BlackBerry Curve 3G 9300

I've had 3 different phones in the past year, the Blackberry Bold, this phone (Blackberry Curve) and the iphone 4. I have to say all phones have their own pro's and con's, and for price alone I would say this one is probably the best value for money.

For general calls and texts this is a great phone, however if you're looking for a more app enabled phone I have to say the range of apps available on this one aren't great. Don't get me wrong the phone still provides you with apps, but in comparison to other smart phones the apps are very limited.

The camera on this phone is poor (2 megapixels), providing a grainy and often blurry image - not great for taking pictures on nights out either as there is no flash enabled like there is on the other blackberry models such as the Bold or Torch. Another feature I have found quite annoying with the camera, although I may be nit picking, is that you can't mute the shutter sound.

Another feature of the phone that I'm not particulary keen on is the internet. When connected to a wifi network it works fine, however when it isn't the internet can be extremely slow and alot of the time either refuse to open the web page required or provide you with the rather disheartening message "sorry not enough memory to open webpage" or something along those lines, which is then followed by the compulsory shutting down of any web pages you may have had open. On the contrary, you are able to open multiple tabs, which wasn't a feature that was available on the Bold 9700 model. A tip for if web pages are refusing to open is to simply turn off the phone and then turn on the phone again, this seems to revitalise the signal and normally works 9/10 times.

BBM is one of the renowned features of blackberrys, but in my opinion is highly over rated considering most blackberrys often come with unlimited texts or an admirable amount anyway, rendering BBM pretty much pointless. The only difference between bbm and text is that you can kind of spy on whether messages have been read or not with the 'r' meaning read and 'd' meaning delivered. Again, this is pretty unecessary and only pressures you into replying as a way of avoiding confrontation.

I do however like how the phone is fairly durable compared to other smart phones, I couldn't tell you the amount of times I have drunkenly dropped by phone on the pavement and it has come out barely scratched.

Theres also added features such as bluetooth, video recording, mp3 player (a bit tinny), querty pad (not recommended for those with big fingers and also the clicking sound of the buttons can get pretty annoying after a while, not an issue I found with the Blackberry Bold).

Despite all of these downfalls of the Blackberry Curve 9300 I would still recommend the phone, It's one of the cheapest Blackberrys on the market and does its job. The faults are annoying but not ones that are massively annoying. I'd say this is the best value for money Blackberry, as its internet is that little bit quicker than the 8520 and isn't alot more expensive.