Welcome the New BlackBerry Curve 3G

Aug. 26, 2010 - PRLog -- Exactly a year after the Blackberry Curve 8520 was released, Canada’s RIM updates the popular Curve with 3G and GPS on the new Blackberry Curve 3G 9300.  It comes at the heels of the recently announced Blackberry Torch and the latest OS iteration in the Blackberry OS v6.  

Using the same 512 MHz engine, the new Curve 3G will still be running the older v5.0 OS but will be updated once the new version is available for upgrading.

Unlike the older Curve, the new 3G version will come in two colors of black and red, sporting a chrome trim that distinguishes it from the old. Hardware-wise, it will share the same dimensions at 109 x 60 x 13.9mm but is 2 grams lighter at 104g.  It will also sport the same screen size, touch optical trackpad and QWERTY ergonomics.  

Features at a Glance

The update starts with having 3G capability on the tri band UMTS (850/ 1900/ 2100) with HSDPA data speeds but without HSUPA.  It is also the same quad band GSM with class 10 GPRS/EDGE data connectivity on the 2G network.  

Hotspot surfing support gets better with WiFi 802.11 b/g/n equipped with UMA (carrier based) capability which is an improvement over the vanilla WiFi on the older Curve.  

Local data transfers and synching get the same Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and microUSB 2.0 for wireless and wired options, respectively.   The Blackberry Curve 3G 9300 now gets SatNav functionality from an in-built GPS with A-GPS support and Blackberry Maps preloaded.

The landscape display is a 2.5-inch TFT LCD screen with 65k colors on its QVGA resolution which is identical to what the older Curve 8520 has. Imaging is minimal as Blackberry phones have never been praised for its camera features.

When you see that its flagship smartphones before the Blackberry Torch only have 3 megapixel cameras, a rudimentary 2 megapixel resolution on a fixed focus camera the Blackberry Curve 3G 9300 has is no surprise. It also supports basic video recording.
There’s an onboard 256 MB RAM and 25 MB ROM for its OS and application files but user memory is confined to a nearly unlimited phonebook entries. Good thing it has microSD support for up to 32 GB of external memory expandability.

A Competent Music Phone

As you can expect, there’s no stereo FM radio typical of all Blackberry handsets.  But despite being a serious business phone with the signature BES access for secure encrypted email services that have endeared the brand among corporate honchos, the Blackberry Curve 3G 9300 is an excellent music phone.  

It has the capable media playback support for MP3, eAAC+, WMA, WAV and FLAC audio files as well as MP4, H.263/H.264 and WMV video file formats. Stereo listening gets an industry standard 3.5 mm headphone jack while its A2DP support allows for wireless stereo listening.  
It even comes with dedicated music keys.  The li-ion battery rated at 1150 mAh delivers up to 29 hours of uninterrupted music listening while allowing up to 5.4 hours of talk time on 3G, 4.5 hours on 2G and 19 days in standby.  

http://www.moby1.co.uk/phones/Blackberry/Curve-9300.html