This phone has been a long time coming for Sprint users and it's finally here. As with many other handsets in the line, the Blackberry Curve 8330 offers the same great messaging design, along a couple of welcome additions.
Sprint's new version of the 8330 adds a 3G chip to the mix, causing a slight added thickness when compared to the GSM version. It's now 0.6 inches deep, which is still slim enough for comfortable handling. Display is a 2.5-inch 320 x 240 LCD, situated right above the front-mounted QWERTY keyboard. Overall screen performance is excellent, managing to look clear and sharp even in outdoor conditions.
For messaging, the 8330 comes with the full range of Blackberry's tried and proven capabilities. You get all the goodies here, from the souped-up email talents (BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry Internet Service), along with a larger number of IM clients (compared to Verizon's Curve releases). The QWERTY keys are a tad too small, but travel is great, making it easy to use all the same.
As a phone, the dual-band (CDMA 850/1900; EV-DO) handset doesn't offer the best voice calls, managing pedestrian sound with a noticeable echo. Phone operation is fast and responsive, with only a slight lag when performing multimedia operations. It was good for over five hours of continuous talk time, making it usable for a convenient two days or more before recharging.
On the features end, the phone comes with a decent offering. There's a speedy onboard GPS (with Blackberry Maps preloaded and Sprint Navigation integrated for a fee), EV-DO (making for decent-speed full HTML browsing) but no Wi-Fi, a 2.0 megapixel camera (just average quality), stereo Bluetooth and excellent multimedia support. It also comes with a good lot of onboard apps, particularly ones geared for business and productivity.
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Overall, we find Sprint's BlackBerry Curve 8330 a better option than that from Verizon, especially with the accompanying 3G access and integrated GPS in tow. The lack of Wi-Fi is, of course, a hard-to-ignore sticking point. If you can live with it, though, this should prove a great phone to pick up.
