My gear lust finally drove me away from high-bandwidth happiness in a somewhat clunky 8703e with Sprint to a nice sleek BlackBerry Curve and AT&T service. The Curve is slightly thicker than the iPhone and a good bit shorter. It’s more narrow and thinner than the 8703e. The size difference to the 8703e is smaller than it feels – the rounded edges of the Curve make it feel even smaller than it is.
When I priced cell service a little while ago, I really couldn’t even consider AT&T/Cingular, but now that I have an EVDO card and I’m not trying to use the BlackBerry as a modem there are two big differences:
- I don’t need the $35-40/month option to use the phone as a modem (which doesn’t work right with a Mac anyway).
- I don’t need as fast data rates to the device.
So far, it’s been going pretty smoothly on the new device. Some thoughts I’ve collected over the last few days:
- The EDGE data transmission making my speakers pop is really annoying.
- It’s not that much smaller than the 8703e, but it feels that much smaller.
- The trackball takes a little getting used to.
- They keyboard isn’t quite as good as the 8703e – more reminiscent of my Treo.
- The speaker (especially the ringer) is a lot louder.
- You can now use alt+letter (then keep typing letters) to search your address book on the Phone screen – awesome!
- AT&T’s coverage is better than I expected. They were so poor in the Bay Area, I’ve been pleasantly surprised here in Denver/Boulder.
- Shoot, I forgot I’d be losing GPS in Beyond411 – the GPS maps never worked well for me on the 8703e, but the “search where I am” ability in Beyond411 was really useful.
- This is the first phone I’ve had with voice dialing capabilities. That’s pretty darn handy.
- The only time I really notice the EDGE data speed in Google Maps.
- My GrandCentral number rings about 5-10 seconds faster on the AT&T phone than it does on the Sprint phone. Very nice.
I’m probably going to make the switch but I’m going to give it a full week with AT&T, just in case. The 8073e will likely end up on Craig’s list.
AT&T has become pretty good in the Bay Area. I still get dropped calls, but only (typically) if I’m driving around during rush hour.
Still liked Verizon’s Bay Area coverage better, but AT&T’s coverage has finally reached the point where I’m no longer annoyed by it.
Heh, ‘Congular’. I’m not sure if that was a typo or not, but funny nevertheless. =)
I just picked up the Curve a couple of weeks ago, after returning my iPhone for being a useless…brick.
I have to say, I really enjoy the Curve. It has that nice full size keyboard, but it’s still small, so you don’t look too stupid using it as a phone without a headset. Granted, EDGE speeds are a touch on the slow side (Okay, really slow) and yes the speaker interference is annoying as well but no other problems.
And, on AT&T: Right now they have better coverage around where I live than any other carrier, including Verizon. Roll-over is also a nice feature, though with how little I use my cellphone to call people, it’s sort of a moot point.
Now, if I could find a way to post to WordPress from a Blackberry, I would be happy.
glad to see you joined the Club Alex.. I got one of these the day it was released.. soon you will love the trackball and after that when you try an old side-scroll, you’ll wonder how you ever did it..
I added a 4gb micro sd card and now use the 8300 as an ipod replacement as well.. this is the best add-on you can get to start..
The Curve is the junkiest Blackberry of all time…I guess ATTWS wanted a full keyboard BBERRY to hook the kids…this device has bugs galore…memory issues, firmware, others…I would not recommend anyone buy this device…
I’ve been tempted by AT&T to leave Verizon and my 8703e behind. I currently use it as my primary broadband connection at home though. It’s been rough enough with EVDO, thinking of dropping to EDGE scares me. Honestly, I’d be happier if the Curve came to Verizon or if OS 4.2 was finally released for the 8703e.