Ok, so its arrived, the 8300 sits on my desk…..The box seems the same size, RIM, have not changed anything there….
As I open it, there sits this tiny little BB. It’s only then that you realise how small it actually is – not too small. I have sausages for fingers but its nice, and a quick blank test of they keyboard lay out makes me think – yeah it’s nice….
The battery carefully inserted, seems very small having placed 8800 battery next to it…And hey presto, on comes the red led….Life has begun….
The Silver casing is a mix between the grey 7290 and an 8800 in touch…not too rough yet not too slippery. The rubber on the sides reminds me of the casing for the Motorola Pebel – if have ever felt that…A nice touch…but I think I can see that wearing a little in respect of feel.
On finally powering up, the horrible O2 Theme appears with the usual Wizard…promptly exited though.
Change that Theme: Choices are – Dimension Today / Zen / Icons, O2 Today, O2 Zen.
Going through the Options Settings, I immediately notice the Spell Check there…great. No more typos and I set the options to spell check before emails sent.
Now my usual ALT + CAPS + H = Help Me!
What am I running on this?
Platform 2.4.0.29
Apps Version 4.2.2.67 (150)
So going through the box – A nice slim like case (like the Pearl) only this really suits the BB. The 8800 should have had one of these definitely – would have been a good move from RIM.
The Stereo headset is nicely made as usual with some nice controls for the music player. It has a round hub for the controls, but only does minor functions such as answer / hang up and play/pause.
Also a 128 mb card comes in the box – and whilst this isn’t a great size, it’s a nice touch as people will be able to take some pictures at least.
Aside of that, the normal charger with adaptors and USB cable are also present.
So to give my overall verdict from having just opened the box – I do like the 8300, and it’s a great looking device with neat functions, but will it take me away from my 8800? I don’t think so. Aside of the camera which the 8800 challenges with the GPS, its just really smaller, although the sizes on paper are hugely different, this will be the selling point and I think RIM have created yet another market breaker. This will bring a whole another group of new BB user. An O2 for the UK couldn’t have done this better.
So where is this BB8300 going…to my wife of course!
Pics will be followed up once edited and sized.
8300 Curve From Closed Box Mini Review 
Linear Mode
