[peanuts123]

I am interested in the Blackberry over the IPhone.

I see so many Blackberry phones out there. I've done my research, but still confused which one to buy.

I want a phone to use for: email, texting, facebook and websurfing.

I know they all can do it, but I don't want to spend alot of money on one since I have a computer at home. What is the best and most economical one out there. I don't want to spend $200.00 on a phone. I was looking at the Curve 8330 for the price, but know the phone is 2 years old. Why do I want to buy a phone that old?

I should say that I use Sprint for my service...

Any suggestions? Thanks.

[dcj64]

I am new to the Blackberry scene, I just received my 8330 curve on Weds. last week. So not a lot of experience here but for the price I love it and I am already addicted to it. The salesman told me the big difference was the internal memory and a different os, if you were not planning on downloading tons of apps the curve would be fine. I agree.

Just my inexperienced opinion.

[luvitlo]

Does sprint have the pearl flip? If you don't need full qwerty and can get used to SureType then the flip is sweet, larger buttons than any berry on the market. I have owned the pearl 8130 and now the 8230, I love the 8230, I tried using the 8130 last night and couldn't type on it anymore, the buttons too small. My uncle has the curve 8330 and I have the same problem on his now too, the buttons too small so I can't type on it good. It really depends on the individual, there is a berry for everyone, they just need to find it.

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[kkwan77]

I am interested in the Blackberry over the IPhone.

I see so many Blackberry phones out there. I've done my research, but still confused which one to buy.

I want a phone to use for: email, texting, facebook and websurfing.

I know they all can do it, but I don't want to spend alot of money on one since I have a computer at home. What is the best and most economical one out there. I don't want to spend $200.00 on a phone. I was looking at the Curve 8330 for the price, but know the phone is 2 years old. Why do I want to buy a phone that old?

I should say that I use Sprint for my service...

Any suggestions? Thanks.

I would go with the newer BB for Sprint, which is the Tour. Better build quality than the Curve and more onboard memory.

When it comes to emails / texting you can't go wrong with a BB.

[sunNsnow]

Blackberries are excellent phones for email and texting. It's OK for surfing the web but does not have the full version of flash so some web pages will not render correctly. Current Sprint Blackberries do not have wifi. A new one will come out (end of year/beginning of 2010) called Essex and will have wifi capability.

The Pearl (8130) and Pearl Flip (8230) keyboard layout look like a regular cell phone but has a condensed keyboard. I loved my Pearl but I am tired of Suretype/Multitap because it has become annoying: I spend too much time editing Suretype's guess at what word I want. For light emails and texting, the Pearls are good for it. And their weight are similar to regular cell phones.

The 8130 has limited memory so if you plan on downloading lots of Apps, don't get this phone. The 8230 has more memory but I personally think that RIM has done a shoddy job with this phone. We have one and had to replace it already. Call clarity is poor (even with the replacement) and we live in an area where Verizon's signal strength is strong. We went back to our Pearl (8130) because the calls are very clear on this phone.

I did not like the Curve (8330) for the reason stated before: the keyboard layout is too small. It's too hard to type on. But it is a stable phone. You also have to get used to where the number keys are to dial the phone. People seem to like this phone because it's small, light and has a full keyboard. The screen is bigger than the Pearls'.

Your choice depends on whether you want a Blackberry that looks and more like a regular cell phone (Pearl, Pearl Flip) or one with a full keyboard (Curve).

There is nothing wrong with a two year old phone: my Pearl has better call quality than the Pearl Flip (8230) and the Tour (9630... I returned it three weeks after the launch date). IMHO, Research In Motion has slipped in their quality control for their new phones, so the older ones work better than the new ones.

[gmkahuna]

Stick with the Curve 8330. I have the tour now and even though I am happy with it, I still miss my curve. That thing was rock solid and comparatively cheap to boot.

[sunNsnow]

I would go with the newer BB for Sprint, which is the Tour. Better build quality than the Curve and more onboard memory

That depends... if there are any of the Tours left from launch then you could get one with hardware issues. Hopefully, most of those have been replaced by newer ones where they have been fixed. If you are going for the Tour, make sure it has the updated software of 4.7.1.53.

[luvitlo]

SunNsnow you must of got a bad flip to begin with, and a junk referb as a replacement, my 8230 is 10 times better than my 8130 ever was. I do extreme heavy text and email. (best text day was 600, I multitask and text up to 7 people at the same time)
As for the layout yeah the pearls do look a little more like a normal phone just with a modified qwerty board with 2 letters per key. Like I stayed before there is a berry for everyone, they just have to find theirs

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[NoKittyNo]

If the Curve 8900 ever drops in price - that'd be my suggestion. I am not a big BlackBerry buff; new to the market and all, under a years experience.

The phone has never once let me down - call quality (Rogers Canada) is excellent! never has anyone complained of tinny, muffled or static reception on their end.

The keyboard is just the essential part to a heavy texter and with any possible upgrade (5.0) the threadded messaging (I heared rumors of it) would make it awesome. The onboard memory is sufficient for most apps, and with Opera mini5 Beta - i've had my browsing experience antied up - as opposed to the native BB browser which rendered text with blurs of white screen transitions, also lacking tabbed browsing.

I've seen a price dip here in Canada, to about 149.99 on 3 years with some carriers, and some may even tack on rebates.

For fun purposes the camera is wicked, media player (almost) seamless and overall the form factor suits me great (im a female though, but i've seen guys with it)

If not - I really like the smaller form and price of the Pear Flips. I like the idea of the internal parts being concealed by a hinged outer shell, thus preventing accidental drops, etc.

Whatever floats your boat though - good luck!

[CGI]

The Curve 83XX series is a solid phone.

As a Tour owner I would definitely say this device smokes my old 8330 on many levels. I would never go back.

So I'd say Tour if a QWERTY keyboard is your preference.

I'd wait for the Storm 2 if you prefer a touch device. It looks nice.

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[kickinitlive247]

the curve 83XX is hella solid and you can get good deals nowadays with a new/upgraded plan for a 8900 or 9000

[peanuts123]

Thanks all for the support and advise. This helps very much :-)