BlackBerry Curve 8900

During the last ten years I've owned Nokia, Motorola and HTC handsets. However, when I got my hands on a brand new Blackberry Curve 8900 everything became so incredibly easy.

When I assessed the merits of the Blackberrys I narrowed my choice down to the Curve but had to choose between the keypad or touchscreen versions. I'm glad to say that I made the right choice with the keypad version as pictured here.

This box of tricks does everything I need. The Blackberry Curve 8900 has its own very specific way of operating which is very different to others manufacturers. Being a typical bloke I didn't read the instructions and leaped straight in. I'm also a bit of a technophobe and expected to struggle a little. However, in my opinion and experience the Curve 8900 is easier to operate and navigate than any other mobile handset. I was up and running with calls, email, text, mms, music and photos within an hour once the handset became registered with the network.

The Blackberry Curve 8900 also charges incredibly quickly. I get a full battery with a 45 minute charge which then keeps me going for at least three or four days (and I use this a lot!). Even when I've used the built in GPS navigation it seems to go on and on.

I have a googlemail account for personal emails and it was a breeze for the Curve to synchronise with my online account. I didn't need to be a techno-wizard to accomplish this; I just needed my email address and password and the Blackberry did the rest for me. Emails now arrive instantly and I can view these anywhere with all of their attachments whether word, excel, pdf, jpeg files, it opens just about anything sent to me.

The primary reason for having one of these handsets is to make calls. The clarity is always good and the handset searches for networks and reception very quickly and easily. Side volume buttons are easy to operate mid call, as are a whole host of other features such as your diary, tasks or email.

I chose the keypad version of this mobile phone as I found the touchscreen version a lot slower and somewhat of a pain. Even though I have butterfingers most of the time I can whizz across the keyboard and tracker-ball without any problem at all. This of course reduces your screen size a little, however the screen on the keyboard version is ample and pictures, videos and photos are crisp and clear. The camera by the way, is 3.2 megapixels and gives some great results with the onboard flash unit. Once really accomplished you can even make a video and have it on Youtube within minutes without needing to go via your PC.

The Blackberry Curve 8900 can also replace your iPod. I uploaded all of my tunes and now just have the one gadget to carry. The headphones plug into a standard jack socket and give a good sound, however you can upgrade these if you don't want to upset passengers on the train. The headphones supplied double as a handsfree and your calls will automatically take priority over any music you're playing.

Although I would recommend doing this, the Curve seems quite robust. My 6 year old has occasionally thrown it around and so far, so good (touch wood). The handset is very good quality and doesn't have the cheaper, plasticy feel of other handsets.

In the box you'll receive the charger, headphone handsfree, software and a cover. The software allows you to synchronise the Blackberry with anything on your PC, and I would only recommend sychronising with a PC, this seemed more complicated on a Mac. The cover is a good one that does the job. Its a RIM cover which I'm told puts the phone into sleep mode when inserted, to save some battery power. There are many other covers on the market but make sure you get a RIM compatible cover or you'll lose this functionality.

The Blackberry Curve 8900 features include: Contact, SMS/MMS, Clock, Email, web browser, calandar, media, maps/gps, camera, music, basic word & excel, instant messaging, games, download file, and Blackberry App World. There really is more than most people need in this phone, but if you need more its easy to download from a plethora of applications direct to your phone. There are new free or priced applications coming out each week and usually take no more than a couple of clicks and 2/3 minutes to download.

The only thing that I can't really do on the Blackberry is make presentations to clients. But other than that the Curve has replaced everything and some days I don't need to take the laptop with me - I'm travelling light!

So in summary, great phone. Go for the keypad version and you'll have no regrets. I can't recommend this highly enough.