This is my first review ever after changing my mobile almost 20th time in 3 years.. Used a wide range of phones starting from windows to symbian then to blackberry. But definitely I will say that Blackberry is the best. Speaking about Curve 8520 I have used for 5 days I found the below mentioned pros and cons.
1) Trackpad is easy to use. But even E72 nokia is also giving a trackpad of same type.
2) Key pad is good with lots of space in between but quality is not good. The keypad fits very loosely giving a cheap look in comparison to nokia higher end phones.
3) Lots of features wherein the customization of ringtones when the phone is in holster and out of holster can be done separately. The keypad lock automatically lock when put in holster can be also set up. For each email box separate ringtone can be set.
4) Call organization can be done wherein even missed calls, mails, sms all will come to the same inbox.
5) Very good quality and bright screen to view pictures easily.
6) The wallpapers can be set up even by zooming ur pictures and then checking at what zoom how the picture will look best on screen.
7) No GPS and NO 3G and Battery Back up is only for one day with Facebook, Nimbuzz messenger open for a day and attending calls for total one hour.
8) Blackberry maps is useless. Doesnt add to the feature at all. Have to use Google Maps.
9) Another sad part is nothing can be installed on the memory card. Application are to be installed on phone memory of 256MB. Tried installing all applications where the free memory was around 75 MB. The phone started taking more time to open applications. when i uninstalled some applications and increased the memory to 100MB. Its started working fine.
10) NO GPRS - The biggest disadvantage. Monopoly of blackberry. Seems all internet services has to be used through blackberry servers so have to take blackberry internet services package. Vodafone has 3 plans. 299 - Only mails, 499 - Mails and 5 MB free usage, after that 10 paise per KB, 899 - Unlimited usage. Where as prepaid airtel charges 99 rupees weekly for unlimited package of GPRS.
11) Mails no doubt are very very fast. A mail sent to my gmail box from mouthshut for activation came within 3 seconds. In GPRS its takes 10 minutes at least.
12) Camera is the worst quality one. Looks like our old motorola VGA camera not a 2 MP camera. but again its for emergency is what I believe.
13)Sound quality of speaker is good. In noisy places can be heard clearly though some echoing sometimes happen but again the sound quality can be enhanced to BASS BOOST, TREBLE BOOST or NORMAL. SO no issues.
14) The speaker is on top so even when the phone is kept on ground ringing can be heard very nicely. Plus dedicated keys for music player on top and two dedicated keys on side which can be set for any application.
15) Bluetooth transfer is fast but again it has to be kept in recevable mode just before the initiation of transfer. so got to have both devices in hand.
16) No Pouch and its really difficult to search for one because u wont get the correct size to give the blackberry the classy and business look in your hand. All cheap pouches available or pouches of other blackberry which doesnt fit are available.
17) Applications can be downloaded and installed over the phone but a big demerit is the uninstallation has to be done after connecting to computer through blackberry desktop manager.
18) Takes at least 10 minutes to start and every time you uninstall a application it reboots. But if you switch off then the starting time is less. seems like it goes to sleep mode. Doesnt restart all the applications so have to take out the battery then it will reboot properly.
19) For every bluetooth transfer needs to be paired with the device first.
20) Last in 13000 all can give it a try. Have seen other blackberry phones also like curve 8530. Doesnt differ much except GPS and 3G. Inside features are more or less same. Only the outside look is awesome. But the price is also more than double. If its purchased in Indian Stores then it can be used only in india that too with service providers mentioned on the package. So guess it wont work if sims are swapped on a trip outside india.