BlackBerry Curve 8320 Review - Organizer
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Alfredo Padilla Published on October 10, 2007 Comment on this |
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Synchronization (6.33)
The BlackBerry Curve 8320 ships with the BlackBerry synchronization software that comes standard with all RIM devices. This software is easy to set up and use and does a good job synchronizing your data between your device and a PC. For those on the Mac you are also provided with desktop synchronization software in the form of PocketMac, a free download.
Support for synchronization is strong across the board, with the ability to sync your contacts, notes, tasks, and calendar appointments. You can synchronize via USB and Bluetooth. The BlackBerry Curve 8320 can sync up with Outlook or BlackBerry's Stop Manager on a PC. If you're on a Mac you can use the aforementioned PocketMac to synchronize with the Mac's PIM programs.
Alerts (7.0)
The Curve provides a plethora of options for setting your alert, as is typical on BlackBerry devices. Unfortunately, as is also typical on BlackBerry devices, the quality of the actual alert leaves something to be desired. Alerts only sound for a short period of time, and we found they were easy to miss. Once you've missed an alert it doesn't sound again, so if the alarm for your important appointment goes off while you're away from your phone and you don't bother to check it, you won't get another alert at a later time. You do get the LED light blinking at you when you've missed the alert, however, and when you bring the phone out of standby you are greeted with a dialogue. There's a lot to like in the customizability, but when we have an important alert we would like our smart phone to be more dogged about reminding us.
Over the Air PIM Sync (4.0)
Like all BlackBerries, the Curve can synchronize your calendar appointments and contacts over the air with a BlackBerry server. There is no support for synchronization of other PIM data like tasks and notes, however.
Address Book
Adding Contacts (7.09)
To see how easy it is to add a contact to the BlackBerry Curve 8320 we time how long it takes to go from the home screen unlocked until we have added each of five contact names and phone numbers. We take the average of these five trials for our score. The Curve took an average of 14.1 seconds to add our test contacts. This is a little slower than the AT&T version, but is about average compared to other handsets, as you can see below. | Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 14.10 | 7.09 |
| Nokia E90 | 17.48 | 5.72 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8300 (AT&T) | 12.54 | 7.97 |
| HTC Mogul | 14.70 | 6.80 |
| T-Mobile Dash | 13.44 | 7.44 |
| Apple iPhone | 20.86 | 4.79 |
Looking/Sorting/Search (6.5)
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You can filter contacts on the BlackBerry Curve 8320 by group or search by name (first/last), title, or company. We found the sorting and searching options on the BlackBerry platform to be one of the strongest we've seen on any smart phone, and the Curve is no exception.
Fields (6.8)
The BlackBerry Curve 8320 has 24 fields for new contacts that cover most of what you will need, including multiple phone numbers and e-mail addresses. If you find yourself limited by the available fields you will also find there are four fields you can rename so you can use them for whatever you want.
Speed Dial/Voice tags/Voice command (3.0)
The BlackBerry Curve 8320 has a couple of different speed dial options. First is the standard BlackBerry speed dial system that allows you to hold down just about any letter key on the home screen and assign a speed dial to it. The other option is part of T-Mobile's myFaves service. The home screen defaults to a rotating set of five contacts, each of which you can assign to a contact. Unfortunately the latter seems to cause some significant lag, so we recommend you disable it and just use the much more efficient BlackBerry system.
The BlackBerry Curve 8320 has a voice command system. Unfortunately, as we've seen with other voice command software, it did not work very well. We use five different test contacts with diverse names, and the Curve was only able to recognize two of them. Even these were only recognized intermittently. Given this disappointing performance we're sorry to see there's no support for voice tags.
Calendar
Adding Calendar Items (16.56)
To see how easy it is to add an appointment to the BlackBerry Curve 8320 we time how long it takes to go from the home screen unlocked until we have added a lunch appointment for the following day with a reminder 15 minutes before. We found the Curve did well in this test, taking an average of 6.04 seconds to add an appointment. It should be noted, however, that this is again slower than the AT&T version of the Curve. Once again we found the lag is caused by T-Mobile's myFaves program. Still, despite being a little slower than the AT&T Curve, the Curve 8320 from T-Mobile was still faster than most of our comparison phones, as you can see below. We were helped by the fact you can just go to the time you want in the daily view of the calendar and start typing the appointment title, with the reminder added automatically. This obviates the need to open a new appointment dialogue, as you have to do on most other smart phones. | Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 6.04 | 16.56 |
| Nokia E90 | 16.37 | 6.11 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8300 (AT&T) | 4.43 | 22.57 |
| HTC Mogul | 7.22 | 13.85 |
| T-Mobile Dash | 7.38 | 13.55 |
| Apple iPhone | 18.92 | 5.29 |
Calendar Views (4.67)
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Like all BlackBerries, the Curve 8320 has four calendar views. The default view is the daily one, with a nine-to-five block of time shown with appointments listed next to the appropriate time. This period can be changed in the settings and is expanded automatically if you have appointments that fall outside it. The weekly view is a typical grid with days along the top, times at the left, and appointments blocked out. When you highlight a given appointment its details appear at the bottom of the screen, a function that certainly improves the usefulness of this view.
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The monthly view shows the current month with a small mark on days that have appointments. Unlike the weekly view, however, there is no information about a day's appointments listed on the screen when you highlight that day, which really only makes this view useful for looking up a date. The agenda view is a list of all your upcoming appointments in chronological order. Although none of the BlackBerry Curve 8320's views are particularly pretty, they can all be useful except for the lackluster monthly view.
Fields (11.0)
As with all BlackBerry devices, the Curve has a good selection of available fields when you create a new appointment. These include location, notes, time zone, and a solid option for recurrence. We are missing functions like the ability to categorize our appointments, though.
To Do/Tasks
Adding To Do/Task (6.76)
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 14.80 | 6.76 |
| Nokia E90 | 10.07 | 9.93 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8300 (AT&T) | 11.93 | 8.38 |
| HTC Mogul | 16.02 | 6.24 |
| T-Mobile Dash | Unable to perform test | 0.00 |
| Apple iPhone | n/a - no tasks program | 0.00 |
To Do/Task Sorting and Prioritizing (7.0)
Fields (10.0)
The BlackBerry Curve 8320 provides a good selection of fields when you create a new task. The basics are there, of course, but you also get advanced options like categories, time zone, notes, and recurring tasks.
Notes
Adding Notes (4.1)
To see how quickly we can add a note to the BlackBerry Curve 8320 we time how long it takes to go from the home screen unlocked until we have added a new note. We repeat this test five times and take the average for our score. The BlackBerry Curve 8320 took an average of 12.2 seconds to add our test note. Again, this is a solid, but not great time. The AT&T version of the Curve did better in this test, and once again we have to consider T-Mobile's myFaves software, as it requires an additional key press and adds some lag to the process of adding notes. | Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 12.2 | 4.10 |
| Nokia E90 | 16.73 | 2.99 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8300 (AT&T) | 8.31 | 6.02 |
| HTC Mogul | 12.56 | 3.98 |
| T-Mobile Dash | n/a - no notes | 0.00 |
| Apple iPhone | 12.66 | 3.95 |
Note Interface (7.5)
The notes interface on the Curve is very simple. A title can be placed at the top, and below is space to enter your text. You can also search through your notes, but only by title. We've seen better search functionality, but most phones lack it entirely so we're happy to see it at all.
Note Formatting (0.0)
The BlackBerry Curve 8320 provides no options for formatting text or adding media to notes.
Voice Memo (1.0)
As with other BlackBerry devices the Curve lacks a standard voice recorder. Instead, your only option is to record a voice note to send via MMS. We once again wonder why this basic functionality, which is of great utility to business users, has been left out.
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