Wi-Fi BlackBerry Duel: T-Mobile's Curve vs. AT&T's BlackBerry 8820
By Philip Berne, Monday 1 October 2007
We take these two devices for a wireless spin side by side to see which is the better performer, and which deserves to be crowned the Wi-Fi BlackBerry king.
Both of these phones fall strongly into the modern BlackBerry school of design, with large, QWERTY keyboards beneath the display and a trackball in between for navigation. The design differences are mostly minor, but we're sure hardcore BlackBerry addicts will have their opinions either way. Most significantly, the 8820 is taller and wider, and the two are equally thick. Screen size is identical, and the keyboards seem to be about the same size, though the keys are shaped differently. We prefer T-Mobile's preset interface, with its MyFaves favorites up front and nicer looking home screen, but otherwise the menu structure and applications are about the same.
We like the keyboard on the Curve a bit better. The discrete keys are easier to press in a hurry, as opposed to the strangely angled keys on the 8820. We like the color scheme on the 8820, with its glossy black and silver cues, but otherwise it has no design advantage.
The BlackBerry 8820 makes phone calls that sound better than those on the BlackBerry Curve. We tested both phones in our quiet office, and a very loud local Starbucks, and heard much more background noise on calls made with the Curve. Perhaps this is due to the "noise cancellation" technology on the 8820, or simply due to the microphone placement on the Curve, which aims the mic away from your face. In any case, calls sound noticeably better on the 8820. Still, this only tells part of the story, as each phone has some special calling features.
The BlackBerry 8820 can use AT&T's push to talk (PTT) network. We don't have any PTT buddies to test the servce, but if this is a feature you or your employer uses, it could be a deciding point. T-Mobile's BlackBerry Curve, on the other hand, uses UMA technology. We've reviewed T-Mobile's HotSpot @Home service, and we were very impressed with the calling option. In a nutshell, the service combines Wi-Fi VoIP-style calling with traditional cell service. If you make a lot of calls somewhere you also have good Wi-Fi access, this service will probably save you money. In fact, we were very enthusiastic about the HotSpot @Home service in our initial review, but lamented the lack of viable phones. Beyond being a good choice for BlackBerry fans, the Curve is the best choice for anyone who wants to take advantage of the HotSpot @Home service. We feel this is a compelling reason to overlook the phone's middling call quality and declare it our favorite for this category.
At first, we were surprised to find the Curve outpacing the 8820 in terms of Web browsing. Pages were loading quicker, but they also looked different, usually less accurate. We found the default settings were different, with JavaScript turned off, and this made the difference. Once the browsers were on equal footing, we noticed no significant difference between the two. Strangely, the two phones render the same fonts differents, even though the font family, screen size and resolution were the same. Neither was better than the other, in terms of looks or speed, and both phones loaded pages fairly quickly. Frankly, our Apple iPhone loads pages quicker under Wi-Fi, and they look much better on the iPhone's browser, but that's a comparison for another day.
Both phones make more of a stab at multimedia than their previous, full-QWERTY BlackBerry brethren. First, both phones support a range of audio and video files, can store files on microSD cards, and can play audio through stereo Bluetooth headphones. Neither phone comes with music transfer software that we enjoyed using, though the BlackBerry 8820 features AT&T's music setup, which lets you play PlaysForSure tracks from Napster and Yahoo. Both phones let you use your own music files as ringtones. The differences between the two is really in the hardware.
The Curve features a 2-megapixel camera. Images were unimpressive, but would do fine in a pinch. So, if you need a lens on your phone, the Curve is your only option here. Additionally, the Curve uses a 3.5mm audio connector, which is a standard headphone jack, instead of the smaller 2.5mm connector found on the 8820. This means you can plug your own headphones into the Curve, while the 8820 will require you to buy an adapter, since one is not included. It would seem the Curve is our clear favorite, for these hardware additions, but in fact there is one glaring omission on the Curve.
Of the two phones, only the 8820 has GPS navigation. AT&T provides TeleNav for directions, while the Curve is left without any navigation options. For us, GPS is a big deal, a great find on a smartphone. We appreciate the headphone jack on the Curve, and would like to see a similar jack on, well, every phone we use, but a simple jack can't make up for GPS. Neither can a 2-megapixel camera, when sub-par images will be far less useful to us than GPS navigation.
To determine value, we tried to choose comparable plans that focused more on e-mail and data, and gave us a good deal on very few minutes. On AT&T, the phone costs $300 after a rebate and contract, which is $50 more than T-Mobile's Curve. For our 8820, we chose a low-end monthly plan with 450 minutes for $40, then added BlackBerry Unlimited, which gave us 10 email addresses and unlimited data for e-mail and Web browsing. The BlackBerry Unlimited service added a whopping $45 to our monthly bill.
For the Curve, the minute plan is smaller at the same price, 300 minutes for $40 instead of 450 minutes. We also added the $10/monthly @Home service. We figure this will save us at least the difference between the two carrier's calling plans, as we'll probably make most of our calls from Wi-Fi spots, and won't dip too deeply into our "whenever" minutes. Besides, on T-Mobile, the BlackBerry Unlimited add-on costs only $20 per month, so even though we're paying an extra $10 for @Home service, we save $25 monthly on BlackBerry data. Figuring in the cost difference for the phones, the T-Mobile plan will save us $410 in the two years we're under contract.
It should come as no real surprise to see the Curve come out on top in this duel. Both phones were fairly evenly matched before, as they both represent the current generation of high-end BlackBerry phones. The Curve has more multimedia features, with its better headphone port and camera, though the 8820 has more important features, notably GPS navigation. In terms of Wi-Fi, the two are pretty evenly matched, until you consider UMA. The BlackBerry 8820 may make calls that sound better, but UMA has great potential for convenience and cost savings. Beyond the free minutes, just knowing that good Wi-Fi reception means good cell reception may be the best selling point of all.
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