RIM BlackBerry Curve Review

AT&T's BlackBerry 8300 Curve

Published on: 22 August, 2007 by PhoneArena Team

Camera:


Camera interface

Along with the Pearl, the Curve is the only other BlackBerry in AT&T’s lineup that features a camera. Since RIM just recently began to include cameras with BlackBerries, we were pleasantly surprised with the quality. The 2MP camera is not the best, but it does a decent job. Pictures from a distance tend to be a little blurry and come out overexposed in bright situations. It’s odd though, in photos with the object in the distance, objects further away are a little out of focus while everything closer come out more clearly.


Outdoor images

Strong light	Medium light	Low light	Flash ON
Indoor images

RIM did a great job adding a flash and mirror, especially when you consider how some manufacturers tend to put one or the other or neither. The flash does great and it’s very bright. We were able to have some of a completely black room come out and the objects were over 11 feet away. Still, it was too dark to make much out. If you’re planning on using the flash, make sure that the object is no more than 6 feet away. This is exceptional considering it’s an LED flash.

Sadly, the Curve has no video recorder.

Multimedia:

With the move to mainstream, RIM needed to include a media player with the BlackBerries which is very simple and the only options are pause, play, stop, change the volume, repeat, and random. Quality is lacking, however as the sound seems a little washed out when playing through the speaker. You also have the option to use a 3.5mm headphones or Bluetooth which has a stereo profile so you’re not stuck with mono sound. Sound through headphones is better but it it’s lacking as well. If you want a simple media player for those times when you want to pass the time, then you should be happy with this. Otherwise, either look for another phone or get a dedicated MP3 player. Supported formats for audio are MP3, WMA, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, and MIDI, and for videos are MPEG4, WMV, and H.263. There is a choice for fullscreen when watching videos but it isn’t much larger than in regular mode.

Media can be stored on the 64MB of built-in memory and can be expanded using a microSD card. Still, it would be nice to see the microSD slot at a little more convenient place than under the battery.

Software:

The Curve can open .Zip archives, internet pages saved in .htm, or .html formats, Word documents (.doc, .dot, .wpd, .txt, vCard file (.vcf), PowerPoint (.ppt), Excel (.xls), Adobe Reader (.pdf), and images in formats of .bmp, .gif, .jpg, .png, .tif, and .wmf files. If the programs on the Curve are lacking, you can find others on the internet by just doing a quick search on Google.