Nextel subscribers looking for a Direct Connect compatible smartphone finally have a real BlackBerry option: the Curve 8350i. This phone is packed with features. It has 802.11g wifi built in so when you need to watch youtube or download something pretty quick, you can do it. The phone features OS 4.6 which supports better web browsing, html email, and of course MMS. The phone comes with a theme similar to the bold and as of now, custom themes can be made with Plazmic 4.7 if you prefer. Last but least, it carries what Nextel is known for which is the Direct Connect walkie talkie. The BlackBerry Curve 8350i looks a lot like other 8300-series Curves. The 320-by-240-pixel, 2.4-inch light-sensing LCD is bright and easy to read. The QWERTY keyboard has raised plastic keys with a pleasant, clicky resistance, so typing on the 8350i is a pleasure. The trackball and four flanking control keys are exactly the same as those on other Curves. One gaffe: The 8350i substitutes the Curve line’s standard-size 3.5mm headphone jack with a nonstandard 2.5mm port on the left-hand side. This is a major step backward that makes it difficult to upgrade the included wired earbuds, which are passable, but not outstanding. They are about on a par with the bundled earbuds of iPods. Also on the left-hand side you’ll find a mini USB jack and a large push-to-talk button. The right-hand side, meanwhile, contains a programmable shortcut button that defaults to activating the camera, along with volume controls further up.
RIM outfitted the 8350i with a Bold-style menu system, which features improved icon design with a wire-frame look and smooth highlight fades as you pass the trackball over each icon. As is typical for Sprint and Nextel phones, the Curve comes with a solid software bundle that contains Handmark’s Pocket Express information aggregator for news, weather, sports scores, and more; instant-messaging clients for AIM, Google Talk (a rarity), and Yahoo Messenger; support for NFL Mobile and NASCAR Mobile; and four games, one being Texas Hold ‘Em King 2.
The Curve 8350i has the usual push e-mail support for up to ten accounts using BlackBerry Internet Solution (BIS). It also works with BlackBerry Enterprise Solution (BES) for mailbox integration with Microsoft Exchange, Novell GroupWise, and Lotus Domino. RIM’s latest Web browser includes a mouse cursor and zoom feature, which is welcome given our “blah” feelings toward RIM’s browser in the past. It rendered WAP pages well on my tests, but iDEN’s slow data speed means you’ll want to kick in the Wi-Fi radio whenever possible.
RIM does compress data on the back end, which helps, but not enough; hooking into a nearby WPA2 hot spot sped up the proceedings considerably. Unlike other Curves, the 8350i doesn’t work as a tethered laptop modem, either. For multimedia, the 8350i has 128MB of onboard storage, which is a modest upgrade from the 96MB in the 8330 and the 64MB in the rest of the Curve line. (Sprint also throws in a 1GB microSD card for good measure.) The microSD slot is beneath the battery—never a good thing—but it read and wrote to a 8GB SanDisk microSDHC card without a problem. The 8350i played video files smoothly, even in full-screen mode.
The 8350i is equipped with the same 2-megapixel camera (with video recording) that graces other Curves. There’s a small portrait mirror on the rear panel along with a bright LED flash. Photos were detailed but quite noisy in low-light, indoor environments.
Overall, I would give this phone an 8.5. Its got a sleek exterior, all black with yellow accents to add to sex appeal. I took out a half of a point for it not being a hybird phone like the ic902, i.e. Sprint voice service and Nextel Direct connect. I also took off a point for it taking so long for the issues to be resolved. In other words, if you need a Blackberry and you need a Nextel phone for direct connect and can live with low data speeds, this is the phone for you.
Leave a Reply: