BlackBerry Curve 8320 Review - Imaging
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Alfredo Padilla Published on October 10, 2007 Comment on this |
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Resolution (5.25)
To test the resolution of images produced by the BlackBerry Curve 8320's camera we take a series of photos of an industry standard resolution chart. These photos are then run through Imatest, which analyzes how many alternating black and white lines can be discerned before they begin blurring together. Imatest produces a score based on this called line width per pixel height (lw/ph).
The Curve's camera scored 1087 lw/ph horizontal and 933 lw/ph vertical. This is a pretty good score — as good as the Nokia E90's 3-megapixel camera, as you can see from the chart below. It's also significantly better than the Curve we tested from AT&T's network, which indicated there have been software changes in the new version of the Curve. This isn't unusual; most of the carriers tweak the settings of their phones to their requirements, so we often see different results from similar handsets on different carriers.
| Cell Phone | BlackBerry Curve 8320 | Nokia E90 | BlackBerry Curve 8300 (AT&T) |
| Score | 5.25 | 5.27 | 2.97 |
| lw/ph horizontal/vertical | 1087 / 933 | 1089 / 992.9 | 816.9 / 397.9 |
| Image of Resolution Chart (click to view) |  |
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| Cell Phone | HTC Mogul | T-Mobile Dash | Apple iPhone |
| Score | 3.57 | 1.22 | 4.18 |
| lw/ph horizontal/vertical | 895.9 / 831.6 | 541.5 / 586.2 | 970 / 879 |
| Image of Resolution Chart (click to view) |  |
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Color (4.92)
To test the quality of the color in photos produced by the Curve we take shots of the industry standard GretagMacbeth color chart, which shows 24 different colors. The photos are then run through the Imatest software, which compares the captured colors to the original ones. Imatest produces the two charts below. On the left you see the GretagMacbeth chart, with the original colors in the small vertical rectangle, the captured colors in the outer square, and the captured colors adjusted for luminance in the inner square.
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| GretagMacbeth Color Chart (adjusted) | Color Drift |
The chart on the right gives a better graphical representation of what's going on with the captured colors. The squares represent where the ideal color would be, while the circles represent the actual captured color. The longer the line between the two, the worse the accuracy of the color capture. You can see the Curve did an OK, but not great job here. There's definitely some serious undersaturation in the yellows, but that's the only major issue. Other colors were just about where we would like them. The Curve put up a solid, but not outstanding score in this test.
| Cell Phone | BlackBerry Curve 8320 | Nokia E90 | BlackBerry Curve 8300 (AT&T) |
| Score | 4.92 | 5.77 | 4.96 |
| Color Checker Chart (click to view) |  |
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| Cell Phone | HTC Mogul | T-Mobile Dash | Apple iPhone |
| Score | 1.82 | 5.41 | 5.22 |
| Color Checker Chart (click to view) |  |
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Noise (1.41)
To test the noise of photos produced by the Curve's camera we took photos of the GretabMacbeth color chart at four different lighting levels. These photos are then run through Imatest, which produces a noise score for each. We consider the total noise at each lighting level and the consistency of noise at all lighting levels in our final score. The Curve produced noise levels higher than we would like at every lighting level, but it was very consistent. This works out to a pretty decent score for a cell phone. It should be noted, however, that a decent score for a cell phone would be completely unacceptable for a real digital camera.
| Cell Phone | Score |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 1.41 |
| Nokia E90 | 1.34 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8300 (AT&T) | 1.18 |
| HTC Mogul | 1.45 |
| T-Mobile Dash | 1.26 |
| Apple iPhone | 1.20 |
Live Preview (7.0)
The live preview on the Curve doesn't use the whole screen by default, but you can switch to a full screen view by hitting the symbol key. You lose the indicators when you do this, however. We found the live preview does a good job when panning, with very little pixelation or artifacts. It also did a good job giving a solid reproduction of what the final photo will look like. On some phones colors are different in the live preview compared to what you actually end up with, but this didn't happen with the Curve. We should also note that we found the live preview on the Curve 8320 from T-Mobile to be significantly better than the AT&T version's, which shows how the same phone from a different carrier can vary.
Unlocked Standby to First Shot (6.90)
This test measures how quickly you can take a photo with the BlackBerry Curve 8320 from the home screen. We do this test repeatedly until we get a consistent result. The Curve 8320 was able to take a photo from standby in 2.9 seconds. This is a very good time; only the iPhone put up a better time than the Curve here. Interestingly, this is one of the few times we see the 8320 do better on a timed test than the older Curve we reviewed on AT&T.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 2.90 | 6.90 |
| Nokia E90 | 7.55 | 2.65 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8300 (AT&T) | 4.70 | 4.26 |
| HTC Mogul | 3.30 | 6.06 |
| T-Mobile Dash | 5.00 | 4.00 |
| Apple iPhone | 2.43 | 8.23 |
Shot to Shot Time (1.05)
Shot to shot time is a measure of how quickly a phone can take a series of photos. When possible we use a phone's Burst mode. The Curve lacks such a Burst mode, however, so we had to perform this test manually. This significantly slows down the Curve's performance, and we were only able to take photos at a rate of 0.35 frames per second (fps). This is about what we saw from the old Curve, but significantly slower than the HTC Mogul and T-Mobile Wing, both of which have a Burst mode.
| Cell Phone | FPS | Score |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 0.35 | 1.05 |
| Nokia E90 | 0.61 | 1.83 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8300 (AT&T) | 0.30 | 0.90 |
| HTC Mogul | 1.90 | 5.70 |
| T-Mobile Dash | 3.13 | 9.38 |
| Apple iPhone | 0.40 | 1.20 |
Shutter to Shot Time (4.65)
Shutter to shot time measures how long it takes a phone to capture a photo once you have pressed the capture button. We do this test until we get a consistently repeatable result. With the BlackBerry Curve 8320 we found it took 0.43 seconds to capture a photo once we depressed the shutter button. This isn't a very impressive time; it's the worst time among our comparison phones. What this means is that action shots are likely not going to come out well with the Curve, so you'd better make sure your subject is standing still.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 0.43 | 4.65 |
| Nokia E90 | 0.25 | 8.10 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8300 (AT&T) | 0.34 | 5.88 |
| HTC Mogul | 0.21 | 9.52 |
| T-Mobile Dash | 0.30 | 6.67 |
| Apple iPhone | 0.40 | 5.00 |
Interface (5.0)
Photo Album Software Internal (5.0)
Manual Control (0.0)
The BlackBerry Curve 8320 does not offer any manual controls. This includes functions like manual white balance and Scene modes, which we have found on other cell phones, and Shutter Priority mode, which hasn't made it to phones yet.
Zoom (1.0)
The BlackBerry Curve 8320 has up to a 5x digital zoom. All digital zoom does is crop and resize what you are seeing, however, which degrades the quality of the photo you are taking. As such, we don't award many points for it.
Focus (0.0)
The Curve's camera is fixed focus, which means what you see is what you get. Some phones are starting to provide auto focus lenses that allow you to take better photos, but at the cost of longer shot times. We do not award points for fixed focus phones.
Flash (3.0)
We were pleased to see a flash on the Curve, something you don't often see on business devices. It's an LED flash that only works to a range of 2-3 feet, but it's better than nothing.
Metering (2.0)
There are no metering controls on the BlackBerry Curve 8320, not even the manual brightness settings you'll find on most phones.
White Balance (0.0)
The BlackBerry Curve 8320 provides several preset options for white balance, as is common on cell phones. More advanced white balance settings, like evaluative white balance, are not on board.
Image Handling (2.0)
Image handling on the Curve is very basic; you can only rename images. There are rotate and zoom options available when you are viewing an image, but these cannot be saved.
Video
Overall Video Score (0.0)
The BlackBerry Curve 8320 does not support video recording, which means it will receive a zero in most of these sections. Video recording has become standard on most phones with cameras, if even to just send MMS video. Some phones, like the N95, provide fairly decent video quality. We hope RIM addresses this in future devices; even if the results are poor, it's ncie to ahve the option to capture a short video if something interesting happens.
Video Resolution (0.0)
No video recording.
Video Compression (0.0)
No video recording.
Interface (0.0)
No video recording.
Manual Control (0.0)
No video recording.
Zoom (0.0)
No video recording.
Editing (0.0)
Although the Curve can view videos, it does not support any video editing features.
Modes (0.0)
No video recording.
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