BlackBerry Curve review
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Mark Brezinski Published on August 10, 2007 Comment on this |
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The BlackBerry Curve, or BlackBerry 8300, represents a new target demographic for the company: the budget user. Priced at $199 post-rebate with a two-year contract, the Curve is much cheaper than most other BlackBerries; the more sophisticated 8800 is currently at $299.99 with a two-year contract. And it's even cheaper if you shop around; with the mail-in rebates some dealers and resellers are offering, we've seen it for as low as $-14. That's right: some retailers are offering the phone for free as long as you also take $14 and sign up for a 2-year contract. That's the beauty of contracts.
These bargain basement prices come with some compromises, though. The camera is only average and can't capture video, and there's no built-in GPS receiver. Also, even though the device represents an aesthetic step forward from the clunky boxlike BlackBerries of the past, the case feels plasticky and is prone to scratching.
But, these compromises aside, it's a BlackBerry device that does most of the things people would expect, and even a few they wouldn't. It includes the usual, excellent BlackBerry e-mail client that handles corporate servers and home e-mail accounts with equal ease. It also does a reasonable job of playing back video and music. It's no iPhone but it's more than capable of amusing you during your commute (it also costs just a bit less).
Tour & Design - The Curve is certainly one of the prettier BlackBerry phones to date, which is really not that strong of an endorsement. It feels like plastic, though, and has some durability issues.
Audio Quality - The Curve has fairly good audio, though it takes better care of an incoming caller's voice than your own.
Imaging - Imaging on the Curve was sub par. The camera isn't very good and can't capture video.
Making/Receiving Calls - The tiny, cramped QWERTY keys will be a huge turnoff for some, but most won't mind it. They made calling quick if you're accurate. The Curve's remarkably fast boot up time means you'll be able to make sudden calls swiftly.
Messaging - E-mail is the BlackBerry's mealticket; its capabilities are great, and there's little we were left asking for. Its MMS/SMS capabilities aren't as flexible, but are still more than functional.
Organizer - This is another point where the Curve excels. The only things we would've liked to see here was better alert functionality.
Multimedia - The Curve isn't a multimedia device. It offers basic usability, but this area has never been one of BlackBerry's strong suits.
Software - The Curve's software is better than average. We really like the OS, and you most likely won't have any problems with the browser. There is also a great map application included.
Battery Life - The Curve has really good battery life, as is standard for BlackBerry devices.
Connectivity - The Curve supports quad-band GSM. It also has a very simple Bluetooth interface.
Hardware - We are a huge fan of the trackball. The Curve also has the standard BlackBerry display capabilities. We're also very happy to see a mini USB port for data transfer and charging. We would have liked better keypad backlighting, though.
Other Features - The Curve sadly doesn't come with GPS, but your savings need to come from somewhere. It can be used as a tethered modem, and supports AT&T's Push to Talk networks.
Value & Comparisons - The Curve is a great value, which is what it was intended to be. It offers most of the functionality of the 8800 for less of the price.
[page title="Tour & Design"]
Front
The front of the BlackBerry curve is dominated by two things: the large screen and the keyboard. From the top down we see the status LED, the 2.2-inch, 320 x 240 pixel screen, the controls, and the keyboard. There's no microphone on the front, though; it's located on the bottom of the phone.
Left
There are a handful of features on the left of the Curve; from the left, we see the camera key and the volume keys; the bottom button lowers the volume and the top takes it up.
Top
There is just one feature on the top of the Curve; the mute button, which puts the phone into Standby mode. This also acts as a pause button when playing music; useful if you're listening to music with the phone in your pocket and need to quickly stop it to hear an announcement or the like.
Bottom
The only major feature on the bottom of the Curve is the small hole for the microphone.
Right
On the right we see (starting from the left side of the photo) the headphone/headset socket (a standard 3.5mm socket), the USB sync/charging port, and the Push-to-talk button. The latter is a little poorly placed; we found ourselves accidentally pressing it more than once when using the Curve.
Back
On the back of the curve, we see the small LED flash, the recessed camera lens, and the self-portrait mirror. On the bottom of the phone is the catch that holds the backplate in place.
Battery Out
Underneath the backplate is where all the fun is on the back of the Curve; at the top you can see the LED flash, the camera lens, and the back of the speaker. Below this you can see what lies underneath the battery (an 1100mAh lithium-ion model); the MicroSD card slot and the SIM card slot. Both of these are a little awkward; they require you to remove the battery for access, and the retaining clips are hard to lock into place; several times during testing we removed the battery only to have either the SIM or MicroSD card fall out because they were not properly locked into place.
In the Box(4.5)
The Curve comes with a good selection of accessories. Along with the phone itself, you get a stereo headset, USB travel charger, CD-ROM with BlackBerry User Tools, USB cable manual, and Quick Start guide. Missing, however, is the carrying case that comes with other BlackBerries; you'll have to buy one separately if you want to keep your Curve all shiny and clean.
Handling (8.0)
The Curve fits comfortably in the hand when making a call: your hand curves around the body, while the index finger can easily reach the volume keys to adjust the volume without taking it away from the ear. But it's a little too wide to type comfortably with one hand; the wide keyboard means your thumb can't easily reach across the keyboard. But BlackBerries with QWERTY keyboards are designed to be used with both hands, and the Curve feels comfortable when used this way.
Portability (8.0)
Weighing in at just 3.9 ounces, the Curve is lighter then most smart phones and other BlackBerries. And at 4.2 x 2.4 x 0.6 inches, it's also significantly smaller than the 8800; it would easily fit into a shirt pocket. It's the same thickness and height as the Pearl, but it is significantly wider; the price you pay for the QWERTY keyboard.
Aesthetics (6.5)
Aesthetics is something RIM has obviously been working on; the Curve has a clean, curvy design that again makes it look like a slightly-stretched Perl. It is a step up over the previous BlackBerry phones, but its form factor remains somewhat brick-like. If you're looking for a smart phone with a great look to it, try the Helio Ocean instead.
Durability (6.5)
The exterior of the Curve is obviously made of plastic, and feels like it could get scratched and marked pretty quickly. But there aren't any hinges or other weak points which could get easily broken, and the backplate locks into place tightly. So, the Curve should stand up to dust and dirt, but we would recommend a case if you want to avoid scratches and dings.
[page title="Audio Quality"]
The Curve, like all BlackBerries, appeals to those who want to both make calls and send & receive e-mails on the road. We measure the audio quality of phones like the Curve using SoundCheck, a professional audio analysis package from Listen, Inc., with a Brüel & Kjær Head and Torso Simulator (H.A.T.S), which behaves just like a human head and ear, to measure what the phone would sound like in use. This set-up is used by industry professionals to test audio products. For more details on how we test, see here.
Sound Receive Frequency Response (7.62)
In this test we measure the frequency response of the phone being used as a handset (where you hold it to you ear) for the sound it receives. The Curve did well in this test; the frequency response of the Curve (shown by the blue line on the graph) fell right between the limits that the standard we test against sets, which are shown by the red lines. This is a rarity; we usually see some overlap of the curve we measure against the limits. But the Curve had none, and the frequency response curve was smooth, without any overly large peaks and troughs that can affect the quality and intelligibility of the received speech.
| Cell Phone | BlackBerry Curve | BlackBerry 8800(on AT&T) | HTC Mogul(on Sprint) |
| Score | 7.62 | 6.99 | 7.33 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view) |  |
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| Cell Phone | Motorola Q(on Verizon) | Palm Treo 700p(on Sprint) | Helio Ocean(on Helio) |
| Score | 7.88 | 7.68 | 7.88 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view) |  |
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Sound Send Frequency Response (5.18)
The frequency response of the sound the Curve sends (such as you speaking into the phone) was another story; in this test, we found the frequency response of the Curve was significantly outside the limits for much of the frequency range. The standard we use for testing requires the phone to have a lower response at the lower end of the frequency curve (the section between the red lines on the left side of the graph), but the Curve didn't; the response was exaggerated towards the lower end of the spectrum, which could make your voice sound overly bassy and boomy.
| Cell Phone | BlackBerry Curve (on AT&T) |
BlackBerry 8800( on AT&T) | HTC Mogul (on Sprint) |
| Score | 5.18 | 5.70 | 7.68 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view) |  |
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| Cell Phone | Motorola Q (on Verizon) | Palm Treo 700p (on Sprint) | Helio Ocean (on Helio) |
| Score | 8.24 | 7.68 | 6.45 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view) |  |
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Handset Side Tone (8.61)
Side tone is the measure of how much of your own voice the cell phone plays back to you so you can hear yourself speak and don't shout. We measured the side tone of the BlackBerry curve at 19.39 decibels, a touch over the 18 decibels the standard calls for. But that's only over by a little more than 1 decibel; a small amount you would not notice. You shouldn't find yourself shouting or whispering when using the Curve, unless you want to.
| Cell Phone | Sidetone Measurement | Score |
| BlackBerry Curve | 19.39 | 8.61 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 16.72 | 8.72 |
| HTC Mogul | 17.12 | 9.12 |
| Motorola Q | 17.49 | 9.25 |
| Palm Treo 700p | 21.40 | 5.30 |
| Helio Ocean | 22.00 | 5.50 |
[page title="Imaging"]
Resolution (2.97)
We measure the resolution of cell phone cameras by taking a picture of an industry standard resolution chart in precisely controlled lighting conditions. We then run this image through the professional image analysis program Imatest, which examines the image and calculates the resolution the camera can capture in a measure called line width per picture height (lw/ph); an indication of how many alternating black and white horizontal and vertical lines the camera can capture before the lines blur together.
The 2-megapixel camera on the Curve had a pretty average score in this test; the lw/ph measure was 816 horizontal and 398 vertical. That's in line with what we have seen from other cameras that shoot at similar resolutions; the Helio Ocean managed 701 horizontal and 476.6 vertical. So, in resolution terms, the camera on the Curve is decent, but not outstanding.
| Cell Phone | BlackBerry Curve | BlackBerry 8800 | HTC Mogul |
| Score | 2.97 | N/A: no camera | 3.57 |
| lw/ph horizontal/vertical | 701/476.6 | N/A: no camera | 533.3/422 |
| Image of Resolution Chart (click to view) | |
N/A: no camera |
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| Cell Phone | Motorola Q | Palm Treo 700p | Helio Ocean |
| Score | 1.35 | 2.87 | 2.18 |
| lw/ph horizontal/vertical | 569/515 | 830.2/789.3 | 701/476.6 |
| Image of Resolution Chart (click to view) |  |
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Color (4.96)
In this test, we look at the accuracy of the colors captured by the Curve. We test this by photographing an industry standard color chart under controlled lighting conditions, and running the resulting images through Imatest, which measures the captured colors against the real thing, producing this chart.
On this chart, the real chart colors are in the small vertical rectangle, the adjusted colors (where Imatest does its best to color correct the captured colors) are in the middle rectangle, and the captured colors fill the outer square.
Imatest also produces this chart, which represents where the colors fall on a color gamut chart. The circles represent the colors captured by the Curve, while the squares represent the actual colors. The longer the line between the two, the more inaccurate the colors.
The Curve did a reasonable job with colors; most of the colors were not overly inaccurate. Some colors were way off, though; yellows and some of the reds were way off the mark. Still, the Curve did a reasonable job with color; although the color is not as accurate as you would get from even a cheap digital camera, it's good enough for casual snapshots.
| Cell Phone | BlackBerry Curve | BlackBerry 8800 | HTC Mogul |
| Score | 4.96 | N/A: no camera | 1.82 |
| Color Checker Chart (click to view) |  |
N/A: no camera |
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| Cell Phone | Motorola Q | Palm Treo 700p | Helio Ocean |
| Score | 3.13 | 7.59 | 6.66 |
| Color Checker Chart (click to view) |  |
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Noise (1.18)
The Curve also did reasonably well in our noise tests. We measure the noise in images by taking photos at a number of different light levels, then using Imatest to determine the amount of noise in each image. The Curve was pretty good; although the images captured at the lower light levels had definite noise in them, the level of noise was comparable with other similar resolution camera phones, such as the Helio Ocean and the LG Prada. The only cell phone we have tested with significantly less noise is the Nokia N95, which includes a 5 megapixel camera. But the N95 is also much more expensive, with a retail price of more than $700. If you take images in low light situations, the photos captured by the Curve will show noise, but not significantly more or less than other phones.
| Cell Phone | Score |
| BlackBerry Curve | 1.18 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | N/A: no camera |
| HTC Mogul | 1.82 |
| Motorola Q | 4.27 |
| Palm Treo 700p | 1.05 |
| Helio Ocean | 1.14 |
Live Preview (5.0)
By default, the Curve uses about two thirds of the screen to show the live preview of the image to be captured; along the bottom of the screen are icons that show the number of images that can be stored, a warning if there isn't enough light, the current zoom setting, and the flash status. The left and right of the screen are taken up by black bars.
There is a trio of buttons serving as shutter keys: Enter, the right convenience key (default), and the trackball. Digital zoom is governed by scrolling the trackball or the volume rocker. The SYM key toggles the view to fullscreen and SPACE cycles through flash options.
The preview itself is fairly good. It's not as sharp as the final picture, but it's not pixellated either. It is fairly responsive to motion, but tends to be jerky or sluggish when you move the camera in low light.
Unlocked Standby to First Shot (4.26)
We measured the time it takes to go from the home screen to taking a photo at 4.7 seconds; rather on the slow side. Our test was carried out by scrolling though the home screen menu to the camera application. Although you can also get to this application by pressing and holding the camera button on the side of the device, this wasn't any quicker; you have to hold it down for a second or two, and the application takes a couple of seconds to start up before you can take the shot. Either way, the Curve is not a device that will allow you to immediately capture candid shots.
| Cell Phone | 4.7 | 4.26 |
| BlackBerry Curve | 4.7 | 4.26 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | N/A: no camera | 0 |
| HTC Mogul | 3.3 | 6.06 |
| Motorola Q | 4.1 | 4.88 |
| Palm Treo 700p | 3.96 | 5.05 |
| Helio Ocean | 4.1 | 4.88 |
Shot to Shot Time (0.90)
The curve has no Burst mode; if you want to take a series of pictures, you have to take one, then quit out of the viewer application, then take another, etc. This makes the shot to shot time very slow; it took us nine seconds to take a series of three images, a frame rate of 0.3 frames per second (fps). That's a lot slower than most cell phones, many of which offer a Burst mode (albeit sometimes at the cost of reduced resolution).
| Cell Phone | 0.30 | 0.90 |
| BlackBerry Curve | 0.30 | 0.90 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | N/A: no camera | 0 |
| HTC Mogul | 1.90 | 5.70 |
| Motorola Q | 0.30 | 0.90 |
| Palm Treo 700p | 0.20 | 0.60 |
| Helio Ocean | 1.25 | 3.75 |
Shutter to Shot Time (5.88)
For this test, we take a picture of a stopwatch, which we start at the same time we press the shutter key. The time showed in the resulting capture shows the delay before the camera actually takes the picture. We take five shots, and average the times together. The Curve took an average of .34 seconds to take a picture after the shutter key had been pushed.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| BlackBerry Curve | 0.34 | 5.88 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | N/A: no camera | 0 |
| HTC Mogul | 0.21 | 9.52 |
| Motorola Q | 0.50 | 4.00 |
| Palm Treo 700p | 6.67 | 0.30 |
| Helio Ocean | 0.60 | 3.33 |
Interface (5.0)
The interface for capturing stills is pretty straightforward. The pertinent information is displayed along the bottom, and is well-sized and easy to read. There's three different buttons to work the shutter, and a few menu commands have shortcut buttons (flash has shift, and Full Screen mode has SYM).
Pressing the menu key allows users to enable Full Screen Viewfinder mode, go to the photo album, or fiddle with camera options. The Camera Options menu allows you to toggle the flash setting, picture size, picture quality, and color effect. There is a white balance option, in which you can choose from one of six preset modes or automatic white balance. You can also change the live preview to full screen. The last two options deal with storage, allowing you to save pictures to the device or an external memory source, or change the folder the pictures are saved to.
Once you've actually taken a picture, a set of five buttons pop up on the left hand side, while the bottom bar displays the picture's file name. These buttons allow you to take another picture, delete the picture you just took, send the picture via e-mail or MMS, set it as wallpaper or a picture ID, or rename the picture.
This is where users will find the one confusing aspect of the interface. The "Set as" button offers fairly standard functionality, but you wouldn't guess it by looking at the symbol on its button. Anyone even remotely familiar with picture editing would think it is a cropping tool. We saw those familiar, overlapping right angles, and were excited to see picture editing tools so readily available. In fact, we thought we misclicked the first few times the "Set as" menu popped up. Even more confusing is exactly why the folks at BlackBerry chose to represent this menu in such a way; it's not as though the crop symbol is an uncommon one.
Photo Album Software Internal (5.0)
The Curve offers some good functionality in its photo album. The main album window displays thumbnails which you can highlight and open using the control ball. In the menu, you can choose the number of thumbnails displayd per row (2-5). You can also alter how you sort items, either by name or date taken. The Curve sports a rudimentary slideshow viewer, which cycles through a folder's pictures. The delay between slides can be set to a seconds interval from 1-15. Other menu options allow you to manage your photos, such as copying, moving, deleting, sending them in an e-mail/MMS/Bluetooth, or set a picture as a caller ID.
Viewing a photo utilizes the full screen. From here, you can zoom in on parts of the picture and rotate it. Rotation is limited to clockwise, 90-degree increments. Any zooming or rotation is merely for viewing purposes, though you can set a zoomed/rotated picture to your wallpaper. Setting a photo to wallpaper is another challenge entirely, however, as the home screen's wallpaper allotment is just a sliver of the actual home screen. Furthermore, what you see in the picture viewer is exactly how your picture is oriented on the homescreen, meaning you'll need to orient the picture's focal point toward the bottom half; otherwise your wallpaper will just show the bottom half of what you want it to.
We were pleased to see that, while viewing a zoomed/rotated picture, it reappears upon reentering the album, even if the album is exited unexpectedly.
Manual Control (2.0)
As mentioned above, the Curve allows you to manually control some settings. There is no control over shutter speed or apeture, but you can turn the flash on, off, or set it to automatic. White balance has six preset modes as well as an automatic setting. You set the picture size to one of three presets; 1600 x 1200, 1024 x 768, or 640 x 480. Picture quality can be set to normal, fine, or superfine. There are also two color effects: black & white and sepia.
Zoom (1.0)
The Curve has a digital zoom capable of 3x and 5x. We only give one point for digital zoom since zooming is essentially just cropping a portion of the photo and stretching the resulting image. Therefore, a digital zoom results in a lower-resolution image than what you started with. We award additional points for optical zoom, which actually zooms as opposed to cropping and enlarging, but this functionality is very rare.
Focus (0.0)
The Curve has a fixed focus lens, which we do not award points for. Auto focus lenses are still uncommon additions to phones, though they are becoming increasingly popular. Such a lens is certainly not a priority for a business device, however.
Flash (6.0)
Unlike most phones, the Curve actually has a flash. For most phones, activating the flash turns on the flash LED, which simply stays on. The Curve's flash functions correctly, and actually flashes as opposed to blinding your subject while you line up a shot. Like most LED flashes, though, it's only good within a few feet. Four feet and further away will result in a dark picture. While you will still be able to make out images at four feet, the LED flash is nothing compared to an actual digital camera's flash. As it stands, however, the Curve's flash functionality is much better than a lot of other phones.
Metering (0.0)
The BlackBerry doesn't support metering.
White Balance (4.0)
As mentioned previously, the Curve supports some manual white balance options. You can choose from a few presets, including Sunny, Cloudy, Night, Indoor, Incandescent, and Fluorescent. You can also opt for Automatic white balancing. There isn't a white balance slider, however. This is an odd feature to leave out, as it's even included on most normal phones.
Image Handling (2.0)
The only image handling options on the Curve are the abilities to rename and resave images. You can zoom and rotate images while viewing them, but these changes cannot be saved. You can, however, set zoomed/rotated images as your wallpaper (though this has its own special set of difficulties).
Video
Overall Video Score (0.0)
Unfortunately, the Curve is not capable of capturing videos.
Video Resolution (0.0)
The Curve is unable to capture video.
| Cell Phone | lw/ph horizontal/vertical | Score |
| BlackBerry Curve | N/A: unable to capture video | 0 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | N/A: no camera | 0 |
| HTC Mogul | 220.9/137.8 | 3.04 |
| Motorola Q | 65.71/144.6 | 0.98 |
| Palm Treo 700p | 181.5/190.9 | 3.46 |
| Helio Ocean | 283/160.1 | 4.53 |
Video Compression (0.0)
The Curve is unable to capture video.
Interface (0.0)
The Curve is unable to capture video.
Manual Control (0.0)
The Curve is unable to capture video.
Zoom (0.0)
The Curve is unable to capture video.
Editing (0.0)
The Curve is unable to capture video.
Modes (0.0)
The Curve is unable to capture video.
[page title="Making/Receiving Calls"]
Dialing Speed (7.19)
This test measures how long you can expect dialing a phone number to take. We do trials with five different numbers and take the average of the five times. We normally start with the phone in the closed, unlocked position, but the Curve doesn't have a closed position. This helped its score. It took an average of 2.78 seconds to dial a number, which is a pretty fast speed. Compare it to some of its competitors listed in the table below, but keep each phone's method of input in mind; the Helio's keypad has to slide out before it can dial and the Mogul uses touch screen entry.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| BlackBerry Curve | 2.78 | 7.19 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 4.35 | 4.60 |
| HTC Mogul | 6.16 | 3.25 |
| Motorola Q | 5.80 | 3.45 |
| Palm Treo 700p | 5.88 | 3.40 |
| Helio Ocean | 3.10 | 6.45 |
Talk and End Buttons (3.0)
The Talk and End buttons on the Curve are located on either end of the trackball button array (talk, menu, ball, return, and end, from left to right). The buttons have adequate play, but we would have liked a more pronounced sensation. Finding these buttons by navigating from the trackball is easy enough, as the menu and return keys have raised outer edges. Finding them from elsewhere is surprisingly difficult, however. They are raised, which helps, but they feel identical to the plastic face of the phone. What also contributes to this tactile confusion is their shape: the buttons slope downward toward their outer edges. Running your finger from the cover to the gentle hills that are the Talk and End buttons doesn't provide enough recognition.
Call Management (5.0)
Call history can be found under the phone icon on the home screen. Your recent calls are listed underneath the number input field. Clicking on the number will yield the options to call it, or send SMS/MMS messages. There is also a full menu, which gives a wide range of pertinent and not-so-pertinent options. Some of the more useful options allow you to view your contact history with that particular number in detail, assign the number to a speed dial, or add it to the address book.
You can dial a number by clicking on the phone icon, or by just typing in a number. The Curve won't allow you to type in letters while typing in a new phone number.
During a call, you can click the trackball to bring up a truncated menu; it offers hold, mute, speakerphone, and an option to open the full menu. Selecting full menu (or just pressing the menu button instead of the trackball) displays a more filled-out list of options. You can view your address book, messages, or calendar during a call. You can also take notes, which is good because there unfortunately isn't an option to record the call. You can also make a new call (the shortcut for this is the space key). Interestingly enough, you have to select new call in order to call a new number; you can't just punch in the number and hit Send/Enter.
Going to notes while in a call shows a picture of a cell phone in the top left, a call timer, your status (connected/hold), and the contact's info. The picture of the cell phone as a reminder is a bit redundant, especially when it shows other info along the top. We wish some sort of reminder was present while viewing the address book, calendar, or messages when on a call. A user could potentially get caught up in viewing, entering, or managing information and forget about their call.
Call waiting shows both calls' information, as well as displays which is on hold versus which is active. Going from call waiting to conferencing is as easy as clicking the trackball and selecting "Join".
Overall, managing calls has a very simple interface, and even the more advanced options, like conferencing, were relatively easy to do.
Startup to Call (14.77)
This score is dependant on how quickly the phone can power on and make a call. We begin with the phone powered off and unlocked, then time how long it takes to enter in one of our sample numbers and hit the send key. We do five trials, each with a different test number, to more accurately portray the kind of performance a user could expect. The Curve averaged 6.77 seconds from startup to call, which is an excellent time, even more so for a smart phone. Some Windows Mobile devices can take more than a minute to boot up.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| BlackBerry Curve | 6.77 | 14.70 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 6.50 | 15.38 |
| HTC Mogul | 55.00 | 1.82 |
| Motorola Q | 71.00 | 1.41 |
| Palm Treo 700p | 31.60 | 3.16 |
| Helio Ocean | 9.50 | 10.53 |
Ring Volume (8.57)
To determine ring volume, we measure the decibels of all the ring tones packaged in the phone and use the highest result. The Curve has quite a few sounds available as ringtones, so this test took some time. When all was said and done, the Curve is capable of 85.7 decibels. This is fairly loud on its own, but some of the alarm clock-like rings available are so shrill they'll make people blocks away cringe. We personally wouldn't use those ringtones, but the brave souls that do will most likely know when the phone's ringing. Just don't get a call anywhere near our office.
| Cell Phone | Volume (decibels) | Score |
| BlackBerry Curve | 85.7 | 8.57 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 84 | 8.4 |
| HTC Mogul | 85.7 | 8.57 |
| Motorola Q | 66 | 6.6 |
| Palm Treo 700p | 78 | 7.8 |
| Helio Ocean | 85.4 | 8.54 |
Ringtone Customizability (6.0)
The Curve has a really fluid ringtone customizing system. It pools all its sounds (ringtones, alarms, notifications, etc.) for use, and allows you to import your own sounds. It played back our AAC, WMA, and MP3 files. You can't record your own ringtones, mainly because there isn't a voice record application on the device. You could record them on your computer and import them, but this roundabout method doesn't garner any points. You also can't edit your ringtones.
The Curve lets you download 15 second ringtone versions of songs via the AT&T store. The store itself is a bit convoluted; the Main menu contains arbitrary categories such as What's Hot and Songs Everyone Knows. You're better off using the search. Once you actually find the song you want, however, buying is just a few clicks away. The ringtones cost $2.49, though, which is shockingly blatant highway robbery.
Non Audio Alerts (6.0)
The non audio alerts on the Curve are disappointing. The vibration is rather weak and easy to miss. We found we could feel it in our pocket if we were sitting down, but standing up we were totally unaware of the incoming call. If it's in your pocket and you're walking, you'll most likely be out of luck. Also, there's virtually no chance of catching calls if you have the phone in a purse or bag. Compounding the poor vibration is how alerts are displayed. While the screen does light up, there isn't any sort of animation; it just displays the caller info along with the choices of answer or ignore. You can set the number of vibrations (1-3), but again, the number of vibrations won't overcome their lack of strength.
Once you've missed a call, the LED will blink red and remind you every once in a while that you have missed calls. If you don't remember what this alert is referring to, you can just check the top of the home screen, where a small icon meaning "missed call" will be displayed. Your missed calls can be viewed by clicking on the Phone icon.
[page title="Messaging"]
Supported E-mail Services (6.5)
The Curve has the same e-mail software BlackBerry phones usually have, which works with POP3 and IMAP servers. It still doesn't come with built-in support for popular e-mail services, like Gmail, Yahoo!, or Hotmail, but you can set up your Curve to be able to send/receive e-mail from these accounts if you know the correct settings. We don't award points for this, however; we are looking for devices that make it easy to get your email, not ones that force you to dig up obscure setttings to do so.
Push E-mail (4.0)
Push e-mail is available to Curve users in one of two flavors, the BlackBerry Internet Server or the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. This system is standard BlackBerry fare. As anyone would guess from the names, individual users should use the former and companies will use the latter. You can also use Microsoft Outlook via the BlackBerry's desktop redirector. When run on your PC, it will forward e-mail to your Curve automatically.
Multiple E-mail Accounts (10.0)
The BlackBerry can support up to 10 different e-mail accounts. There are three ways to add them: on the device, with the desktop software, or online. Each method is extremely user-friendly.
HTML and Attachments (0.0)
Like its predecessors, the Curve can't handle HTML. If you receive an e-mail with HTML, it will just spew out the code text.
You can open attachments on the Curve by clicking on them, on the "[# Attachments]" text at the top ("#" being the number of attachments), or through the menu button. We were able to view Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, Zip files, and PDF files, but we couldn't edit them.
E-mail Customizations (2.0)
Just about the only way you can customize e-mail for the Curve is by adding signatures for outgoing e-mail. You can't change the font within the e-mail, but you can change the global font and text size in the phone's settings.
Time to a New Message (21.05)
To test how easy it is to create a new e-mail message, we time how long it takes to open up a blank e-mail form from the home screen. We do five trials, which are then averaged. The Curve took an average of 0.95 seconds to open the e-mail entry form. This is incredibly fast, as evidenced by the extremely high score it received. Opening a new e-mail from the home screen is as easy as three clicks: once on the trackball to open up the message icon, the menu button, and again on the trackball, since the menu automatically highlights "Compose E-mail" when opened.
Please note that this time can be affected by wherever you last left your cursor, since it doesn't reset its position to a default when you return to the home screen. For our tests, we reset the cursor to the top left position in each menu for each trial. In this particular case, it's exactly where the cursor needs to be, which helped our time.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| BlackBerry Curve | 0.95 | 21.05 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 1.76 | 11.36 |
| HTC Mogul | 6.22 | 3.22 |
| Motorola Q | 5.10 | 3.92 |
| Palm Treo 700p | 2.66 | 7.52 |
| Helio Ocean | 2.10 | 9.5 |
E-mail Usability (10.0)
The Curve's e-mail software is typical BlackBerry fare. Each account is given its own icon on the home screen. The Curve uses the tiny trackball introduced in the Pearl, which is used to scroll around messages. Clicking the ball will bring up a basic menu (forward, reply to all, delete, full menu), while the menu button, surprisingly enough, brings up a more detailed one. One of the more useful features is the space button, which pages down the e-mail. This is incredibly useful, as even on the highest setting the trackball can't scroll very fast.
One thing we would really have liked to see is a "select all" feature, for easy inbox emptying. People who prefer tidy inboxes won't have to spend a lot of time see-sawing between "Delete" and the enter key, however, as holding shift and scrolling will highlight.
Supported IM Services (1.0)
Fresh from the box, the Curve only supports Blackberry's proprietary BlackBerry Messenger system . You can only use this IM service to send messages to other BlackBerry users, but then again, it's free. The Curve also supports a few other, slightly obscure IM clients, such as Yahoo! Messenger (for BlackBerry), Google Talk (for BlackBerry), IBM Lotus Sametime, Microsoft Office Communicator, and Novell GroupWise Messenger. None of these come built in, however, so they don't get any points; you ahve to download and isntall the clients yourself.
MMS Support (6.0)
MMS functionality is a bit better in this BlackBerry than in the others, offering a few more options for sending MMS messages. You can attach a picture from the photo album, or straight from the camera. You can create an MMS in your inbox too. Just about the only relevant place you can't send an MMS is from inside an SMS. This is a bit disappointing since many phones (though not older BlackBerry models) allow you to turn an SMS into an MMS. The Curve also automatically resizes images to MMS size, which, depending on the user, can be a good or bad thing.
SMS Smiley Face Interpretation (0.0)
This score is based on the range of smiley faces the test phone can interpret. Unfortunately, the Curve can't replace a ":)" or ":(" with its graphical equivalent.
SMS/MMS Ease of Use (7.0)
Sending MMS and SMS messages are simple with the Curve. They have their own inbox on the home screen, and you scroll through it much like the Curve's e-mail inbox. The menu inside the inbox will allow you to create a new SMS or MMS message. You can either type in a number to send the message to, or select from your contacts. Though the Curveisn't as flexible at SMS and MMS messaging as some phones (like the Treo or Ocean, which allow you to change from SMS to MMS messages easily), it does offer solid functionality that's easy to use.
Time to a New SMS Message (5.08)
To test how easy it is to enter a new SMS message, we time how long it takes to bring up a new SMS entry form from the home screen. We do five trials, which we then average. The Curve's average lap time was 1.97 seconds, which is impressive. Like e-mail, entering a new SMS message is just a few simple clicks; the only difference is that you need to scroll down a bit in the menu to get the new SMS form to open.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| BlackBerry Curve | 1.97 | 5.08 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 3.82 | 2.62 |
| HTC Mogul | 5.46 | 1.83 |
| Motorola Q | 5.10 | 1.96 |
| Palm Treo 700p | 1.40 | 7.14 |
| Helio Ocean | 3.10 | 3.23 |
[page title="Organizer"]
Synchronization (6.33)
The BlackBerry Desktop Software that comes with the Curve is the software all BlackBerry phones come packaged with. Though not as aesthetically pleasing as, say, Windows Mobile Device Manager, the Curve's Desktop Manager does what it's supposed to and sports a simple interface.
As is typical of BlackBerry phones, you can sync up pretty much everything you'd want. Contacts (with photos), tasks, calendar appointments, and notes can all be synchronized. You can do this via the in-box USB cable, one of your own standard mini-USB cables, or over Bluetooth.
The Curve can sync up to Outlook or BlackBerry's own Stop Manager. If you have a Mac, you can download a tfree hird-party program called PocketMac that does much the same thing. You can find it here.
Alerts (7.0)
The Curve's alert system is simultaneously thorough and ineffective. The Curve does allow you to customize a fair amount. You can set an event to start or end at any time, and there is even an "All Day Event" button. You can set duration, time zone, a reminder, and recurrence. There are fields for subject, location, and even a spot for notes. You can also set how you want the chunk of time to be reflected on your calendar (busy, free, tentative, out of office). Another neat feature is that the Curve will remind you about conflicting appointments in the appointment entry dialogue, going so far as to let you know if there's even an adjacent appointment, lest you forget to schedule in travel time.
There are a few additional options too, located under each volume profile. Some users will like this additional level of customizability, but most users will simply be annoyed they have to keep track of two separate groups of settings. In a profile, you can change what ring your alerts will use, or set them to vibrate. We would have liked to see this option available in the Calendar menu, to perhaps allow for audible differentiation between business and personal appointments.
You can also set how many times the phone will ring/vibrate, up to a paltry maximum of three times. After those few chirps or shakes, the Curve will just give up. There is a "Repeat Notification" setting, but all it will do is make the LED flash red after you've missed your alert. Don't expect the screen to turn on and show some boisterous, eye-catching animation either; if it's off, it's off.
Although it does very little to alert you at the time specified, it would be hard to miss your appointment if you are routinely using the Curve. After you fail to notice the Curve's alert, an open/dismiss/snooze dialogue box will be the first thing you see when you turn your phone back on. This dialogue will also show the appointment's name, location, start time, and end time. The snooze option will cause the alarm to go off again in five minutes, an increment which cannot be changed.
While the Curve offers a lot of customization for its alerts, it does have a problem with actually alerting its user. Most normal phones have much better alert functionality, either continuing to ring/vibrate and flash until you choose to snooze/ignore the alarm, or at least alerts more than three times.
For a phone focused on business users, the Curve really doesn't try hard to keep its users up to date.
Over the Air PIM Sync (4.0)
The Curve can synch contacts and calendar entries out of the box using the Blackberry Server or Exchange server. The appropriate download will allow it to sync with other services like Yahoo! or Google.
Address Book
Adding Contacts (7.97)
For testing how easy it is to add a new contact, we time how long it takes to input one of our test contacts into the address book, which consists of a phone number and a name. We do five different trials, each with different sets of information, to better estimate what a user could realistically expect. The times are then averaged.
The Curve took an average of 12.54 seconds to input a contact. You can enter in a contact through the address book's menu, but it's quicker to just type in the phone number and select "Add to Address Book" from the Phone menu. This is a very, very fast time, made possible by the QWERTY keyboard and simple menu interface.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| BlackBerry Curve | 12.54 | 8.67 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 16.30 | 6.13 |
| HTC Mogul | 14.70 | 6.80 |
| Motorola Q | 17.00 | 5.88 |
| Palm Treo 700p | 17.77 | 5.65 |
| Helio Ocean | 21.24 | 4.71 |
Sorting/Search (6.5)
You can search through contacts based on title (Ms., Dr., etc.), first name, last name, or company. You can search for fragments of each, but only if those fragments are the first few characters in sequence. For example, you can search for Sarah Vernor, director of admissions of the University of Somewhere by typing in, "Sara Ver Direct Some". There is also a filter in the Main menu which allows you to only display certain groups.
Fields (3.8)
The Curve has a great many fields: 19 in total. In addition to every sort of number, you can enter in home and work addresses, a picture, a custom ringtone, up to four different IM names, a website url, and even jot down some notes about him or her. Other phones have more fields, such as birthday, but there are more than enough fields here for most users.
Speed Dial/Voice tags/Voice command (5.67)
The Curve has a very simple speed dial system. All you have to do is hold down a key on the QWERTY keyboard for a few seconds on the home screen, and a dialogue box pops up allowing you to assign a contact to the key. The Curve's voice command application was quite good, able to recognize even the most difficult of our test names. There isn't a voice tag option, but this absence is covered by the voice command's accuracy.
Calendar
Adding Calendar Items (22.57)
For this test, we time how long it takes to create a simple calendar entry, starting from the home screen. The Curve managed to jot down an appointment in a blistering 4.43 seconds. This is an incredibly quick time, as evidenced by its score. Adding an appointment is easy with the QWERTY keys and the trackball. Our test item is just entering in "Lunch" for tomorrow at noon, with a reminder 15 minutes prior. On the Curve, it's as easy as clicking on the calendar, rolling up/down (depending on the current time) to noon, rolling right to get to tomorrow, and QWERTY-ing in the description. The Curve adds a 15 minute reminder automatically, so hitting return completes the entry; it's not even necessary to formally open up the new appointment entry dialogue, though doing so is just about as fast. We found that scrolling through days and times with the trackball was a lot faster than repetitive clicks on a d-pad, and offered better control than a jog dial or scroll wheel.
Time to enter in a calendar item can be affected by the current time. When you open the calendar, the current time is highlighted, which means if you want to schedule an appointment the next day at that time, you don't have to navigate up/down to select the time you want. Conversely, if it's at night and you need to schedule an appointment for early the next day, you'll have to scroll a bit further. Also, as with all timing tests, the time could be slowed depending on how far away your cursor is from the icon you want, since exiting an application will just leave that icon highlighted; there isn't a default position the cursor will return to.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| BlackBerry Curve | 4.43 | 22.57 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 6.92 | 14.45 |
| HTC Mogul | 7.22 | 13.85 |
| Motorola Q | 19.10 | 5.24 |
| Palm Treo 700p | 12.18 | 8.21 |
| Helio Ocean | 24.20 | 4.13 |
Calendar Views (4.67)
There are four views in the Curve's calendar application: month, week, day, and agenda.
The default view is day, and shows an hour by hour breakdown of all scheduled events. The default setting displays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the hour, but will change if an appointment has an off-hour start or end time. The hours displayed can also be changed in settings. The times are listed on the left side, appointment descriptions are listed on the right, and the duration of an appointment is represented by a red bracket around its start and end time. You can also see appointments scheduled through the week by scrolling to the left and right.
The week view shows a grid with the days of the week along the top, and time along the left side. Appointments are represented by vertical boxes. Scrolling over a box will show the appointment's title, location, and time frame; clicking it will switch to the day view.
The month view is close to useless, as all it does is display a small box for each appointment in that day. As in the week menu, clicking a day will switch to day view.
The agenda displays all events that have been scheduled, blocking out appointments and free time.
Fields (11.0)
There are a good selection of fields available for customization on the Curve. You can enter subject, location, start/end/duration, reminder, recurrence, and notes. You can also enter in a different time zone, which was a thoughtful addition for those who travel a lot. Lastly, you can choose to invite a contact to a calendar appointment.
To Do/Tasks
Adding To Do/Task (8.38)
For this test, we determine how easily you can add a task by timing how long it takes to create one, starting at the home screen. We do five trials, and average out our times. The Curve took an average of 11.93 seconds. This doesn't blow its competition out of the water, but it's fast nonetheless. The Curve's time was once again helped out by its keyboard.
The standard Curve timing caveat applies here as well: the cursor doesn't have a set place it resets to when you return to the home screen, so you may get different times if your cursor happens to wind up farther away from the Applications icons. Also, if you already have tasks scheduled, making a new one will require you to navigate the Main menu a bit, but this is certainly not a cumbersome detour. On average, we found it only added a few tenths of a second to our time.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| BlackBerry Curve | 11.93 | 8.38 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 18.80 | 5.32 |
| HTC Mogul | 16.02 | 6.24 |
| Motorola Q | N/A: Unable to create tasks | 0 |
| Palm Treo 700p | 12.90 | 7.75 |
| Helio Ocean | N/A: Unable to create tasks | 0 |
To Do/Task Sorting and Prioritizing (7.0)
The Curve allows you to assign categories to your tasks, which allows you to filter through your tasks. You can also sort your tasks according to subject, priority, due date, or status. This is typical functionality for a BlackBerry device, but impressive nonetheless.
Fields (10.0)
The Curve has quite a few fields for task creation. You can title your tasks, give them a priority, due date, set a reminder, assign a category, and jot down some notes. There are also two other, less common fields. One is "Status," which lets you pick what state the task is currently in, such as Not Started, In Progress, Completed, Waiting, or Deferred. We weren't sure who needed to remind themselves a task was "In Progress," but it's a nice addition nonetheless. Another nice feature is the ability to set a time zine, since business-types tend to travel. The last field is recurrence, which will show up when you set a due date.
Notes
Adding Notes (6.02)
We time how long it takes to add a note to see how relatively easy the task is. We start the time at the home screen, and end when we save our sample note. We do five trials and take their average. The Curve took about 8.31 seconds to enter our test note, which is fast. The QWERTY keyboard is helpful, and the notepad is easy to find in the Applications folder.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| BlackBerry Curve | 8.31 | 6.02 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 13.12 | 3.81 |
| HTC Mogul | 12.56 | 3.98 |
| Motorola Q | N/A: Unable to create notes | 0 |
| Palm Treo 700p | 8.30 | 6.02 |
| Helio Ocean | 16.06 | 3.11 |
Note Interface (7.5)
The note interface is really simple: title at the top, text underneath. You can spell-check your notes as well as assign a category. You can also search through your notes, but only by title and not by content; the search is actually the same one used for contacts. While including search functionality for notes is always welcome, the LG Chocolate VX8550 had a much more powerful search, where you can search for fragments of the title or body of the text. Most phones don't even have a search function, however, so the Curve's notepad is still in good standing.
Note Formatting (0.0)
As mentioned elsewhere, font size and style is controlled globally via the Settings menu. There is no way to change either font size or style from within the notepad program.
Voice Memo (1.0)
The Curve follows in the strange BlackBerry tradition of only allowing you to record voice notes for others. Most normal phones have a voice memo program, let alone smart phones, but the Curve only lets you record your own voice if you're attaching it in an MMS. The inclusion of such a limited voice recording program is baffling.
[page title="Multimedia"]
Accessing Music Software (4.13)
This test represents how easy it is to get a song playing. We start timing at the home screen, and stop when a song begins to play. We do five trials and average the results. The Curve managed to get a song going in 4.84 seconds. This is decent for a business device, but handsets with a dedicated music button can get a song playing in less than half the time. Navigating through the menus only required clicks, no movement, but the menus lagged a bit. Unlike some phones, you can't navigate through the lag; clicking repeatedly just increased the time it took to open the menu.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| BlackBerry Curve | 4.84 | 4.13 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 5.48 | 3.65 |
| HTC Mogul | 6.06 | 3.30 |
| Motorola Q | 8.10 | 2.47 |
| Palm Treo 700p | 3.10 | 6.45 |
| Helio Ocean | 5.20 | 3.85 |
Dedicated Music Controls (1.0)
The only dedicated music control on the Curve is the volume rocker. Other than that, there aren't any buttons outside the media player that can control your music.
Music Software Functionality and Organization (5.8)
The Curve offers some basic music software -- nothing fancy, but decent enough. You can choose to view your music by title, artist, album, or genre. Within each of these categories is an active search, which is certainly a welcome feature. We were also pleased to see Idv3, iTunes, and WMP tags were supported. The Curve does support playlists, but doesn't allow you to create or edit them. The Curve also doesn't off