The BlackBerry 8300 Model
Research in Motion (RIM) have released their latest cell phone model the Blackberry 8300. Also called as the BlackBerry Curve, it has full QWERTY keyboard and is very light and tiny, just weighing 3.92 ounces with dimensions of 4.2" x 2.36" x 0.61". This is as small as a cell phone can get. This smart phone has rounded edges and is available liquid black & silver colour. It has soft grip edges which makes it easy to handle and use.
In addition to the QWERTY keyboard, the BlackBerry 8300 has a large 2.5 in LCD screen with a pixel resolution of 240x320 and 65000 colour display. The latter is good enough for viewing both photos as well as videos. The BlackBerry curve is provided with a light sensor that adjusts the brightness of the LCD screen depending on surrounding light conditions. This increases the battery life when in standby mode by optimizing its use. It also has a spell checker, and a trackball system with high sensitivity for effortless navigation.
Some of the other features of the BlackBerry 8300 model are an inbuilt digital camera with 2.0 Mp capacity, 5x zoom, an LED controlled flash and a self portrait mirror. Even 1600 x 1200 pixels resolution photos can be taken with the camera. They can be shared in a no. of ways including Bluetooth, USB cable, MMS, email or through micro SD memory card.
For music buffs, the BlackBerry Curve supports various audio file formats like Mp3, AAC, WMA, MIDI and WAV. Mp4, AVI, MOV and 3GP are some of the video file formats supported by it. Large files can be stored in the 64 MB memory provided in the model as well as through additional memory cards. The battery of BlackBerry Curve has a standby time of up to 21/2 days and it is also provided with 3.5mm headset.
For business applications, the BlackBerry 8300 has facility to send and receive emails and can be hooked on to a PC for sharing them. It can also serve as modem for laptops through a cable link. Some of the Office applications like Word, Excel, Adobe and PowerPoint are supported by the cell phone. In addition it can run Personal Information Management (PIM) software. Further it has high security features, remote address book access facility, single mailbox integration and can synchronize wirelessly with other PIM tools.
Compared to a 3G phone, the BlackBerry is a little slow when downloading streaming video from the internet since it uses EDGE packet data for communication. But it is good enough for email, messaging and making voice calls. The communication could be improved by using Wi-fi and 3G augmentation. The set is presently sold in Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific region along with stereo headsets, charger, case and user manual.
In conclusion, the BlackBerry 8300 is an attractive choice with wide screen and right price and is presently one of the most popular PDA cum phones.