Blackberry - RIM Curve 8320 Cell Phone Review

I recently upgraded to the Blackberry 8320 when my wife and I switched from AT&T to T-Mobile, and I'm a big fan of this device. The list price of the 8320 is not cheap, but we got a sweet deal for switching providers (AT&T was gouging us pretty badly, but that's another review entirely).

This Blackberry has a metallic finish (cutomizable for a little extra $), the smallest and lightest smartphone ever to come with a full QWERTY keyboard, which makes texting much, much easier. Among the other features are email and text messaging, instant messaging, web browser, camera, media player, Wi-Fi capabilities, expandable memory, voice dialing (I haven't managed to get this function set up as of yet), and trackball navigation. I also like that you can change the size of the text on the screen display.

I got the data plan on a trial basis, basically just to shave a few bucks off of the cost of the phone, but I was soon hooked. It's great to be alerted when an email hits your inbox, and the web browser comes in very handy when trying to find services on the road, or to do research when you're away from the computer.

My wife often uses the web browser in the grocery store to go online to find out whether or not a gluten-free product is truly gluten-free, or whether it's got cross-contamination issues. This afternoon, we used it to find out which used bookstores in Austin are open on Sunday.

Overall, the Blackberry 8320 is an extremely versatile device that offers many of the bells and whistles of more expensive models at a reasonable price, especially if you get it when you are renewing your contract or switching providers. And it comes in a nice leather carrying case that has an imbedded magnet that shuts off the screen automatically.