BlackBarry Phones

Old BlackBerry phones

BlackBerry Bold 9000 review - 3G HSDPA, QWERTY keypad, 2 megapixel camera, media player, GPS navigation, memory card, Bluetooth™ & WiFi.
BlackBerry Bold 9700 review - 3G HSDPA, QWERTY keypad, 3.2 megapixel camera, media player, GPS navigation, memory card, Bluetooth™ & WiFi.
BlackBerry Pearl 8100 review - SureType® keypad, 1.3 megapixel camera, media player, memory card & Bluetooth™.
BlackBerry Pearl 8110 review - SureType® keypad, 2 megapixel camera, media player, GPS navigation, memory card & Bluetooth™.
BlackBerry Pearl 8120 review - SureType® keypad, 2 megapixel camera, media player, memory card, Bluetooth™ & WiFi.
BlackBerry 8220 review - SureType® keypad, 2 megapixel camera, media player, memory card, Bluetooth™ & WiFi.
BlackBerry Curve 8300 review - QWERTY keypad, 2 megapixel camera, media player, memory card & Bluetooth™.
BlackBerry Curve 8310 review - QWERTY keypad, 2 megapixel camera, media player, GPS navigation, memory card & Bluetooth™.
BlackBerry Curve 8320 review - QWERTY keypad, 2 megapixel camera, media player, memory card, Bluetooth™ & WiFi.
BlackBerry 8800 review - QWERTY keypad, media player, memory card & Bluetooth™.
BlackBerry 8820 review - QWERTY keypad, media player, GPS navigation, memory card, Bluetooth™ & WiFi.
BlackBerry 8900 review - QWERTY keypad, 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, media player, GPS navigation, memory card, Bluetooth™ & WiFi.
BlackBerry Storm review - Touchscreen phone with 3G HSDPA, virtual QWERTY keypad, 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, media player, GPS navigation, memory card & Bluetooth™.
BlackBerry Storm 2 review - Touchscreen phone with 3G HSDPA, virtual QWERTY keypad, 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, media player, GPS navigation, memory card, Bluetooth™ & WiFi.

BlackBerry Storm Review

In a nutshell: Built on BlackBerry's reputation for the best in mobile email and web browsing, the Storm has a touchscreen user interface that incorporates a full virtual QWERTY keyboard. The Storm includes a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, video recording, a media player, GPS navigation, Bluetooth wireless connectivity, 3G with HSDPA and 1GB of built-in memory plus the ability to expand the memory with a microSD card. However, the Storm is generating a lot of negative reviews from our users, so we have downgraded our rating to 2 stars.

For the past couple of years, RIM (the makers of BlackBerry) have been chasing the mass market. They've glued cameras, music players and even GPS navigation systems onto their business smartphones. But still the mass market eluded them. The Storm is the first BlackBerry to have a touchscreen user interface. In one fell swoop, finally here's a BlackBerry that looks like a mass market product. Ever since Apple released the iPhone and iPhone 3G, every phone manufacturer has been trying to produce an iPhone killer. Here's BlackBerry's answer.

By adopting a touchscreen UI, the BlackBerry Storm offers all the benefits of a standard BlackBerry (i.e. full QWERTY keyboard and unrivalled email/web browsing), with the style and ease of use of an iPhone. Cleverly, the Storm incorporates two kinds of virtual keyboard: the full QWERTY keyboard seen in the BlackBerry Bold and the SureType® keyboard used in the "baby" BlackBerry Pearl. The keyboard switches depending on whether you're in portrait or landscape mode. The touchscreen on the Storm is a capacitive type - the same kind used in the iPhone. We find this easier to use than the resistive touchscreens used on most rivals. You get a better response when moving your finger around the screen, and the near-instantaneous response makes the user interface very intuitive. Rather than using haptics (vibrating feedback) to indicate when the screen is pressed, the Storm uses a new innovation called "ClickThrough". This means that the screen responds to pressure, so it feels almost like you're using a real keyboard. The display itself is massive and has the one of the highest resolutions of any phone that we've reviewed. With 480 x 360 pixels, you can fit a lot of information on screen, and view photos and videos in near-perfect detail. As with previous BlackBerrys, the font sizes are user adjustable - a feature that we love and wish was present on rival phones too.

BlackBerry phones enjoy an unrivalled reputation when it comes to mobile email, and the Storm is no different. Apart from the ease of entering text with the virtual keyboard, the Storm beats other manufacturers' email systems because of its ease of use, power, wide compatibility with all email protocols (including web-based mail and secure mail) and its support for attachments. There is even an attachment editor, so you can edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents on the phone. The Storm is also an absolutely brilliant platform for the mobile web. With HSDPA running at 7.2 Mbps, you have the fastest possible download speeds available on any phone. The huge screen and ClickThrough response is ideal for viewing web pages. And the Storm supports rich media, including YouTube videos. Built-in applications make it easy to access social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.

The Storm is a smartphone, just like previous BlackBerry phones, so there will be plenty of applications available for it. It also supports multitasking, so you can view a document or browse the web whilst talking on the phone. The Storm supports a range of advanced features including voice activated dialling, conference calling and voicemail attachment playback.

Any phone that wants to conquer the mass market needs to have a good camera and media player and the Storm does. It certainly isn't the best camera phone around, but the camera has a resolution of 3.2 megapixels, and with autofocus and an LED flash, it will take reasonable pictures - good enough for print quality, provided that you don't zoom too much. The media player supports every common audio format and synchs with iTunes. The Storm has 1GB of built-in memory, which is plenty to get you started, and will accept microSD memory cards up to a whopping 16GB, which is enough to store around 4,000 MP3 tracks. There's full support for Bluetooth stereo headsets, and another great feature that is missing from many rival phones is the 3.5mm audio jack, which enables you to connect any standard stereo headphones. This means that you're not tied into proprietary headphones, but can connect to very high quality headphones for the best possible audio experience.

We mentioned the presence of GPS earlier. The Storm has a built-in GPS device and comes with BlackBerry Maps, so you can find your way around. With the large touchscreen, this combination works well, and is ideal for pedestrian use. With a proper satnav application installed it could even replace a dedicated in-car satnav. The Storm comes with a 6 month licence for Vodafone Find&Go Sat Nav .

Battery life is quoted to be 5.5 hours talktime and 360 hours standby. In the real world, using the phone heavily you'll get about a full day's use between charges. So if you don't like the hassle of charging each night, the Storm probably isn't for you. The Storm loses one star from its rating because of this.

Which brings us to the one other feature that we dislike about the BlackBerry Storm - its size. Even larger and heavier than the iPhone, the Storm weighs in at 155g, making it the heaviest smartphone currently on sale in the UK. Bigger is not always better, and we'd certainly like to shave a couple of millimetres off the Storm. But then again, you need a big device to have a big screen, and when you consider the number of features that have been crammed into this beast, it's a trade-off that we're happy to live with.

But the worst features of the Storm are its habit of freezing and dropping calls. These make it pretty well useless as a business tool. The Storm2 adds WiFi and some other improvements, but suffers from the same kinds of problems.

BlackBerry 8820 Review

In a nutshell: The BlackBerry 8820 is packed with a wide range of communication features, including phone, email, instant messaging, GPS, maps, web browser, a wealth of personal organiser functions, and even a media player. It's the most businesslike of the BlackBerry series, but lacks 3G.

The BlackBerry 8820 is the big beast of the BlackBerry series. There's no camera, no attempt to make this monster fit into your pocket, and no pretence that this is anything other than a very powerful mobile communications device. In a way, this is BlackBerry at its best - certainly in its purest form. With no distractions, the 8820 just gets on with the job.

The 8820 may not be something you want to show off in a pub, but it's definitely worth showing off in a conference room. It's surprisingly stylish, considering its utilitarian function, with a hint of curves, and thinner than you might expect. At 134g, it's definitely one of the heaviest smartphones around. The display is a good size, although the resolution is not as high as some of the latest smartphones, and incorporates user-selectable font size.

The 8820 is packed with a wide range of communication features, including phone, email, instant messaging, GPS, maps, web browser, a wealth of personal organiser functions, and even a media player. Connectivity options include WLAN (802.11b/g), as well as Bluetooth 2.0 and USB.

The advanced phone features include a speakerphone and voice activated dialling, user-definable convenience keys and dedicated Send, End and Mute keys, making it more like an office phone than a standard mobile. With voice dialling and a Bluetooth headset, it's capable of fully handsfree operation. The full 35-key QWERTY keypad and trackball make it the best mobile platform for writing texts and emails - frankly its virtually the same as using a laptop on the hoof. The BlackBerry push email software supports virtually all types of enterprise and personal email servers and standards, including popular webmail systems such as Hotmail and Gmail. Security is given full attention, with password protection and a keyboard lock, plus full support for encryption when using BlackBerry Enterprise Server to access data.

The 8820 isn't quite all work and no play however. There's a media player built in, so you can listen to some music or even watch a video on the train or between meetings. You can plug in stereo headphones or use a Bluetooth wireless headset.

Battery life is excellent, with a heavy duty battery giving a theoretical standby time of 528 hours. In practice, the 8820 may not reach this limit, but has plenty of juice for continuous working throughout the day.

Weaknesses include the limited amount of memory available - just 64 Mbytes, although you can expand this with a microSD memory card - and the fact that there is no 3G connection, just EDGE. This makes for relatively slow data transfer, most noticeably when web browsing or sending/receiving large attachments. This does significantly limit the phone's capabilities as a mobile email platform for corporate users. The new BlackBerry Bold fixes this issue.

BlackBerry 8800 Review

In a nutshell : The BlackBerry 8800 is packed with a wide range of communication features, including phone, email, instant messaging, GPS, maps, web browser, a wealth of personal organiser functions, and even a media player. It's the most businesslike of the BlackBerry series, but lacks 3G and WiFi.
The BlackBerry 8800 is the same as the 8820, except that it is missing WLAN. Read our 8820 review for a full description. The BlackBerry Curve 8900 updates the 8800.

BlackBerry Curve 8310 Review

In a nutshell: If you want to keep in touch with your email on the move, then the BlackBerry Curve is the choice for you. With a full QWERTY keypad and BlackBerry's renowned push email applications, you really will have a mobile office in your pocket. It also includes a camera, a media player, Bluetooth connectivity and a memory card slot. The BlackBerry 8310 is our pick of the Curve series, as it also includes GPS navigation.

The BlackBerry 8310 is our favourite of the current Curve series of BlackBerries. More compact than the 88xx series, yet with a full 35-key QWERTY keypad, the Curve series treads the line between dedicated business machine and consumer-friendly smartphone. The 8310 retains the core features that made BlackBerry into a household name and indispensable business tool: full keypad and push email. It also adds some new features that make the Curve more like a multimedia smartphone: a camera, media player and GPS satellite navigation. It is this last feature - the GPS navigation - that distinguishes the 8310 from the other Curves (the 8300 & 8320).

All of the BlackBerry Curves are essentially the same, except that the 8310 has GPS navigation, the 8320 has WiFi and the poor little 8300 has neither. It's obviously a personal choice as to whether GPS or WiFi is the more useful tool. In our opinion, the GPS is more useful, but that's just us! The GPS implementation in the 8310 is a good one, and can be used both on foot and in the car.

Looking at the core features of the 8310, we really love the full keypad. Really, serious mobile emailing is out of the question without one, in our opinion. The BlackBerry Curve delivers, and takes mobile communication to another level - whether by email, or text messaging. The one thing that we dislike about the Curve is the trackball, which is used to navigate around the screen and select options. When it works, it works well. But when it doesn't, then it can be really annoying. We've deducted one mark from our rating because of the trackball. Apart from the trackball, the Curve works well ergonomically. The display is large, at 2.5 inches across, and high resolution. It's not in the premier league of LCD displays (the iPhone has double the resolution and most smartphones now have 16 million colour screens), but it's good enough. One thing that we definitely like is the user-selectable font size. There are other features such as password protection, user-definable keys and voice dialling that make the whole Curve experience that little bit better. The Curve is large, and you'll need both hands to use it, but the keys are easy to press and the overall experience is positive.

Obviously, most people buy a BlackBerry to keep in touch with their email. The BlackBerry 8310 handles email very well indeed. Not only is the system very easy to use (pretty much as easy as on a PC), it supports all of the systems and protocols that people will need:

• BlackBerry® Enterprise Server for Microsoft® Exchange
• BlackBerry® Enterprise Server for IBM® Lotus® Domino®
• BlackBerry® Enterprise Server for Novell® GroupWise®
• Integrates with an existing enterprise email account
• Integrates with existing personal email account
• Integrates with new device account
• Support for AES or Triple DES encryption when integrated with BlackBerry Enterprise Server

The 8310 also has a decent web browser. However, with no 3G or WiFi, it's unlikely that anyone would make extensive use of this feature. 3G is conspicuous by its absence. In fact the only connectivity is Bluetooth.

What's new about the latest Curve series is the multimedia features that help to bridge the gap between the traditional BlackBerry and the modern multimedia smartphone. The 8310 incorporates a 2 megapixel camera and a media player. BlackBerry are not at their strongest in this area: the camera can't complete with the cameras on most other smartphones, and there's no video recording capability (although you can play back video.) Nevertheless, it's a move in the right direction. The media player supports features like playlists and shuffle, and you can listen to music whilst using other applications. On the positive side, there is a 3.5 mm stereo headset port that will fit standard third-party headsets, and the 8310 is also compatible with Bluetooth stereo headsets.

The battery life of the BlackBerry 8310 is excellent, especially when compared with most other smartphones. Despite this, and despite the large size of the device, it's weight is surprisingly low. Really, it's in many ways a very practical device. If email on the move is your priority, then the BlackBerry 8310 is our top recommendation. It may not have all the bells and whistles of some other phones, but it does its core job amazingly well and does most other things well enough too. Consider the BlackBerry 8320 as an alternative if the WLAN appeals.

BlackBerry Curve 8300 Review

In a nutshell: The BlackBerry Curve 8300 is an excellent device for keeping in touch with your email whilst out of the office. With extensive push email support and a full QWERTY keypad, emailing on your phone becomes a completely practical possibility. Other features such as a 2 megapixel camera, media player, Bluetooth connectivity and expandable memory complete the package.
The BlackBerry 8300 is exactly the same as the BlackBerry Curve 8310, except that it doesn't have GPS navigation. Read our review of the 8310, since all of the comments apply equally to both phones, apart from this one difference.

We have given the BlackBerry 8300 a slightly lower rating than the 8310 and 8320 since it lacks the more advanced features of these models. Since most people will get it free on contract, why not choose one of the more advanced models instead?

BlackBerry 8220 Review

In a nutshell: A BlackBerry in a clamshell form factor! Not our favourite BlackBerry, as the Pearl series is looking rather dated now, but still a good compact phone/PDA for mobile email, with a camera and MP3 player thrown in!

We've been a bit slow to review the 8220 Pearl, considering that it first appeared in the last quarter of 2008! That's because we assumed that it was just intended for the US market, and we didn't think that it was going to appear in the shops here in the UK. Well, it has appeared but it seems that most people feel the same way as us, because not many are buying it.

The 8220 is basically like the other Pearl devices (the 8100, 8110 & 8120) except that it's a clamshell. It's fatter as a result, and we find that the clamshell form isn't ideal for using this kind of keypad. It's also heavier than the other Pearl phones. But it does have the advantage of a larger internal screen. It's equipped with BlackBerry Maps too, but it doesn't have a GPS receiver.

Basically, if you like the BlackBerry Pearl series, but prefer the clamshell form factor, then this is the BlackBerry for you. Personally, we feel that the whole of the Pearl series is looking rather dated now, and we'd steer you in the direction of the 8900, which is a cracking phone with a full QWERTY keyboard.

BlackBerry 8120 Review

In a nutshell: If email on the go is your top priority, and you don't like the size and weight of the big BlackBerries, then the 8120 could be a good choice. However, the 8120 lags behind other smartphones when it comes to most features, and it isn't the easiest phone to use either.
The BlackBerry Pearl 8120 is almost identical to the 8100, so read our BlackBerry 8100 review for full details. The 8120 has the advantage of a WLAN connection, and is available in Silver.

BlackBerry 8110 Review

In a nutshell: If email on the go is your top priority, and you don't like the size and weight of the big BlackBerries, then the 8110 could be a good choice. However, the 8110 lags behind other smartphones when it comes to most features, and it isn't the easiest phone to use either. Available in Black, Red or Pink.
The BlackBerry Pearl 8110 is almost identical to the 8100, so read our BlackBerry 8100 review for full details. The 8110 has the advantage of GPS satellite navigation, and is available in a choice of colours: Black,

BlackBerry Bold 9700 Review

In a nutshell: The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is an upgraded version of the original Bold. It retains the full QWERTY keyboard of the original, but replaces the trackball with a new improved Trackpad, and is smaller and lighter too. It's the perfect device for mobile e-mail, with a high-res screen with user-selectable fonts and the legendary BlackBerry email interface. Other highlights include 3G HSDPA, up to 16GB of memory, WiFi, GPS and outstanding battery life. Now available in White.

The Blackberry Bold 2 is just what BlackBerry fans were waiting for. It's a straightforward upgrade of the BlackBerry Bold, and must surely be the best BlackBerry in the known universe.

The Bold was a fabulous device, having a brilliant keyboard, making it the perfect mobile e-mail solution. The Bold 2 retains the full 35-key QWERTY keyboard, but replaces the annoying old trackball with a new touch-sensitive Trackpad, as first seen on the BlackBerry 8520. It's the perfect combination. The new Bold is also significantly smaller and lighter than the original Bold, and that's a very welcome improvement too. At the same time, the Bold 9700 has an upgraded camera, more flash memory and improved battery life. Everything else stays pretty much the same.

Ergonomically, it doesn't get much better than the Bold 9700. Yes, it's large, not not as big as the original Bold, nor any bigger than a lot of touchscreen smartphones. We love the full QWERTY keyboard, which is in no way cramped, and we think that the touch-sensitive Trackpad is a definite improvement over the sticky trackball of old. Of course, the screen is smaller than a touchscreen phone, but at 2.44 inches across it's fit for purpose and it's a finely detailed TFT panel with 480 x 360 pixels. The Bold is nicely curved and feels like a quality piece of kit.

For emailing and texting, this is possibly the ultimate device. The UI is great, and all email standards and security protocols are supported, including BlackBerry Enterprise Server for Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino and Novell GroupWise, personal email, enterprise email and web-based email (AOL Mail, Windows Live Hotmail, Gmail or Yahoo! Mail). You can view attachments in the following formats: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, WordPerfect, HTML, zip.) WordToGo and SlideshowToGo let you edit Word and PowerPoint files. Security is given full attention, with password protection and a keyboard lock, plus full support for encryption when using BlackBerry Enterprise Server to access data.

The voice features include a speakerphone and conference calling. With voice activated dialling and a Bluetooth headset, it's capable of fully handsfree operation.

The Bold also supports multimedia applications. The camera has been upgraded to 3.2 megapixels, and comes with autofocus, image stabilisation, digital zoom and a flash. There's a video camera too. The media player can play music and video, and there's a 3.5mm audio jack, so you can plug in any third party stereo headphones. A-GPS navigation is also included, and works with Blackberry Maps.

We mentioned that the flash memory has been increased in the Bold 9700, giving 256 MB of memory for running apps. There's 1GB of built-in storage and the Bold 9700 supports microSD cards up to 16GB. This seems to be perfectly adequate for the job.

Connectivity includes WiFi (802.11a/b/g), Bluetooth 2.0 and USB. It's a 3G phone of course with quadband support for both UMTS (2100/1900/850/800 MHz) and GSM (1900/1800/900/850 MHz), with HSDPA providing fast internet connections with download speeds of up to 3.6 Mbps possible.

The 9700 has fantastic battery life, which is just what its target market wants to hear. The phone has a massive 1500mAh battery, which is pretty much as big as it gets in the mobile world. This provides a theoretical maximum of 21 days standby and up to 6 hours of talktime. It can also give a music playback time of up to 38 hours. These are impressive figures, and mean that you can use your Bold all day with confidence. For many users, the phone will probably last several days between charges.

The original Bold was a great all-round PDA, and the Bold 9700 is simply the icing on the cake. It's highly recommended by us!

BlackBerry 8520 Review

In a nutshell: An entry-level BlackBerry Curve, with a new-fangled Trackpad to replace the annoying trackball on previous Curve models. The 8520 offers a full QWERTY keyboard, mobile e-mail, a basic camera and a media player, plus good memory and connectivity. But it cuts corners with the display, camera and lack of high-end features that are common in many smartphones.

BlackBerry are trying hard. People like us have been moaning for ages about the trackball that featured in previous curve models. The trackball that often gets stuck and develops a mind of its own. And now they've come up with an alternative: a touch-sensitive Trackpad. Good work, but somehow they've fumbled the keyboard, and the beautifully responsive keyboard that appeared on the 8900 has been replaced by one that just doesn't quite have the same sureness of feel. What a shame! Still, the combination of trackpad plus QWERTY keyboard isn't a bad one, and it sure beats struggling to write an email with a conventional alphanumeric keypad!

Anyway, we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's take a step back and survey the BlackBerry 8520. What is it's place in the BlackBerry family? It's not a 3G phone like the BlackBerry Bold, and it's missing features like GPS that appear in the BlackBerry 8900. No, this is an entry level member of the curve family, equipped with a basic screen and a really clunky camera. But it does have several strongpoints - the push email application and QWERTY keyboard that have made BlackBerries famous, excellent connectivity and some decent memory. The connectivity includes WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate, plus the benefit of a 3.5mm audio jack for connecting headphones or plugging into your car stereo.

As a budget BlackBerry, the 8520 has its place in the line-up, but the cost saving compared with the 8900 isn't very much. On balance, we'd prefer the BlackBerry 8900 to the 8520, despite the trackball vs trackpad issue. The 8900 is a better featured phone in several ways, and the outstandingly good keyboard on the 8900 is a major plus for anyone serious about mobile messaging.

BlackBerry 8900 Review

In a nutshell: Smaller than the Bold, but packing in nearly as many features, the BlackBerry Curve 8900 is one of our all-time favourite BlackBerries. Ideally-sized, with a brilliant QWERTY keypad and a hi-res screen, this is an almost perfect device for mobile email. Other top features include a 3 megapixel camera with autofocus, a video camera, a music player, GPS, a heavy duty battery, WiFi, and plenty of memory. The only significant thing missing is 3G.

The BlackBerry 8900 is the latest in the BlackBerry Curve series, and is one of the best BlackBerries ever. Its name suggests that it slots into the BlackBerry range just below the BlackBerry Bold, but although it lacks 3G, in some ways its even better than the Bold.

Like the others in the Curve series, the 8900 features a full 35-key QWERTY keypad with a trackball. It looks almost identical to the Bold, except that it's smaller and lighter, making it about the same weight as many ordinary mobiles, and compact enough to fit easily into a jacket pocket, or even into a jeans pocket. This fact alone makes it into a much more mainstream device than the old Curves or the Bold.

Before we start our review proper, let's just take a moment to admire the ergonomics and construction of the 8900. Unboxing the 8900, you can't help but admire the build quality of the device - it just feels so solid and well constructed. Unlike so many phones, taking the back off to insert the sim card and battery is so easy. The keys are admittedly small, but they move crisply and anyone with fingers in the normal size range for a Homo Sapien should have no problem with them at all. You can even use it single-handedly. The trackball is just like with previous BlackBerries - some love it, some are less keen. We aren't 100% in favour of the trackball, but it does the job.

Let's move on to the display next. It's enormous! At 2.44 inches across and a resolution of 480 x 360 pixels, this is just the kind of screen that we need when reading emails or browsing the web (not to mention viewing photos or watching videos.) This screen matches the iPhone 3G and outperforms just about anything else in existence. The menus are reasonably simple too, and once you've got used to the trackball and the overall size of the device, you'll find that the 8900 is almost the perfect phone, ergonomically speaking. For us, it's the closest that BlackBerry have ever come to perfection. Just a little more work on the menus and a smoother trackball, and it would be 100%.

Now, of course, the key selling point of a BlackBerry is email on the move, and the 8900 doesn't disappoint. There's little difference here with previous BlackBerries, so we'll just reiterate that the BlackBerry implementation of mobile email is the best in the business. It is compatible with virtually all email standards. It also supports attachments, with a viewer and editor for Microsoft Office documents. Combining this with the huge screen and the QWERTY keyboard means that you get the best mobile email experience currently available. It's also a brilliant environment for text messaging.

But the 8900 does a lot more than just mobile messaging. For one thing, it has the best camera to appear on any BlackBerry to date. With 3.2 megapixels, a LED flash and autofocus, it's the same quality as the camera on the BlackBerry Storm, and outperforms even the camera on the Bold. It may not be an 8 megapixel replacement for a digital camera, but it will produce excellent print quality images, and is a very welcome addition. It marks one more way in which the 8900 Curve is almost a mainstream handset. The phone has a media player too, of course, and with features like playlists, shuffle and organising by artist and album, it's a very usable MP3 player. It's very loud too! The 3.5mm headphone jack allows you to plug in any compatible headset, in addition to the one supplied. You can also use a stereo Bluetooth headset if you prefer. With a 1GB microSD card supplied as part of the sales package, and the potential to expand this to 16GB, you certainly won't be short of storage for music or videos. The video player works well too, with support for DivX & XviD, and flicker-free playback on the high quality LCD display. There are even 5 games included (from Sudoku to BrickBreaker), although we didn't get round to testing these (all work, no play at Mobile Phones UK!) There is also built-in GPS, so you can find your current location, and this can be used with the BlackBerry Maps application.

The 8900 has a full choice of connectivity options, including Bluetooth 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate, USB and WiFi. The WiFi connection is very easy to set up, and lets you access email, the web, or data on your PC. This is probably the best way to make use of the built-in web browser.

The 8900 has a whopping heavy duty battery, which contributes to its weight quite significantly, but gives it plenty of power to last even with heavy use. You can recharge it from the mains or via a USB cable on your PC.

The 8900 is a quadband phone, which means that you can use it worldwide, and usefully it is provided with an international charger too, so no worries about forgetting to pack your travel socket. But the one feature that is very obviously missing is 3G. The Bold has 3G, the Storm has 3G, so why not the 8900? For some this may be a show stopper, and it certainly is a pity to have to rely on 2G data transfer with a device this powerful.

Finally, it's worth pointing out just what a polished device the Curve 8900 is. As well as the physical build quality, the usability factor is very high, with the 8900 being the latest in a mature evolution of business devices. Unlike some competitors, there's very little about the 8900 with a "beta" feeling. Nice features include the wide choice of ringtones and alerts (both audio and visual), the wealth of status indicators on the home screen (e.g. missed calls, unopened messages, connection status, and calendar alerts.)

This is definitely one of our favourite BlackBerries of all time. The 8900 really is an accomplished multimedia device and can become a one-stop shop for communication, music, media, photography, web browsing and GPS too. Oh, if only it had 3G! Apart from the missing 3G, this really is the best BlackBerry of all time.
Before buying, consider the Nokia E63 too.

BlackBerry Bold Review

In a nutshell: The BlackBerry Bold is the best BlackBerry yet, although its size and weight mean that it's for serious users only. If you're a serious user, you'll love the full keypad, outstanding email support, high-res display with user-selectable fonts, 3G HSDPA, 1GB of built-in memory, WiFi, satnav and many other features.

At last - A 3G BlackBerry! Whilst BlackBerry is the undisputed king of mobile email, the lack of 3G in its devices was beginning to look very obvious. Enter the BlackBerry Bold, with full support for HSDPA-enabled 3G, making fast data transfer a reality. No more waiting while email attachments are sent!

The BlackBerry 9000 Bold takes the best of everything that BlackBerry has previously produced, and adds in 3G. It's also the biggest and heaviest BlackBerry, so is suitable only for heavy duty users. Weighing 136g, it's very slightly heavier and thicker than the BlackBerry 8820, which it replaces. In practice you can't tell the difference in size between the two devices. Despite its size, it's an attractive design, with its shiny black and silver finish, and some nice curves to (literally) take the edge off its bulk. The benefit of having such a large device is that there's plenty of room for a full QWERTY keypad, so there are no compromises here when it comes to the ease of text entry. The keypad combined with the trackball together provide the best UI that we've seen for serious emailers and texters. We're also delighted to see that BlackBerry have increased the resolution of the display from 240 x 320 pixels on previous models to 480 x 360 pixels on the Bold. With a 65,000 colour transmissive TFT LCD and user-selectable font sizes, this gives the Bold one of the best displays available, with only the iPhone offering a higher resolution.

The advanced phone features include a speakerphone and conference calling. With voice activated dialling and a Bluetooth headset, it's capable of fully handsfree operation.

Email is BlackBerry's forte, and the Bold fully supports all email standards:

• Push email (messages are delivered automatically to your smartphone and you can be notified as soon as they arrive)
• Works with BlackBerry® Enterprise Server for Microsoft® Exchange
• Works with BlackBerry® Enterprise Server for IBM® Lotus® Domino®
• Works with BlackBerry® Enterprise Server for Novell® GroupWise®
• Integrates with an existing enterprise email account
• Integrates with existing personal email account
• Integrates with optional new device account
• Web-Based Email Access (AOL Mail, Windows Live Hotmail, Gmail or Yahoo! Mail)

You can view attachments in the following formats: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, WordPerfect, HTML, zip.) WordToGo and SlideshowToGo let you edit Word and PowerPoint files. Security is given full attention, with password protection and a keyboard lock, plus full support for encryption when using BlackBerry Enterprise Server to access data.

The Bold also incorporates some fun features, in particular the camera and media player. The camera is rated at just 2 megapixels, so this is no replacement for a digital camera, but it can take snaps and video clips. The media player offers light relief between meetings, and can play music and videos. Software is provided for ripping music off CD's and for synching your phone with your PC. In common with previous BlackBerries, there's a 3.5mm headset jack, so you can plug in any third party stereo headphones - a feature that's still surprisingly rare in the mobile phone world. GPS navigation is also included, and works with Blackberry Maps. This is another welcome feature, and can in principle be used as satnav for a car, but perhaps a more obvious use is navigating around a city by foot or public transport, as most Bold users probably already have a proper satnav system in their car.

BlackBerry have also done the right thing when it comes to memory, equipping the Bold with a full 1 GB of built-in memory, plus 128 MB of flash memory and the ability to expand this further by adding a microSD memory card. This gives plenty of space for storing and working with data, and is what a device of this power needs.

Connectivity options include WLAN (802.11a/b/g), as well as Bluetooth 2.0 and USB.

The battery life is not quite as long as the BlackBerry 8820, due partly to the larger screen, and partly to the fact that it's a 3G phone. However, we don't anticipate that this will be a major problem, provided that you charge the phone regularly, and condition the battery properly at the start.

All things considered, we love the BlackBerry Bold. It was fairly obvious what BlackBerry needed to do to bring their devices bang up to date (add 3G, a higher resolution screen, more memory and a faster processor), and they've done precisely that. The result is a brilliant communications device and all round PDA. Highly recommended. If you can live without the 3G network and would like a more compact device, then we would also highly recommend the BlackBerry 8900. However we have noted that several of our users have reported the Bold's tendency to drop the 3G signal. We believe that this is a network issue that is not present in sim-free handsets, and can possibly be fixed by updating your sim card or talking to your network.