nüvifone™. The navigation phone.
CNET editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Very good
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 09/09/2008
The RIM BlackBerry Curve series has proven to be a popular line for Research in Motion, making its way to every major U.S. carrier and even regional service providers like U.S. Cellular. Like its larger CDMA brothers, Sprint and Verizon Wireless, U.S. Cellular landed itself the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8330 and in general, it offers many of the same great features and performance of the others. However, you do lose a bit in functionality since U.S. Cellular doesn't currently offer location-based services or phone-as-a-modem capabilities. That said, we found the BlackBerry Curve 8330 to be a solid communication device with strong messaging capabilities and good call quality that will meet the needs of U.S. Cellular's business customers. The RIM BlackBerry Curve 8330 for U.S. Cellular is available now for $99.95 with a two-year contract and after rebates and discounts.
Design
The design of the U.S. Cellular RIM BlackBerry Curve 8330 is similar to the other BlackBerry Curve 8330 models. For more information, please read our review of the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8330 for Sprint.
U.S. Cellular offers the BlackBerry Curve in two colors--red or titanium--and packages the smatphone with an AC adapter, a USB cable, a wired stereo headset, a belt holster, a desktop software CD, and reference material. For more add-ons, please check out our cell phone accessories, ringtones, and help page.
Features
The RIM BlackBerry Curve 8330 for U.S. Cellular comes with the same core applications and features of the other Curve 8330 models. Messaging, of course, remains at the top of the list. The smartphone offers support for the BlackBerry Enterprise server as well as Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino, or Novell GroupWise to deliver corporate e-mail in real time. You can also use the BlackBerry Internet Service to access as many as 10 personal/business POP3 or IMAP4 e-mail accounts. There is an attachment viewer that opens popular file formats, such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Corel WordPerfect, PDF, JPEG, GIF, and more. U.S. Cellular also includes downloads for several popular instant messaging clients, including Yahoo, Google Talk, and Windows Live Messenger.
Voice features include a speakerphone, voice dialing and commands, conference calling, text and multimedia messaging, and call audio enhancement, which lets you boost the bass or treble of sound. The address book is limited only by the available memory, and each entry can hold up to eight numbers, work and home addresses, e-mail and Web addresses, company information, and notes. For caller ID purposes, you can assign a photo to a contact as well as a group category--business or personal--or a custom ringtone.
The Curve also has Bluetooth 2.0 and works with the hands-free, A2DP, and dial-up networking profiles. Unlike Sprint and Verizon Wireless, however, U.S. Cellular doesn't currently offer a phone-as-a-modem plan, though it could be added in the future. Another area where the U.S. Cellular version slightly falls behind the others is GPS. While the device comes preloaded with satellite-based GPS on the BlackBerry Maps application and supports third-party applications such as Google Maps, there's no support for location-based services so you miss out on the turn-by-turn navigation capabilities. Again, it's something the carrier is considering for future. The device is EV-DO capable, and comes with the improved Web browser, which features a mouse-like cursor for easier page navigation.
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