BlacKberry 8330

Excellent reputation for dependabilty. The 8330 will "freeze-up" less than any other smart-device/PDA that I am aware of and I have sold thousands of cell phones over the last 23 years. Provisioning the browser is usually easily accomplished. Only re-occuring negative about the 8330 is the trackball, which is easily replaced by any phone repair shop or you can do it yourself- (Ebay has excellent prices on them). Cycle or "power-up" time can be long, but that is also the case with most PDA's. Great overall product and user-friendly. Lots of protective cases available such as OTTERBOX Defender Series with magnet holster to "put the phone to sleep" and save battery (Ebay has excellent pricing). I highly recommend this case/holster as it will fully protect your Blackberry because the deductable for an insurance claim is usually $100.00. The OEM case that is included is better tossed in the dumpster. Desk-top Manager is a handy tool and can save heart-ache if you loose your phone assuming that you do sync it with OUTLOOK. Having their own server in Canada, RIM, the manufacturer, makes recieving email almost instantaneous. If you really depend on email and OUTLOOK, and require dependablity, the 8330 is an excellent choice!

Good tide over phone until able to upgrade.

I bought this product to tide me over until I qualified for an upgrade discount with my provider.
I like the feel of the buttons and the ease of texting.
This model had older software so I had a few issues with picture messaging, using the browser, and connecting email accounts even after speaking to technical support with my cell provider. I am going to have to go to a retail store to see if the problem can be corrected. I have had several blackberries in the past I cant wait to try a droid.

Sprint Blackberry Curve 8330m

This phone is definitely better than it's predecessors. I'm very impressed by it's performance thus far. The screen is large enough to be functional. The media player, camera, video player and sdhc enhanced memory storage really helps the phone be more of an all in one tool. The track ball is a nice addition (although it is another point of failure for the phone). And it is filled with the blackberry goodness we have come to expect from RIM.

There are still various issues the phone has, but to the standard user, they may be transparent. The boot up time for the BB os is kinda slow (makes it so you NEVER wanna take the battery out.) Though you have the options of switching to a newer or older version of the bb os in order to get better results with this issue. This is not an international phone. You have to use it in an area that is CDMA 2000 1X compatible and with the appropriate carrier (sprint, verizon, cricket, etc.) With a little tweaking, the GPS works better, but without it you have standard compatibility. There are other, very nit-picky issues, but to the average user, they wont make a difference.

My biggest reason of going blackberry is the push email, and the community of software developers. First, I used to be a Treo smartphone person, but I got a taste of push email and I was sold. this functionality allowed me to be more efficient in day to day operations. Secondly, in the case you do not use the BIS/BES, there is an exhaustive amount of community developed software that simulates (with proper configuration) BIS/BES functionality.

Overall it is a good phone, and I believe that most of the people that purchase and use it, will not be dissatisfied.

Good features, battery life, and overall a well designed phone.

This is overall a good phone. It has a nice QWERTY keyboard with buttons easy enough to press for those with bigger fingers. This phone has lots of good features such as the shortcuts on the main screen for messages, email, etc. It has good internet quality and good battery life. When it comes to simplicity, this Blackberry is much easier to understand than the Blackberry Pearl. It can lag a little bit when scrolling with the tracker ball, but other than that, everything is great. This is an efficient, reliable, and easy phone to use.