 We wish that buggy phones weren't par for the course for RIM these days, but the last few BlackBerry devices have all had significant problems, and we can now add the RIM BlackBerry 8350i on Sprint's Nextel network to that list. Strange problems aside, the Curve 8350i performed predictably well in the areas where RIM and Nextel excel. Battery life was excellent, and though call quality wasn't great, the list of calling features goes on and on when you use this phone as a walkie-talkie to communicate with a workforce in the field. To that end, this is easily the best Nextel smartphone on the market, but the other business phones on the iDen network are all years old at this point. Still, we're glad to see the new BlackBerry OS 4.6, which looks great, and we were surprised by the phone's music playing abilities. If the kinks can get ironed out, this will be a great walkie-talkie phone for e-mail on the go. Release: December 2008. Price: $100.
Pros: Very good design with large keys and an updated BlackBerry user interface.
Cons: Another buggy BlackBerry. iDen network slows to a crawl, wish they had used EV-DO Rev. A for PTT.
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