The BlackBerry Curve 3G (9300) has been called an "entry-level" smartphone or functional and cost effective. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the top Android smartphones but will be fine for messaging, email and light web use.
The BlackBerry Curve 3G is slated for release on T-Mobile for September 8. It is now believed that the BlackBerry Curve 3G will be sold by Verizon sometime in the fall because rebate forms ending 10/31 show a rebate for it. However, we don't yet know whether it will be eligible for Verizon's famous buy one BlackBerry, get one free deal.
The specs of the BlackBerry Curve 3G include that it will ship with BlackBerry OS 5, to be updated later to OS 6. The BlackBerry Curve 3G has an optical trackpad, 320 x 240 screen, 2 megapixel camera, 625 MHz processor, GPS, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth, 2 gigabyte microSD card and supports 3G networks.
We've scanned all the reviews now posting on the Blackberry Curve. One reviewer of the keyboard found it to be better than other BlackBerry
Curve keyboards and more like the BlackBerry Bold, while Crackberry
related it to more like other BlackBerry Curve keyboards.
Early
reviews of the BlackBerry Curve 3G on other carriers have found the most recent model to have excellent battery life, good phone quality, little signal loss by
gripping, decent camera and GPS on par with other BlackBerry
smartphones.
BlackBerry CEO Mike Lazaridis summed up the BlackBerry Curve 3G nicely:
"The majority of people in the worldwide mobile
phone market have yet to buy their first smartphone and the BlackBerry
Curve 3G is designed to provide an extremely attractive and accessible
choice that will help convince many of them to make the leap."
RIM has been lagging behind the super-powered Android smartphones and iPhone in popularity. The BlackBerry Torch received good reviews and was sold at a major discount as soon as it was released by online retailers. Both Amazon Wireless Beta and Wirefly are discounted the BlackBerry Torch as much as a C-note. Analysts called BlackBerry Torch sales "underwhelming."
RIM later said that the discount was not a price cut but part of their industry practice.
It will be interesting to see how low the price of the BlackBerry Curve 3G will go as the model navigates the highly competitive smartphone marketplace.
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