My New Toy: Blackberry Curve

After years of using a regular phone to try and keep up with my life, I've finally cracked down and bought a smartphone: the Blackberry Curve 8330 from Verizon. Why the Blackberry you ask? Well, it just plain kicks butt, and does so at a bargain price compared to the more expensive Windows Mobile-based phones like the Samsung SCH-i760 I wanted. With all the typical PIM apps like Calendar, Tasks, Phonebook, and Memo, I've got my hectic life put in check. A 2.0 megapixel camera along with a video camera, voice recorder, and decent media player round out it's multimedia offerings while its functional keyboard, bright screen and light weight make it easy to use. With Verizon's EVDO Rev0 highspeed data access, surfing's a breeze and I'm able to watch streaming video's like the trailer to the new Batman movie, "The Dark Knight", without a problem.

The few gripes I have about this phone are no WiFi support, poor placement of memory card (behind battery - what were they thinking!), battery life not as good as hoped, and no support for HTML email out of the box. These things definitely aren't dealbreakers as I don't find myself swapping out memory cards often and I've always got a battery charger or cable nearby. For now, the only way to read HTML email is via a 3rd-party program. My dibs is on Empower's Blackberry HTML Viewer for 30 big ones.

I've only had my Curve for almost 2 months, but I still feel like I've only scratched the surface on what this baby has to offer. I know one thing, I'm definitely not going back to a regular phone!

I'd like to send a special shout-out to my friends over at CrackBerry.com for getting me on the road to discovery with my new Curve. These guys are the best when it comes to giving you the lowdown on all things Blackberry including a superb community (200,000 and growing) of forum members ready to help you when you need it. Go check 'em out, even if you don't own a Blackberry! ;)