Blackberry 8310 Review
By Ruben Corbo on March 2nd, 2010
With the BlackBerry 8310 you still get a nice 2.4-inch screen, along with a great QWERTY keypad and backlighting. It also comes with the same 2-megapixel camera, the biggest difference is that this phone has built in GPS, and is available in a couple of different colors, including red and titanium. Although not exactly the smallest and most compact of mobile phones, the size isn’t too bad, it measures 107 x 60 x 15.5mm and weighs 111g.
To get GPS coverage you will likely have to pay a monthly fee, but the advantage is that you will have a fully functional GPS system right on your smartphone. This means that it won’t be necessary to carry around two different devices.
As far as its performance as a phone, there is little doubt that the BlackBerry Curve 8310 is a solid phone; it offers excellent call quality and the speakerphone comes through loud and clear. Unfortunately the camera is still the same one that was available on the older model BlackBerry and it doesn’t give you the high quality photographs that a lot of people want from their phones today. The camera comes with LED flash, so it will take pictures in dim lighting.
With the BlackBerry 8310 Curve you don’t get a high-level music player, but this is what you’d probably expect from a smartphone that puts its focus on the business user. The music player on the BlackBerry 8310 does support a variety of file formats. Another problem that is soon apparent with this phone is that the web browser doesn’t provide a great experience when you are surfing the Internet. It’s adequate, but you won’t get the same type of experience that you might get with a notebook computer or an iPhone.
The GPS system on the BlackBerry Curve 8310 works good, plus it offers a lot of different features, such as a pedestrian mode. Additional GPS modes include a traffic-optimized route, fastest route, etc. Another nice feature of this phone is that it offers password protect so that others cannot access the data on your phone, plus it is a quad band phone that will allow you to make and receive calls all over the world.
Some additional drawbacks to the BlackBerry 8310 Curve include the fact that it does not offer 3G, plus the SD card slot is in a bad location behind the battery. Aside from these disappointments, and the less than great web browser, this phone does offer a lot of quality features.
