I get a new phone, that is signal strength and battery life (thanks to motorola). The losing reception thing really has be paranoid. I really hope nothing is wrong wit my phone cause I already installed BSE lol. So i fired up my 8700g and i'll be monitoring the dBs. Also had a chance to test battery life, i'm using my old battery still and so far, it seems the same as my 8700g. However, it does stay warm which has me paranoid. But seems like its cooled off.

Also, does anyone else get constant buzzing from the speaker? You can hear it if you put your hear to it, it doesn't stop unless the device is off.

So what can I say? Great device, features work great, but sad to say, its prob not the device for me. I thought about holding off and getting the 8820, something I would have more use for, but I really can't stand the shape and size of the device. It's an awesome device, most of the newer features I would never use, the only thing I would use is AIM and the memory card slot, for me, the perk is mostly cause its newer, the looks, and the size. But still disappointed I spent $300. Then again, the chick was pretty hot, and she's going to be helping me out with my bill

But i was amazed with the UMA @home service. I know my dad would be thrilled with it. Its a shame I have no use for it. Maybe I should find more people to talk too, LOL.

[ngregory00]

Wow, thanks for the review!

[flash24]

Congrats on the new curve

[XBGM3R]

Your excellent review and Congrants about your new curve!

Yes I do miss 8700g. However I am happy with my the tmo 8320 and used to it now.

[grandad]

Originally Posted by BallHawk3

Also, does anyone else get constant buzzing from the speaker? You can hear it if you put your hear to it, it doesn't stop unless the device is off.

No, not here.

[BallHawk3]

Holy hell! Has anyone used the flash on this thing?

I am blown away from it. I'm laying in bed pitch dark and the flash works where you can actually see the picture! Wow!!!! I can't believe how well it works.

Too bad they don't have a spotlight to light up and you can see.

[BallHawk3]

Ok update. After three days of using the curve, I had to come in and exchange it. It did in fact have a reception problem has mentioned. I had to give it a real test by taking it to a place I know had weak reception took my old 8700g as well. The curve didn't get reception at all while my 8700 still had a bar and was able to make a call. It never went to no service.

So I got another one, this one works great! Reception is good and it is a lot more stable. But now this device isn't has solid. It. Squaky near the bottom and bottom left corner. There is also quite a gap. Battery door is not misaligned. This is no where near as solid as the first one I had. Quite a shame. Both were made in mexico.

[BallHawk3]

Ok after a few days of using my second curve, I got to some resturants I frequent. And guess what? No reception in there with the curve! What the heck is going on. I've always had reception there with my 8700g. Even in one of the resturants a guy next to me was blabbing away on his tmo 8700g while I had the now infamous SOS. I even looked at the dBm and it was -101, it didn't say no signal so what gives? I called tmo and they said no known issues like this. I am very unhappy and if the curve is going to be like this, then I don't need it!

Am I just unlucky to get two lemons in a row? Was my 8700g a freak of nature? Or does the curve really have reception issues

[BallHawk3]

Ok after a few days of using my second curve, I got to some resturants I frequent. And guess what? No reception in there with the curve! What the heck is going on. I've always had reception there with my 8700g. Even in one of the resturants a guy next to me was blabbing away on his tmo 8700g while I had the now infamous SOS. I even looked at the dBm and it was -101, it didn't say no signal so what gives? I called tmo and they said no known issues like this. I am very unhappy and if the curve is going to be like this, then I don't need it!

Am I just unlucky to get two lemons in a row? Was my 8700g a freak of nature? Or does the curve really have reception issues

[wirelessforever]

Originally Posted by BallHawk3

Ok after a few days of using my second curve, I got to some resturants I frequent. And guess what? No reception in there with the curve! What the heck is going on. I've always had reception there with my 8700g. Even in one of the resturants a guy next to me was blabbing away on his tmo 8700g while I had the now infamous SOS. I even looked at the dBm and it was -101, it didn't say no signal so what gives? I called tmo and they said no known issues like this. I am very unhappy and if the curve is going to be like this, then I don't need it!

Am I just unlucky to get two lemons in a row? Was my 8700g a freak of nature? Or does the curve really have reception issues

Have a Mexican Curve here. Absolutely the best phone I've ever experienced. Calls are clear as a bell. Reception is excellent. Never any problems whatsoever. I don't have a single complaint about anything.

This phone is a masterpiece. Belongs in the Cell Phone Hall of Fame.

[Stemkroywen]

I'm totally w ya. Dropped the same $$$ 2 wks ago. Had to have it.

[abell]

Originally Posted by BallHawk3

Ok after a few days of using my second curve, I got to some resturants I frequent. And guess what? No reception in there with the curve! What the heck is going on. I've always had reception there with my 8700g. Even in one of the resturants a guy next to me was blabbing away on his tmo 8700g while I had the now infamous SOS. I even looked at the dBm and it was -101, it didn't say no signal so what gives? I called tmo and they said no known issues like this. I am very unhappy and if the curve is going to be like this, then I don't need it!

Am I just unlucky to get two lemons in a row? Was my 8700g a freak of nature? Or does the curve really have reception issues

You're absolutely right, the Curve has the worst reception I've ever experienced from a Blackberry. It drops calls on me (not the normal, but where people can hear me and I can't hear them and I have to hang up) fairly consistently. I called AT&T and they said they've had a lot of complaints. They replaced my 8300 twice and still does it, so I have to live with it. Comon 8310... no whammy no whammy...

[chrryhrt73]

Hi abell,

do you know anything about loading gizmo5 onto your curve?

cherry

[Semi5]

Strange how different people have completely different opinions. I love my Curve. I get a crystal clear signal and I find the phone extremely loud. The only issue that I do not like is when making a phone call, I think the mic clicks on when the person you are calling answers. That kind of annoys me.

[BallHawk3]

Originally Posted by Semi5

Strange how different people have completely different opinions. I love my Curve. I get a crystal clear signal and I find the phone extremely loud. The only issue that I do not like is when making a phone call, I think the mic clicks on when the person you are calling answers. That kind of annoys me.

I just traded in my curve again on my third one, and I think mine does that! LOL. Great. Housing on this one is loose too. All the reps at the store keep telling me they had a pearl and the curve gets better reception than their pearl did. I spent an hour with technically support last night just to find out if theres an known issue or a quick fix. After an hour of doing "stuff" they advised me to try another one again and told me to go to a completely different location cause that store could of had a bad batch. So I did.

Still too soon to give the reception test, its late in the day, although I think I might have one of the BBs that always show the battery is low! Ahhhhh.

Where is the red face blowing stem outta ears when you need it! RIM stock went down today as well! What is going on?

[onyx00]

Any updates on your signal issue?

My reception seems weak, whereas on my previous Nokia candy-bar phone it was great everywhere (home, office, etc.) !

I just bought the Curve on Sunday and I am wondering if I should exchange it for a new one and see if the reception improves. Otherwise I will probably return it and look for something else. There is no reason new phones should have worse reception, no matter how many neat new features they have

[BallHawk3]

Originally Posted by onyx00

Any updates on your signal issue?

My reception seems weak, whereas on my previous Nokia candy-bar phone it was great everywhere (home, office, etc.) !

I just bought the Curve on Sunday and I am wondering if I should exchange it for a new one and see if the reception improves. Otherwise I will probably return it and look for something else. There is no reason new phones should have worse reception, no matter how many neat new features they have

well still haven't had a chance to really visit those spots. Reception at the house is fine.

But i'll prob find out wednesday. I'm begin to start to think that it possibly could be a bug instead of "weaK" reception.

[sgtcasey]

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