BlackBerry Curve 8350i
Average Ratings
Returned it after one week
Nextel seems to be the only carrier with service at my office so I really wanted the phone to work but after one week I was forced to return it. The main problem was with the sound. Even where I had good reception I was constantly hearing complaints that I sounded like I was driving in a convertible.
Over all the usual blackberry functions are there and work well. Email, syncing with contacts and calendar are great. The reception I thought was pretty good. I usually showed at least 3 bars of signal or more. The camera was decent and the package felt and looked like quality. Wifi was great.
Direct connect was a little soft but clear sounding. The battery does not last the entire day with anytype of phone or email use.
The radio would turn itself off at times without any good reason. As mentioned before text messaging does not work well on this phone. You must turn the radio off and on every hour to make sure you are getting your texts.
The biggest problem was the sound. People just constantly complained the could not hear what I was saying.
Its about time!
I have been a Nextel/Sprint sales manager for about 6 years and have been through the good and the bad. By the bad I mean the 7100i and by the good I mean the 8350i. Now that Sprint has got their act together and finally noticed that Nextel is a huge asset to the company, RIM and Sprint came up with the greatest iDEN device to date. The 8350i is a powerhouse out of the box, and when you are in a good coverage area, the phone works great! There is still the lack of coverage in some areas here in Northern California, but with the "Invigoration" of Nextel part 3, hopefully those areas will be fixed. The browser that comes on the phone is decent, so if you are looking for something faster, I use the Opera Mini browser. I also have heard of complaints for activating the phone. My word of advise to you is this... DO NOT PUT YOUR OLD SIM CARD IN THE PHONE! When the phone is shipped the SIM and ESN are locked in so that when the phone is activated with them, the service books will show up. If you use the old sim, it will show that the PIN is in use with another subscriber. That is my 2 cents when it comes to the 8350i. I definately would recommend it for any customer that needs their email and DC.
the phone is great
pro
new blackberry os!
mms!
push to talk!
doc to go!
gps!
wifi!
looks great!
con
no edvo!(download opermini and you wont real notice the speed different)
Its an Upgrade for walkie talkie users
For people who need to have a walkie talkie...yes this phone is deff an upgrade for Nextel...the pros: before this phone the bext nextel phone was the i930 or i860!...you have all the great blackberry organizing, calendaring, work tools you need...the cons: service...supposedly sprint and nextel are the same network now...but man if you tried calling me youd 90% of the time get the "please hold while we locate yada yada yada id get alot of delayed messages...they checked and replaced my phone same thing all the time...i have 3 lines...i switched over to sprint while my other two lines stayed on nextel (one being another 8350i and the other being a i830)...we live in the same house...could be sitting next to each other...i call the 8350 and same thing please hold while we locate i call the 830 the call goes through...if either one of them calls me my phone rings...
A fine BlackBerry for Nextel
This is a Nextel phone. I am aware of the data rate provided by iDEN networks so I'll not include that as a shortcoming. Rating this device strictly as a BlackBerry phone for stability, functionality, smoothness of OS, battery life, ring tone and speakerphone volume, radio strength, portability, functionality, ruggedness, work day integration and overall BlackBerryness (I know that's not a word...yet...) it rates far beyond the shortcomings of its ability to serve as a modem or TV viewer. Its just a bang-up, honkin', multi-functional BlackBerry that rocks on the Nextel network. Regarding Sprint vs. Nextel; regardless of network speed, Nextel phones actually ring as the caller hears the initial ring in their ear-piece, while most networks waste at least two rings before the mobile phone rings once, thereby increasing the likelihood of calls going to voice mail before the mobile user can answer. Chirp that :)
Not bad but could have been better
Well I had the opertunity to hold and play with the blackberry 8350i. Here's what i think about the phone.
PROs:
* Nice solid and durable form factor.
* Improve track ball (there is a seal around it that reduces dirt or dust from building over time unlike the curve)
* Much bigger battery pack (good battery life)
* Very nice and low speaker (as you would expect from a nextel blackberry)
* Wi-fi is very good and improves web based connectivity significantly over the normal iden network data connection)
* Graphics and display are good much like the curve 8330.
* flawless Direct Connect Service unlike no other provider.
* excellent video and camera resolution.
CONs:
* OS needs a little improvement handset tends to become a little slow at times when multitasking (not freezing or locking up thus far).
* Inernet connection is significantly or rather extremely slow when compare to a Blackberry curve 8330. This is due mostly to network differences. Remember this is not evdo handset as a result expect very slow Internet connecton also limited to network coverage and location. The web based applications preform significantly slower. Be advice that data experience may be improved by connecting to wi-fi rather than using network based service however it also depends on location and signal strength.
Recommendation: If you are a blackberry 8330 user it is not recommended that you get this handset in my opinion as you will experience a significant change when using web based applications. Unless u absolutely need the direct connect service there is no other reason to change to this blackberry.
You will either love the phone or hate it.
For those of you that owned a 7100i you will definitely love it however at this time it's hard to say when it comes to web based apps which one preforms better.
Great Device
As a replacement for the 7100i, this device is excellent. It brings the looks of the curve and bridged the gap between CDMA and iDen internet speeds by adding WIFI. This is by far one of the best Nextel devices I have seen out yet!!
best nextel has ever made!
I give this phone thumbs up ALL around !! its durable has beep beep and it had all the greatness of a curve!!
Great Nextel Phone - WiFi a def plus
All things considered this phone is a clear winner for Nextel. It combines Wifi with a good cellular antenna. Despite the slow iDEN network this phone manages to be quick on many websites, such as CNN and CNBC. For those who use Facebook and MySpace, unless you are uploading or downloading a lot of pictures you should be happy with the performance.
The main reason someone would get a Blackberry and a Nextel phone is email and Direct Connect, both work flawlessly. Pushing emails works just as good and any other network. Direct Connect sound quality is what you would expect from any DC phone. Basic phone operations such as calling and texting work as advertised. The texting delays that have been talked about on the internet have not materialized during testing.
A great feature that comes with the phone if you get the a $70 unlimited data plan is TeleNav GPS which works with the built in GPS receiver to provide Navigation for card or pedestrian users. It works quite fast even over iDEN.
The camera is not great but then again this is a blackberry and meant for work, for most work related situations the camera is more than good enough.
A good feature that this user was not aware of but he appreciates is the ability of this phone to display non-roman characters such as Japanese or Chinese characters, even Arabic characters. This on the web browser but there is no reason why the emails would do it too.
Busy professionals who want to get more done now can be glad that this phone just works. There are a few complains but this phone come on top at the end of the day.
Pros
-Great GUI
-New wheel works better than it would appear
-Direct Connect (plus it works very well)
-Sound quality is good
-Telenav Navigation (no extra cost with data plan)
-Foreign character display
-Its a great Blackberry
-Great reception
-Wifi
Cons
-iDEN is not the fastest data network
-No Direct Send of pictures, just contacts.
-No MotoTalk (This phone is from RIM so no Motorola features)
