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| BlackBerry Curve 8320 Smartphone Titanium (T-Mobile) | 
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| Brand: BlackBerry
Category: Wireless
Buy New: Too low to display
New (2) Refurbished (1)
Avg. Customer Rating:  58 reviews
Sales Rank: 55
Color: Silver
Media: Wireless Phone
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 0 x 0 x 0
Model: 8320 Curve
UPC: 610214614957
ASIN: B000W79GQA
Release Date: September 24, 2007
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Promotion: Data not available Terms and Conditions
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
Good but WIFI is buggy November 21, 2007
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
I got a Blackberry curve 8320 for T-mobile in Sept 2007. I've had it now about 2 months. I've also had several previous models of the Blackberry. It is a good improvement over past versions and it mostly works well. Two features that are new compared with previous versions are the WIFI and the Instant Messenger. Regarding WIFI, the device software has some bugs (defects). For example, the WIFI doesn't work very well for phone calls unless the device is stationary during the call - any movement (like walking) may cause it to drop the call. Another example is that the WIFI may randomly cause the phone to spontaneously reboot - fortunately this doesn't happen often. Transferring a call from WIFI to EDGE does work most of the time - its only dropped a few of my calls that started this way. Instant Messenger (Yahoo, AIM, etc) work well without issues. Tethering works GREAT. Other features are standard in previous blackberries that I've owned.
 nice device, awful service November 20, 2007
34 out of 52 found this review helpful
This is a very neat device, but T-Mobile service is awful. T-Mobile coverage in lower Manhattan is patchy. My new device picked up no reception in my apartment, so I could neither receive nor make calls from home. Two of my colleagues who also live in Manhattan had the same problem with T-Mobile service and got out of their contracts only after threatening to sue T-Mobile for failure to provide the service. I kept the device for a month, during which T-Mobile representatives assured me the problem would be fixed. They also tried hard to sell me a "hot spot" router ($50) which would "put your own tower into your home", according to one T-Mobile representative. When I finally decided to cancel the service, I was hit with a $200 early cancellation fee. No amount of reasoning with T-Mobile would get me out of it. Besides, T-Mobile wouldn't unlock the blackberry device preventing me from using it with another provider. And T-Mobile wouldn't accept the device back for a refund, because T-Mobile didn't sell it directly (Amazon dealer did). It's been a miserable experience all around for me.BlackBerry 8320 Curve Titanium myFaves Phone (T-Mobile)
 How Wi-Fi Works with 8320 November 2, 2007
65 out of 68 found this review helpful
First off, this is a great BlackBerry device that compares with any other BlackBerry device. Let's be honest: What you are interested in is how this phone works with VoIP over Wi-Fi. Okay, T-Mobile does offer the add-on "Hotspot@Home" service that allows unlimited calling when you choose to talk through the Wi-Fi network, but this is purely an option. This phone will still use Wi-Fi (or UMA), at the places you can access Wi-Fi, instead of using the T-Mobile cellular network... you'll just be using your plan minutes if you don't add on that unlimited option.
But, how does it actually work? Think of your home Wi-Fi router becoming another cellular tower. All cell phones "hand off" your call from one tower to the next as you drive down the highway. But with a UMA phone like this one, your home (or work) Wi-Fi becomes yet another available "tower" for your call to be handed to and from. So, start a call on Wi-Fi and walk out to the door, your call is automatically handed off to the T-Mobile tower without you noticing a thing. Started a call in your car on the way home? As soon as you walk in your front door, the call is automatically handed off to your Wi-Fi router seamlessly. As far as the phone and T-Mobile is concerned, it is no different than just driving further down the road to the next cellular tower. Yes, the phone easily connects even if your Wi-Fi requires a login (like most hotels) or the Wi-Fi signal requires WEP or WPA authentication.
I've been using my new phone for about one week and I've already burned through 250 minutes of my unlimited "Hotspot@Home" voice time through Wi-Fi, which before would have counted against my available plan minutes. You can't argue with the bottom line: this phone pays for itself almost overnight!
Excellent phone; smaller than expected October 29, 2007
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
Been using the phone for 5 days now and I love it. No problems yet. Thus far, I really like:
*very small and light
*excellent call quality (better than my previous Nokia)
*bright, clear screen
*relatively quick navigation between screens
*stereo headphones and carrying case included in package
*excellent T mobile customer service (they helped me fix a problem I had installing the blackberry desktop software)
The only cons I can think of right now are:
*have to buy a microSD card to store media
*sometimes the phone lags between screens (as all computers do)
*battery life may be an issue after busy days
*can't get bluetooth to work with my computer (most likely due to the computer, not the phone)
I was choosing between the iPhone and the curve. After borrowing an iPhone and playing with the Curve in the store, I chose the Curve for it's functionality and lesser price. I'm very happy with the decision.
 Great Blackberry, crippled only by T-mobile October 27, 2007
46 out of 55 found this review helpful
This review is for the Blackberry 8320 Curve by T-Mobile. A device is only as good as its service provider - in this case unfortunately T-mobile is a poor one. I received this BB only a few days ago with much excitement. It permits you to pull corporate mail, connect to a wi-fi router to make VOIP based calls and other great features - too many to list.
I had chosen the $19.99 Blackberry Internet Service plan for 10 ISP based emails (POP3/IMAP), Internet browsing (though mainly WAP, not true HTML - BB's proxy servers strip out rich content) and Instant Messaging clients (AIM, Yahoo, Gtalk, ICQ, Windows Live messenger). Though you need to spring another $10 to pull corporate mail from your company's BES server, you still can pull work mail if your company permits browser based email access. By this I mean Outlook Web Access (i.e. https://mail.yourcompany.com/exchange). The extra $10 does buy you instant 'push' email, whereas OWA access does have a 10-15 minute delay. If you can live with this small setback, then you should be fine with the $19.99 BIS plan.
Once I received my BB 8320, I realized that reception was very poor inside my house (1-2 bars, fluctuating quite a bit as well). The purpose of T-mobile providing three types of UMA (unlicensed mobile access) based phones to subscribers is that they know their network has poor performance, especially inside buildings. Signing up for their $19.99 Hotspot@home service allows you to connect to your home router (provided by T-mobile) and any of their 8000 Hotspot locations in Starbucks nation wide. I myself did not sign up for the Hotspot@home service, but just connected to my own home wi-fi router. This seemed to work well, but was intermittent and in the end unreliable. I noticed that connecting to my home wi-fi router caused alot of connection failures for my laptops and desktops. The phone is smart enough to figure out when to switch out of GSM/GPRS and onto wi-fi where available.
My main gripe with T-mobile is that their network does not have good coverage within buildings. Not all buildings that I happen to be in a given day have open wifi access points - this unfortunately makes the UMA feature unusable. The fact that T-mobile's network is solely on the 1900mhz GSM spectrum, and not also 850mhz is likely the reason why building penetration is poor. On a few occasions where I had full bars, I was unable to make an outgoing call up until my 3rd attempt. Also, while standing in line at Potbelly's where I had full bars - I was unable to make an outgoing call to a friend's cell phone (got the 'circuits busy' message). As a paying wireless subscriber, I feel that my $70/mth plan should amount to some sort of guarantee that I will be able to place a call when needed.
On the positive side, I did have good coverage in most of the DC metropolitan area including my Washington, D.C. office. Even though their signal seems strong in a good amount of areas, not having a reliable signal at home really does drive one crazy. I really like the phone itself. It is very light and easy to use - OS performance is quick and reactive. Keyboard feedback is also very good, didn't take me too long to adjust from a regular phone to typing on this BB. As mentioned earlier there is a multitude of applications already installed and further on there are alot of 3rd party applications that are available online for free. The speaker phone was very clear and audible. Having the myFaves deal is great if you speak to specific friends/loved ones alot - keep in mind that you are limited to 5 people and that you can update these numbers only once every billing cycle. Setup of email was quick and painless, everything gets pushed immediately except for my corporate email (as mentioned above).
In the end I feel that my 3 star rating for this product is justified due to the fact that the BB device is great, but falls short of strong performance due to its marriage to T-mobile. I used to have a T-mobile Sidekick (only data, no voice plan) 4 years ago and it was plagued by poor reception at my college. Thought maybe 4 long years was enough for T-mobile to get their act together....should have known better.
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