Being a firm convert to the BlackBerry smartphone revolution I am lucky enough to receive courtesy of my employer an upgrade each year. The last twelve months have seen me dazzled and impressed with the BlackBerry Pearl, a device I didn't think it was possible to make any better as it was small, compact, jam packed full of useful tools and software and incorporated a digital camera along with lots of other functional tools. It was with heavy heart that I was informed over a month ago of our IT departments intention to replace any Pearl models with the Curve 8310. This was an upgrade I neither needed or wanted but after only a few days of owning the Curve 8310 I was once again as in love as it is possible to be with a piece of hardware.

The inclusion of more software, an upgraded battery and much more functionality has resulted in the Curve 8310 being larger in than the mobile phone sized Pearl that was in my opinion unsuccessfully aimed at conquering the mobile telephone market. Even though it is larger than the Pearl, its dimensions are still not overly cumbersome and the curved sides make the unit very easy to grip which in turn assists when using the trackball navigation tool to access menus. The actual dimensions are 10.7cm in length, 6cm wide with a depth of only 1.55cm. The total unit weighs only 111g putting it on a par with the Pearl and several leading Nokia mobile phone brands. Originally seeing the increased size I thought I was going back to the days where my pocket would be weighed down but this I discovered was unfounded. Issue number one being the weight and size were therefore alleviated meaning that as long as it performed to the same standard as the Pearl I would be very happy indeed.

Email is the primary function for my BlackBerry but it also serves perfectly as a mobile phone. The call reception and call quality is second to none, every word spoken is picked up by the built in microphone and the adjustable volume means that callers can be adjusted from a whisper to literally ear drum splitting volumes. The loudspeaker is also very handy and much better than any of the loudspeakers I have previously used on mobile phones. There is no feedback or static and ever word is repeated with crystal clear clarity. As with mobile phones, the Curve 8310 also allows the sending of SMS and MMS messages which are typed in the same way as emails. The 2MP digital camera takes pictures of a reasonable quality. I won't be rushing out to put my Kodak EasyShare on eBay but it does pick up the depth of colour in shots and has a decent focus on it. Should you feel the need to take a picture of something on the spot you won't be disappointed but really, they is no

Pictures of Blackberry Curve 8310

BlackBerry Curve

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RIM, the makers of BlackBerry have in their infinite wisdom altered the way in which the menus are navigated. Instead of the old style wheel on the right hand side, the Curve uses a trackball located in the middle of the device. At first I found this really fiddly, but only because I was used to the old style. It took a few days to really get the hang of reaching onto the face of the device and wheeling around going up, down left and right when previous models only allowed movement from left to right. The ball is incredibly responsive, so even the slightest of touches sends the cursor flying off across the screen. The sensitivity can be altered and after playing around I found the setting for those of us with heavy hands! Accessing features and functions from the main menu is as you would expect very simple. Each feature has its own icon and is selected by moving the cursor over it and clicking. Each icon is brightly coloured, the icon relevant to the feature and brightly coloured. For even the most simple of users BlackBerry even inserted a large text at the bottom of the screen identifying which icon you currently have selected making it 100% foolproof.

Overall in terms of user friendliness, ease of use and functionality, the Curve 8310 is simply the best RIM BlackBerry product I have had the opportunity to get my hands on and test over a prolonged period of time. Not only does it enable me to stay connected with what is happening in the office I can now work from home without the need to connect remotely to our servers which cuts down on a lot of stress when they are down. On top of this, there are lots of quirky little bits that just add to the delight of users. The ability to personalise the device in every way imaginable is fantastic. As I no longer own a mobile phone of my own I can assign emails, SMS, MMS and telephone calls with there own tones, using either the pre-set polyphonic or MIDI ringtones so that at weekends I know to ignore emails which will invariably be work related but pick up text messages or telephone calls from friends and family.