BlackBerry Curve 9220 review

BlackBerry Curve 9220 review

 

Specification

Display Display Type Transmissive TFT LCD, Touch Display Display Resolution 320 x 240 pixels Display Size 2.4 inches Display Colors 65k General 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 Form Factor Bar Weight 102.0 gms Dimensions Length 109.0 mm Breadth 60.0 mm Thickness 12.7 mm                     QWERTY Keyboard, Loudspeaker, Operating System Version BlackBerry OS 7.1 RAM 512 MB RAM Sensors Accelerometer, proximity, compass Camera Camera 2.00 megapixels Auto Focus, Video Recording, Zoom 5X Music & Multimedia FM Radio, Stereo FM radio with RDS Video Formats .mp4, .m4a, .3gp, .3gp2, .m4v, .avi, .asf, .wmv, .wma Music Formats .mp4, .m4a, .3pg, .3gp2, .m4v, .avi, .asf, .mp3, .wmv, .wma, .flac, .ogg, .aac, .amr, .wav, .mid Memory Internal Memory 512 MB Expandable Memory, upto 32 GB Battery Type Li-Ion Capacity 1450 mAH Standby 430 hrs Talktime 7.00 hrs Connectivity GPRS Yes EDGE Yes WiFi, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n Bluetooth, v2.1 with A2DP USB, microUSB v2.0 Audio Jack 3.5 mm Apps Document Viewer, Instant Messaging, Social Networking Facebook, Twitter Other Apps BlackBerry App World, BlackBerry Travel, BlackBerry Messenger Miscellaneous Voice Memo Yes Voice Commands, via Dial Other Features Optical trackpad, Send and Menu keys to the left of the trackpad, ESC and End keys to the right of the trackpad, Dedicated keys: Send, End (Power), Menu, Escape,  Camera (user customisable, convenience key), Volume Up/Down (Fwd/Rwd for media, Zoom for camera), Mute (Play/Pause for media),  BM (user customisable, convenience key), Top Lock, Music playback time: up to 28 hours (with headset usage
Design The BlackBerry Curve 9220   looks a lot similar to the older BlackBerry Curve 8520 and the Curve 9300 and is 1.2mm thinner than its predecessor. The Curve 9220 also has the full plastic body but the build quality is nice. It has a sturdy build and bears a few falls from a certain height without any major alteration. The presence of all new BBM key is an addition. This key is placed on the left side and you can instantly access to BlackBerry Messenger but first you have to unlock the device. However, the key can either be used for any other purpose also, but for no good reason you would like to change it. This time Black Berry came out with a smartphone which does not have any dedicated media keys on the top panel, unlike its forefathers. Those rubber keys on the top just crumble and break after about a year or two of use, and then you find yourself running back and forth trying to get them replaced. This clears a lot of space at the top, which now only houses the screen lock key. The memory card slot is moved from beside the battery to above it near the camera.
Display
The BlackBerry Curve 9220 comes with 2.44-inch TFT LCD display with 320x240 pixels resolution at 164 ppi. The screen is sunlight readable. The display is quite satisfactory but reading alphabets while reading a page on the phone may let you down. The device has high brightness and contrast level, and offers fine color rendering. When pitted against the other Curve devices at similar price point, Curve 9220 scores better than the rest in terms of display
Camera BlackBerry Curve 9220 out of the box with a 2.0-megapixels fixed focus camera. The images captured were at the most average in day light and the quality decreases even further in low-light. Unfortunately this smartphone has the fixed-focus camera rather than auto-focus found on other smartphones. The quality of videos recorded through this handset is also average. RIM is trying to the young consumers through this handset, still is unable to provide a 5 MP camera like most devices at this price point come loaded with.
Performance The smartphone is smooth when we talk of functioning. There was no transitional lag between different apps, neither any unusual crash. Another addition in this handset is the FM radio. The radio app is basic without much fancy. The voice quality and music playback quality on the handset is good. The battery-life is what I want to talk about the most. The Curve 9220 comes loaded with a 1450 mAh battery, which easily lasted for a day with frequent app use and web browsing without the need of frequent charging. The company claims that the phone gives users up to 7 hours of talk time or up to 28 hours of music playback or up to 18 days standby time.In terms of connectivity, this mobile handset comes with a Wi-Fi and 2G but lacks 3G support. The internal memory is also a letdown; the phone has an internal memory of 512MB. Though it can be expanded up to 32GB via a microSD card, but a phone with a high internal memory is always a joy.