RIM BlackBerry Curve 3G 9300’s design has been copied from its predecessors, it feels and looks very similar to the earlier model, the 8520. The dimensions are the same; both phones are 4.3 inches long, 0.6 inch thick and 2.4 inches wide. They weigh the same at 3.6 ounces and both feature a 2.4 inch screen with same media keys on the top and also the same QWERTY keyboard.

One big difference in design here is the optical trackpad has been tweaked; it is now rounded and raised which makes it easy to use. The new trackpad was more responsive as well. Another change I noticed here was that the 8520 had barriers between the navigation buttons and the Curve 3G has a very flat navigation array without any divisions. I liked the 8520 better since it was easy to navigate by feel but I wasn’t too disappointed with the new design either. The last change I want to tell you is that the Curve 3G has texturized rubber which doesn’t let the device slide around when you place it on a smooth surface. It also lets you grip the phone better.

The manufacturer gives the RIM BlackBerry Curve 3G 9300 with power adapter, USB cord, mini CD, wired headset and reference manual. This phone runs on BlackBerry OS 5 and RIM says that you can upgrade it to BlackBerry OS 6, which should be done because the new version has a lot of new features. The OS6 will give you brand new home screen, universal search, new Web browser, and the messaging features too are easier to access.

RIM BlackBerry Curve 3G 9300 has all the usually phone features like multimedia and text messaging, speed dialing, conference calling, voice dialing, an speakerphone. There are plenty of IM options including Windows Live, Yahoo, ICQ, AIM, BlackBerry Messenger, etc. BlackBerry is a brand well known for its e-mail options and it continues the legacy here too. The device lets you sync with your company’s BlackBerry Enterprise server along with other corporate systems of e-mail like IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange, etc. IMAP4 and POP3 e-mail information can also be added and the phone will easily detect your Yahoo Mail and Gmail accounts.

RIM BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9100 is a quad band world phone having quad band 3G support which means you can use it anywhere in the world. Phone features include speakerphone, conference calling, voice dialing, speed dial, multitasking, visual voice mail, and multimedia and text messaging, Bluetooth with A2DP streaming, GPS, and Wi-Fi. This is a BlackBerry phone so you get the BlackBerry Messengers and there are other IMs like Windows Live, AIM, Google Talk, and Yahoo.

BlackBerry phones have been known to have a good collection of e-mail features and the RIM BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9100 doesn’t disappoint either. This is a cool corporate e-mail handset having support for BlackBerry Enterprise Server, Novell GroupWise, Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino, etc. It also works with BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express, which is made for small businesses and individuals. Tasks, contacts, and calendars can be synced as well. BlackBerry Internet Service gives you access to ten business/personal IMAP4 or POP3 e-mail accounts.

For Web surfing, the RIM BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9100 has AT&T Mobile Web browser as default but you can also use BlackBerry browser if you wish to. There are a few basic settings like bookmark management, zooming in and out, URL sending, and JavaScript toggle. OS 6 has a new Webkit based browser and it promises a richer experience and there is also support for tabbed browsing.

RIM BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9100 has external media player controls and this means there is a media player inside. Supported media formats are MP3, MPEG4, WMA, AAC, WMV, and H.264. Content can be copied through drag and drop mode via USB or you can load the files on the microSD card. Up to 32 GB cards are supported. The phone can be synced with Windows Media Player and iTunes courtesy of the new BlackBerry Desktop Software. This phone is covered by AT&T; you can buy songs from AT&T Mobile Music and there is also AT&T Radio.

Other goodies from the service provider on the RIM BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9100 include GPS with AT&T Navigation, AT&T’s streaming video service, and AT&T Mobile Video. The phone itself has a lot of apps for keeping you entertained. For social networking enthusiasts, there is Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter along with My-Cast Weather,  MobiTV for on-demand television, and games like Tetris, Bejeweled, Scrabble, BrickBreaker, Pac-Man, Texas Hold Em, Word Mole, Sudoku, Trooper Typing, and Klondike. For business users, there are apps like Documents To Go.

RIM BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9100 comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera with 2.5 zoom. There is LED flash too for taking good quality pictures in the dark. The photos weren’t good looking because the colors were muted and the indoor shots have an orange tint to it. The photos can be geotagged and they can be sent through MMS or can be shared on social networking sites. The camera also records videos. When tested for call quality, this phone turned out to be really good.

The keyboard below the navigation array of the RIM BlackBerry Bold 9650 is very roomy and typing on it is really easy. They give good tactile feedback and the buttons are well spaced away from each other to minimize mishits. On the back, the phone has a two megapixel camera.

RIM BlackBerry Bold 9650 is a world phone. This means you can use the handset on both CDMA and GSM networks. When in the US, you can use the local US Cellular CDMA network and if you are abroad, you can put in the country’s SIM card for making calls. The microSD card slot is placed next to the to the SIM card slot. I usually prefer the card slot somewhere on the spine because swapping the cards is really easy because of that. For this phone, you will have to dig in to access the memory.

Features of the phone are typical of what you’d expect in such a phone. There is Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, etc. The e-mail and messaging functions on the RIM BlackBerry Bold 9650 too are really good. We all know how good this company is when it comes to messaging features so I won’t write much about that here. All I’ll say is that this phone lives up to my expectations pretty well.

I tested the RIM BlackBerry Bold 9650 with U.S. Cellular’s roaming partners in San Francisco and didn’t have much to complain about the call quality. It was great for most of the part; there was some fuzz and static on my end but overall, I had a good experience, the voice was crisp and loud. On the other side, my friends too were pleased with the call quality. There said there was no environmental noise or voice distortion and my voice too was natural and clear. Call quality was as good as that of landline phones. The speaker phone call quality too was really good. There was some background noise but I could talk very clearly.

A couple of other applications that come with the app include a Twitter app as well as a Tone Room Delux app. The latter is US Cellular’s store for purchasing ringtones. This phone will cost you $160 and you will have to sign a two year service agreement with the carrier.

I would recommend this phone for people who message a lot. RIM BlackBerry Bold 9650 is ideal for businessmen who need to access their e-mail on the go. Typing long e-mails too is very comfortable on the phone.

Thumbs Up:

Has support for GPS and 3G, phone is compact, has 2 MP camera, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi

Thumbs Down:

The phone feels a bit cheap in hand and the screen has low resolution screen. Apps can be saved only on the phone’s internal memory

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 is 2.36 inches wide, 0.55 inch deep, 4.29 inches high and weighs about 3.7 oz. The phone has a candy bar design. Wireless interface options include Bluetooth 2.1 EDR, IEEE 802.11g, and IEEE 802.11b. Additional features include microSD card slot, Voice dialing, Trackpad and GPS. Bundled OS is BlackBerry Handheld Software. For messaging services – there is RIM BlackBerry VM Client. Included services are VZ Navigator and VCAST. Data/Messaging features include E-mail, Instant messages, Multimedia messages (MMS) and Text messages. There are 32 polyphonic ringtones and MIDI and MP3 formats are supported.

Supported video formats are H.263 video and AMR audio, MPEG-4 and H.264. The phone has two megapixels camera, video recorder resolution is 320 x 240 (QVGA) and 176 x 144 (QCIF). It has 5x digital zoom. PIM features include alarm clock, calendar, reminder and calculator. The display is 2.5 inches big and has a resolution of 320×240 pixels. Supported audio formats include eAAC+, AAC+, WMA, MP3, AMR and AAC. The phone has 1150 mAh battery with 270 minutes of talk time and 252 hours of standby time.

Razzle Dazzle:

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530’s design is similar to Curve 8520. It is 4.3 inches tall, 0.5 inch thick, 2.3 inches wide and weighs about 3.7 ounces. The phone feels a bit plasticky in the hand. However there is soft touch finish around the outside edges which doesn’t let the phone feel to sleek. Color options for this phone is frost and black.

Inside Dope:

This is almost the same device as the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8520, it is more of an entry level phone so don’t expect high end features on this device like high resolution display and world roaming capabilities. However, there are some worthy upgrades to this device like a faster processor, optical trackpad, discrete media controls and Wi-Fi. We didn’t like the design of the phone much but the feature set is more than what you get on the T-Mobile edition. The cost of this phone is $99.99 and you have to sign a two year contract with Verizon Wireless.

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 comes along with AC adapter, software disc, USB cord and also reference material. The feature set on this phone is pretty good even though this is an entry level phone. This handset has speakerphone, smart dialing, voice activated dialing, speed dial, conference calling, and multimedia and text messaging along with threaded chat view. Verizon’s service of Visual Voice Mail can be accessed for a fee of $2.99 per month. You also get link to MyVerizon which gives you information on your account like data usage and voice, account balance and other features. Other services by the service provider include VZ Navigator, and V Cast Music.

There is no limit for the phone book; you can keep entering till memory permits. A single entry can take multiple phone numbers, home and work addresses, e-mail addresses, etc. Photo caller ID is supported and you can make groups of your contacts. Custom ringtone feature is also there. A VzwTones shortcut comes preloaded on to the handset and this lets you download additional ringtones to the phone. Apart from address book, there are other PIM tools like calculator, voice recorder, memo pad, task list and calendar.

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 has built in Bluetooth and the handset supports stereo and mono Bluetooth headsets, video/audio remote control, hands free kits, dial up networking and serial port. This phone comes with GPS/A-GPS, Wi-Fi and 3G. Verizon is getting plenty of Wi-Fi handsets to its repertoire and we are really glad to see it as it gives you an alternate way to get online. Now all we would like to see is a better browser which would keep this handset almost flawless. BlackBerry has a lot of hardwork to do with regards to browser. There have been updates in the past but this phone is still miles behind our current favorite the iPhone. The handset runs on BlackBerry OS 5.0 and the browser is better than what we saw in its predecessor. But we still feel that there is room for improvement.

Just like previous BlackBerry models, this phone’s messaging offerings are its strong point. You can sync the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 along with your company’s BlackBerry Enterprise server which offers support for IBM Lotus Domino, Novell GroupWise or Microsoft Exchange for getting corporate e-mail as soon as it reaches your inbox. Through BlackBerry Internet Service, you can access up to ten personal or business IMAP4 or POP3 e-mail accounts. This phones comes preloaded with lots of IMs like Google Talk, Windows Live, Aim, BlackBerry Messenger and Yahoo

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 comes with attachment viewer built in, which lets you open Microsoft Excel, Word, Corel WordPerfect, PowerPoint, PDF, GIF and JPEG files. Apart from this, the phone also comes with DataViz’s Document to Go Suite Standard Edition but for creating new documents, you will have to purchase the Premium Edition. BlackBerry App World lets you download travel aids, games, tools, etc. Just remember that the phone has 256 MB flash memory and as much of RAM. You can save the apps only to the phone’s internal memory.

Behind the battery compartment, there is a microSD expansion card slot which can take in up to 16 GB of memory cards. Supported file formats are MIDI, AMR-NB, eAAC+, AAC+, AAC-LC, WMA9/WMA9 Pro/WMA 10 and MP3. Supported video formats are H.264, H.263, WMV2 and MPEG4. Supported photo formats are WBMP, TIFF, PNG, JPEG, and BMP.

Nitty Gritty:

We didn’t like the design of the phone much but this is still a good phone if you are haven’t bought a smartphone before.

Thumbs Up:

Offers capabilities of Direct Connect push-to-talk, comes integrated with Bluetooth, GPS and Wi-Fi. The handset has an updated OS, good multimedia capabilities and full HTML Web browser.

Thumbs Down:

Sluggish performance, problems in sending e-mails.

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: iDEN

Band: iDEN 800/900 (Dual Band)

Phone design: Candy bar

Caller ID: Yes

Other features: Camera, Bluetooth, music player, etc.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

The design and shape of the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8350i is similar to other Curve models but it is also a bit bigger due to all the features that have gone inside. The casing is not as rugged as we have seen on other Nextel phones like Motorola i365. This handset has a soft touch finish but still feels solid in the hand.

Razzle Dazzle:

The 2.4 inches TFT LCD display has a resolution of 320×240 pixels and has a 16 bit color depth. It supports 65k colors. Connectors include USB and headphones jack. The 1400 mAh lithium ion battery has a rated talk time of 240 minutes. The phone comes with two megapixel camera with 5x digital zoom. It also has a flash and self portrait mirror. The handset is 2.4 inches wide, 0.7 inches deep, 4.4 inches high and weighs 0.3 lbs.

Inside Dope:

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8350i’s display is 2.4 inches big and has a resolution of 320×240 pixels with support for 65,536 colors. The screen looks sharp and it is well complemented by BlackBerry OS 4.6’s user interface. Our small gripe here is that the icons in the menu looks quite similar and hence it is difficult to tell them apart even though they come with a description. Just like latest Blackberry phones, this handset comes with a light sensing technology which automatically adjusts the backlight of the display depending on the environment. Home screen can be customizable with various background images and themes.

Underneath the display, there is a navigation array which consists of Talk and End button, back button, Menu shortcut, and trackball navigator. The latter is a bit deeper than we would have liked and it is not as comfortable as compared to the previous Blackberry phones but you will get used to it after a while. The full QWERTY keyboard has smallish keys and they feel plasticky but typing on them is comfortable since there is plenty of spacing between the keys.

On the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8350i’s left, there is a 2.5 mm headphones jack, Direct Connect key, and mini-USB port. On the right, there is a user programmable short cut key (by default used for the camera) and a volume rocker button. The handset’s top has mute button and on the back there is a camera with self portrait mirror and flash. The phone comes bundled with reference material, software CD, swivel belt holster, a gig of microSD card, SIM card, wired stereo headset, USB cord and travel charger.

It is been two years since Blackberry gave us a cellphone (previous model was RIM BlackBerry 7100i) and with this phone, the customers now get additional features and lots of improvements. Other features on the phone includes multimedia messaging, text messaging, speed dial, voice activated dialing, and speakerphone. There is no limit for the address book as long as you are not running out of internal memory. A single entry can take multiple phone numbers, home and work addresses, e-mail IDs, job title, etc. You can tag a contact as Buisness or Personal and there are 45 ringtones to choose from.

Bluetooth 2.0 too is there with support for stereo and mono headsets, Bluetooth peripherals and hands free kits. The handset also comes with built in GPS which is both assisted and autonomous using cellular and satellite triangulation for finding your position. You can access maps and text based turn by turn directions for driving through apps Google Maps for Mobile and BlackBerry Maps. You will have to use service which is location based like TeleNav GPS Navigator for voice guided instruction and real time tracking.

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8350i has a media player which supports the following media formats – AMR-NB, eAAC+, AAC+, AAC, WMA and MP3. Suported video formats are H.263, WMV, and MPEG-4. RIM BlackBerry Curve 8350i has a two megapixel camera along with video recording and digital zoom. For pictures, there are three options for sizes and three choices for quality. Apart from flash, you can fiddle with white balance and also add color effects. The built in GPS in the smartphone lets you geotag your photos. For using video camera, you have to install the microSD card first or else you cannot record. Video recording options are limited; there are only two formats, MMS and normal mode and effects for color. Photo quality wasn’t that good but objects were clear and colors looked pretty flat. Quality of the recorded videos was subpar, everything looked blurry.

When tested for call quality, the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8350i was quite decent. We would hear the audio loud and clear but calls were a bit hollow. It was like talking in an empty room. Speakerphone calls too gave us similar results, but the volume was loud enough. We could carry on our conversations quite well and didn’t have any dropped calls. For Bluetooth calls, we used Motorola S9 Bluetooth Active Headphones and Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth headset and they worked well.

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8350i comes with 1,400mAh lithium ion battery and the rated talk time is of four hours. In our tests, we got a talk time of 8.25 hours which is really impressive.

Nitty Gritty:

We will recommend you this handset if you are looking for smartphone with tons of features.

The BlackBerry Bold 9700 has sleeker design and features quick responsive trackpad, sharp display, 3.5mm headphone jack, excellent messaging features, numerous wireless options, and fast performance.

Thumbs Down:

BlackBerry browser still needs improvement to stand on top of mobile Web browsing competition. The downloaded applications are limited to internal memory.

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM
Band: Quad-band of WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Phone Design: Candy Bar
Caller ID: Yes
Other Features: Wi-Fi, 3G Support, Bluetooth, GPS/A-GPS; support for BES, IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange, and Novell Groupwise

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 is powered with 624MHz processor. It has 256MB RAM and micro-SD card slot for external storage. The messaging and data services include mobile email, mobile Web mail, BlackBerry browser, HSDPA, and RIM BlackBerry VM Client.

2.4 inches LCD display has 480×360 pixels resolution that supports 16-bit colors. 3.2-megapixel camera features Picture stabilizer, auto-focus, and 2x digital zoom. It records video in two resolutions: QCIF 176×144, and 352×480 pixels.

The Bold 9700 has 1500mAH lithium ion battery. Accessories supplied inside the box are user manual, software disc, wired stereo headset, belt holster, USB cable, and power adapter.

Razzle Dazzle:

RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 is 4.3 inches tall, 2.4 inches wide, and 0.6 inch deep and weighs 4.3 ounces. It feels solid while taking in hand. The Bold 9700 is lighter and smaller than BlackBerry Tour. Chrome lines and edges between the keyboard rows are giving more appealing look.

Inside Dope:

RIM BlackBerry Bold remains one of the top 10 cellular phone with its new version. Now, RIM has released new product – RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700. It costs $99.99 with two year AT&T contract after mail-in-rebate of $100. It offers sleeker design, excellent messaging features, large display, robust tools, and perfect multimedia performance. Like previous BlackBerry versions, the BlackBerry Bold 9700 will be the first choice for professionals and young users due to its attractive design and great feature set. The Bold 9700 is available in two versions – one for AT&T and other for T-Mobile.

2.44 inches LCD display of RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 has 480×360 pixels resolution. The display shows crispy images and text with better vibrant colors. The Bold 9700 runs on BlackBerry OS 5.0 that provides better user interface. It has same main menu and home screen like previous BlackBerry versions. You can personalize home screen with wallpapers and themes as well as change six shortcuts.

Navigation array sits underneath the display and consists of optical trackpad in the center. The Talk and menu keys are located on the left of trackpad, whereas End/Power key and back button are on its right side. You can smoothly use the trackpad to navigate the menus and scrolls through menus. We used this trackpad while testing and it worked quickly and accurately.

RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 has 35 keys QWERTY keyboard, but it is not so spacious like that of original Bold. On the contrary, the BlackBerry Bold 9700 has comfortable and large keys to provide better typing experience.

You will find customizable shortcut key, combined micro-USB port for charger/PC sync, and 3.5mm headphone jack located on the left spine. Volume rocker and dedicated camera button sits on the right spine. Mute and lock buttons are located on the top, whereas camera with flash sits on the back.

You can sync the RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 with corporate BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES). In addition, it also supports IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange, and Novell Groupwise. We like that you will also get additional functions with the Bold 9700 due to latest BlackBerry OS 5.0 such as ability to view calendar appointments, access remote file share, manage email folders, and more.

RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 allows accessing up to 10 business/personal POP3/IMAP4/SMTP accounts via BlackBerry Internet Service. We are disappointed that you do not get any pre-installed instant messengers. For compensating this problem, you can download free clients such as Windows Live, Yahoo!, ICQ, Google Talk, and AIM.

The Bold 9700 comes with preloaded BlackBerry App World that offers numerous paid and free applications categorized into games, utilities, music, social networking, and more. We do not like that the application storage download is limited to the internal memory. RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 comes with some information management tools including task list, calculator, clock, Yellow Pages Mobile, and Documents to Go Standard Edition to view/access Microsoft Office documents.

The phonebook of RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 stores contacts limited to available memory. Each contact can save multiple phone numbers, work information, email address, and more. You can organize the contacts into groups as well as pair them with group ID, ring-tone, and photo for caller ID. The basic feature set of the Bold 9700 includes multimedia and text messaging with chat threaded view, background noise suppression, speed dial, conference calling, smart dialing, voice activated dialing, speakerphone, and quad-band world roaming.

The additional highlights are Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3G support, BlackBerry browser, and GPS/A-GPS. The onboard Bluetooth supports AV remote, audio sources, dial-up networking, serial port profile, hands-free kits, stereo and mono Bluetooth headsets. For GPS, AT&T has included its AT&T Navigator for turn-by-turn voice guided directions. It is free for first 30 days and after that you have to pay additional $9.99 per month to continue the service.

BlackBerry browser includes some new additions including support for real-time streaming, Google gears, and BlackBerry widgets. It has as fast CSS & JavaScript processing for quickly loading the Web pages. On the contrary, the browser has limited tools and clunky navigation. We will prefer the BlackBerry to focus on Web browser to stand on top of Web browsing.

Inbuilt media player supports audio formats of eAAC+, AAC+, AAC, WMA ProPlus, WMA, and MP3. In addition, it supports H.264, WMV and MPEG4 video formats. The media player features full screen for video, repeat and shuffle playback, play-list creation, and search function. You can sync the music with Windows Media Player or iTunes via BlackBerry Media Sync. What’s more – BlackBerry Desktop Manager is now compatible to both Mac and Windows computers.

3.2-megapixel camera of RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 features video recording, auto-focus, variable zoom, and geo-tagging. The image editing options are standard. The overall picture quality was good while testing. The images looked better in outdoors than in indoors.

We made few calls through quad-band based RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 via AT&T service. The overall call quality was good. We received good and clear sound at our end with minimum background noise. The callers also received clear sound at their end with occasional crackling sound. The speakerphone call quality was fine. Both of us received loud sound with tinny volume. We also did not have any problem while pairing Bluetooth headsets with the Bold 9700.

RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 has 1500mAH lithium ion battery that has a life of 6 hours talk time and 19 days of idle standby time. Its digital SAR is 1.55 watts per kg in accordance with FCC radiation tests.

Nitty Gritty:

If you need a latest BlackBerry with quick responsive keyboard, trackpad and latest features and can work with average Web browsing experience, then buy – RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700.

Thumbs Up:

This phone is capable of world roaming, has all the features that you would expect in a smart phone like full QWERTY keyboard, GPS, music player and camera. Has a good display and the keyboard is comfortable to use.

Thumbs Down:

Lacks Wi-Fi and you can’t save applications to the memory card.

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: CDMA2000 1X / GSM / WCDMA (UMTS)
Band: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900 / CDMA2000 1X 1900/800
Phone design: Candy bar
Caller ID: Yes
Other features: EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized), EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates For Global Evolution), GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), Messaging Services.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

The TFT LCD display of the Tour has resolution of 480X360 pixels, 16-bit(65k colors). The phone has a full size QWERTY keyboard with 35 keys. The 3.2 mega pixel camera of the phone is capable of capturing video. Has geo-tagging functionality, 2x digital zoom and has features like auto focus and image stabilization. The bundled operating system is BlackBerry Handheld Software.

The phone has autonomous, assisted and simultaneous GPS enabled with preloaded BlackBerry Maps application and for e911 capabilities. Both control plane and user plane GPS is supported. It has BlackBerry maps and supports geo-tagging functionality.

The phone has 256 MB built in memory which can be expanded using microSD cards. Supported video formats include MPEG4 and WMV. Supported audio formats are AAC, MP3, eAAC+, AAC+, WMA and WMA ProPlus. The phone is 4.4 inches high, 2.4 inches wide, 0.56 inches deep and weighs 4.58 ounces. 1400 mAh lithium ion battery gives talk time of 5 hours and stand by time of 14 days.

Razzle Dazzle:

Tour has been launched both by Verizon wireless and Sprint and both of them have more or less similar design. We got the Sprint model for test in our test centers; it has a silver bezel where as the Verizon product was charcoal gray. The cover on the back is also different; this product has a smooth behind as compared to the Verizon’s model which had patterned texture.

Inside Dope:

Blackberry devices have always been made with business class users in mind and this time, Blackberry has included a SIM card slot that automatically takes to global GSM network when you are out of the country.

Bundled accessories with the phone include a microUSB cord, wired headset, SIM card, 1 GB microSD card, reference manual and travel charger. Verizon gave us international adapters with their Tour.

This phone takes over from BlackBerry 8830 Word Edition from Sprint as a phone for the globe trotters. This new model promises to be better than the previous one owing to the constant improvement in technology. The handset is a dual mode phone which means it supports both CDMA and GSM networks, when you are in US it will use the Sprint’s CDMA network but when you are traveling outside it will change to international networks of GSM to make sure you are connected. You also get 3G abroad.

You can choose the use any other SIM card incase you don’t want the bundled SIM card from Sprint but first you will have to unlock the phone by calling Sprint’s customer care. Sprint provides data coverage in 150 countries and voice coverage in 185 countries. Make sure you check out the call rates before you start your trip.

Other features on the Tour include speaker phone, smart dialing, speed dialing, multimedia and text messaging, voice activated dialing, conference calling, etc. there is Bluetooth which supports stereo and mono Bluetooth headsets, AV remote, hands free kits, dial-up networking and serial port profile. You can use the smartphone as a modem to connect to the internet but you will have to sign up with Sprint’s Mobile Broadband plans, they start at $59.99 for 5 GB per month.

The smart phone doesn’t have Wi-Fi in either Sprint or Verizon’s models. But Sprint has said that they plan to release a Wi-Fi model soon and this might make you delay your purchase to when the Wi-Fi model releases.

The Tour also has a media player, GPS, personal information and management tools, operating system, e-mail, etc. Sprint also gives you services like Sprint TV, Sprint Music Store and Sprint Navigation. You can also access social networking applications like Flickr, MySpace and Facebook and if you want more you can visit Blackberry App World or Sprint’s software store. But you can’t store applications on the external memory card; the internal memory is all you get.

Call quality was excellent on the Tour when we tested it on the CDMA service of Sprint. There were no disturbances and voice could be heard quite clearly. Our friends too gave us similar feed back they could hear our voices quite clearly. They could believe that we were speaking from a cell phone; quality was as good as land line calls. Speaker phone is better than average but we were a bit uncomfortable that the speakerphone was located on the left spine of the gadget. We also paired the phone with a Bluetooth headset, pairing was quick and call quality was good. The phone also has a 3.5 mm phone jack for grooving to tracks using your favorite brand of headphones. We plugged in Bose brand of headphone and were impressed with the quality. The phone can also play MPEG-4 videos.

Images were clear on the 3.2 MP camera of the phone but the colors could have been brighter. Blackberry’s weakness, if any, has to be the lamentable browser. They keep updating it on a regular basis in order to make user experience better it simply cannot compete with browsers like Safari which is one of the best browsers ever. It takes about a minute or so to load a site. The GPS/A-GPS of the smart phone is also quite good.

The 1400 mAH lithium ion battery of the phone gives you talk time of five hours and 14 days of standby time.

Nitty Gritty:

RIM BlackBerry Tour 9630 is a great device and it has everything you need in a smart phone apart from GPS. The awesome media player, great QWERTY keyboard and lots of messaging features make this phone a great buy.

Thumbs Up:

Dedicated media control buttons, 3.5 mm phone jack, good call quality.

Thumbs Down:

No GPS and 3G. You cannot store applications on the external memory and internal memory is all you get.

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: GSM
Band: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (Quadband)
Phone design: Candy bar
Caller ID: Yes
Other features: EDGE, music player, camera

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

BlackBerry Curve 8520 has a 2.64 inch TFT LCD display which gives a resolution of  320 x 240 pixels, 16-bit (65000 colors). The phone has 32 polyphonic ring tones in MIDI and MP3 formats. The phone comes bundled with BlackBerry Handheld Software.

There is internal memory of 256 MB and you can further expand it by microSD cards.
1150 mAh lithium ion battery gives talk time of 270 minutes and stand by time of 408 hours. RIM BlackBerry Curve 8520 has an 1150 mAh lithium ion battery which gives talk time of 270 minutes and gives standby time of 408 hours.

For music the file format recognized is MIDI music files, AMR-NB, eAAC+, AAC+, AAC-LC, WMA10/WMA9/WMA9 Pro and MP3. And for video the WMV (Windows Media Video), H.263 video and AMR audio, H.264 and MPEG-4

The 2.0 mega pixel camera can take pictures of resolutions of 160×120, 320×240, 640×480, 1280×960 and 1,600×1200. The video player has resolutions of 320 x 240 (QVGA) and 176 x 144 (QCIF)

Razzle Dazzle:

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8520 is the same as 8900 when it comes to looks department. It is the same in height(4.3 inches), width(2.3 inches) and thickness (0.5 inch). But this phone is a bit lighter than its predecessor and the exterior of the phone felt cheap plasticy.

Inside Dope:

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8520 is an entry level phone from Blackberry and we thought this was just a trimmed version of 8900. It doesn’t have GPS and high resolution that the latter had but offers the core features inside are the same and so is the performance. The two features are also sacrificed but give you a lower cost product.

The cost of this phone is $129.99 with a two year contract but if you shell out $20 more you will get the 8900 which has more features. But the most amusing part is Walmart is giving out this phone for $48.88 with a 2 year agreement.

The resolution of the 2.46 inch display has 320X240 pixels and has support for 65,000 colors. The smaller resolution is bit of a let down considering this is a smart phone and it shows its inferiority when you see images and videos. But apart from that the display is bright and clear; the text can be read easily. You can change the backlight time, theme, brightness and font size through the settings.

Below this display is the keypad which sports a new feature – an optical trackpad. We were skeptical of the trackpad since we have been comfortable with trackball ever since the days of Blackberry Pearl but the trackball was equally comfortable to use. Around the trackpad there are end and talk keys, back button and menu button.

We first saw the trackpad in Omnia and this trackpad too was equally responsive and easy to use. You can adjust the sensitivity of the track pad through the settings in the menu.

There are buttons on the top of the device for controlling the multi media playback which according to us is great ergonomics. You can simply dip a finger in your pocket and change the tracks without taking out the device from the pocket. You can also control video from these buttons. The play/pause button can also be used to as a mute button while on calls. Presence of 3.5 mm jack was great because it lets us plug in our choice of headphones without the hassles of a discrete adapter. The phone is great for music and we would have said the same about videos had the resolution been great.

On the sides of the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8520 there is a volume rocker key, 2 buttons to bring up any application that you want, micro USB port and head phone jack.

The QWERTY keyboard on the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8520 is quite similar to what we have seen in 8900 but they keys are a bit smaller. Again we must say that the small keys will lead to uncomfortable typing and there will be lots of mishits. We have tested lots of QWERTY keyboard and we must say, comfortable keyboards are quite rare. But we put the blame on the small size of the phone rather than pointing the finger at manufacturer for deliberately making uncomfortable keyboards.

The RIM BlackBerry Curve 8520 comes bundled with a gig of microSD card, AC adapter, wired headset, USB cord, recycling envelope, software disc and reference manual.

The RIM BlackBerry Curve 8520 lacks 3G and GPS but we won’t call it a deal breaker because this phone has a lower price and has been marketed as an entry level smart phone and as said earlier, this phone has the same great core features that the 8900 has. This phone has speakerphone, quad-band world roaming, smart dialing, voice-activated dialing, speed dial, conference calling and multimedia and text messaging. Presence of Bluetooth 2.0 lets you pair up head sets for wireless handsfree call experience. Other features for Bluetooth are serial port, dial-up networking, video/audio remote and audio source.

The RIM BlackBerry Curve 8520 only supports EDGE which is a bit disappointing; it took about a minute to load site and 10-15 seconds to load the mobile version of the site. A 1.5 MB file takes about three and half minutes to download.

You can add up as many contacts as you like, as long as you are not running out of internal memory. A single entry can take multiple e-mail address, phone numbers, job title, home and work addresses, etc. For photo ID you can pair up a photo for a contact so that his face flashes when he is calling you or you can give a unique caller ID to a contact. Grouping of contacts is also supported.

When it comes to messaging, the phone can sync with BlackBerry Enterprise server of your company and there is also support for Novell GroupWise, Microsoft Exchange or IBM Lotus Domino to deliver real time corporate e-mail. There is support for IMAP4 or POP3 which lets you sync up to ten e-mail accounts. The phone comes pre loaded with instant messengers likes Google Talk, AIM, Windows Live, Yahoo and ICQ.

There is an attachment viewer which lets you check attachments that come up with your e-mail. It can open Microsoft Excel, Word, Corel WordPerfect, PowerPoint, GIF, PDF, JPEG, etc. DataViz’s Documents to Go Suite lets you read and edit documents but it is only the standard edition, you will have to buy the full version separately if you want to make new files.

Other applications that you might need include alarm clock, calculator, voice recorder, task list, calendar, etc.

BlackBerry’s Desktop Software which is there on the software disc lets you sync your media and data files from your computer to the Blackberry 8520 but there is no such support for MAC, users of this platform have to use PocketMac for BlackBerry which is a third party application. RIM has promised to give a BlackBerry for Mac software soon.

All the applications can only be stored on the internal memory which is about 256 MB so be care full about what you are putting in. You can also download application for social networking like MySpace, Flickr, Facebook  and also games and applications from the catalog. You can put more memory if you want but the microSD card slot is located behind the battery cover of the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8520.

Blackberry has been generous when it comes to music playback and although they have not been as good as what music players deliver, we have been pretty happy with the quality. The formats recognized are MIDI music files, AMR-NB, eAAC+, AAC+, AAC-LC, WMA10/WMA9/WMA9 Pro and MP3. Music quality was pretty good with the bundled head set and the buttons on the top of the phone to control the playback. For video only MPEG4 H.264, H.263 and WMV2 clips are playable. The photo viewer supports JPEG, BMP, PNG, WBMP and TIFF files.

Picture quality was pretty good with the 2 mega pixel camera and it would be a crime to ask for 3.2 MP or higher camera on an entry level smart phone like this. But don’t buy this phone if you are a shutter bug freak especially when there are lots of 5 and 3.2 MP camera phones lurking around which give you a better quality. The camera can record video and it has a 5x digital zoom. The resolutions for video is 320 x 240 (QVGA) and 176 x 144 (QCIF)

The RIM BlackBerry Curve 8520 was tested for call quality and we found it to be quite good. There were no problems of dropped calls, no distortion and the handset didn’t attract any background noise to give clear call quality. Our friends too gave similar results; they could hear clearly what we were saying.

The speaker phone calls were a bit hollow and distant. You can also pair up a Bluetooth head set with this phone for handsfree and wirefree experience. We tried the phone with some headsets, pairing up was fast and voices were clear.

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8520 has an 1150 mAh lithium ion battery which gives talk time of 270 minutes and gives standby time of 408 hours.

Nitty Gritty:

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8520 is RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900 minus GPS and larger resolution. But a cut down of $20 is bit too less for this and we recommend you go with 8900 even if you are an entry level user.

Thumbs Up:

New OS, improved browser, upgraded camera, Wi-Fi and EDGE support.

Thumbs Down:

No 3G, camera shutter lags.

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: GSM
Band: GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Phone design: Candy bar
Caller ID: Yes
Other features: GPS, camera, music player, media player, EDGE.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

2.4 inch TFT LCD of the RIM Blackberry Curve 8900 has resolution of 480×360 pixels and supports 65,536 colors. The candy bar phone comes with a full QWERTY keyboard. The phone has 3.2 mega pixel camera, which is capable for video recording. Important features are flash, auto focus, image stabilizer and 2X digital zoom.

Video formats supported are WMV, MPEG4, DivX5/6 (not fully supported) H.263 video clips, XviD (not fully supported), and DivX4. Audio formats supported are MP3, WMA9/WMA9 Pro/WMA20, eAAC+, AAC, MIDI music files, AMR-NB and AAC+.
The phone is powered by 512 MHz and 256 MB ROM. The phone comes with a 256 MB microSD card and the phone supports expansion cards up to 16 GB. The 1,400mAh lithium ion battery gives 5.5 hours of talk time and 14 days of standby time

For email there is POP3/SMTP/IMAP/Microsoft Exchange/Blackberry Connect/Lotus Domino.  RIM Blackberry Curve 8900 doesn’t have 3G but only wi-fi and EDGE.

Razzle Dazzle:

We are all aware of what Blackberry phones usually look like. This phone is not much different from the previous phones of the manufacturer but this product is thinner than other Blackberrys. A thinner phone means it will fit more easily your tight jeans pockets. The phone is 4.2 inch high, 0.5 inch thick, 2.3 inch wide and it weighs about 3.8 ounces which is not too heavy. The phone is more sturdy and solid looking than the other Blackberry and it is sure to stand the shocks when you keep it in the pocket and go around in a crowded bus or alike. Looks wise the phone does look a lot similar to other Blackberrys and the outer body is still made of plastic but when you hold it and feel it, you will notice the difference.

Inside Dope:

Blackberry is known to make good messaging phones and it has good features like QWERTY keyboard for messaging. While it might look little boring, college students and tech freaks might be coy over the design of the phone, Blackberry says that it is made so to make messaging easier. These phones continue to be the favorite of business men who need to access e-mails on the go.

The display of the RIM Blackberry Curve 8900 is 2.4 inch TFT LCD which gives a resolution of 480×360 pixels. we thought the screen size and the resolution is a bit low and you will have to scroll a bit more when viewing web pages or reading text documents. The small screen is maybe due to the space hogged by the full QWERTY keyboard in the bottom. It is not a touch screen device but the display of the RIM Blackberry Curve 8900 is one of the best even considering that it is just LCD, not AMOLED, the icons and the text look very bright and vibrant on the screen. You might get confused when you access the menu of the phone because all the icons of applications look more or less the same.

Between the QWERTY keyboard and the screen are a few buttons like talk and end buttons (the end button is also the power button of the handset), back button, trackball navigator and menu button. The buttons are easy to use and you can easily use the RIM Blackberry Curve 8900 with one hand.

Beneath these buttons are the full QWERTY key board, now all keyboard on Blackberry devices look more or less the same. This key board is not that good, as the keys aren’t big and there is not enough segregation between the keys. Lots of mis hits are possible when typing on these buttons but we are not complaining because there isn’t much room for bigger keys on a mobile phone. But there is good backlighting for the keys so you can type easily in the dark. The number keys are in red against the alphabetical keys which are white.

On the sides of the RIM Blackberry Curve 8900 there is 3.5 mm phone jack so you can plug in your favorite head phones if you are not happy with the bundled set, volume rocker, microUSB port and the camera button. There are two more tiny buttons of lock key and mute which are on the top of the phone. The SIM card and the expansion card for memory are behind the battery cover. We would have liked the memory card slot to be somewhere on the sides or below the phone for easy access. But at least it is not behind the battery, like in some phones.

The RIM Blackberry Curve 8900 comes bundled with USB cable, travel charger, head set, 256 MB memory card, case, reference manuals and software disc. The phone has built in GPS with both cellular triangulation and satellites for finding your position.

The RIM Blackberry Curve 8900 now runs on a new OS BlackBerry OS 4.6.1.114 which promises some new features and improvement on the old. The phone has DataViz’s Documents to Go Suite with which you can edit PowerPoint, Word and Excel documents, but you can only edit the documents with the standard edition. You will have to purchase a premium edition if you want to create new files.

Other features on the RIM Blackberry Curve 8900 include calculator, memo pad, calendar, task list, password keeper, etc. You can also go online and purchase more games and applications that are available in the catalog of Blackberry. This model of Blackberry may not be compatible with third party applications that you have bought for earlier Blackberry devices.

One of the most lamentable features on the RIM Blackberry Curve 8900 has been the browser which has always been a let down on an otherwise feature rich Blackberry handsets. But with the new OS we expected better browser and we were happy with the web browser that this new phone had to offer. The browser supports viewing YouTube clips and RSS feeds. There is function for zooming in and out which you might have to use a lot considering the small size of the screen. Browser has been made better but it is nowhere close to the reigning king – Safari of the iPhone.

On of the biggest disappointments of the RIM Blackberry Curve 8900 is the lack of 3G connectivity, T-Mobile has rolled out its 3G network and we don’t understand why this phone doesn’t have one. With the lack for 3G you will have to resort to EDGE or Wi-Fi. The latter is fast and we had no problems connecting. Loading a website will take about 15-20 seconds which is not that slow.

There is no limit to the number of contacts that you can store in the memory of the RIM Blackberry Curve 8900 as long as you don’t run out of space. A single entry can take a number of phone numbers, home and work addresses, e-mail ID, job title, etc. You can put people in groups depending on how you know them; you can also give a unique ring tone to an individual. You can also take pictures from the built in camera and attach a picture to a contact.

Blackberrys has been known to have a decent music player and the  RIM Blackberry Curve 8900 support audio formats like MP3, WMA9/WMA9 Pro/WMA20, eAAC+, AAC, MIDI music files, AMR-NB and AAC+. For video, the formats supported are WMV, MPEG4, DivX5/6 (not fully supported) H.263 video clips, XviD (not fully supported), and DivX4. You can play videos in full screen, the quality is good but then it is marred by the smaller screen. We watched a MP4 video and found the video quality was quite satisfactory.

For music there is playlist creation, search function and repeat/shuffle modes. We liked the fact that we could sync the RIM Blackberry Curve 8900 with our iTunes library. For getting music from audio CDs there is a soft ware provided on the disc – Roxio Easy Media Creator. For storing music and videos, the phone comes bundled with 256 MB memory and you can further expand it to 16 GB.

Audio quality is good but not as good as Blackberry Bold. Speaker phone is below average so use the bundled head set or buy good set of head phones like Bose for good music experience.

Blackberrys usually have a 2 MP camera and they have refused to upgrade till now. This RIM Blackberry Curve 8900 comes with a 3.2 MP camera with flash. But we got dark photos even with the flash on the camera.  Image stabilization, 2X zoom and auto focus are all supported on the camera phone. There are three sizes for picture and three settings for quality. The GPS feature which comes built in on the phone lets you geo tag your pictures.

Pictures are good when shot in plenty of light but low light conditions are not good for taking pictures. Photos looked a bit low quality for 3.2 rated camera. Video quality is definitely worse and they looked grainy. Camera has shutter lag so make sure you hold the RIM Blackberry Curve 8900 for a while after you have clicked pictures to avoid damaged pictures.

In spite of these draw backs the RIM Blackberry Curve 8900 scores when it comes to messaging. For voice messaging the phone has voice activated dialing, conference calling, smart dialing, speaker phone, quad band world roaming, speed dial and multimedia/text messaging. The phone gets even better when it comes to e-mail messaging. The RIM Blackberry Curve 8900 has real time corporate e-mail delivery as you can sync it with BlackBerry Enterprise server of your company and it also has support for IBM Lotus Domino, Novell GroupWise and Microsoft Exchange.

If there are attachments in the e-mail you can open it with the built in viewer for attachments which has support for file formats like Excel, Corel WordPerfect, PowerPoint, Word, JPEG, PDF, GIF, etc. You can sync the phone to deliver emails from up to 10 accounts with the support for POP3/IMAP4 accounts. We tried setting up and it was lightning quick. The RIM Blackberry Curve 8900 also comes preinstalled with messengers like AIM, Yahoo, Google talk and Yahoo.

Call quality on the RIM Blackberry Curve 8900 was a bit disappointing with a little background noise being attracted while talking on the phone. But it isn’t a deal breaker you can clearly hear what others are saying. There is a feature called Enhance Audio which boosts the bass or treble but there wasn’t any significant change or improvement in the call quality.

Speaker phone calls are worse because they attract a lot of background noise even by the standards of speaker phone. Volume is plenty both on speaker phone and handset calls but there is a bit of hollowness while using the speaker phone. With Bluetooth support you can pair up the device with a wireless headset.

The RIM Blackberry Curve 8900 is powered by a 512MHz processor which is quick with opening applications and we didn’t experience any lag. You can also do multi tasking and the phone will run fine as long as you don’t test the processor by opening all possible applications at the same time. Even though overall the phone is quite fast, the camera lags a bit and you also have to hold the camera for a while after you have captured pictures.

The 1,400mAh lithium ion battery of the RIM Blackberry Curve 8900 has enough juice to power the phone for five and half hours of talk time and about 14 days of standby time.

Nitty Gritty:

RIM Blackberry Curve 8900 has improved a lot as compared to the other Blackberry phones which shows the hard work put in. Right from the revamped OS to the upgraded camera and improvement of the browser we will rate this as the best Blackberry phone to date.

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

More memory, Wi-Fi, updated OS, improved SurePress interface, multi touch capabilities.

Thumbs Down:

The browser needs improvement.

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: CDMA 800/1900; GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Band: Dual band (CDMA)/Quad band (GSM)
Caller ID: Yes
Phone Design: Candybar
Other Features: Wi-Fi, music player, camera, etc.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Display 3.2 inch, 480X360 resolution, accelerometer, proximity sensor, 3.2 mega pixel camera, flash, image stabilization, geotagging capabilities and the standard camera tools, such as white-balance settings, variable resolutions and qualities.

Supported formats for music player MP3, WMA ProPlus, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+ and WMA files Supported video formats – MPEG4, WMV, and H.264
256 MB flash memory, 2 GB onboard memory, 16 GB micro SD card included, 1400mAh lithium ion battery.

Razzle Dazzle:

BlackBerry Storm 2 doesn’t look much different from its predecessor and the dimensions are quite similar to the iPhone. It looks quite pretty with just four buttons on the screen and no keyboard. If a phone doesn’t have a slide out QWERTY keyboard then it adds to the sleekness of the phone. On the phone there is power/lock button, mute button, microUSB port, 3.5 mm phone jack. SIM card and microSD slots are located behind the battery cover. The latter isn’t hot swappable but at least you don’t have to go digging inside the battery.

Inside Dope:

The display of the phone is 3.2 inch big, which is quite large. It accommodates lot of icons and gives a lot of work space on the display. The big screen is well complimented by the 480X360 resolution.

The display has proximity sensor, which the RIM calls face detector, and will lock the screen when you place it close to your ear to prevent accidental touches. The phone also has an accelerometer which changes the display from vertical to horizontal when you place the phone sideways.

The phone doesn’t have a numeric keypad and neither does it have a slide out QWERTY key pad(which is the reason behind the thin look). So the virtual touch screen is all you get. Now the touch screen QWERTY keyboard has its own set of issues and you will need some time to get used to this keyboard. RIM has improved its SurePress interface and it shows in the keyboard. If you want to type in capital you can press the shift key and the letter key at the same time (earlier it was one key at a time).

This is not all, the SurePress key also gives you a click feel when you press the display. You can use your finger to roam around on the display and then you can click on the button that you want. The same goes for places like drop down boxes where you can surf through the available options through your finger and then click the entry that you want.

The keyboard lights up when you click on the QWERTY keyboard buttons and the accelerometer is available for the keyboards so you will prefer typing with the device placed horizontally, because you get more place.

The phone has the same processor as its predecessor but with the larger memory cards, you might think that this phone would get a little slow. We thought so too, but we were glad that the phone has same great speed. The transitions in the accelerometer were quick and there won’t be any lag when you open applications.

This phone supports multi touch so you can exploit this function while messaging. You can place one finger at the start of the piece and other finger at the end of the piece and then cut/copy/paste.

The phone has a built in 3.2 megapixel camera which gives a good picture quality. It also offers a flash, image stabilization, geotagging capabilities and the standard camera tools, such as white-balance settings, variable resolutions and qualities, etc. The camera has video recording capabilities too and the video quality was decent.

The RIM BlackBerry Storm 2 has a 1400mAh lithium ion battery which gives a talk time for 5.5 hours and standby time of 11.2 days. The phone comes with a 256 MB flash memory, two GB flash memory and a 16 GB microSD card for storing all your songs, videos and photos.

You can access 10 POP3 or IMAP4 email accounts at a time on RIM BlackBerry Storm 2. You can also view PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect, Excel, PDF, JPEG, GIF, and more with the attachment viewer. Popular IM clients like Windows Live, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk and AIM are all included.

The phone also has WiFi built in so that you can use it if you don’t have 3G coverage in your area. There are features on this phone like speed dial, voice-activated dialing, smart dialing, conference calling, speakerphone and text and multimedia messaging. The phone has unlimited entries and shortage of card memory is the only thing that will stop you from saving more contacts. You can store multiple numbers, e-mail addresses, job title, work and home address and more in a single entry. You can also tag a photo with a contact and you can assign individual ring tone to a person.

The one lamentable thing about Blackberry phones is the browser and it has still not improved yet. But there are lots of improvements made, this product has better page renderings and speed improvements because of faster JavaScript and CSS processing. The browser also supports Google Gears, BlackBerry widgets, there were rumors of tabbed browsing (like the ones in computer browsers) but we haven’t seen it here. But there is no flash.

The music player on the phone is capable of playing MP3, WMA, WMA ProPlus, AAC, AAC+, and eAAC formats and the video player can play MPEG4, WMV, and H.264 formats. There are functions of repeat, search, shuffle which are found in normal mp3 players in phones. You can view videos full screen on this and it is an awesome experience to view videos on this big screen. The supported video formats are MPEG4, WMV, and H.264. The included CD with the phone has Roxio Easy Media Creator with which you can create MP3s from CDs and add audio tags to it.

Call quality on the phone was excellent on both ends. There was no distortion and there was no background noise. The people at the other side of the phone too said that our voice was crystal clear on the phone. The speakerphone too was good but the quality drops a little. The included Bluetooth feature allows you to pair the device with a Bluetooth headset. We tested the device with a wireless headset and the call quality was great.

Nitty Gritty:

BlackBerry Storm 2 is definetly better than its predessor in many ways. This device has an improved SurePress touch screen, an updated operating system and provides better user experience. But there are still issues in the phone, the browser isn’t as good as other manufacturers phones. If you are a RIM fan and if you haven’t got BlackBerry Storm, then get this device. Others might prefer Samsung Omnia 2 or Motorola Droid.