BlackBerry Curve 8320 Review - Software
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Alfredo Padilla Published on October 10, 2007 Comment on this |
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OS (8.0)
Home Screen Score (5.0)
The default home screen on the BlackBerry Curve 8320 is a little different than the standard BlackBerry home screen due to the presence of T-Mobile's myFaves interface. This places a rotating carousel of five contacts on the home screen, to which you can make unlimited calls. The top five shortcuts to applications are available just below it. To access other applications from this home screen, hit the menu key to bring up the more familiar set of application icons. We found the default home screen had some issues with lag, and we didn't like having to use an extra key press to access our applications. Thankfully you can turn off the myFaves interface. As with other BlackBerry devices, you can rearrange the icons on the home screen and change the background, as well. Extensibility (7.0)
As a smart phone operating system, BlackBerry OS provides a great deal of flexibility in extending the Curve's capabilities. Not only does it support standard Java applications like Opera Mini or Google Maps, but it also supports native third-party applications. Although the catalog of third-party applications available for BlackBerry is not as large as those available for Windows Mobile or Symbian Series 60, it still provides a good selection.
Customizability (6.0)
The Curve provides a decent selection of customization options. You can change font size and type globally on the device, rearrange the icons on the home screen, and change the background. You also have access to themes that change the look of the whole device.
OS Responsivness (7.0)
This is an area where the BlackBerry Curve 8320 disappointed us a bit. We have high expectations for BlackBerry devices, as we have found them to be some of the most responsive and stable smart phones out there. Unfortunately, we found the Curve on T-Mobile fell short of these expectations. The device was significantly slower than the older version of the Curve we tested on AT&T. You can see throughout this review that the Curve 8320 consistently performed worse on timed tests than its AT&T cousin.
We believe the principal culprit for this lag is the myFaves interface, installed by T-Mobile. When this was turned off we got the speed we would have expected. This isn't the first time myFaves has seriously impacted the responsiveness of a handset; we found the same effect on the T-Mobile Wing, a Windows Mobile device that had some of the worse lag we've ever seen. We understand T-Mobile's desire to provide easy access to one of its most important calling features, but it needs to do more to optimize the myFaves interface for its devices.
Browser Features (8.0)
Browsing Interface (7.0)
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The Curve's browser constrains Web pages to a single column by default, however there is a less-than-useful full page view available, as well. Navigating through the page is done with the track wheel from link to link. When a link is highlighted you can activate it by pressing in on the trackball. All other options are accessed via the menu key, which brings up a typically large menu. History support is good, with solid organization by date and site. Bookmarks were less impressive. You can create folders for your bookmarks, but once it's created you can't move it to another folder.
Browser Access (3.64)
To see how easy it is to access the Web browser, we count how many steps it takes to go from the home screen unlocked until we have browsed to our website. We count entering the URL as a single step. We use a step test instead of a timed test here because we don't want the vagaries of network issues interfering. The Curve took 11 steps to complete this process. This is not a very good score, and is affected by the fact that it takes several steps to navigate to the Web browser icon on the home screen, and then requires several more steps to navigate the menu system once you're in the browser.
| Cell Phone | Steps | Score |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 11 | 3.64 |
| Nokia E90 | 10 | 4.00 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8300 (AT&T) | 6 | 6.67 |
| HTC Mogul | 5 | 8.00 |
| T-Mobile Dash | 6 | 6.67 |
| Apple iPhone | 4 | 10.00 |
Gaming (5.0)
Calculator (9.0)
Alarm (2.0)
Document Software (4.0)
As with other BlackBerry devices, the Curve can view, but not edit Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF files. We wish RIM would move to upgrade this functionality, as document editing is now a standard feature on other business-oriented platforms like Windows Mobile and Nokia's E-Series of phones.
Other Software (3.0)
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