[john_v]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking at getting a blackberry, and trying to really research and do my homework before purchasing (I know, novel idea, right?). Anyway, I'm coming from a Windows Mobile Sprint Mogul and the biggest complaint I have about it (besides having to thumb through several menus to get to what I need) is the lack of memory. If I run skyfire, have to do a soft reset when I'm done. Run Kinoma Play, soft reset. Run Opera Mobile, soft reset (and don't even think about multiple tabs). Run Kinoma and Skyfire at the same time? Hahahahh...um, you get the idea.

So I'm looking at either the Tour or the Curve (or maybe as a longshot the 8350i), but I'm thinking of holding off of the Tour for a while since I don't need the international capabilities, not to mention I can get the Curve for Sprint's $49 with my upgrade Aug.1. $199 vs. $49? Mmm...the wife would much rather I went for the $49.

But is the lower amount of memory on the curve an issue? I went to RIM's website and did the "compare phones" (which is very informative), comparing the curve with the tour (64mb vs. 256) and the curve with the 8350i (64 vs 128.) How does the lower memory on curve affect the user experience? My mogul only has, after a soft reset, about 46-50mb of free program memory but about 29mb of that gets used up right away by the OS (and yes, I realize WM and BB OS are 2 extremely different horses).

Keep in mind I won't be an extreme power user. Like to have weather apps, some gps, definitely music (already have an 8gb micro sd.) Mainly what I would use most is email, text, calendar (a lot) and tasks.


Thanks in advance, fellow Crackberrians. I'm already an addict and I don't even own one yet. Had one waaaaaaaayyy back in the day (cant even remember what model) so I have had a taste of the addiction!

[rachel0179]

64mb would be the 8320, 96mb is the 8330,

Ive had both, and now using the 8330 and never have a memory issue, I have about 19 apps installed, and after a fresh reboot sit at about 47mb, I also use QuickPull and set it to run each night (like a reboot on the pc, but for your phone) so that releases the memory each night.. you wont have, or shouldnt have an issue with the 8330 and def not the tour,

You can also delete the stuff you dont want, I have taken off VAD, carrier themes, etc etc, and just have the programs I want on there.

[john_v]

64mb would be the 8320, 96mb is the 8330,

Hey you're right...I was mistakenly looking at the 8300...didn't scroll over far enough on RIM's website, and assumed 8300 was a generic term.

96 is even better. Thanks for the input...my biggest concern is signing another 2 year and then getting stuck with more of the same (slowness). I used a Palm for many years and loved the simplicity of it, and from what I've read here at CB, Blackberry comes closest to the Palm "ease of use". The Mogul is a great device but I need "simple to use" for daily life.

[rachel0179]

Well, from my experience here, the slowness some may describe, more than likley is thier own, even though its a smartphone, stuff still every now and then needs to be cleaned outk old sms, browser cache blah blah blah, which some people have a facination of keeping on incoming and outgoing texts for 3 mos which I have no idea why, but.. I love my 8330.. works flawlessly for me, does what i want, I dont lag etc..

[Mystic205]

Another vote here for the curve..solid, stable and quick enough...

Like rachel says, some folks want their life history kept in their message folder, or also to have 20 apps all running simultaneously..

I have only a few apps loaded, restrict messages to one week, and diligently close apps when not needed... and never have had to reboot or battery pull in 6 months..

p.s. Besy Buy is $29.99 for curve at the moment

[bnmcamp]

Curve is the greatest Blackberry in my book

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[trees247]

64mb would be the 8320, 96mb is the 8330,

Ive had both, and now using the 8330 and never have a memory issue, I have about 19 apps installed, and after a fresh reboot sit at about 47mb, I also use QuickPull and set it to run each night (like a reboot on the pc, but for your phone) so that releases the memory each night.. you wont have, or shouldnt have an issue with the 8330 and def not the tour,

You can also delete the stuff you dont want, I have taken off VAD, carrier themes, etc etc, and just have the programs I want on there.

Apps are not that big on blackberrys, I have a 8320 I have 21mb of free space with 3 apps, now if I have 47mb free I would have 19 apps too! you'll love the curve but If you can go with the tour it's new!

[cdf3]

I have 43 apps installed on mine and it runs fine.
You shouldn't have problems with memory.
As stated earler, many of the apps are small.

There are a few apps I wouldn't mind having, but they are memory hogs and would eat up my memory. So I stay clear of those apps.

[MsFabulous]

I haven't had any memory issues with mine, and I had very few problems with my former Pearl, which had much less memory. I expect a lot more out of my Curve (lots more apps) and memory hasn't been problematic yet. I've had some buggy apps, though, and I need to get in the habit of doing a battery pull every night. While it's only happened once with my Curve (2+ months), and maybe three times with the Pearl I had for a year, it can be on and appear to be working, but meanwhile, I'm not getting calls or texts. All it takes is a battery pull to fix, but it can take a while to figure out that anything is wrong. That said, reading about problems people have had with with other phones and systems, it's a small price to pay I guess for having basically an office/computer in my hand at any moment. Also, get in the habit of having it on the charger whenever possible, especially in the car if you're using maps or GPS, music, etc. The bigger screen can really drain as compared to the Pearl. I also set mine to dim after 10 seconds (default = 30) and brightness at 90% to save life. I think once I learn all the tricks to maximizing it, I'll be as in love with it as I was my Pearl.

[elvin1983]

64mb would be the 8320, 96mb is the 8330,

Ive had both, and now using the 8330 and never have a memory issue, I have about 19 apps installed, and after a fresh reboot sit at about 47mb, I also use QuickPull and set it to run each night (like a reboot on the pc, but for your phone) so that releases the memory each night.. you wont have, or shouldnt have an issue with the 8330 and def not the tour,

You can also delete the stuff you dont want, I have taken off VAD, carrier themes, etc etc, and just have the programs I want on there.

Rachel, I'm curious about the 47mb of memory you have with all the apps you're running! I've been hovering between 35mb and 41mb depending on when my last quickpull went thru, and I've got about 9 apps, with berryweather running in the background all the time. Any tips on how to get that memory back up to where you've got it? I know it's not that big of a deal to have it where I do right now, I just like to have the most memory available! Thanks!

[john_v]

Thanks everybody for your feedback. I feel alot better about the Curve, hearing real-life feedback. I've had smartphones (palm, wm, palm again, wm currently) so I've always been a "stick it on the charger whenever possible" kind of guy. It's one of my little fears in the back of my mind, something big going on and running out of battery! I also have always had my phones back up during the night, followed by a soft reset, so I'm assuming that a soft reset on a WM/palm is like a battery pull on a BB.

I'm looking forward to it...Aug 1 cant' get here soon enough. Now to just convince my wife she wants a BB and not the Palm Pre...I don't need the headaches!

[blueyestm]

8310 here and I have 15 apps installed with 19 almost 20 mb left. I do a quickpull nightly too to regain anything i might have lost during the day especially when I run instango a lot

[elvin1983]

Oh yes, you won't be having to worry about throwing your BB on the charger whenever you get a free chance, with my 8330 with pretty regular use throughout the day, I'm usually sitting at around 65%-75% battery life left when I go to bed, and that's with taking it off the charger at 6:30am and putting it back on sometimes after 10:30pm. I've got about 9 apps on my 8330 (as you can see from my previous post, sorry to kind of hijack your thread, didn't mean to!) and I've never gone under 32mb of memory. With a BB, the lowest you really want to go as far as available memory is 12mb, that's when you will start to notice some lagging and such, but I've never come anywhere close to being that low!

I've never had a Palm/winmo device, but my buddy had a Treo 800w thru Sprint, and I think that phone lasted about 3-4 months before it literally started to melt in his hands. He had it replaced from Sprint, and he couldn't take the constant dead battery, and the constant locking up that it did, and now he's got an 8330 on Verizon, and couldn't be happier. I LOVE the 8330, I think it's a great, well rounded device capable of doing everything that you need and even some stuff that you don't need that might be kind of fun.

Welcome to CB, enjoy the ride!

[rachel0179]

Rachel, I'm curious about the 47mb of memory you have with all the apps you're running! I've been hovering between 35mb and 41mb depending on when my last quickpull went thru, and I've got about 9 apps, with berryweather running in the background all the time. Any tips on how to get that memory back up to where you've got it? I know it's not that big of a deal to have it where I do right now, I just like to have the most memory available! Thanks!

I took off VAD and the carrier theme with crack mem, I only have 2 3rd party apps installed, basically I cleaned it up (took all the crap) off I dont want before loading, all the other languages I deleted also..

[KingD67]

I have had my Curve 8310 for a year and a half and still love it. It is the only phone I have ever had that I still liked even after just a few weeks. I don't run into many memory issues at all, only when I forget properly close out an programs, such as Viigo or I leave my e-reader (Mobipocket) running all night when I fall asleep reading...LOL I have around 15 or so apps and/or games installed.

[john_v]

Welcome to CB, enjoy the ride!

Thanks! I've been lurking the last few weeks since Sprint announced the tour, and finally came up with a real question that wasn't answered by doing a search here on CB. I'm a regular on several forums (including a few of the SPE family) and know how irritating it is for someone's first post to be "i gots dis thing and cant figure it out HELP PLEASE. Then the second post 10 minutes later "WHY DONT NO ONE ANSWER MY QUESTION".

So I try to do my part and search. Of course I'll be signing a new 2year w/sprint so I want to be sure I'll be satisfied and know what I'm getting.

Thanks to everyone for their informative responses as well as being kind to the rookie!

[john_v]

Well I downloaded the 8330 simulator...probably shouldn't have. Have been playing with it for the last hour, and am totally addicted. I really like what I see. It seems to be the closest thing I've seen to palm (hope that's not considered blasphemy around here; I mean it in the best possible way, having used and loved palm for many years.) I love the ease-of-use for navigating and adding events and contacts. I'm half tempted to call Sprint and see if they'll bump my upgrade up by a week!

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[freeop]

John,

Just read your message and wanted to thank you for posting your question. I am very new to smart phones and the Blackberry community. You mentioned that you are waiting to upgrade your sprint account and then would possibly be getting the Curve 8330 for $49.

Do you have to wait until your previous contract runs out? I was just wondering as I just ordered my 8330 yesterday and believe it or not, I got it for free. Of course with a 2 year agreement with Sprint. And from what I have been reading on here I am really glad I did order it.

If you have to wait, I understand. But if you want to get a free Curve, let me know and will let you know where I got mine.

By the way, you mentioned the Curve Simulator. (Will be using Google here shortly). Just in case I can't find it, could you post a link? Thanks in advance.

[john_v]

Can't post a link yet...but go to na.blackberry.com and type 'simulator' into the little search box and it will pull up the link. You'll want to choose Blackberry 4.5.0 and scroll down to find the 8330.

[cdf3]

Can't post a link yet...but go to na.blackberry.com and type 'simulator' into the little search box and it will pull up the link. You'll want to choose Blackberry 4.5.0 and scroll down to find the 8330.

Wow. Thanks for sharing.

[freeop]

Thank you very much. I was pretty much overwhelmed with google. Your directions got me to the right place. Downloading now. Thanks again...

[The Siege]

I have the 8330 and there is no lack of memory. I got 30 mb left and got about 10 solid apps. You will be very happy with the phone

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[plunkingtom]

The 8330 is great but sprint has one of the bolds available I believe with wifi. It may cost you more or wifi may not be important to you..

[mikneb]

I was making the same choice a few weeks ago, john. I chose the Curve. And I don't regret it at all. It's certainly fast enough. If you reformat the phone correctly and use apploader or shrink-a-os to remove a bunch of the carrier/RIM bloatware, you'll have quite a bit of space leftover for you to play with.

Quickpull, which simulates battery pulls, flushes the memory from your phone and automatically reboots and you can schedule it daily so when you wake up for the commute you'll have a fresh phone that's relatively lag-free.

Yes, Tour is faster, more aesthetically pleasing, and the screen blows the Curve's out of the water, but there's really not a whole lot you're missing out on. Hybrid OS gets you parts of various OS's (some .cods from OS's the Curve can't even technically load) and you get some pretty performance (at the expense of marginal battery life).

And I came from a Palm Pre. Yeah, I went from a Palm Pre to a Curve 8330 and do not regret it at all. Trust me. Quote me on it. If you or your wife have any questions about my experience with the Pre and how it stacks up vs. iPhone 3G (for a year) and the Curve now, I'll be more than willing to break it down via PM.

Happy hunting. =)

[john_v]

mikeneb-
by all means please do send me that comparison by pm.

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